The good folks at Socialbrite.org have recently posted a list of what they consider to be a ‘Top-Twelve List’ of social organizations and nonprofits that we all should follow on Twitter. The introduction gives you links to Twitter and how to become a ‘Follower’ of these organizations. It also includes links to individuals who might be worth following as well. It is worth noting that, though the number of ‘Followers’ for each of them is listed, the list is based on the work the groups do and the qualitative use of their Twitter presence, not merely their race to get X numbers on their lists (a quantitative benchmark that seems much more important to celebrities than to community organizations).
Just to give a sense of the scope of the list, it includes such organizations as (in no particular order): DonorsChoose, working on issues of public education; DemocracyNow, an independent media outlet that refuses advertising money; Livestrong, the cancer-survivors community begun by Lance Armstrong; and 12for12K, itself a social media micro-network that brings ‘Followers’ together to donate to the twelve (rotating) charities that 12for12K supports. As we hope to make evident, the list includes educational groups, news outlets, fundraising groups, health concerns, and outreach programs.
Twitter might be a kind of ‘scary’ entity for some (it was for me!), as it can overwhelm you with various people’s and groups’ most recent musings – some of which can seem pretty much like inside jokes broadcast to hundreds of outsiders or of no particular interest to anyone who does not like the cereal the Twitter-poster announced he ate for breakfast. But a beauty of Twitter is how scalable it is. With only a modicum of setup and tweaking, you can follow dozens of people and organizations, then pare them down to the two or two hundred you have found useful. Once the basics seem comfortable, you can scale back up. In my humble opinion (IMHO in Twitter-speak), organizations provide a saner ‘information-to-tweets’ ratio than individuals, who might post any little thing that moves them. Such a caveat obviously does not apply to family or co-worker whose musings or reports are a necessary part of your day.
We will spend more time on this subject a bit later, as we help you setup an account and consider various applications to ease your use of Twitter. For now, let us point out that – along with the ‘twelve great causes’ that Socialbrite.org has presented us, one can indeed follow Socialbrite (13). If you have not done so already, we also want to suggest you follow us by clicking on the MKCREATIVE ‘Follow Us’ banner to the right (plus one more).