Blog of Mr. Tweet

If you noticed shade of green take over your Twitter stream, do not worry - it is not your eyes. It is a result of a mini movement called Help Iran Election, which grew rapidly from 0 to 20K users using the service to spread awareness of the cause #iranelection in just 12 hours.

Coincidentally, the man behind this great idea happened to be a partner of Mr. Tweet, so needless to say, we grabbed him for an interview for YOU.

I thought it was Greenpeace!

Before we start, I think everyone wants to know more about YOU. Can you give us a bit more about your background?

Me? I guess the best way to describe me is a friendly geek and entrepreneur. I’ve been a developer for a large corporation here in Israel for few years. Did fun stuff there but for the last two years I reduced my position there to part time to finish my cs degree and to do more innovative stuff on the web.

1 user to 20K users in 12 hours. This is probably one of the most coolest ideas I have seen in a long time. How did you come out with the idea?

Well, I saw people changing their avatars manually and I realized it most be a hard process for most common users. I knew it’s possible to update the avatar via the API, so I thought why not help people make it simple and spread the word? The funny thing is the 12 hours ago it was still in development, I gave the link to one person to see how the sites looks like and she clicked on the join link. 30 minutes later I saw 300 people already discovered it and 12 hours later over 20K people joined the cause and more are coming and coming.

Have you been surprised by the response?

I thought it will catch but didnt believe that SO fast. The web these days is truly amazing.

How do you think the Iranian election saga will pan out?

I have no idea. I really try to be optimistic about this, because it seems that the people’s movement in Iran is really strong. And I’m not sure the military will be able to control the situation for much longer, because after all the soldiers are people too and probably have family among the people demonstrating.

As outsiders, what do you we can do? Afterall, awareness is one thing, being actually able to help is another.

I’m not sure what we can do in the “real world” but there are a lot of things we can do in the Internet to help the Iranians spread the word and show what really happens. There seems to be a good guide on Boing Boing for that - link

As an Israeli, you obviously have far more interest in this elections than the most of us. What is the feeling in the Israel about this?

Well, I don’t believe Mousavi is far better than Ahmadinejad for Israel or the world, but the people’s movement that started there because of the elections is the important thing. It really gives hope for a dialogue.

Indeed. And I guess dialogue is the one thing that Twitter is really good at facilitating. What do you think is the real potential of Twitter for the purpose of facilitating social change?

As the platform matures, we see more and more uses of Twitter to faciliate change. What I’ve done is very small compared to the reports of the real pepole in Iran about what’s going on. The fact they have a simple tool to do that is very powerful.

Besides this, you were also one of the co-founders behind Topify, a pretty awesome app for Twitter. What made you put so much faith in Twitter?

I don’t know. Twitter today is like the Facebook platform a year ago - it’s the wild west of the web, waiting for us to be explored. Lots of interesting opportunities and concepts can be tested on it.

Thanks Arik! And remember to turn green to show your support ya?

This is a guest posting by Rebecca Leaman (@RJLeaman). As the Editor of Wild Apricot’s nonprofit technology blog, Rebecca has her finger on the pulse of current issues and trends in modern web technologies. Read original post here.

Great new presentations on social media are coming out almost daily, now that we’re deep into conference season, and many are directed specifically to the needs of non-profits. If you’ve been thinking of launching or expanding your organization in social media, Slideshare is a good starting point for information and advice. But it can be time-consuming to pick through a wide range of slideshows to find those that are up-to-date, actionable, and appropriate to nonprofits.

Here’s a hand-picked selection of presentations to get you started.

Some of these have become popular standards, while others are new material that you may not have seen before. In fact, a few of these presentations were just made available in the past few days!  And, as always, if you have a favorite social media presentation to recommend to other nonprofits, please tell us about it in the comments.

Social Media for Non-Profits: Overview
What is social media, why should a non-profit care, and who has the time for it anyway? Beth Dunn’s presentation covers the basics, complete with case studies, and suggests Quick start and Advanced Quick Start tactics to launch your nonprofit into social media.

Social Media for Non Profits and Special Causes
John Sheridan’s presentation at at Pod Camp Halifax 2009 gives an overview of social media and social networking, with plenty of non-profit examples.

Social Media for Non Profits
Primal Media’s sideshow is loaded with information on trends, recent statistics, and examples of social media used by nonprofits.

Social Media for Non-Profits: Succeeding in a Social World
Beeline Labs made this presentation to a United Way chapter in Boston: see especially the “10 Guiding Principles” and “Most Common Mistakes.”

Social Networking Strategy

How To Think Like A Nonprofit Social Media Genius
Beth Kanter breaks it down:

• Understand organizational change theory
• Use the Rule of Thirds (1/3 web presence, 1/3 one-way, 1/3 social)
• Listen first
• Build relationships with influencers
• Make it easy to re-mix your content
• No instant gratification — results require effort over time
• Use metrics to discover what works and what doesn’t

Creating Your Organization’s Social Media Strategy
Beth Kanter walks through the process of developing a non-profit social media strategy, with many practical examples.

Nonprofit Soc Media Overview
Maren Hogan says “These are the things that I would do”: here’s a step-by-step overview of the basic tools and tactics of social media, starting with a website and blog.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Social Network Fundraising is a presentation by Justin Perkins, Director of Nonprofit Services at Care2.com, featuring research on Social Network Fundraising and use of new media for nonprofit marketing — and an excellent analysis of the ROI for nonprofit  social networking campaigns.

Using Social Media to  Increase Website Traffic
A look at the return on investment (ROI) for using Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com to increase visitors to your website, using the National Wildlife Federation as a case study.

E-Metrics: Followers, Friends, and Fans: Expanding Your Online Community
Beth Kanter’s presentation advocates “ROI thinking” to help build a community around your blog: using measurements to tell you what works and what doesn’t.

Tips and Case Studies
Who’s Doing What, Where, and How?

• An Introduction to Facebook and Twitter for Nonprofits (Nathan Wright)

• A New Tool for Online Campaigns: How to Show, Tell, and Activate with a Video-centric Microsite (Michael Hoffman)

• Blogging for Nonprofits (Shirley Sexton)

• Energizing Word of Mouth through Social Media (Lee Aase / Mayo Clinic)

• Getting The Word Out About Your Cause With Blogs, Podcasts & Social Networks (Britt Bravo)

• Googe 101 for Nonprofits (Mike Heslin / Google)

• Practical Examples of Social Media for Non-Profits (Laura Lacy)

• ROI of Listening: America Red Cross Case Study (Beth Kanter)

• Sharing Your Story: Podcasting (Britt Bravo)

• Social Media and Social Change in New Zealand (Simon Young)

• Social Media for Non Profits - Tapping into the motivations of The People to change the world around us (Ed Schipul)

• Social Media for Social Good (Ian Schafer)

• Social Media Campaign Report: Tour de Kids (Sarah Allen)

• Social Media Marketing for Non-Profits (Laura Lacy)

• Twitter.org: What, why, who and how for Nonprofit Organizations using Twitter (Amy Sample Ward)

• Upgrading Your E-Newsletter (CanadaHelps.org)

Tip: Whenever you view a slideshow at SlideShare, do scroll down below the presentation area to check for helpful notes on the slides and/or interesting information in the comments thread. And remember — SlideShare is a social networking site, itself, so take a few minutes to explore its features and consider signing up to connect, share, comment, or just to build a library of your own favorite presentations!

• Did we miss anything?
• Have you created any of your own?

Share your creations and favorite presentations in the comments!

Today Twitter has released an onslaught of new features and enhancements to the service. Previously, you might have been aware of and using tools such as Topify for advanced follower notifications. Topify presented you with more details about new followers such as how many followers/followings they have, bio, and a few of their latest tweets, and also allowed you to do various important functions like following and dming back right from your email.

New Twitter Enhanced Notifications

Twitter seemed to have learned from Topify with their introduction of new follower email notifications. Not only have the new follower emails received a facelift, so have emails of new direct messages, or DMs.

From Tiny to Bit.ly

Next, Twitter replaces TinyURL with Bit.ly as the default link shortener. Now, when you paste a link into your Twitter messages, the link will be shortened using Bit.ly instead of Tinyurl. However, this is no small change and ReadWriteWeb gives you the scoop on why with “Twitter Crowns Bit.ly As The King of Short Links; Here’s What It Means.”

• What do you think of the new changes?
• What do you hope to see next?
• What do you wish would change?

 Twitter has been in the headlines this week courtesy of a blog post from the Apple Gods giving Twitter much kudos for the way they’re running their business internally. They’ve also made waves within the community itself with the latest Twitter sidebar update by implementing Twitter search and trends in your profile. The update also allows you to save specific Twitter searches! Everything is done right from your Twitter profile with no need to head to Twitter Search. 

The responses have been well received from the Twitter community. We’re loving it! We wonder if the White House (@whitehouse) likes the new Twitter changes too. Wait! The White House is on Twitter?! We guess White House 2.0 is in effect!

Twitter Tips

If you’ve been needing any help on how your Twitter profile can work to your advantage or why you should even think twice about it check out 6 Tips for Using Your Twitter Profile to Get New Followers (@problogger). If you need another reason as to why you’re Twitter profile is so important and how to better utilize it, read How Social Media Profiles Help with Search Engine Optimization (@ignitesma). 

We also recommend reading Kyle Lacy’s (@kyleplacy) awesomesauce post 10 Tips to Build Trust with Social Media.  If you’re looking for more respect then 9 Twitter Tips that will help you gain respect in the Twitterverse (Like @Zaibatsu) would be a good fit too.

For those who are still trying to  convince or their boss why Twitter is such a big deal, Soren Gordhamer (@soreng) has a great article on How Twitter is Dethroning the Old Guard . What major sites are Twitter dethroning and in what areas? Read Soren’s article.  Don’t forget to follow up with 11 Things to Avoid When Using Twitter and 4 Lessons for Social Media Marketers. If you’re worried about taking a hit @geekgirlcamp has you covered with How to take a hit on your personal/company brand and come out on top.

Twitter Hustlers

What about what results businesses are seeing from Twitter? More businesses are starting to see results from simply setting up an account on Twitter and putting a little energy into tweeting.  A Pub in West Palm is warming up because of Twitter and Facebook. Small firms in Chicago have also told their stories of transitioning from marketing in the Yellow Pages to marketing on Twitter. Twitter is also heating up in the educational field with UT Dallas bringing Twitter in the classrooms.

Twitter Apps Recommendations

Many Twitter apps and tools have been floating around this week! Since today’s Friday, we’ll start out with the Twitter Tag’s Follow Friday project. I always had trouble picking who to recommend for Follow Friday. I’m following too many people to keep track of every reply or interesting tweet. So I’ve started using the Follow Friday app to help me pick a group of users to recommend. Don’t forget to recommend them to Mr. Tweet @mrtweet ! Also check out, Interview with Micah Baldwin, Father of FollowFriday.

Nokia (@nokconv) asks for your opinion on the best S60 Twitter app. So far I love Gravity, which we recommended in What Apps Are You Tweeting With?. However, a new s60 mobile twitter client is making ripples on Twitter: Twittix (@MojosMobile). In need of Twitter tools too manage your followers?  Are you aware of how to sharpen your Twitter following? Looking for free Twitter image hosting? Look no further than TwittersPost.

That about wraps up our Friday Roundup. Leave links to your favorite Twitter stories of the week in the comments. Have a great weekend everyone!