10 Twitter Apps for Nonprofits
[tweetmeme] An online database of Twitter Apps called oneforty currently lists almost 2,900 third-party Twitter Apps. While some nonprofits have been early adopters of Twitter Apps, the vast majority are not. They may not even know the tools exist. Once you start browsing around and experimenting, you’ll quickly come to realize that there are a phenominal number of free Twitter tools now available to nonprofits – that can also be used to improve website, e-newsletter, blogging, and social media campaigns.
Once your nonprofit has mastered the intricacies of Tweeting, ReTweeting, Mentioning, and Lists, it’s time to move your Twitter campaigns up a notch. The ten Twitter Apps listed below are 10 of my 25 favorites:
1. Bit.ly: Bit.ly allows users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). It is an absolutely must-use tool. Without tracking how many clicks the links you post on Twitter are receiving, you are Tweeting blindly. Make sure you create a Bit.ly account to get access to full statistics and an archive of all links. Bit.ly links are also great for text messages.
2. Tweetmeme: TweetMeme ReTweet Buttons are for website and blog publishers who want to encourage their audience to Tweet their content on Twitter. If folks are logged in to their Twitter account, all they need to do is click the button once and the ReTweet is posted. It works. Try it. Just know that the buttons place differently in different browsers.
3. Favstar.fm: Favstar.fm allows you to see the most favorited tweets across Twitter at any given time. It also allows you to track your own tweets to see who is favoriting them.
4. Twibbon: Twibbon allows your followers to embed ribbons, icons, etc. on their Twitter avatars, and then spread them throughout the Twitterverse. It’s an easy and effective first step for launching an awareness campaign on Twitter.
5. TwitPic: TwitPic lets you share photos on Twitter. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone or through the site itself. For an example, see UNICEF’s TwitPic Page: twitpic.com/photos/UNICEF. Alternatively, there is TweetPhoto.
6. 12seconds: 12seconds allows users to easily record videos with your laptop camera or cellphone, and then upload them to your 12 seconds video channel in order to easily post them to Twitter. Big Cat Rescue was a pioneer is using YouTube and they also have 12seconds channel: 12seconds.tv/channel/BigCatRescue
7. BubbleTweet: BubbleTweet allows users to embed a video directly onto their Twitter profiles. For an example, see a BubbleTweet by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
8. Screenr: Instant screencasts for Twitter. Now you can create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. With Screenr’s web-based recorder, there’s nothing to download. Your screencasts play everywhere, even on iPhones.
9. Trottr: Trottr allows you to record brief audio messages with your cell phone that are then hosted on the Trottr website. After you record a message, you are given a URL for the message that you can post on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. For example, here’s my first message: trottr.com/74qcww.
10. TweetStats: Graph your Twitter Stats including – tweets per hour, tweets per month, tweet timeline, and reply statistics. Make sure you check out your Tweet Cloud too.
Related Webinar:
How Nonprofits Organizations Can Successfully Use Twitter and Twitter Apps
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Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Blog :: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits 
I used to use bit.ly, but I am a huge fan of TBuzz now instead. It’s faster and SO EASY to install – stupid simple. When you’re on a site or reading an article, etc, simply click TBuzz from your bookmark menu bar and a shortened version is instantly created for you, along with your “Twitter tect box” to complete your Tweet.
Much easier and quicker than bit.ly. And you know how we non-profit folks have major bandwidth issues…!
You might want to see this:
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/dan-macsai/popwise/report-nine-scientifically-proven-ways-get-re-tweeted-twitter
Bit.ly is the most RT’d URL by far… and you don’t need to install anything to use it. Glad you found something you like though. For those of you that would like to experiment with TBuzz, here is it is:
http://oneforty.com/item/tbuzz
Thanks… oh, and any other favorite Twitter Apps?
I think Act.ly is really nice too… Do you know it? It’s for activist use.
I do know it. Thanks. I cover it in my webinar on Twitter. 🙂
Chirbit is a tool that enables you to record and share your voice easily.
You can:
Record from the browser using a webcam or microphone.
Upload up to 120mb of audio in mp3/wav/amr/m4a formats
Type in your text and convert it into audio.
Record and post your chirbit from any smart phone with a voice recorder.
Convert a YouTube video into audio.
Share your voice/audio easily using our short URLs
Here is a video about chirbit:
Odd that there is no embed capability with Chirbit.
You can embed your chirbit in a WordPress blog.
Here is a link for the plugin.
http://blog.chirbit.com/chirbit-player-wordpress-plugin/
Here are some other options for embedding/sharing on your own site:
http://www.chirbit.com/tutorials/
I will have some easier options soon.
– Ivan
Your blog has been an absolute life-saver for me over the past month! These Twitter apps are awesome! I love bubble tweet! I just need to get a decent webcam to use it properly.
I recently landed an internship with an Australian nonprofit – the Children’s Medical Research Institute. I am working for their major fundraiser ‘Jeans for Genes’. The role title is ‘Social Media Communicator’ and lasts for 9 weeks until ‘Jeans for Genes Day’. After that I return to university for my final semester of a Bachelor of Communication-Advertising (I am 22 years old).
I had to do a 20 minute PowerPoint presentation in the job interview – boy was it intense. Fortunately, in my vigorous research, I found your blog – which helped me immensely.
I’ve been working on the social media pages for Jeans for Genes for about 2 weeks now. I have implemented many of your suggestions and they are achieving immediate results. I’ve also got some ideas of my own which will be unveiled in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll be constantly and eagerly checking your blog for more helpful articles!
You can see the Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/jeansforgenes
Thank you so much!
Another great free twitter oriented tool that non-profits can use is twebevent. Just put your hashtag at the end of http://twebevent.com/ eg. http://twebevent.com/assnchat
You can merge any audio, video or images with your twitter chat.
You can provide the Title, Day, and time of the event
You can brand the twitter chat with the host’s twitter avatar and you can enter any text you want to describe your event
Also, check out the Twitter Chat Schedule for a list of chats that might be relevant to your organization: http://bit.ly/ChatSched
TwitsOmatic is a new tool that enables you to manage multiple twitter accounts without much effort, see how here.
This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last week.
I have been coming to this blog for a couple of days now and i’m very impressed with the content!
thanks & regards
avid – online university
Thanks. 🙂
This is God-send. I’ve been recommended to several social media websites and experts but so far this one is so friendly and understandable to the plight of non-profits. Thanks so much for putting up this site!
Tweetdeck is good to go, multiple account hosting, linkedin, facebook, twitter, tweetpic everything in one place, and pretty organised!
12seconds seems to be out of business.
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