Shine While Your Light’s On

How to Use Twitter to Connect Your Organization’s Brand with Your Own

April 13, 2010 by rosettathurman · 6 Comments

Young nonprofit professionals often express reluctance in building their personal brands because they don’t want to “overshadow” the work of their organization. They feel that since they’re in the nonprofit sector to help others, it shouldn’t be all about them. Well, I’ll show you how you can do both! Let’s look at a great example of this with Andrea Snyder from the Grants Collection at the Pratt Library in Baltimore. Andrea represents her organization using Twitter. And I’d say she’s definitely doing it right.

@Grants_Pratt

Her avatar

Andrea’s avatar shows her face bordered by the logo for the Grants Collection. Pretty neat, and makes it clear who she represents: a real person who works at the Pratt Library. It also helps that her photo is all smiles. Andrea looks like a friendly person, someone you would want to see when you come to the Library.

Her bio

Andrea Snyder from the Grants Collection: Nonprofit Resource Center at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD. Andrea uses her real name in her bio, not a generic organizational name. She could’ve just put Pratt Library in the name section of the Twitter profile, but by doing it this way, followers can put a name to the face.

Another way that Andrea connects both her organization’s brand with her own is with what and how she tweets. She utilizes four great techniques on her organization’s Twitter profile: information sharing, awareness building, organizational promotion and personality.

Information Sharing

Awareness Building

Organizational Promotion

Personality

Are you on Twitter as part of your work for your organization? How have you been able to connect your personal brand with your organizational brand through social media? What challenges have you faced?

Filed Under: Personal Branding, Shine While Your Light's On, Social Media · Tagged With: Personal Branding, Shine While Your Light's On, Social Media, social media for nonprofit professionals, twitter for nonprofits

Shine While Your Light’s On: How to Build Your Personal Brand by Starting a Blog

December 11, 2009 by rosettathurman · 10 Comments

I went to two holiday parties last night. I’m an extreme introvert, so I really don’t like going to parties unless I think that someone I know will be there. The biggest benefit of being a popular blogger, though, is that now when I go to nonprofit events, people know me. I don’t have to know them. Blogging has given me a reputation that speaks for me even when I’m not standing right in front of someone. And the best thing you can do for your nonprofit career is to make sure lots of people know who you are. That way, when a juicy job opportunity or leadership role comes open, a bunch of people will be thinking of you as the perfect fit. That’s when you know you’ve got a great personal brand.

No one knew who I was until I started a blog. At the first holiday event, I was talking with someone who said something along the lines of, “first you were working at the Nonprofit Roundtable, then you just exploded into this huge voice.” Even people who knew me from working with me at my organization didn’t really “see” me until they saw my thoughts being posted online. I was the Director of Development for a reputable nonprofit with a Master’s degree, yet many people mistook me for my boss’ secretary. When I would attend events hosted by my organization, people would ask me how long I had been an intern. It irritated the hell out of me.

At the second holiday event, I walked up to two ladies and introduced myself. They said, almost in unison, “we know who you are. We follow you on Twitter.” We fell into easy conversation like friends instead of that awkward moment of when you first meet a stranger. I met other people throughout the evening that I didn’t really know that well. One guy introduced me as a “dynamic young woman, a truth teller for the sector.” I couldn’t have asked for better promotion of my personal brand than my blog readers and Twitter followers. They blow my horn so I don’t have to.

Lots of people ask me how I started blogging and how I was able to build a great reputation online. I will tell you three of my own stories and then share one from a new nonprofit blogger that I think we all can learn from.

Get Your Own, Self-Hosted Domain

I started blogging in 2007. Just seven months into it, I had already reaped a ton of benefits, like being featured in the Chronicle of Philanthropy and blogging for the Stanford Social Innovation Review. I first launched my blog using Blogger at fromthepipeline.blogspot.com. It’s still up so you can see what I started out with. I kept it simple. The content was what was most important. In 2008, I switched to my own domain at rosettathurman.com and started using WordPress with Yahoo Hosting. When I looked at my blog stats with Google Analytics, most people were already searching for my blog by typing in my name anyway. If I were to start a blog today, I would have had my own domain from the beginning. I would use WordPress for sure, and forget Yahoo for a host. They suck. Use BlueHost instead. They rock. Also, having a dot.com instead of a blogspot.com or wordpress.com at the end of your blog address makes it easier for readers to find you. If you don’t understand anything I just said, you should visit the WeAreMedia blogging toolbox for a neverending list of fantastic resources to help you get started. For even more info on blogging, read Problogger and Copyblogger. They rock, too.

Blog Under your Real Name

I thought about blogging anonymously at first, especially after writing this post, which created a firestorm of comments and emails that were quite overwhelming to me at the time. But being anonymous would have defeated the entire purpose of blogging for personal branding. If no one knew who was writing the articles, I would have reaped absolutely no benefit to my professional reputation. Plus, I had to learn how to stand up for my ideas no matter what people said about me. That’s part of being a leader. It remains my greatest leadership experience that I’ve had through my blog.

Don’t Worry About Your Employer

When I first started my blog, I was also worried if my employer would disapprove. Which is another reason why I thought about blogging anonymously. I work for a membership organization, and many of my ideas and strong opinions don’t always exactly mesh with theirs. Turns out I was getting my panties in a bunch for nothing. When my boss saw my blog mentioned in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, he was thrilled. When the article with my picture came out, he sent a note to all of our members and the board. He was proud to have me as part of the team and he respected the fact that I had my own voice. I also suspect that the perception of my popularity or reputation in the nonprofit field made it easier for me to get several raises and the opportunity to travel around the country for professional development opportunities. My organization was more willing to pay for them, I think, not only because they wanted to keep me happy as an employee, but also because they perceived that I was worth it.

Should you start a blog? Yes, if you want to use it to build your personal brand. No, if you just want to use it to complain about your life and only talk about personal issues that will not show off your expertise in your field. Stick to Myspace or Facebook for that. Also (and everyone will not agree with me on this), don’t start a blog if you’re not going to have an opinion on anything. People will read you because they want to get information, but also because they want to know what you think. I’m tired of reading vanilla blogs that sound like all the posts came from vanilla press releases.

Meet Jessica Journey

Everyone should check out Jessica Journey’s blog on nonprofit leadership. She is a young, professional woman, thriving in the Indianapolis nonprofit sector. Her current position is in the Development Office at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. As a full-time student, she is completing her Master of Public Affairs with a Concentration in Nonprofit Management. Learn more about Jessica here.

I found Jessica’s blog through one of my Google Alerts I have set up to inform me whenever someone posts an article on nonprofit leadership. She developed her blog to share her experiences in the nonprofit sector, and she is definitely doing it RIGHT. I asked Jessica to do a quick interview for this week’s personal branding series, and here she shares her experiences with using her blog to build her personal brand.

How has your blog helped you build your personal brand?

I view my blog as one tool (of many) for building my personal brand. Each tool has its place in the building process. The blog demonstrates that I am knowledgable about my field and can think critically about interesting issues. The blog itself indicates that I value the effective use of technology. The blog’s dynamic nature allows me to constantly shape and mold my personal brand.

The very process of developing the blog (and website) has forced me to answer some critical questions about my personal brand. For example, what are my areas of expertise? That is, am I writing enough about particular topics: diversity or organ donation or fundraising? And, what is the quality of my writing and ideas – in comparison to others writing about similar topics? Another important question: what is my style or tone of voice? Am I always going to provide “the right answer” to the problem? How much of my personal life am I going to reference? How do I effectively express my perspective?

How have you used your blog to enhance your nonprofit career?

It has helped me gain new contacts – like yourself! Also, a business professional in my city found me via LinkedIn, but it was my blog that convinced him to contact me. This person is the key to a specific job prospective for my Spring graduation.
It has helped reinforce prior contacts. For example, a former colleague was flattered when I asked her to review the blog and webpage design. She offered some helpful feedback. Then, it was quite easy to reconnect over coffee.
I’ve been able to highlight work that I am doing with others. People enjoy being blogged about!
The blog has made me more accountable to staying informed about the latest hot topic in the news or the most recent research article. It is motivation for advancing my professional knowledge.
The blog has increased the number of questions I get from friends and acquaintances about the nonprofit sector. I have received more (than normal) requests for small consulting jobs. (I credit this to always posting on Facebook about my latest blog post.)
Developing the blog has increased my knowledge about website design and internet traffic. These are more skills to offer to an employer.

I hope mine and Jessica’s stories will encourage other young nonprofit leaders to blog. It can be a tremendous asset to your career. The only way to find out is to start. Right now.

Photo credit: Metropolis Creative

I’m blogging every single day this month for 31 Days of Giving to celebrate my 27th birthday on December 31 and asking all my friends to donate $27 to benefit the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Washington DC. Will you give? Your gift would really make a difference for young nonprofit leaders in DC!

Filed Under: Career Advice, Personal Branding, Professional Development, Shine While Your Light's On, Social Media · Tagged With: Blogging, Personal Branding, Shine While Your Light's On, Social Media, social media for nonprofit professionals

Shine While Your Light’s On: Top 30 Nonprofit News Sources and Thought Leaders on Twitter

December 9, 2009 by rosettathurman · 15 Comments

Today’s post continues my personal branding series for young nonprofit professionals. In my Twitter 101 post earlier this week, I said that you can build a reputation for being a nonprofit expert by following nonprofit news sources and thought leaders on Twitter. It’s true. Social media allows you to have access to an amazing cache of nonprofit expertise on a daily basis, and you can learn about all the latest issues and trends through your Twitter account – for free! If you’re not on Twitter yet, here’s a step-by-step guide telling you how to get started. If you’re already on Twitter, you need to know who are the best accounts to follow for the latest, greatest nonprofit information. As a young nonprofit professional, you will be able to speak knowledgeably about what’s happening in your field by reading the timely articles and opinions posted by these sources. Here are my Top 30 Nonprofit News Sources and Thought Leaders you should be following on Twitter. Even if you only followed these 30, you would get all the information you need to know about the nonprofit sector. If it seems like I know everything that’s going on in the nonprofit world, it’s mostly due to these folks listed below! (And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @rosettathurman!)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: @Philanthropy
Boardsource: @boardsource
Foundation Center: @fdncenter
PND (Philanthropy News Digest) Blog: @pndblog
Allison Fine, nonprofit social media guide & author of Momentum: @Afine
Beth Kanter, nonprofit social media guru extraordinaire: @kanter
Tera Wozniak Qualls, rockstar Gen Y nonprofit blogger: @terawozqualls
Holly Ross, Executive Director of Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN): @ntenhross
Sean Stannard-Stockton, Tactical Philanthropy Advisors: @tactphil
Tracey Webb, Black philanthropy blogger: @BlkGivesBack
Nonprofit Assistance Fund: @NAFund
Kris Putnam-Walkerly, philanthropy consultant: @philanthropy411
Lucy Bernholz, philanthropy wonk: @p2173
Nonprofit Quarterly: @npquarterly
Hildy Gottleib, nonprofit consultant extraordinaire & author of The Pollyanna Principles: @HildyGottlieb
Nonprofit Times: @NonProfitTimes
Heather Carpenter, nonprofit academic: @HeatherCarpente
Debra Beck, nonprofit professor: @npmaven
Robert Egger, President of DC Central Kitchen: @robertegger
Colleen Dilenschneider, Gen Y blogger on nonprofits & museums: @cdilly
Ken Berger, President of Charity Navigator: @kenscommentary
Stanford Social Innovation Review: @SSIReview
Pamela Grow, nonprofit fundraising guru: @PamelaGrow
Trina Isakson, Gen Y nonprofit blogger extraordinaire: @telleni
Gene Takagi, nonprofit attorney: @GTak
Lindsey McDougle, nonprofit academic: @lindseymcdougle
Elizabeth Clawson, Gen Y nonprofit blogger extraordinaire: @eclawson
John Haydon, social web strategist for nonprofits: @johnhaydon
Trista Harris, Executive Director of Headwaters Foundation for Justice & blogger: @TristaHarris
Allison Jones, Gen Y nonprofit blogger extraordinaire: @ajlovesya

Who are YOUR favorite sources for nonprofit news and thought leadership on Twitter?

Photo credit: Leo Reynolds

I’m blogging every single day this month for 31 Days of Giving to celebrate my 27th birthday on December 31 and asking all my friends to donate $27 to benefit the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Washington DC. Will you give? Your gift would really make a difference for young nonprofit leaders in DC!

Filed Under: Professional Development, Shine While Your Light's On, Social Media · Tagged With: nonprofit news, Shine While Your Light's On, Social Media, social media for nonprofit professionals, twitter, twitter for nonprofits

Shine While Your Light’s On: Twitter 101 for Young Nonprofit Professionals

December 7, 2009 by rosettathurman · 10 Comments

Many young nonprofit leaders scrunch up their faces when I ask them if they’re on Twitter. Like, huh? What’s that? When I explain that it’s a free social network that lets you post status updates to the world, they usually suck their teeth and say, “oh, well I do that on Facebook.” “No,” I say, “Twitter is much better than Facebook.” When I say better, I mean in the sense that it’s a better tool for helping you build your personal brand and enhance your nonprofit career. Why? Because Facebook is still mainly just for your friends, while Twitter connects you to anyone and everyone in your field. And the bigger the network, the more opportunities to see and be seen. But let me back up a bit to explain how Twitter works and how you can get started with an account quick and in a hurry. Because you really should. You really, really should. (If you’re already on Twitter, be sure to follow me @rosettathurman!)

What is Twitter?

Twitter has come up with a cool guide to explain what it is and what it does:

Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Twitter lets you write and read messages of up to 140 characters, or the very length of this sentence, including all punctuation and spaces. The messages are public and you decide what sort of messages you want to receive—Twitter being a recipient driven information network. In addition, you can send and receive Twitter messages, or tweets, equally well from your desktop or your mobile phone.

If you’re more of an audio/visual learner, here is a 2-minute video that explains the basics of what Twitter is and what it does. In plain English.

Why Young Nonprofit Professionals Should Use Twitter

Grow your professional network and “meet” other nonprofit leaders from all around the world. Twitter allows you to network with and get to know other nonprofit workers you wouldn’t normally see face-to-face. On Twitter you’ll find fundraisers, people who work at food banks, CEOs, communications professionals, even foundation program officers. You can share information with them, ask them questions and help them with challenges they may have.

Become a nonprofit expert by following thought leaders in the field like @BoardSource (which is an actual organization www.boardsource.org). Boardsource uses Twitter to share timely and relevant nonprofit articles you might not otherwise be aware of. You can also keep up with all the nonprofit news and trends by following @Philanthropy (Chronicle of Philanthropy) and @npquarterly (Nonprofit Quarterly). By having access to nonprofit expertise on a daily basis, you can save yourself a lot of time doing original research or having to subscribe to all the nonprofit journals and weed through information overload.

Build your personal brand and market yourself as a resource in whatever your nonprofit expertise might be. If you tweet about what you know, people will begin to respect you as a professional, regardless of your age. Plus, it’s easy to get started!

How to Get Started on Twitter

Pick a user name, maximum of 15 characters (no spaces). I recommend using your REAL NAME! Please don’t make it difficult for people to find you if your name is CutiePie1985. Plus, using your real name makes it easier to associate that name with the particular value and expertise you bring online. And really, it’s just the grown-up thing to do.

Fill out your profile. For the “More Info URL” enter whatever web site you want to direct people to in order to learn more about you and what you care about. That could be your blog, organization website, or your LinkedIn profile. Please don’t use your Facebook profile if it’s not public! Also, don’t use your Myspace profile that has no professional information about you on it.

Upload your photo. You’re already in the Settings area, so click on Picture (top center menu). The picture should be a photo of your face. Why? Because it’s harder for people to build a personal relationship with you without seeing who you are.

Find your friends on Twitter. If you use a web-based email like Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc., Twitter can search your email address book for friends of yours who are already on Twitter. Otherwise, you can search for them by name. When you find people you know, click on the Follow button to view their updates on an ongoing basis.

Don’t forget to follow me @rosettathurman for information on nonprofits and young professionals, race and diversity issues, inspirational quotes, social media and whatever else I feel like sharing. Also feel free to directly ask me questions about those same topics.

After you sign up, send a tweet to me @rosettathurman and introduce yourself!

Learn the Twitter Lingo

Twitter offers a good list of terms you should understand before you start tweeting and get all confused. Here are some of the key words as explained by Twitter:

Following
To receive messages on Twitter, you follow other people and companies you’re interested in—which means you get their messages as they post (put another way, their messages show up in your incoming timeline on your Twitter home page). Conversely, people get your messages by following you.

Tweet
Users refer to an individual message as a tweet, as in, “Check out this tweet about our CEO dancing on the sidelines of the Phoenix Suns game.” People sometimes use it as a verb, too, as in, “I tweeted about the stimulus package this morning.” If “tweet” is hard for you to use with a straight face in a business context, try “twittering” as a verb instead. Alternatives include “post,” “message” and “update.”

@username
One of the most useful things about Twitter is that it lets you exchange public messages with individual users. Simply start a message with @username of the person you want to reach, like this:

“@Ev Glad you liked our vegan cookies. Thanks for twittering about ‘em!”

If Ev is following your account, your message will appear directly on his Twitter home page. (If he’s not following your account, your message will appear in his folder of @username mentions.) People who are following both you and Ev will also see the message on their Twitter home page. Finally, the message will appear in search results, and people who come to your Twitter home page will see it among the messages in your outgoing timeline.

To find the public messages that are directed to you (i.e., those that start with your @Username) or that mention you (i.e., those that include your @Username elsewhere in the tweet), head to your Twitter home page, and then on the right side of the screen, click the tab labeled your @Username.

Tip: To reply easily from the Twitter website, mouse over a message, and then look on the right end for the “Reply arrow”. Click the arrow to start a new message addressed to the original user.

RT, or retweet
To help share cool ideas via Twitter and to give a shout-out to people you respect, you can repost their messages and give them credit. People call that retweeting (or RT), and it usually looks something like this: “RT @Username: Original message, often with a link.” Retweeting is common, and it’s a form of conversation on Twitter. It’s also a powerful way to spread messages and ideas across Twitter quickly. So when you do it, you’re engaging in a way people recognize and usually like—making it a good way to connect.

Shortened URLs
With just 140 characters at your disposal, Twitter doesn’t give you much room to include URL links—some of which are longer than 140 characters themselves. If you post a link on Twitter via the website, sometimes we automatically shorten the URL for you. There are also a number of services—URL shorteners—that take regular links and shrink them down to a manageable length for tweets, and some even let you track clicks.

Start Tweeting!

A lot of young nonprofit professionals are worried they won’t have anything important or useful to tweet about. That’s okay. When you first start out, you’re going to want your tweets to be a mix of different kinds of posts – info about yourself, interests you have, tips you’d like to share, articles you recommend. As you expand your Twitter usage, your content mix will start to vary depending on what you find useful to yourself and your followers.

The basic content you want to include in your mix are:

Status updates: What are you working on? What has your attention at the moment?
Sharing links: Whether it’s breaking news or valuable resources, share links that would be of interest to other nonprofit professionals.
Have an opinion: Add your own commentary to those links. Help people get to know you as you share information.
Ask and answer questions: Google doesn’t have the answer to everything. Sometimes there’s just no substitute for a human being. Ask your followers how to do something, what they think about an issue, etc. Great information comes from the crowd!
Retweet: Did someone you follow share something interesting? You can repost it out to your own network by using ‘RT’ atthe beginning i.e. RT @rosettathurman link to new fundraising resources. It’s simple and quick, and it acknowledges the person who sent it out in the first place by giving them a little extra exposure.
Organizational announcements: Yes, you can directly make announcements about your nonprofit – events, news, etc. Just don’t overdo it.

Got it? For those of you just starting out on Twitter, what’s your experience been like?

Photo credit: Fast Metrics

Up Next: Top 20 Nonprofit News Sources and Thought Leaders on Twitter

I’m blogging every single day this month for 31 Days of Giving to celebrate my 27th birthday on December 31 and asking all my friends to donate $27 to benefit the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Washington DC. Will you give? Your gift would really make a difference for young nonprofit leaders in DC!

Filed Under: Personal Branding, Professional Development, Shine While Your Light's On, Social Media · Tagged With: Shine While Your Light's On, Social Media, social media for nonprofit professionals, twitter, twitter for nonprofits

Shine While Your Light’s On: 16 Personal Branding Tips for Young Nonprofit Professionals

December 6, 2009 by rosettathurman · 3 Comments

For the past six months, I’ve provided career advice for young professionals as a professional blogger on Jobs for Change. I am no longer writing for that project, but I will continue to focus my energies on sharing those resources here on my own blog. As I went through the almost 100 Jobs for Change articles I’ve written, I noticed a heavy focus on personal branding advice. Here I present to you my 16 best articles on how to build your own personal brand and further your nonprofit career. I hope you find them useful!

Up Next: Twitter 101 for Young Nonprofit Professionals

I’m blogging every single day this month for 31 Days of Giving to celebrate my 27th birthday on December 31 and asking all my friends to donate $27 to benefit the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Washington DC. Will you give? Your gift would really make a difference for young nonprofit leaders in DC!