#charitytuesday reaches Twitter top ten in two hours
Howard Lake | 12 May 2009 | Blogs
Twitter can be wonderfully fast and light. It was first begun just a week ago by Lovebox, “your digital wristband that raises awareness and money for international causes that matter to you”.
It takes the idea of the #followfriday hashtag which is an opportunity for Twitter users to recommend another Twitter user(s) that they think their followers would find interesting, or simply to say a public thank-you for the useful messages they have been published. Of course, messages with the #followfriday hashtag should only be sent on a Friday.
#charitytuesday has really taken off this morning, after John Carnell at @bullyinguk spotted its potential. Within two hours this morning it has ‘trended’, meaning that it has become one of the top 10 most use words or phrases on the Twitter network.
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You can see the latest messages with the #charitytuesday hashtag.
You can see the analysis of the use of the hashtag or view a screenshot of it:
Note that 75 messages with the tag have been posted this morning so far. Note also that you only need 75 or perhaps a little fewer messages with the hashtag to achieve a Twitter trend! Has that helped you think how quickly your charity could obtain an albeit brief global presence on the Twitter homepage? I hope so.
(Yes, I know. On other busier news days it could take a lot more than 75 messages ‘to trend’ on Twitter).
So congratulations to Lovebox for coming up with a straightforward idea that offers charities and individuals the chance to promote similar organisations or themselves, and it takes off within minutes.
Of course, this rapid spread might not be a good thing if the topic were damaging or inaccurate comment on a charity, but the lesson is that Twitter can be used in this way.
Of course, it can be abused. Hashtags rely on everyone playing by the rules. Of course, not everyone does, and I’ve already spotted a Twitterer promoting their news item, admittedly about charities, with the hashtag.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.