5 Fun and Fabulous Twitter Tools for Nonprofit Organizations and Activists

Published August 04, 2009 @ 07:45AM PT

The number of third-party Twitter Apps has exploded over the last year. Twtbase currently lists over 500 of them, and I have highlighted five of my favorites for nonprofit organizations and activists below:

1) Twitter Mosaic: Twitter Mosaic allows you to generate html code of your Twitter Followers or Friends that you can then embed on a blog or Web site. CarbonFund.org used it to celebrate reaching 1,000 Followers. See their Twitter Mosaic.

2) Twibbon: Twibbon allows your followers to embed ribbons, icons, etc. on their Twitter avatars, and then spread them throughout the Twitterverse. It's an easy and effective first step for launching an awareness campaign on Twitter. Love146 is effectively using Twibbon. See their Twibbon campaign.

3) BubbleTweet: BubbleTweet allows to embed a video directly on your Twitter profile. We all know how annoying it is to go to a website and video starts playing right away, so BubbleTweet can be an effective tool, but I would suggest you use it only on special occasions. If you are a global health organization, then add a BubbleTweet to your profile on World Malaria Day. Or if your organization is doing a special campaign to push to get folks to call Congress, then add a BubbleTweet on that day asking them to call and telling them the phone number. I don't know of any nonprofits using BubbleTweet yet, but click here to view an example of an individual using BubbleTweet on Twitter.

4) TipJoy: TipJoy allows nonprofits to accept micropayments from individuals on Twitter. Both the nonprofit and the individual needs to have a PayPal account. See TipJoy's FAQ for more information. Charity:Water's Twestival is probably the best know TipJoy success story.

5) Twititions: Twitition helps you create, sign, and share petitions on Twitter. I like the idea, and the functionality of the Twititions themselves, but I personally don't sign them because it automatically posts to my Twitter profile that I signed the petition. The idea is a good one, but the agressive marketing component could be annoying to your supporters. Hopefully a service like this will come the nonprofit sector soon!

In my Webinar covering Twitter and Flickr, I cover all five of these tools... as well as 15 more that are useful to the nonprofit sector. Tweeting and ReTweeting is powerful in and of itself (that's been my experience), but using some of these third party tools can really transform your Twitter strategy!

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Comments (8)

What a fantastic list of tools. This might be in the list of 15 others that your webinar covers, but http://act.ly is another useful Twitter petition tool, especially if your target is on Twitter. It's a newer service with fewer petitions and signatures, but one interesting feature is that it allows the target to post replies, which you can click to from here http://act.ly/petitions/replies

I'm really interested to see what will happen with the Twibbons - will every cause on Twitter ask their supporters to show support via their avatar? Is anyone else thinking of using them?

Posted by Kevin Gilnack on 08/04/2009 @ 09:57AM PT
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Thanks Kevin... I actually have an idea for an Act.ly petition... your service is different in that you can target folks on Twitter via replies via the Act.ly Twitter petition? Like: @att

Posted by Heather Mansfield on 08/13/2009 @ 07:10AM PT
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Hi Heather, This is not my service - I'm just thought it was a neat concept and am just the messenger. But, yes, you can target peole who tweet like @att, which I think gets more direct attention than signatures on a petition. I've only played with it once, but it is easy to use, and the person I targeted did reply - albeit not the best reply nor through act.ly's interface.

Posted by Kevin Gilnack on 08/13/2009 @ 09:09AM PT
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OK... thanks. Experimenting:

http://act.ly/f8

Posted by Heather Mansfield on 08/17/2009 @ 01:00PM PT
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Nice post, Heather, thanks! Two tools I just started using, that are not specific to nonprofits but very useful, are CoTweet and Bit.ly. Bitly is not a Twitter app per se, of course, but it helps me track how many people are clicking on links I tweet, so it's a very helpful measurement tool. Also, it synchs with CoTweet so if I want to tweet straight from CoTweet, I can use my bitly account there too.

Posted by Laura Norvig on 08/04/2009 @ 02:46PM PT
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Fantastic, Heather - thank you!

Posted by Lambda Legal on 08/07/2009 @ 08:17AM PT
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We're using twibbons to help show support for the fight to save CA state parks and beaches and have seen decent growth.

Posted by Brenna Holmes on 08/18/2009 @ 03:00PM PT
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Thanks for the tips. Newbie non-profits like ours can use all the help we can get!

Posted by Anna McDonnell on 09/04/2009 @ 01:41PM PT
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Heather is the Nonprofit Community Manager for Change.org. She also created and maintains the Nonprofit Organizations MySpace, Nonprofit Organizations Facebook Page, Nonprofit Organizations YouTube Channel, and the Nonprofit Organizations Twitter profile. Fueled by a strong passion for the Internet, Heather spends her days helping nonprofit organizations utilize the Internet as a tool for social change.