About that First Tweet – a practical guide to social media for charities and social enterprises, published as a free service for charities by Unity Trust Bank and Social Misfits Media, London.

Reviewed for SOFII by Suay Melisa Ozkula.

Have you followed your donors’ latest tweets today? Have you told all your friends on Facebook about your new campaign so they canlike and share it? If you haven’t done so yet it is about time you did! About that First Tweet keeps its promise mentioned on the cover by giving practical advice on how to use social media effectively. Many a charity may think that they are facing the challenges of the digital world alone but this report shows how different players in the field think about their use of social media and have dealt with challenges along the way.

Brightly illustrated, the guide delivers a solid overview of social media use in the charity sector in an accessible language. Included in the 21 text pages you will find interviews with sector specific advice by top experts from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as diverse case studies ranging from Save the Children to the Nike Foundation and the New York Public Library. Whether you’d like to know more about online giving, raising awareness, or the challenges you might face in the online world, the examples here will help you understand the process with information on platforms used, organisational strategies, challenges and actual outcomes. Rather than giving a single universal opinion, the guide brings in voices and advice from all over the sector including high profile experts.

About that First Tweet is specifically aimed at charities and social enterprises but also gives very useful advice and interesting real-life examples for anyone who is active or interested in the use of social media in the charity sector –whether donor, trustee, researcher, or anyone else concerned with keeping the sector on the cutting edge. This is not the typical guide telling the world how easy it is to use social media, but a guide specifically addressing the challenges charities face and how they are still dealing with them.

For those who believe they are already using social media effectively the guide further offers a statistical overview based on a comprehensive survey of small and medium-sized charities and social enterprises. You should also have a look at the last three pages, which include a social media check-list and a list of resources for those who’d like to take it another step further.

Most appealing of all, perhaps, thanks to publisher, Social Misfits Media, and sponsor, Unity Trust Bank, About that First Tweet is available free of charge, now. To download your copy click here.

© Suay Melisa Ozkula 2012

Suay Melisa Ozkula is conducting doctoral research on digital media use in the charity sector at the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent, UK. Previously she took up study and work placements in a number of countries including Turkey, Germany, Chile, Switzerland and Spain and has worked as a marketing executive for an international company.