TWITTER POSTING GUIDE FOR STATE AND LOCAL LEAGUES Like Facebook, Twitter is a great way to engage with League members and the public, including the media, key opinion leaders and organizational partners. Through your Twitter account, you can share all of the wonderful work you are doing, elevate the work of other Leagues and form relationships with partners. Twitter is a tool to help you engage with your supporters, as well as reach new audiences. Twitter s hallmark is that posts are limited to 140 characters. It is remarkable how short that is and how much can be communicated. Unlike Facebook, tweets are not weighted based on interactions; they stream in real time, and can be pushed down a user s feed quickly. This means that you can and should tweet more frequently than you would post to Facebook. You can also readily repeat content. Unlike Facebook, Twitter does not allow for dialogues to develop as easily. While users can reply to your tweets or retweets and add their personal comments to your tweets, Twitter is used more to push out information and ideas in real time. GOALS Because Twitter differs from Facebook in some important ways, most notably, the length of posts and the continuous flow of information, your strategy will be different. But your goals should be similar Elevate the good work that your League and other Leagues across the country are doing Share information on priority issues Engage with others working on priority issues Reach new audiences and increase engagements with new and existing supporters CONTENT Once you jump into social media, you ll realize that finding content isn t that much of an issue. Mostly, social media is about recycling, reusing and repurposing! That blog post or press statement you wrote? Put it on your website, and then tweet it! That voter registration drive you held? Snap a photo and tweet it! You can also tweet relevant news articles and updates from your League, other Leagues and the national office. You can start by sharing the same resources, articles, photos, actions, etc., that you share on Facebook or via your newsletter or eblasts. You can also share additional resources and articles solely on Twitter. Since tweets get pushed down and the flow of information is constant, you don t risk overwhelming your audience in the same way that you do on Facebook. For example, if you already shared a few good posts on Facebook but find another interesting article, then share it on Twitter! Like Facebook, it is important that the content you share on Twitter includes links. You want to tweet content that directs users: a) back to your website; b) to other state/local League websites or Facebook pages; or c) to articles that quote/cite the work of LWVUS or state/local Leagues. Twitter Posting Guide for State and Local Leagues May 2014 1
On each of your tweets, add relevant hashtags to make sure that your content enters into broader conversations happening on Twitter. This increases the likelihood that your content will be seen by others not already following you. You can also use third-party applications like TweetDeck to set up automatic tweets and easily track topics, mentions and hashtags. You can and should retweet other Leagues, particularly those in your area. They are often sharing content and news relevant for your League, so don t reinvent the wheel! Additionally, tweet materials or resources from your coalition partners or interesting articles that do not directly cite the League, yet focus on a priority issue. By sharing others content, you build goodwill and engage in a larger conversation. Good examples of content to tweet includes News articles quoting or citing your League, other Leagues or on priority issues Blog posts by your League, other Leagues and partner organizations RTs of other Leagues or partner organizations League press releases, statements or quotes Photos/videos or political cartoons New resources from your League, other Leagues, or partner organizations Action items PROMOTION Once you create a Twitter account, you need followers! Make sure to include links to your Twitter account on your website and also in your newsletters and e-communications, fliers and brochures, email signatures and on Facebook. Add your handle to the footer in your press statements. Announce it at meetings and encourage your members to sign-up and follow you. We have compiled a list of Leagues on Twitter, so tweet at us or email Stephanie Drahan to let us know you ve joined Twitter and we ll make sure to add you to the list. FREQUENCY The live nature of Twitter generally means you can t tweet too little or too much. If you re easing into Twitter, start off by tweeting a few times a week, with the intention of increasing your presence over time. An easy tip is to start off by aiming to share three tweets a day: one original tweet, one retweet and one reply. It s also okay if you tweet infrequently and in bursts. Maybe you only want to tweet from events. That s a great start, but you should plan to increase your output over time. Keep in mind that third party tools like TweetDeck can help you spread out content by scheduling it for later, so go ahead and schedule tweets promoting candidate forums or Election Day and notable anniversaries. This can also be a great way to continually promote action alerts, remind voters about polling information, or to push out your testimony or a press statement. You can also repeat tweets Twitter move so quickly that if you only share something once or even a few times, the majority of your followers won t see it. Because the average half-life of a tweet is about 24 minutes, you can benefit from re-sharing on Twitter more frequently than on Twitter Posting Guide for State and Local Leagues May 2014 2
other networks. It s also a good idea to repeat tweets on different days and at different times, so that you reach more users. STAFFING It is up to your League to figure out what works best for you in terms of managing your Twitter account. Do you have members who love social media? This is a perfect responsibility for them. If you don t have an obvious staff choice, you could rotate the responsibility to see if certain members are more adept: Do they get more interactions and followers? Do they have more time to devote to it? Do they realize they enjoy it? A great place to start is to brainstorm what events and content you know is coming up and create a social media calendar. This way, whoever is managing the account knows about different events or press hits that are in the works and can make sure to tweet them appropriately. You could also split these responsibilities among members who are attending various events. If members have their own personal Twitter accounts, they can tweet photos from events, and your League account can retweet them. In terms of approval of content, you ll need to work with your League to figure out what works best for you. On Twitter, it is even more important to get content up in a timely fashion due to its immediate nature. We recommend having no more than a handful of people weighing in on what can and should be posted, and over time developing trust in the manager of your account to make appropriate decisions, and therefore only needing to check in when complicated or new issues arise in order to finesse messaging. LIVE TWEETING When attending externally facing events such as press conferences, public meetings or debates, you can live tweet the proceedings to share content in the moment, as it occurs. To live tweet, share photos, quotes from speakers, statistics or other information that you find particularly compelling as it is shared at the event. Many public events now encourage attendees to live tweet and offer a hashtag in advance for that purpose. You should follow this hashtag to see what others are sharing, and retweet from there. This is a great way to connect with others in attendance and gain new followers and supporters. It is also a handy way to share what is happening with those unable to attend in person. The easiest and often most popular content to tweet are photos! In addition to live tweeting from events, you can also live tweet national events or local events from afar, especially if an event is streaming online. But even if the event is being live-streamed, you can use its hashtag as an opportunity to share any relevant content you have on the topic! For example, if a climate rally is occurring, tweet out action alerts, quotes from a League press statement or article that your League was mentioned in, accompanied by the rally s hashtag. A good example of live tweeting is how LWVUS covers the President s annual State of the Union (SOTU) address, including tweeting relevant quotes from the President, as well as League positions and previous blog posts on the issues. Live tweeting is useful because it often produces higher levels of interaction, including an increase in retweets and new followers. Twitter Posting Guide for State and Local Leagues May 2014 3
When holding events like debates or voter registration drives, create your own hashtag! This enables participants to engage in an online conversation during the event, helping to amplify the messages they re taking away. TWEET CHATS Hosting or participating in a tweet chat is another great way to expand your reach on Twitter. Typically about an hour, tweet chats use a designated hashtag to discuss a specific topic. Users track the conversation by following the designated hashtag, which must be included in every tweet in order to be seen as part of the conversation. Every tweet chat is organized differently, but typically organizers tweet answers to questions that may or may not be pre-planned and shared in advance. It is a good idea to have some prepared content to fall back on throughout the tweet chat. This could be a related action alert, a blog post or article you ve previously written on the topic or a video that helps explain the issue. As content is shared from the organizers or other participants, make sure to retweet and help elevate the content that aligns with the League s message. Not only will this help foster relationships, it will also help the tweet chat s performance as the hashtag and certain tweets are shared and can become viral. As your content is retweeted by others participating in the chat, it will be seen by new users and you ll likely gain new followers. Make sure to thank your tweet chat partners and the people who were sharing quality content afterward and with some Follow Friday (#FF) tweets. INTERACTING WITH ELECTED OFFICIALS Many elected officials are on Twitter, and interacting with them on social media can be an effective way to engage with them on the issues while also promoting your work and gaining support for your issues. If an elected official or candidate is involved in a League event, such as a debate or forum, you can tag them on Facebook or include their handle in your tweets as part of your promotion of the event. It is likely they may also tag your League as they promote their involvement as well. You can also tag or tweet them your calls to action, or Action Alerts, in order get your work and priority issues onto their radar. Twitter is also a good platform for Leagues to thank or spank legislators when it comes to their work on your issues. We encourage Leagues to craft tweets that prioritize the issue over the individual. For example, you could send a tweet saying, We support an amendment to HB2 that increases early voting. Thanks @legislator for supporting voting rights. When highlighting legislative work, be sure to interact with legislators via their official accounts and not their campaign accounts. For example, tag @whitehouse rather than @BarackObama, since @BarackObama is a campaign account. When highlighting elections work, such as a candidate forum, it is appropriate to tag campaign accounts. We don t encourage Leagues to send direct messages, or DMs, to legislators. If your League is seeking to notify an official of your stance on an issue, a more formal email or letter should be sent to the legislator. OUTREACH TO JOURNALISTS & BLOGGERS Twitter Posting Guide for State and Local Leagues May 2014 4
Twitter is a key outlet to engage with opinion leaders, journalists and others. Many organizations, including LWVUS, pitch to reporters on Twitter because it can be easier to reach them. If you have a press statement or new resource that you want to make sure certain reporters or key opinion leaders don t miss, you should tweet it their way by tagging them in a tweet and asking them to retweet your content. If they retweet or include a quote from you in their next story, make sure to thank them via Twitter. DON T FORGET TO FOLLOW @VOTE411! In addition to following and retweeting LWVUS at @ LWV, don t forget to follow and share content from @VOTE411! VOTE411 shares election-related content that is useful to your audience, including reminders to update their voter registration records, state-specific voting information and more. If your area has elections coming up, tweet @VOTE411 and we ll help share your content, such as voter registration deadlines, reminders to vote, candidate debates and more! QUESTIONS? CONTACT STEPHANIE DRAHAN sdrahan@lwv.org Twitter Posting Guide for State and Local Leagues May 2014 5