You wouldn’t believe the looks I get from people when I tell them I get most of my news and information on cause marketing from Twitter. They look at me like, “Huh, you mean the same place where people are always talking about what they had for lunch?”
It’s amazing how consistently this famous line on Twitter is used, and it couldn’t be further from the truth. Before I signed up for Twitter four years ago, I read three daily newspapers and a bunch of industry publications to stay abreast of the latest news and cause marketing campaigns.
Now, I just read Twitter. Of course, I don’t read Twitter per se, but I follow some great people on it.
You too will never miss a beat by following these ten cause marketing experts on Twitter:
- @tweetCMF. This is the Twitter handle of the industry’s leading membership organization, Cause Marketing Forum, led by @davecause. The handle is managed by @meganstrand who serves up a daily dose of cause campaigns and industry news. @tweetCMF is a must follow.
- @paulrjones. Paul writes the web’s other leading cause marketing blog, Causerelatedmarketing.biz. I love reading Paul’s blog and, even though he and I write about the same industry, he consistently writes about different things and takes a different perspective than I do on cause marketing campaigns.
- @cone. Cone Communications is a leading public relations and marketing agency that specializes in cause marketing. They’re always cooking up something good in the cause marketing arena, which they share on their Twitter handle. Plus, when you follow their Twitter handle you’ll know the very moment their fantastic weekly email newsletter, What Do You Stand For, is ready for reading.
- @formomentum. For Momentum is an Atlanta-based cause marketing agency that publishes twINFO, a compilation of recent cause marketing industry info sourced on Twitter by For Momentum to keep you in the know.
- @johnhaydon. John Haydon isn’t a cause marketer, but he is leading source of information on Facebook for nonprofits. As the dominant social platform that to date has been the best social marketing tool for cause marketing, John’s posts range from how to use Facebook effectively to explaining Facebook’s new timeline feature and its implications for nonprofits.
- @chrisrmann. I first met Chris Mann when he ran cause marketing initiatives for athletic shoemaker New Balance. Chris then spent a couple years at Cone but was recently hired to direct the social purpose at Reebok. I have big expectations for Chris and Reebok so I’m regularly reading his tweets. So should you.
- @philipsmccarty. Phil McCarty led the cause marketing program at St. Jude and was a key architect in the creation of the hospital’s hugely successful Thanks and Giving program. Phil now leads his own firm, Good Scout Group. Twitter hasn’t come easily to Phil, but he is making a big effort to tweet regularly, which I personally appreciate. He has so many great things to share. I’m hoping Tweeting will finally stick. Maybe a few more engaged followers is just what Phil needs to stay motivated.
- @susanmcp1. Susan McPherson of Fenton tweets about global innovation, social entrepreneurship, CSR, cause marketing, fundraising, and engagement strategies, and hosts the #CSRChat on Twitter. You’ll appreciate the breadth of her tweets. I know I do. Here’s a great piece of cause marketing trivia: Susan’s colleague Rob Anderson has a coveted twitter handle: @causemarketer. Whoa.
- @hardlynormal. I have a huge cause marketing crush on Mark Horvarth right now. He runs InvisiblePeople.tv, which shares powerful stories of homelessness and the good people that are making a difference. Here’s what makes Mark my cause marketing idol: homelessness has to be one of the hardest causes to recruit cause marketing partners for, but Mark has executed some great programs with GMC and Hanes, to name two. All the other people on this list are great for information about cause marketing. I follow Mark for inspiration!
- @joewaters. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention myself! Although because I’m from Boston I’m a “SUPERSTAH!” I’m closing in on 20,000 tweets, and most of them are related to cause marketing, social media, nonprofits and mobile technology. I tweet and retweet often, so come join the fun and learn something too!
Who would you add to the list?
Thanks for rounding these handles up, Joe! Great resource. You should create a Twitter list with these peeps that anyone can easily follow with a click of a button. Magic.
Hey, that’s a good idea. Be sure to read my post tomorrow at Selfishgiving.com on how I use Twitter. I talk about lists and how I’ve never used them! Maybe I should.
I like @twitter-66833417:disqus’s idea, we should definitely do that. And I live by Twitter lists! It helps me keep track of people and what they’d be interested in. I think I’m going to start doing the same on Facebook.
Thanks for compiling this handy list —and for including http://www.ForMomentum.com !!!! We created twINFO to help make Twitter more efficient for our staff—then we realized we should share it with the entire community!u00a0 Glad you like it as much as we do!!! Thanks for all that you do Mr. Superstah!u00a0 @formomentum:twitter (Trisha to be specific!)
You are one of my faves!
Thanks for sharing Joe! When Twitter was first introduced to the world, the posts mainly consisted of people announcing what they had for lunch or something of a similar nature. With the abundance of companies and organisations joining the Twitter buzz, there’s now many posts that offer interesting information, facts and figures, and to date Twitter proves to be valuable source of information.