Twitter and Microfinance
April 26, 2009 5 Comments
Ashton Kucher battling CNN for Twitter supremacy. Both upstaged by Oprah’s first tweet. It may all seem a bit banal, but the recent attention points to a larger truth. There is value in the 140 character format of Twitter.
So where is the value of Twitter for microfinance?
Six months ago I opened an account, gave it a shot for a few days, and then gave up feeling like I was shouting into the wind. A month ago, I came back to my dormant account–updated the moniker and gave it another go. Lo and behold, it’s a whole new twitterverse. I have chosen to focus my account on microfinance (with an occasional nod to other development or affiliated topics). In recent weeks, the microfinance chatter on twitter has really picked up–our little sub-community on twitter has hit critical mass–opening new channels for collaboration. I have come to learn of new microfinance networks and communities, MFIs, consultants, and funders.
For those interested in joining the conversation, follow us at twitter.com/SeaMoMicro. Check out who we follow and who follows us. Start tweeting about what you are doing in microfinance.
News and Commentary
I experienced the same thing upon joining Twitter. Getting over that initial hump of who and what to target can be overwhelming, but like you, I’m a much more focused tweeter and the microfinance community is indeed out there and gaining steam. Good to have found you and hooked up. Til we tweet again … Peter
Like Peter, I felt Twitter was redundant with my Facebook updating. Then while researching some communications standards and industry news, I realized I was finding 50% of my news and opinions through Twitter links and people blogging about how they “heard a good conversation through so and so’s Twitter”. At the rate it is growing, we in the microfinance sector need to understand how bext to engage eachother and draw in a larger audience.
There are almost as many ways to use Twitter as there are people using it! Facebook is a more complex open platform and so is vulnerable to spamming type activity. I have found people to be migrating away from both FB and ecademy in favour of Twitter and Linkedin. They have a very high turnover of members and although most Twitteres give up after a month, most also return. Using the # tag makes it easy to search tweets, and using the RT tag to retweet together with the other tweet ettiquete (tweetiquette?), opens a vast amount of information to be tapped into and shared. Something of great use to micro businesses I would imagine.
sincerely
robin
http://phoenixchange.com
I add my raised hand to the consensus as well. A friend with tech prophesying powers far beyond mine told me about Twitter 1 1/2 years ago. I glanced it over, passed it up, and now I’m wading into the pool, too. I haven’t caught the wave yet, but I’m hoping for it! I just did a training on the VERY basics of web tools (like feed readers and Google Alerts) and sites ACCION USA uses. I explained that the gold of Twitter is knowledge sharing. My favorite is listening to really innovative social entrepreneurs have a conversation.
If I was in the microfinance industry and getting involved in Twitter….I would learn what hashtags are for not only categorizing, finding, and spreading information. (for instance I believe the hashtag of social entrepreneurship is #socent also conferences will use individual hashtags to make it easier to follow the flow of conversation either at the conference or 2000 miles away).
I would also follow Mr. Twitter. This application does a great job of suggesting people you should follow based on the previous people you have followed. Great application from my experience.
For those interested in social entrepreneurship there is a virtual meetup on Wednesdays. Nathaniel who blogs at socialentrepreneurship.change.org is has a great list of social entrepreneurs to follow on twitter. I’m sure Beth Kanter in the non-profit space has a similar list of “nonprofit people to follow on twitter”
I hope this helps.
I’m sure folks that are much more knowledgeable about the ins and outs of #nptech can provide a great answer as well.