10 Twitter Apps for Fundraisers

By Joe Boland

Hardly a day goes by where I don't hear about some new Twitter initiative in the fundraising sector. From Britt Bravo's recent Twitter chat to Roger Craver discussing the reach of Twitter and social media, Twitter's influence on keeping donors engaged is undeniable.

If your organization isn't utilizing Twitter to its fullest potential, Heather Mansfield, owner of DIOSA Communications, which specializes in social media and mobile marketing for nonprofits and small business, and keeper of the Nonprofit Tech 2.0 blog, offers 10 Twitter apps for nonprofits "that can also be used to improve website, e-newsletter, blogging and social media campaigns." Here are the 10 apps she recommends.

1. Bit.ly: Allows users to shorten, share and track URLs. This is a must-use tool, Mansfield writes. "Without tracking how many clicks the links you post on Twitter are receiving, you are Tweeting blindly."

2. TweetMeme: TweeteMeme ReTweet Buttons encourage the audience to retweet content on Twitter with a click of the button.

3. Favstar.fm: Allows you to see the "most favorited" tweets across Twitter at any given time, Mansfield says, and it also allows you to track your own tweets to see who is favoriting them.

4. Twibbon: Allows followers to embed icons on their Twitter avatars and spread them throughout Twitter.

5. TwitPic: Lets you share photos on Twitter.

6. 12seconds: Allows users to easily record videos and upload them to their 12seconds video channel to post on Twitter.

7. BubbleTweet: Allows users to embed video directly onto their Twitter pages.

8. Screenr: Allows you to create screencasts for your followers.

9. Trottr: Allows you to record brief audio messages that you upload to Trottr and link to from Twitter and other social-media sites.

10. TweetStats: Get Twitter stats such as tweets per hour, tweets per month, tweet timelines, reply stats, etc.