What is your charities name and Mission?

We're Meningitis Research Foundation, we're active in the UK and Ireland working towards a world free from meningitis and septicaemia. To achieve this we fund research into new methods of prevention, detection and treatment of the diseases. Until vaccines exist for all forms of the disease we are working hard to raise awareness of the symptoms of the diseases among the general public and health professionals. We also work closely with individuals and families who have been affected by these terrible diseases.

How long have you been using Twitter and who's idea was it?

We started using twitter back in January, it was a natural progression for us after establishing a really successful presence on facebook Engaging with our supporters through social media has been something I've been pushing forward for the last 2 years. A few quick searches showed that there were loads of discussions going on already about meningitis and many of our supporters were already using twitter, it was a logical decision for us to make sure we were where they were.

What have you enjoyed so far whilst using Twitter?

It's been great to be able to reach out to more people with questions or concerns about the disease, 5 years ago we had to rely on them finding us and ringing our helpline, now we can be proactive and reach out to people. We've been able to offer support to people whilst their child is ill in hospital, answering their questions for them when they need answers most.

Has their been an incidents of followers doing something wonderful for you?

Each year we run a big awareness campaign, this year it was great to see so many of our followers spreading the word for us, not only were our awareness messages retweeted countless times, our supporters added in their own stories and we also managed to generate interest from the press picking up on our stories.

What has been your biggest challenge to date?

Initially it took a while for others to see the benefits of twitter, as with any new initiative it took a few months to gather momentum. After an initial period where we added supporters & contacts we knew were on twitter we went through a period where we weren't really growing much, which added to the scepticism but after we found our way and worked out the right tone & content we started to grow at a steady rate. It's now really nice to see the number of retweets & hits on our site we get when a post a link.

Do you have a Twitter tip for other charities?

Make sure you use a service like bit.ly that allows you to track and measure the impact your tweets are having it helps persuade others in your organisation you're not just wasting time.

Also don't be afraid to be informal and chatty, try to mix up your corporate messages with a few fun posts.