How to Use Twitter to Spread Your Message
At http://search.twitter.com, you can search for any keyword and see what everyone on Twitter is saying about it, live. It’s a great way to find people to follow that are interested in the same things you are.
When you see a conversation about your cause, you can jump right in and be part of it. A live response is a great way to diffuse any negative comments about your organization, give thanks for positive ones, and put a real face and personality to your cause.
Twitter is a great platform for micro-blogging. It’s like releasing mini press releases every few minutes on anything that is relevant or happening at your organization. A good rule of thumb for building a large audience: follow people with similar interests, and they will follow you back. Use a service like http://tr.im to track how many people click on your posted links.
With so many people posting articles, meetups, and cool ideas, Twitter is a great way to know the latest happenings in your field. You can easily keep up with what your competitors are doing and where your customers or members are hanging out.
CureTogether presented at the Health 2.0 conference at the end of April in Boston. While Faren was doing her awesome demo on stage, I was answering the audience’s tweets live. Here are some sample comments from the conference about CureTogether:
- @Doctor_V: Examples of how curetogether has sped the research cycle for migraine?? If not, how would it??
- @accarmichael: @Doctor_V Research questions curetogether has opened up so far have been in comorbidities – what conditions occur with migraine?
- @Doctor_V: @accarmichael responded immediately to my question…thanks Alexandra
- @accarmichael: @Doctor_V You’re welcome! Thanks for the question 
So Twitter is really an immediate, personal way of interacting with the community
of people you’re trying to reach with your message.
A great analysis of all the Health 2.0 Tweets was put together by Chris Hogg (@cwhogg).
He assembled his findings into a very cool slide presentation, below. Look for CureTogether
on slides 16 and 17.
How have you used Twitter to spread your message?
Are you inspired to give it a try?
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May 5th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Great post! So many people misunderstand twitter, and this message is very timely! I am copying this post to some friends who have yet to discover the benefits! Thanks again!
May 18th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Thanks Faren! Like any tool, Twitter can be used for good, for harm, or for time-wasting.
It does have excellent applications for business and social activism though.