Six Ways to Use Twitter to Enhance Your Nonprofit Career

So this is a post from another blog that i thought was worth a re-blog (the links at the bottom)

Last week, during my personal branding series for young nonprofit leaders, I asked you dear readers, how has Twitter helped you in your nonprofit career? I received six awesome success stories I want to highlight for you here. If you aren't convinced by now about the value of Twitter as low-cost professional development, I just.don't.get.you. If you're ready to jump on Twitter after reading this post, check out my easy, breezy guide to getting started!

1. Elisa: Get Noticed

Twitter has definitely helped my career! It has helped me build my knowledge base on nonprofit best practices, resources and technology which has allowed me to contribute intelligently to conversations within the office and provide evidence to back up my statements. In the last couple of places I've worked, I've also been one of the first people to find out about late breaking news or important new resources that have just come out relevant to our work. Both of these things have helped me build my 'clout' within the office and made me a more indispensable employee.

During my latest job search Twitter definitely helped me get noticed. I was asked about my Twitter feed during a job interview and asked to provide some opinions on the use of social media within nonprofits. Being able to demonstrate a level of experience and knowledge helped me land that job.

Finally, on a slightly more personal level that has professional implications, I've developed some good relationships with nonprofit movers and shakers (including many of the people you included in your top 30 list Rosetta) and all around cool people on Twitter. Those relationships have come in handy when I needed some support and I know they will again in the future; and I hope that I've been able to provide some of that support back to people.

2. Mary Jane: Become an Expert

Twitter has helped me discover reasearch papers, management articles, and news pertaining to my field across the country, all of which have impressed the hell out of my boss, who can't figure out how I'm so "on top" of things ;) Now I'm the "twitter tracker" for my agency, producing a summary of the best content found throughout the day in a "Today on Twitter" email. Using Twitter has also given my boss insight on what my interests are (nonprofit management, nonprofit boards), which gets me taken seriously when we talk about my career path.

3. Joe: Tell Your Story

I work as a counselor for the Grande Prairie Youth Emergency Shelter Society (GPYESS) which operates an emergency shelter (www.sunrisehouse.ca) in Grande Prairie, Alberta Canada. We help youth who are at-risk and homeless by providing emergency housing and emergency services.

Since I have started using twitter, I have developed relationships with people in the local community and all over Canada and the world. Twitter has allowed me to spread the word about how amazing our youth are.. It has also allowed me to educate about youth issues, and youth homelessness. Twitter provides a way for business, individuals, and donors to donate to help our youth. People have donated from all over the province! Twitter is a great tool for our organization.

We have had people donate cookies, clothes, and money because of twitter. As we fundraise almost 80% of our entire budget, every bit helps.

Twitter is awesome, and will continue to help and make great realtionships for our non profit

4. Michael: Connect With People in Your Field

Twitter allows me to have a volunteer consultancy of hundreds of people! If I have a problem that I need input on, I can ask the twitterverse, and get an answer that I may have never thought of on my own. The best part is the broad range of ideas I get from people in similar, and not-so-similar, situations!

Through contacts I've made on twitter, I've been able to plan a nonprofit conference in the city I live in that will get nonprofit leaders in the same room and talking to each other so they can effectively share resources instead of continuously reinventing the wheel. All of the speakers at the conference are connections that I've made on twitter, and they've donated their time because they love the idea and the city that they live in.

Twitter has allowed me to do things that I wouldn't have been able to without the connections that I've made through it.

5. Krista: Increase Productivity

Twitter has helped my professional development immeasurably since I joined about a year ago. Twitter puts me in daily contact with the best and brightest thought leaders in the nonprofit world as well as in human resources. Here are some ways I have learned, grown or found value as a result of my Twitter activity and contacts:

I was invited to join a human resources group I never would have heard of otherwise. This group's listserv offers indispensable and almost immediate help when needed.

I attended an HR Blogging unconference I learned about on twitter. There, I met lots of big names in HR blogging, some of whom work at nonprofits and all of whom are useful contacts and great people.

My own blogging activity has increased, and I have a list of people I can tweet if I need technical advice. Being involved in twitter allowed me to write posts like this one: ny.cc/GAPdG

On Twitter, I asked for recommendations for free systems to track resumes. Responses led me to two different online systems I put into place at my nonprofit, eliminating tons of paper and increasing efficiencies.

I have been named on other people's blogs as being knowledgeable about workplace issues, which is good for me personally but also good exposure for my nonprofit.

I became acquainted with the Rosetta Thurman blog, which is an awesome resource. :)

I've been able to stay up on trends, news, happenings in a way I couldn't before.

Most of the above would have taken much longer or wouldn't have happened at all without Twitter. Without question, it has been the single best tool for personal and professional growth that I've come across in my decades in the workplace.

6. Charise: Participate in the Community

I believe many nonprofit professionals question the value of Twitter and have yet to see explanation of how and why it's a powerful professional development resource.

Ten months ago I was a huge "Twitter skeptic". After only a month, I began to see that Twitter is a great tool for the over tasked, under resourced nonprofit professional.

My takeaways from Twitter are almost too numerous to list & include many already named by others, but here are a few more:

Like many nonprofit professionals, I live and breathe for my cause, but also have a vision of a nonprofit sector that breaks the existing silos dampening innovation and networking efforts. Participating in Twitter is a convenient, free way to strengthen our "community benefit" sector.

Working at a smaller nonprofit can be lonely & frustrating due to the lack of a leadership team. Knowing that other professionals share similar challenges is consoling. Even more important, sharing solutions builds morale & hope. Twitter allows nonprofit professionals be a part of a larger, non-exclusive community on a daily basis.

As a community of voices, Twitter allows for quick identification of trends in the nonprofit workplace. This has helped me become more focused in my career goals as I was able to identify needs in the sector that weren't being effectively addressed and translate this information into applications for competitive fellowships.

Twitter is one of the few places where nonprofit professionals are judged primarily on the quality and value of information they share, instead of age, race, gender, or location. Connections and dialogue are formed on Twitter that one might never see in the real workplace.

Although nothing replaces the value of a mentor, nonprofit professionals in search of guidance or mentoring will often find in Twitter a warm community of professionals ready & willing to offer advice & tips at anytime of the day or night. I know I have!

Twitter rocks.

What's your take? If you're not on Twitter yet, why not? If you are using Twitter, do you think you're using it effectively? Have some success stories of your own to share? Post them in the comments!

http://rosettathurman.com/blog/2009/12/six-ways-to-use-twitter-to-enhance-your-nonprofit-career/