Many say that Twitter is just noise. There have been concerns about how Twitter affects productivity in the workplace, particularly if you were to click each link that is posted in your feed. Let’s not contribute to the noise. Instead, we can build quality content that inspires our followers and helps build a meaningful online voice for our organization. Of course, now that we have this big goal of consistently good content, how will we know if it is effective, or in the very least, interesting to our readers?
The best way to figure out if your audience is listening is to ask them, and give them choice. I thought I’d run a mini “A-B” experiment and see which of our Civic Footprint Tweets were the most effective. Since we have the Edmonton Timeraiser quickly approaching (11 days!) measuring #yeg Timeraiser content seems fitting. The results are interesting.
- Tweet A: A tweet about inspiration and opportunities for volunteering received 22 clicks and was “retweeted” by 4 different users: Looking for a reason to be inspired? Seeking Volunteer Opportunities? October 17th is the 1st Edmonton Timeraiser. http://bit.ly/x453M. September 30th at 2:11pm.
- Tweet B: Comparatively, a tweet the next day about bidding time towards art received virtually the same number of clicks, but no one felt compelled to pass the message along to their users. Match your skills with volunteeragencies who need them. Bid time on art. We’re coming to #yeg for the 1st Ed. Timeraiser http://bit.ly/x453M. Oct 1st 1:59pm
- Tweet C: As a final test, I sent out a rather provocative message at 11am on a Tuesday morning (supposedly the best time to capture readers) to see if it would change the number of click throughs to our Timeraiser page. It received 7 clicks and no retweets. Hey #yeg! What are you doing on October 17th that is more interesting than the Edmonton Timeraiser?
http://bit.ly/x453M. October 6th at 11am
When it comes to engaging with our audience, messages of inspiration and volunteerism are most likely to attract action (click and forwards).
Why this is important
As an NGO, dedicating resources to Facebook posts, Tweets, LinkedIn Updates and blog posts can be a daunting task. There are many free resources for monitoring the “buzz” around your brand and for seeing where your visitors are coming from (and how often they click your links). Seeing what happens to your content, and knowing whether or not your efforts are worth the resources is valuable in building effective strategies for social media. Being flexible and prepared to change direction become key elements for being involved in a shifting environment like social media.
How do you measure success?
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Side notes on the A-B experiment: Time of day is likely a contributing factor to how often our links our clicked. While the first two tweets were sent at roughly the same time of day (on two different days) the third tweet was sent at an earlier time of day. Since the West Coast will be just starting their work day at 11am EST, it would be a contributing factor to how much interest a tweet gains.
