Twitter tips for equine rescues

Ponyhour often sees an equine rescue organisation pop up in our Twitter feed only to find that the account goes quiet within a few days / weeks or resorts to just tweeting a facebook link. Whilst we fully understand that there's more to life and rescue than social media Ponyhour would like to offer a few tips to rescues to help them get more from their Twitter.

Once you get into it Twitter can be a fantastic platform for raising awareness of your rescue operation, promoting your events, rehoming your animals and raising those all important funds but first you need to get yourself a following of interested people!

So if you're new to Twitter or just struggling with it here are 10 of our top tips :


1. Fill in your Twitter profile properly making sure there's a link to your website & fundraiser, make it easy for people to know what you are about and how they can help.

2. Use an icon image, the Twitter "egg" can be a bit off putting to some potential followers.

3. Initially you are going to have to follow people, some will follow back others won't, don't take it personally! Just follow a few people a day, retweet them, like their tweets, leave a comment where appropriate and you'll soon get people following back. 

4. As often as possible use a good quality photograph in your tweets, Twitter moves fast, photographs are what catch peoples eye and get you retweets. The more retweets you get the more people find out about you and your cause.

4. Be social, as we said in no3 retweet, like, follow, comment. Join in the # Twitter chat hours, that's when your future followers are on Twitter. Just jump in we're a friendly bunch and don't be afraid to say you're new and could do with some followers and retweets.

Click for a list of equine related Twitter # hours 

Click for a list of regional Twitter # hours ~ useful for events, rehoming, volunteer requests, fundraising etc

5. Use #s, it helps get your tweet seen, but, don't use too many in a tweet, up to 3 is considered optimum.

6. Engage, it someone speaks to you, asks a question etc, tweet back to them, always remember the social element or you will find yourself tweeting away to no one. Join in ~ enter competitions, giveaways etc

7. It's not all about you and your cause, retweet other people's tweets!

8. Show up, tweet at least once a day, more if you can.

9. If someone follows you it is considered polite to follow back, however it is not compulsory! Don't follow an account with inappropriate content just because they have followed you. Don't follow accounts just to keep your numbers up. An engaged community of followers is more valuable to your cause than hundreds of thousands of followers.

10. Be patient, it takes time to make friends and build an engaged following so don't give up because you're not seeing results straight away.

Image of rescue foal Eggsy copyright http://eggsypony.blogspot.co.uk/