If you are a fundraiser using micro-blogging tool then you are in a small and select group. Although it was launched in March 2006, it is still the little brother/sister of social networks, although it is growing rapidly - hence the seemingly endless outages while its servers struggle to connect.
I've just searched the directory of Twitter users to see how many included the word 'fundraising' in their name, biog or location. There are currently just 88 users around the world who mention the word in their profile.
Of course, other Twitter users post tweets about fundraising and some twitterers will have chosen not to mention their day job as a fundraiser. But still, it is exciting to be in at a relatively early time in the adoption of Twitter by our profession.
That statistic takes me back to the time in 1994 when I searched the web for the word "fundraising" and came up with around 400 or so results. I've got a print out of those results somewhere. The same search on Google today yields 35.6 million results!
Don't see the point of Twitter? See it in action with UK Fundraising:
Follow Howard Lake on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/howardlake
Follow UK Fundraising on Twitter: get latest news, jobs and blog posts:
www.twitter.com/ukfundraising
Comments
If Hazel Blears can...
Just read Adam Rothwell's comment on Twitter, prompted by Steve Bridger:
"If Hazel Blears can use Twitter, then why can't Big Charity Bosses? They too busy?"
A fine point, especially given Third Sector's recent coverage of charity CEO's blogs in which it pointed out that Oxfam CEO Barbara Stocking hadn't updated her much-reported blog for over 12 months.
Maybe regularly updated blogs are too much to expect from anything more than a few talented and aware charity CEOs. Perhaps more of them can cope with the 140-character limit of micro-blogging?