What is your charities name and Mission? Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, Our Mission: To offer greater independence, confidence and security to deaf people by providing dogs trained to alert them to chosen everyday sounds.

What is your name?
Sarah Grier
How long have you been using Twitter and who's idea was it?
I’ve been using twitter with a personal profile for a year or so, but began the Hearing Dogs twitter profile in January 2009. We had discussed it internally for a while and only hesitated due to the potential workload required to sustain an interesting and frequently updated feed. With the explosion of interest in twitter (the Stephen Fry effect) we decided to take the plunge.

What have you enjoyed so far whilst using Twitter?
Personally I love the immediacy of twitter, getting updates on news from across the world, following trends and conversations. As a NFP representative using twitter I appreciate the sense of community and the chance to raise our profile with new groups of users.

Have there been incidents of followers doing something wonderful for you?
Our followers have been great at retweeting our messages and starting conversations which raise our profile. Our biggest PR success so far has been hearing dog Thelma winning The Sun’s Hero Dog award at Dogs Trust Honours in May 2009. The public voted and while we received coverage in The Sun and on our own website and e-newsletter, it was the online communities of twitter and facebook which significantly boosted the number of votes to secure the award.

What has been your biggest challenge to date?
Striking a balance in the content of tweets. No-one wants to read a feed which is only requests for help or money. We try to have a balance of dog related tweets, deaf/Deaf related tweets and general interest/humour.

Do you have a Twitter tip for other charities?
Keep plugging away. It takes time to build up a network of followers and a network of those you choose to follow. I spend some time each day looking at the links and @replies in others tweets for potential new contacts. We’re a long way from matching the networks of some of the bigger NFPs online such as @bullyingUK and @dogstrust but we’re steadily making progress.

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