Dear Local Organization: You're Following All The Wrong People on Twitter

The contents of this letter are real advice. The organization in question and its Twitter woes are very real. Their name has been left out to protect the innocent… plus I’m hoping they will follow me.

Dear local museum that I will not call-out by name (because I care about you):

I was very happy a couple of months ago to find you had launched a Twitter account! I have always been a big fan of yours. I love what you stand for and what you have achieved. I wish more people cared as much about preserving North Texas heritage and wildlife as you do. When you recently tried your best to fight bad legislation and protect part of that heritage, I signed the petition. (I found out about it because I was on your email list, by the way).

I smiled as I hit the “follow” button on Twitter. I was so proud. We were going to be good friends.

Fast forward. I looked at your Twitter account today. I was reminded of it because of said email list, not because of your engaging tweets (another subject to tackle later). You are following 764 people now. You have 439 followers.

My feelings were hurt.

I wasn’t one of the lucky 764.  So I decided to take a look at who you ‘do’ follow, those 764 very important influencers you chose. Yes, I admit jealousy of the 764.

I scrolled and I sighed.

My dear, following all those large, international organizations, and all those celebrities is not going to help you with any of your causes or get you any more attention than you already get. Why is there a dearth of local folks on your list? There are LOTS of very significant influencers on Twitter that live right here in North Texas. People that visit your museum and potentially appreciate you as much as I do.  You need to follow and engage twitterers who are significant to what you are doing and what you want to achieve. People who can truly be influencers for you.

@TheEllenShow and @FinancialTimes are very well followed Twitter accounts, but they are not likely to help you when you need another petition signed.

When I signed your last petition, I also posted it on my Facebook page and my Twitter account. I recommended it to people. Local people. I care about what is going on here in my county.  My North Texas. I care about you! I’m sure Ellen loves North Texas as much as the next person…in CALIFORNIA…but she isn’t likely to even notice you, and certainly isn’t going to go to any town-hall meeting for you. The town-hall meetings dear Ellen goes to are probably closer to home, in California.

You need local champions. You need North Texans who truly care and have a personal stake in what you are doing. Which, as I said before, is really important stuff.

Which brings me to that little “engagement” issue I previously mentioned. There is a character, right above the number 2 on your keyboard.

It looks like this: @

You should start 50% of your tweets with that little sign, followed by someone’s Twitter name. Example: @victoriaharres. You can and should substitute RTs (retweets) for some of  those @s. Follow me. Say ‘hi’ now and then. I in turn will remember you exist, will say ‘hi’ back so that my followers know I care about you, and I will retweet those informational tweets of yours about petitions and such. Other locals will do the same. Because I’m connected to a lot of locals on Twitter. I know their value.

I can assure you this will get you a lot more love and support than trying to broadcast to Ellen. She’s got too many people doing that already.

My dear friend, I hope you took this letter in the spirit it was intended, with lots of love and affection. I only get frustrated because I care about you and I want to see you succeed.

So go follow some local folks! You can use Twellow.com or Twitter.search.com to find them.

PS. I love you.

Warmest regards

@VictoriaHarres

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