I’m not one for fridge magnets. There are only two that made it to our fridge. A friend gave me one when both my sons were teenagers, and like most teenagers, they were experiencing their own set of teenage struggles. Not only did I think the message on the magnet was simple yet meaningful to my children, but I liked it for its daily benefit to anyone. “If you want different results, try something new.”

Twitter is something new.

As with most things that are new to us, there is risk, a learning curve, a possible sense of inadequacy, and most importantly, the possibility of generating different and better results.

Twitter is not only relatively new, but its potential uses are growing regularly. More interesting is that most of these new uses are generated by users and not by the Twitter company itself. Even some of the syntax commonly used on Twitter was created by Twitter users. Twitter’s website describes Twitter as follows: “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected by exchanging quick and frequent responses to a simple question: What are you doing?” making?”. It’s evolved well beyond that, and some Twitter users would rather the question “What are you doing?” is removed from the site.

While many users communicate the personal side of their lives through Twitter, this article focuses on organizational uses. However, if you’re totally new to Twitter, the following video is a great overview of how it can be used as a digital connection with friends and family: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Who cares what I’m doing throughout the day? This was my first reaction to Twitter. Well, aside from how the average person might use it to keep in touch with friends and family, the companies and organizations they deal with turn out to be very interested. There are tools that make it very easy to see if your organization’s name has been included in someone’s comment or tweet. At http://www.tweetbeep.com there are a variety of ways you can automate this. You don’t need to sit at your computer all day looking for feedback.

Tablet Hotels uses their Twitter account to keep up with what customers are tweeting about them. Michael Davis, co-founder of the chain, said a guest was upset by the way she was being treated at her reception and tweeted her frustration on her mobile phone at the same time. Someone from the hotel’s customer service department was alerted and read the complaint within 30 seconds of posting it, then phoned the front desk and the issue was resolved. If you think this might just be an isolated incident, Google +twitter +customer +complaint. When I did this this morning, Google found about 1.2 million results!

“When CC Chapman noticed a glitch in his HDTV reception during the NBA playoffs recently, he launched a quick, negative tweet about Comcast. Within minutes, a Twitter user named ComcastCares responded, and within 24 hours , a technician was at Chapman’s home in Milford to fix the problem. “I was so amazed,” said Chapman, who runs a digital marketing agency and advises businesses to do what he experienced with Comcast: listen to what customers say about them online and respond. I was impressed,” he said. [1]

If you think this sort of thing only applies to businesses, consider the following tweet from yesterday that I found via search.twitter.com: “So I gave up part of my night to volunteer at _______ and ​the group never showed up.” What a waste of time! Grrr”.

A significant advantage of social networking resources like Twitter is the concept of “she told two friends, and they told two friends,” etc. However, this can also work against you, but because the complaining happens in the open, you have access to it. If you make the effort to pay attention to it, you can deal with it.

The organizational use of Twitter is not just for handling complaints. Tourism and visitor associations have started using Twitter to inform people about local events, exhibitions, closures, etc. If you’re traveling to another city, you can follow the visitors’ association Twitter account until the end of your trip and get up-to-date information on what’s going on while you’re there.

War Child uses Twitter to tell personal stories of people in war-torn parts of the world. A nonprofit organization aimed at providing clean water to developing nations started Twestivals, which organizes fundraising efforts and unites people for global impact. These are just a few examples of how nonprofit organizations branch out from mailing lists, newspaper ads, and newsletters.

Does your organization receive thank you cards from the people you serve? How about taking a little quote from your thank you note and passing it out to volunteers and others who are interested in your organization? In many cases, this is a project that the volunteer program and the fund development program can work on together.

How do we use Twitter at Volunteer2?
We follow a variety of people to learn more about volunteering, management practices, and technology. Personally, I’ve picked up three different stories of great relevance to me this week alone. Every weekday I post a new tip or article for volunteer leaders. Some days it’s my own, and many days something happens that someone else has posted (a re-tweet in Twitter syntax). You can sign up to follow me (to receive these daily tips) with the information provided in the author information.

So how to start?
For those of you who are new to Twitter, check out the New York Time Gadgetwise Twitter for Beginners article by Paul Boutin. Once you’ve gotten used to Twitter a bit, head over to Paul’s article Everything you need to know about Twitter. However, this article is a bit old by Twitter standards (May 6, 2009). Needless to mention, Tweetdeck (freeware I use along with Twitter) is now available for the iPhone. How did I learn about it? Someone I follow on Twitter tweeted it three days ago within hours of its release and I had it on my phone minutes later.

For the growing number of people who use Twitter, nothing runs faster.