22 Ways to Use Twitter Fast Follow

Twitter’s introduction of the Fast Follow feature is a brilliant strategy for expanding the reach of Twitter to non-users. Fast Follow is a great tool for churches, ministries and businesses to add to their social media tool belt.

Here are 22 ways that I see these organizations adding Fast Follow to their social media strategy.

Church social media uses

• Sending time-sensitive messages
• Sending service time or event reminders
• Notifying people of inclement weather service cancellations
• Promoting ministry-specific events
• Communicating prayer requests or member needs
• Sending daily devotionals
• Providing supplemental information (such as additional Bible verses to read) during services
• Communicating to parents whose children are in the church nursery
• Providing online giving or tithing instructions during collections
• Connecting with youth group participants through out the week
• Facilitating impromptu gatherings by inviting all church members who are currently in a specific area to get together

Ministry social media uses

• Sending specific ministry-project updates
• Integrating it into giving campagins
• Ministry workers and missionaries can use it to send updates from the field to supporters
• Promotional campaigns
• Using it for staff/team communication
• Using it during emergency response situations

Business social media uses

• Creating real-time promotions and special offers
• Combining it with location-based social media tools (like Foursquare) to stage live events or promotions (e.g. the first X people who show up where your marketing team just checked in win a prize.)
• Use it to send tips or advice on ways to use your products.
• Create a real-time FAQ – forward questions from customers to the account and direct people to a link where they can find the solution
• Use it to build a community of customers

There are many more ways this tool can be put to good use as part of a social media strategy.

A word of caution

It’s important to keep a few things in mind, though, when using Fast Follow.

• Fast follow is a broadcast tool - the main value of Twitter is in the community of other users that you connect with. It’s important not to sacrifice the quality of your two-way conversations as you integrate these one-way broadcasts.
• To that end: Separate the Twitter accounts you use for each purpose - if I’m signing up to receive daily devotionals from a church, I probably don’t want a text telling me that some kid named Jimmy just threw up.
• Remember that Fast Follow is an opt-in service – users choose whether or not to subscribe so make sure you are using the associated Twitter account to add value to all subscribers. People aren’t going want to text messages of @replies or trivial tweets.
• Be mindful of the financial cost to users - not everyone has an unlimited texting plan. Keep in mind every time you tweet that it may be costing an audience member money.
• Be mindful of the other costs to users - remember that with every tweet you are interrupting your subscribers. Be respectful of your subscribers by:
  • using the service sparingly;
  • only tweeting at hours that are appropriate to the type of message you’re sending;
• Make the most of each tweet - you only have 140 characters to get your message across. Before you send a message make sure you’ve thought about what you’re trying to communicate and what you want the recipient to do. If you can’t achieve clear and actionable in 140 characters then you probably should find a different means for communicating.

What other ways do you see for churches, ministries and businesses to use Fast Follow in their social media strategy? Add your Fast Follow use cases in the comments below.