Twitter Archives - Helen Brown Group

November 17, 2022 By Helen Brown

Moving to Mastodon

I’ve been on Twitter exactly 11 years this month.

As you may remember, I joined Twitter grudgingly; I’d hired a consultant to advise me about marketing and he was adamant about me joining Twitter. (Heck, he’d even written a book about it). I dragged my feet so long that he finally signed me up himself and emailed me my handle and password as a fait accompli. From that moment on I was @AskHelenBrown.

Okay, I guess I’m AskHelenBrown now, I thought. But I still don’t have to do this. I’m not posting what I ate for lunch or whatever it is people do on here.

But he’d also preloaded my feed with a bunch of interesting accounts in fundraising, and before long I started adding fellow prospect researchers and journalists and news feeds and Jay Frost…and then I was hooked.

Up until 2016 Twitter was largely the place where I got my news, both big-world stuff and the nonprofit sector. For the following four years it was probably my largest source of cortisol, but also still where I found out what I needed to know so I just dealt with the added stress.

I re-shared information about upcoming NEDRA events, learned about articles and tv series I didn’t want to miss, celebrated friends and colleagues’ successes, posted leaning cakes, and lurked reading threads of really smart people talking about the economy, or philanthropy, or business, or just dishing. For breaking news it was unparalleled.

And now here we are. My Twitter feed, when I bother to check it, looks like a ghost town with a lot of ads on the buildings. It’s painful.

Barring some sort of miracle, it looks like the blue bird’s flight-path is going to be Hindenburg-esque.

According to yesterday’s Marketplace “Make Me Smart” podcast, since Elon Musk bought Twitter over a million people have migrated to Mastodon. That’s a lot and also not a lot – people are still figuring out what they want to do and many – like myself – are keeping their Twitter account open just in case that Lazarus-style miracle happens.

On the program, hosts Kai Ryssdal and Kimberly Adams interviewed Robert Gehl, professor of communications and media studies at York University in Toronto. They asked him to give an overview of Mastodon and to explain what federated social media is and how we use it. It’s not overly complicated, but it is very different to how we use Twitter/Facebook/Instagram so it’s worth learning what the differences are.

Even if you’re not thinking of moving from Twitter (or using this kind of resource at all), it was pretty interesting, and also who doesn’t love listening to Marketplace?

Where to next?

So I am going to try out Mastodon.

One thing I’ve noticed already is that, so far, Mastodon doesn’t increase my stress level. Despite having the place to themselves for a long time now and creating a culture of their own, Mastodon long-timers seem really polite and (warily?) happy to welcome this huge influx of people moving in. (As long as we behave ourselves, I’m sure).

I’m still building up connections and finding folks that I enjoyed following on Twitter, but it’s a little clunky to find folks without knowing their handle, so I hope you will come find me there at – of course – @AskHelenBrown@researchbuzz.masto.host.

September 13, 2018 By Helen Brown

Short post – two resources for you

This is just a quick post today to alert you to two new-to-me resources that I thought you’d like, too.

RealTwitter.com

For those of you who have communicated via Twitter for a while, it will come as no surprise that, like with Facebook and Google, algorithms are at play to tailor your feed. People a lot more savvy than me have noticed that the filter bubble has gotten more intense over the past year, and – bothered by it – created an antidote. [Read more…]

October 12, 2017 By Helen Brown

Broadening your alert horizon

By Lizard Fine Art (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

There’s such a great sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a prospect research profile. You can dot the i’s, cross the t’s, hit ‘save’ and move onto the next assignment.

But if you think about it, that moment is really the starting line. What happens after that?

Well, an opportunity for us to have a conversation with the front line fundraiser assigned to that prospective donor, to begin with.

Did the profile answer all of your questions?
Is there any further work to be done?
What questions remain unanswered in the work that the fundraiser can discover on their next visit?

And most importantly, this signals the beginning – or deepening – of the relationship between your organization and the donor. The gift. Stewardship. Continuing engagement. [Read more…]

January 21, 2016 By Helen Brown

I have no idea what you’re talking about

When I write articles on this blog about topics like last week’s post on the Internet of Things (IoT), I find that, within a couple of days, I start getting Twitter followers by the handful who have the key word or hashtag in their Twitter bio of whatever the topic was.

Some of them I follow back because, well, obviously I’m interested in the topic and they seem to be interested in a lot of things including (in this case) IoT. They might find my mainly fundraising, prospect development, and HNW topics interesting and relevant to their life/work, too. (Or possibly they just like the eye candy photos of my weekend baking adventures). [Read more…]

December 18, 2014 By Helen Brown

Social media and high net worth individuals

Although more people are piling into an ever-growing array of social media outlets every day, it’s still fairly rare to see a Klout score or Twitter summary on a prospect research profile. Maybe it’s because we major gifts specialists assume that it’s only Xers and Millennials using these platforms, and they’re not yet ready to make large gifts.

But according to Ledbury Research, which studies the habits and demographics of high net wealth individuals (HNWI) in the United Kingdom, at least 75% of HNWI use social media regularly.

The largest group actively uses LinkedIn (47%), which makes sense since so many are businesspeople, but Facebook (42%), Google+ (17%) and Twitter (13%) are also used regularly. [Read more…]

August 30, 2013 By Helen Brown

From Twit to Twitterer: the brief story of a reluctant user

A couple of years ago I was talking with an intelligent, interesting, down-to-earth marketing guy. (And no, that’s not an oxymoron). Although Mark’s got a career that you might expect would entail being smarmy or jumping on couches screaming words like “SEO!” and “market penetration!” he’s not like that at all. Even remotely.

So I got nervous when he started trying to convince me to join Twitter. I diverted and moved the conversation on. When Mark pressed, I finally told him I thought it was only for twits who talk about what they had for lunch. He said that, while there certainly was an element of that, not everyone on Twitter was like that. That there are a lot of influential people using Twitter in order to share important information – at immediate, lightning speed and that I would always have control over who I followed.

I’m a sucker for lightning speed information, and I trusted him not to lead me down a path that was a time-waster. So I gave it a try.

Fast-forward to today. I’m not a super power Twitter user by any means, but I do follow nearly a thousand interesting and informative people, nonprofits and companies. That may sound like a lot, but trust me, a thousand is actually manageable with good filtering. And people aren’t out there constantly tweeting all the time. (Well, most people aren’t, anyway).

And honestly, some of the best information that crosses my screen, whether it’s white papers, studies, or news about big gifts or innovative things that businesses or nonprofits are doing, comes from Twitter. Often I find that I get some news before other people have heard about it – because they aren’t where the breaking news is. Twitter gives me an edge because I find out about things that are being released by thought leaders as they happen. And I re-tweet the most valuable information that comes my way and use the information to inform my work.

Perhaps nicest of all is that I have met some of the smartest, most generous people on Twitter that I have gone on to meet in real life. And we can just pick up the conversation there as we do on Twitter.

So if you’ve ever considered signing up for Twitter, but decided not to bother, do give it a try. And no– it’s really never too late. Give it two weeks. If you’ve given it a real college try and you still think it’s not for you, just cancel the account. No harm, no foul.

To get you started

Mark Schaefer has written a short, very engaging guide to getting started on Twitter called The Tao of Twitter. The book has lots of case studies and examples for how you can get the most out of your Twitter experience.

If you’re looking for people to follow, try picking and choosing from these lists (or just follow the lists wholesale!)

Prospect researchers: my list

Fundraising experts/consultants: from Beth Ann Locke

You can also look at the people on Twitter that you respect to see who they are following, and add those people.

Filtering tips

As with most research resources, filtering is important because Twitter is a constant barrage of information. One easy way to keep track of things is to use a dashboard like Hootsuite.

Set up is pretty easy and Hootsuite has even compiled a handy Quick Start Guide. You can get a free Twitter or Hootsuite app for your smart phone so you can read your feed while you’re waiting in line at Costco. And if you want to post from your smartphone, you can even do it via text message if you’re a texter.

Making a hash(tag) of it

Another way to filter to find the best information is by using hashtags, which are just key words with the prefix ‘#’ attached to them, as in

#prospectresearch

#nonprofits

#fundraising

So for example, when I post a tweet with information I think a prospect researcher will find useful, I will use the hashtag #prospectresearch to categorize that tweet. Someone later searching on that hashtag will find my tweet (whether they follow me on Twitter or not).

You can even use hashtags to join in on a live chat or follow what’s happening at a conference (such as #APRAprospect2013).

There are lots of hashtags out there. Two blog posts by the venerable Kivi Leroux Miller and Kerri Karvetski provide useful lists for nonprofiteers.

Are you a fundraiser or prospect researcher on Twitter? Which hashtags do you frequently use? Comment here, or send me a tweet! Let’s connect on Twitter!

Full disclosure: none of the companies or individuals mentioned above paid me to praise them. They’re just that awesome.

January 24, 2013 By Helen Brown

Five key features of great prospect research departments

As the new year builds up a good head of steam moving toward February, now is a good time to take stock of your prospect research department, whether it is you, or someone else, or (lucky you!) a department you supervise.

Today I was thinking about what makes for greatness in a prospect research department. Here are the components I’ve noticed from the organizations I’ve worked with, learned from and mentored over the years.

They know what their research is for

Great research departments understand the nuances between what is needed for identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship research. They work closely with fundraisers to target how much time to spend on a request, and they stay focused on exactly what is needed.

They know the priorities for today, 6 months from now, a year away, and 5 years out.

Great research departments work closely with peers and managers to develop an operating plan that helps them stay on task – geared to what the divisional priorities are. They use metrics to communicate their impact on the bottom line, and to make sure their work remains relevant and aligned.

They embrace innovation

Whether it’s creating new report formats or ways of delivering information, learning new research methods or investigating a new trend, great research managers embrace change and innovation. They go beyond reading trade journals to read books like Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit by Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon, the Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann, or Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh of Zappos to see how innovation and ideas from allied fields can elevate their department’s quality, productivity and visibility.

They stay current on resources, trends and skills

The best research teams regularly attend continuing education conferences and web seminars, benchmark with peers and take advantage of free learning by following people on Twitter, blogs and other social media. Some of these smart and generous folks include bloggers like the collective at APRA Mid-South, Chris Cannon, Chris Carnie, Mark Egge, Jen Filla, Kevin MacDonell and Liz Rejman, just to name a few. You can find these folks on Twitter, as well as others well worth following – visit this list to see the prospect research tweeting superstars. (If you’re a blogging or tweeting prospect researcher and you’re not on this list, please let me know!)

They believe in the mission

Great teams consist of people who get paid for the privilege of working somewhere they would care about even if they weren’t on staff. There are over 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States, and life is too short to be unhappy at work. Great researchers find a mission to believe in and give it their heart and soul. They also believe in the mission of prospect research as a profession, and are proud to be “out” in the community representing what we do best: helping nourish, protect, educate and grow our communities and our world.

What other key features of great prospect research departments do you think are important?

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