Gertrude Stein was right right right.
Repeating things makes them matter more. We mail to people multiple times asking them for donations. It is considered perfectly normal to mail an appeal and then "follow-up" a few weeks later. We may even ask for second or third gifts from our donors all in the same year. We subscribe to an "Asking" repeating model. But what about thanking donors?
When it comes to thanking donors for most organization's once per gift is enough - but is once enough? We have to provide every donor with an official letter noting the date and amount of their donation. Could we be doing more? I say yes, we ought to thank, thank, thank our donors. I subscribe to a "thanking repeating" model.
How does this work? Simple, I find every opportunity I can to thank donors before they make or renew their gift. Acknowledging previous contributions in solicitation letters, in an official thank you receipt letter and once a year in a general thank you that does not have an ask are all ways to thank your donors more than once.
I have even seen people use their social media to thank donors in mass. Social media posts do not have the same effect as a personal letter, but the post will let others know that you have donors and that you appreciate them.
Though it can be time-consuming, I try and write a handwritten note to every donor over a particular giving amount each year. If you write one or two a day, it makes it less of a burden. In fact, you can even get a volunteer to write a few letters from their perspective. The important thing is to thank, thank, thank your donors. Then you thoughtfully, follow a "thanking repeating" model.
Restarting your Twitter account
Restarting your Twitter account shouldn’t be such a big hurdle, but you do need to prepare. Just as we discussed in the Facebook blog entry in February, you need to think not just about today's tweets but build a set of tweets for the next several weeks and "discover " content to retweet. Having a set of tweets ready to go really takes the pressure off.
It is important to remember that on average a tweet is only good for about 36 hours. What that means is that if your followers don't see your post in that period, they probably won’t see it. Though it wouldn't seem like it, this short viewing time is good news. It means you can recycle tweets without too many people seeing it twice or thrice.
So where to start, let’s assume you have an active Facebook Page. You can start by scaling down versions of those post to 140 characters or less and post them on Twitter. In fact, I would bet that you can get two or three tweets out of a single Facebook post. If that is the case, then you can schedule those over the course of a couple of days.
At a large organization, you can highlight a different program each week. I recommend working with program staff to create a series of tweets. You can write these a week or two ahead of time. Then schedule them to go out during the week. If something special comes up, simply do a one-off tweet. I will sometimes ask staff to email me photos during the week. I can add those to my prepared tweets or create new tweets. Remember those tweets are only active for a few hours. So reuse them.
I recommend that prewritten Tweets should redirect to pages on your organization's website. As we have discussed in a previous post, tweets ideally, should highlight information you are already promoting via your website. In this way, you get the best value out of each post or tweet. By driving traffic to your website, you are giving readers the opportunity to discover more about your organization or cause. It also puts them closer to your DONATE button. It also forces you to keep your website up to date - never a bad thing.
Another good tactic when restarting your Twitter activities is to retweet "discovered" content. Retweeting is an ideal way to increase your tweets and to share great content you didn't have to create. I try to have at least on retweet a day. I don't always make it, but I try. One way to find content to retweet is to get help from a social media aggregator like Hootsuite. I find Hootsuite to be a great way manage my social media presence and to find content. And it is very simple to use.
The most important thing is to get started- write a bunch of tweets, get your program people involved, use an aggregator, Retweet others content. Hey, it is only 140 characters or less!
Short Thoughtful Post
It Occurs To Me
August 25, 2022
Quitting Quietly-
I am fascinated by this concept, this movement. I always figured that once you got a job, you did your best at the job, maybe you learned some new stuff and used that to, at some point, move to a higher position. If you are "quietly quitting," are you doing your best at your job? Isn't that our part of the hiring bargain? This NYTimes article examines many of the issues surrounding this movement. What do you think? Click the photo below to read the article.
Please leave a comment, thoughtfully.
Thoughtful Tweets
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