How to Make Twitter Useful

While Twitter use is still very low among most nonprofits' desired demographics (5% of those 45-54 years old tweet, and fewer of folks older than that), its popularity among the media is sure to make those numbers grow, especially among those who are highly wired.

Maybe no one is following you right now, but if you start posting tweets on topics where your nonprofit is the expert, then clever use of hashtags will propel your messages around the twitterverse. For example, I'm following #swineflu and so I'll see lots of tweets about swine flu that have that hashtag, even if I'm not following the users who posted those messages.

This is a great way to reach the mavens on the issues you cover.

For more on hastags, see the Twitter Fan Wiki

Rick...