Twitter can and is being used as an effective online organizing tool. Join the presenters for a discussion on the mechanics of organizing on Twitter and how to inspire your organization into action off Twitter. The presentation is geared to any organization or group that wants to learn how to leverage Twitter for action off line including community groups, social groups, government, non-profits, advocacy groups, etc. The presenters are veterans of TwitterVoterReport and various discussions about political organizing online using Twitter.

Slide #	Visual	Text	Notes
1		Building engaged communities that act @jdp23 and @MyrnaTheMinx #nim09 March 7 2009 Available online at http://is.gd/lQ5F
2		Sunday night, Skittles changed their home page to be a Twitter feed. since then: press in WSJ, USA Today, LAT, FT, AP, 4000+ blogs. wtf?	1-2 minutes to hook people. there's something going on here. question: how to leverage it for action? Additional info: Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Logic and Emotion, Digital Tip, Liminal States Screenshot by Baratunde Thurston
3		Agenda Twitter intro and background Activism examples Building your community on Twitter
4		Twitter's kind of like a bulletin board, multiple chat rooms, IM, and a news feed. All at once.	5-7 minutes for this next section: an overview of Twitter
5		tweet (noun): a 140-character or less message posted to Twitter tweet (verb): to send a tweet
6		@randomdeanna's "Why Twitter, anyways?" ... and "A non-fanatical beginner's guide to Twitter" are good starting points	introducing the @ notation
7		tweet (noun): a 140-character or less message posted to Twitter tweet (verb): to send a tweet
8		for people: conversations, expertise, news, staying connected, finding people who share your interests
9		you can include links as well. with only 140 characters, “url shorterners” are popular
10		for organizations: outreach and a human voice. Spread the word, connect the dot, have conversations with your community
11		#hashtags are a way of grouping conversations. for example, #nim09 for this conference.	hashtags are also great for "Twitter chats" -- like #fem2 Sundays and #journchat Monday evenings Mari Smith's video on hashtags
12		Agenda Twitter intro and background Activism examples Building your community on Twitter	examples: 9-12 minutes (1.5/2 on each).
13		Flash actions
14		#dontgo: tweeting from the floor of Congress and a counter-insurgency	on dontgo, talk about the interference from progressives
15		#taxcuts: 35 pages of hilarious tweets. what if it had turned into Skittlemania? with a call to action	see Tracy's Creating Twitter Hashtags that Inspire Action for more
16		#motrinmoms: Twitter to the New York Times in 24 hours. motrin yanks ad, apologizes.
17		Planned actions
18		#votereport: real-time reporting of voting conditions. phone input too! and great visualizations
19			TVR results for Ohio
20		Analysis and display by plodt	Wyandach, at #1, is a 90% black city on Long Island.
21		Building community
22		#tcot: Top Conservatives on Twitter. leaderboard, mentoring, a ning, the #tcot report. drudge, eat your heart out!
23		Hashtags for progressives include #topprog, #rebelleft, #green, #efca, #lgbt, #fem2, ...
24		#And #p2, with a goal of bridging the gaps between progressives and #fem2, #woc, #lgbtq, ...
25		TweetLeft lets you merge multiple hashtags. thx, @chrismesarole! (note: a useful general technique)
26		(table summarizing previous examples)
27		“Please don’t feed the trolls” -- and other techniques for dealing with disruption	Photo: The Fremont Troll, Seattle, by Thom Watson. Licensed under Creative Commons
28		Agenda Twitter intro and background Activism examples Building your community on Twitter
29		Step 1: join the conversation Set up an account for your organization -- and for yourself Start tweeting: updates, news, … “Retweet” liberally Figure out what works for you Listen to what people are saying
30		Step 2: choose your tools Tweetdeck tracks keywords and lets you groups followers Twhirl lets you tweet from several accounts at once TweetChat feels like a chat room Search.Twitter.com helps you find people talking about same thing. TweetStats, Twittersheep, Retweetist … if you want to do it, there's a tool for it. See @GuyJohnson’s #nim09 presentation for more (password: nim09)	Photo: Old tools by Svadlifari. Licensed under Creative Commons
31		Twitter has some #accessibility challanges. Dennis Lembrée's "Accessible Twitter" can help
32		Step 3: engage Ask your members -- and your followers -- what they want to see Set up backchannels for meetings, presentations Link up with “Twitterati”: journalists, pundits, … Start scheduling Twitter Chats and Tweetups And keep listening!	Photo: CC Chapman, The people I follow on Twitter. Licensed under Creative Commons.
33		Step 4: from adoption to action Create your #hashtag Get the word out about news stories, events, petitions, … Collaborate with other activists -- and politicians Look for opportunities for “flash actions” Take advantage of ability to interact directly with “influentials”	Graphic: Word cloud of @myrnatheminx’ followers’ bios, produced using Twittersheep
34		Don’t be afraid to experiment! Steal a page from Skittles book: when would it make sense to put a Twitter search on your home page? What about a “tweet your legislator” campaign when the phones are jammed? Try using Twitter in conjunction with Facebook, MySpace, digg, … Remember: most things won’t work the first time. Listen, learn, refine!
35		Building engaged communities that act @jdp23 and @MyrnaTheMinx #nim09 March 7 2009 Available online at http://is.gd/lQ5F