So much of running Twitter for business campaigns is about getting your message heard by the right people. But for non-profits, activism groups and community-based organizations, Twitter can be a powerful platform to champion causes and bring awareness. This week, the Human Rights Campaign used a highly-quoted speech from the RNC to help spearhead a Twitter campaign for marriage equality.
On Tuesday night, Ann Romney, the wife of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, made headlines with her speech in Tampa at the Republican National Convention. About her relationship with her husband, Ann Romney said:
“I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a storybook marriage. Well, let me tell you something. In the storybooks I read, there never were long, long rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once, and those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called M.S. or breast cancer. A storybook marriage? Nope, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage.”
By Wednesday morning, the Human Rights Campaign had launched a Twitter initiative that took her words to task. The HRC told followers to “Tell Ann: My Same-Sex Marriage is Real, Too.” Via its blog, the HRC’s Twitter tool helped same-sex couples tweet the message to Romney, “Because of #marriagequality, my same-sex partner & I have a #realmarriage too, @AnnDRomney #GOP2012 @hrc.” Hundreds of supporters chimed in using the tool, and Romney herself continued to trend on Twitter well into late Wednesday afternoon. Ann Romney and her speech were the talk of the convention and the HRC was wise to hop in on the Twitter trend while it was hot.
Regardless of how a person feels about the issue, the HRC’s use of Twitter marketing in this case is skillful and well-done. For non-profits, raising awareness is one of the biggest tasks on the publicity to-do list and a thoughtful Twitter campaign can do precisely that — and in just 140 characters.
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