Many non-profits have yet to join Twitter, mostly this seems to be due to a mix of not knowing where to start and the notion that it's already too late (it's not).

Let's solve the first problem with a Getting started guide to sign you up and send your First Tweet into the Twittersphere. Twitter is changing all the time so some of the screen shots may differ to the current Twitter site. For instance the Twitter Home page currently has a new deisgn that isn't reflected through out the entire Twitter site as yet. Don't let this put you off change is a good thing :-)

Step 1 - Visit Twitter.com

The first thing you will need to do is head over to Twitter.com you should find yourself at a page that looks a lot like this:

Step 2 - Sign up

Clicking the big Green button on the right hand side of the Twitter.com home page will take you to the Twitter registration page:

The Twitter registration page is very simple to fill out and takes about 2 minutes, enter your Charity / Non-profits full name in the Full Name Field and provide an Email Address Twitter will use this to tell you when you get new followers as well as the occasional service news update.

Choosing your username: Is the most important aspect of signing up, you only have 20 characters to work with (Twitters limit) so choose wisely if your a charity known by a long name like Teenage Cancer Trust or Yorkshire Cancer Research then you may want to just pick two core words they settled on @TeenageCancer & @YorkshireCancer which works perfectly for supporters to discover what  they are about at a glance.

Now when you are thinking up a good Twitter name you might hit upon another charities name, you may even find that it's available  (Twitter tells you as soon as you type it in the box) for instance Yorkshire Cancer Research could of used @CancerResearch but you can imagine the sort of issues that would cause. Not just for potential supporter confusion but it could lead to Twitter giving the account back to the rightful brand.

This may seem obvious but I have spotted a couple of non-profits flying a little close to the proverbial fire with the @ID  choice.

Password: Make you password as complex as possible DO NOT use words that you would see in a dictionary and include number as well as letters, the best passwords resemble nothing but a random collection of letters and numbers in no order.

Once you have completed the form it should look something like below and when your happy click the green button at the bottom of the page to create your account.



Quick Tips when creating your Twitter account:

• In the Full name field enter your charity / non-profits complete name.
• Username can be max 20 characters, try not to use abbreviations unless you are known widely by them.
• Choose a complex password min 8 letters and numbers try not to use real words.
• Enter the security word to prove your a human.

Step 3 - Invite your supporters via Email

If you want to you can  export a contact file from your email program to have Twitter email all your supporters and let them know you are now on Twitter, personally I say do this later once you are more used to Twitter and your account has some activity on it. Use the skip link at the bottom of page to move to Step 4. Twitter also checks its system to see if your contacts are already signed up you might find you already have some supporters and you didn't even know it.


Quick Tip:
* Do this later, once you have an established account

Step 4 - Follow some interesting people

There are tens of millions of people on Twitter already but Twitter makes it easy to get started and follow a few really interesting people with just a few clicks, many of the people you will be offered on this screen are Celebrities from the real world, some are technology or Internet celebrities and you might find the odd charity or random person that Twitter staff just think post great tweets new users would like to see.

Have a look at the list you are given and choose a few people to follow, don't worry to much about it right now those celebs aren't why you are here it's the general public you are interested in.

When your done click Finish:


Quick Tip:

• Celebs can be a great way to see how to Twitter well
• They can also be a source of great irritation!
• Don't beg for them to a) Follow you b) Retweet for you c) do anything for you
• They will support you when they choose and you tweet something worthwhile

Step 5 - Welcome to your profile

This is your Twitter page, at the top is your Status box in here you can write an update (ill get into that further down)  under the status box is your feed / time line or  stream to give it a few titles its known by you will see tweets of people you followed in Step 4 if you did here. This page updates and is where you will see new tweets come in from people you follow.

As you will see i chose not to follow any of the people Twitter suggested instead I will use the search box on the right later to find people to follow I will cover that in another guide, another day.

On the white area is the activities bar (light green) See that weird looking o_0 that's where your logo goes, lets get that done now as well as setting up the rest of your profile information, click on Settings at the very top of the page on the horizontal white bar.

Step 6 - Extended profile

When you click settings you will arrive at your profile page, here you can change details or add additional details, you should add a Bio and a Web address that points back to your main website, ideally the Bio should say who the person is tweeting from the account Twitter is about the person behind the brand as much as the brand itself. @dogstrust do this and it really helps to build a connection with their followers.

Quick Tip

• Bio is a great place to tell followers more about your work AND the person tweeting
• Your web address should go to your home page or the about page of your website
• NOT your donation page, Social media is not about fundraising that comes as a consequence of tweeting

Now let's go upload your non-profits branding (logo) to give you a real identity:

Step 7 - Branding - Logo Time

Very simple click on the Picture option along the top of the Settings box (grey tabs) select the image you want to upload as your brand by clicking browse and selecting it from your hardrive. Images must be under 700K and i would recommend making the Square with a border of padding roughly 5% around your ident and wording this ensures Twitter doesnt crop bits off.



Click Save and the image will be uploaded Twitter will tell you when it has been successful at this point DO NOT click save again as this will delete the image. That's it your all branded up and ready to go, click on Home at the top to return to your Status Feed.

Quick Tip:

• Images no bigger than 700k (files size)
• .jpg .gif & .png are accepted for your logo
• Leave a border around your logo / wording to ensure it doesn't get cropped
• Square is the best ratio for your image

Step 8 - What the Green bit's for

You will see on your Status feed a green strip down the right hand side this provides access to your replies and private messages as well as Twitter search and trends.

Replies will show you messages sent directly to you via an @reply and Directs will show you private message you have been sent, use the Search box to type in a keyword that interests you and you can discover people tweeting about that keyword in real time (as it happens). Under search are the current Trends on Twitter useful to see what is buzzing right now click one to go to the search results for that keyword.

Step 9 - Post your first Tweet

Now your all branded up it's time to say hello to the world, because this is your first message say something about who you are, what you do and maybe who you hope to meet on Twitter.



Remember if you followed some people in step 4 they may be coming to see what your about if it's just blank or says Hello World they may not follow you back.

Step 10 - Explore

Now you have posted your first tweet you will see it drop into your feed below, any one that is following you will see the message if they are checking Twitter at this very moment.

You can now go and explore, look out for @replies going to other Twitter users from people you follow click their @Id to see what they are about follow them if they interest you cause, use the Search box to discover people.

In future guides I will delve into using Tweet basics, @replies, Direct message and Searching Twitter. I really hope you have found this guide useful feel free to leave me a comment below oh and Follow me on Twitter @johncarnell Click Follow under my photo to follow me, I will happily follow you back.