Metrics to Track the Success of Tweets

In this day and age, every fundraiser knows his or her organization must utilized social media in some way, shape or form. That's where at least some of your donors, your colleagues and your prospects of today and especially tomorrow are consuming media.

But one of the biggest qualms with investing time and energy in social media is rationalizing it to your board. Sure, there are cases where social media can directly raise money, but it's just a blip on the fundraising radar. Still, social media is such a valuable tool to deepen your relationship with donors that your organization cannot afford to be left behind.

It always helps to give your board real numbers and metrics to get buy-in. In a recent post, Patrick Thornton of the Poynter Institute shares how journalists are using metrics to track the success of tweets. It's well worth a read.

Here are some of the ways journalists are tracking their tweets on Twitter that Thornton highlights:

Services such as bit.ly, Chartbeat, Radian6, etc. allow journalists and news organizations to track how many people click on their tweets and see what’s getting retweeted, and many journalists are using them to track their tweets’ effectiveness and reach.

Important metrics to track are time of tweets, types of messages that resonate, the language that garners the most clicks and retweets, etc.

Other valuable tools that provide information on what tweets drive people to your website and are shared with peers include Tweetreach, Omniture and TwentyFeet.

Use these tools and track the important messages for your organization. Then bring them to your board to show the value social media has in helping cultivate current and potential donors.