Twitter is not for every association. For Apple Address Book, there is a useful utility called " A to G ". Create a new Gmail account and import your CSV file into the contacts. Open your Twitter account--make sure it uses a personal username, as Ben Martin suggests--and go to invite more . Twitter will find all of the accounts that are based on the contact e-mail in your Gmail account. In fact, before you even think about crossing into the Twitterverse, I suggest you make sure you won't be flying solo. So first, find out how many of your members are there

Pew Internet and American Life Project. Twitter and similar services have been most avidly embraced by young adults.5 Nearly one in five (19%) online adults ages 18 to 24 have ever used Twitter and its ilk, as have 20% of online adults 25 to 34. Use of these services drops off steadily after age 35 with 10% of 35 to 44 year olds and 5% of 45 to 54 year olds using Twitter. Some new data about adults and digital social network use in the US and around the world: Adults are much less likely than teens to have a profile on a social network website. About three in ten (35%) adult

If you’re planning or evaluating any form of social media activity, then it’s worth taking a look at eMarketer’s summary of a recently released research report examining which marketing uses of Facebook and Twitter are working best. If Twitter’s more your thing, then there is also a summary of the effectiveness of Twitter tactics… As shown in the table above, top of the effectiveness list for consumer-focused marketers (the B2C column) using Facebook is ‘Creation of a Facebook application around a brand’ – providing a useful reminder that the most effective use of social media doesn’t always come for free .

This weekend I was writing a post about how people are using Twitter as a marketing tactic (coming soon). As often happens I got lost in the research. If I were the social media diva at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia a cute twitter recipe book would be in the works complete with tweet recipes from our followers. This time the sidetrack was on @marthastewart . Girlfriend, did you know she's posting 140 character recipes?

This past week, I’ve been privileged to be on a couple panels introducing nonprofit organizations to social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and Linked in. So building up a large base of Twitter followers or Facebook fans may make your nonprofit may seem even more credible in the eyes of your local donors. And the lady you’ve been trying to get interested in your cause, the one that owns the While I love these tools, I was quick to express that: They don’t replace all the good fundraising practices we’ve learned over the decades. “Social”

If you’re feeling lost or left behind in the whirl of hype that has grown-up around the micro-blogging service Twitter over the last few months then don’t worry - you’re not alone. In the same week that internet traffic monitor Hitwise announced that UK Internet visits to Twitter are up 6-fold since January (making it the 5th most popular social networking site in the UK), analytics firm Webtrends just released results of research confirming that most marketers remain reluctant to use the service . Based on interviews with 300 online marketing managers across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Australia, Webtrends reports that so far just 2% of businesses have adopted Twitter as a means of communicating with customers.

Some interesting research undertaken by online fundraising specialists Justgiving has been shared by Jonathan Waddingham , their Charity Champion (and an especially active Twitter user ), in this month’s issue of Professional Fundraising Magazine . Carried-out during the summer 2008, the research is based on responses from 656 charities who use the Justgiving online fundraising platform and was undertaken to help better understand the current state of online fundraising in the UK. One revealing finding was that just 5% of respondents said that they feel they’re ‘making the most of online fundraising’ , with 56% in the ‘having a good go, but could do better’ category, 22% who feel they are ‘trailing other charities but not sure what to do next’ , and 17% ‘way behind’ .

Most interestingly, they've put a highly-viral micro-fundraising campaign on Twitter at the center of their awareness building strategy for global women's rights. Individuals (like me, and so many others already) were invited to include #apowerfulnoise in a tweet (a post on Twitter) anytime from March 2nd to March 5th. Jump on Twitter before COB March 5th to make a powerful noise; simply post an update A powerful, imaginative coalition of organizations has formed to fight global poverty in honor of International Women's Day, in the A Powerful Noise campaign . The campaign

Online research and measurement company comScore just released the findings of a study into UK social networking site usage which provides a good picture of just how mainstream social networking has now become – with an incredible 80% of the total UK online population (aged 15+) apparently having visited at least one social networking site in May 2009. Also interesting to see figures for the growth of Twitter – up a phenomenal 3,226% year on year. As you might expect, the most active users are still in the 15-24 age group, with 86% of them visiting social networking sites and spending an average of 4.6

new research report   just released by cause branding pros at Cone shows that 79% of those online are behind orgs harnessing email, Web sites and social media to build awareness, grow giving and motivate action. That's what the research tells us. My take is that online media (especially via social media tools like Facebook and Twitter) is more about friendraising   A Better yet, 60% of this group has engaged with one or more cause -- from forwarding an email to a friend to purchasing a cause-branded product.