On Friday afternoon, Twitter added a number of social entrepreneurs to their “suggested user” list. Over the weekend, Twitter employee Claire Williams (who new suggested user Kjerstin Erickson of FORGE says made the push internally to add social entrepreneurs to the list) left a message for Tactical Philanthropy readers:
Hey All –
We’re honored to be able to use Twitter to highlight your amazing work! Do contact me with any questions.
Claire and everybody at Twitter
A quick glance at the Twitter profiles of some of the people added to the list shows that their number of followers exploded to as much as ten times what they were on Friday. It will be interesting to see how the members of the list use their new found popularity.
One small suggestion I would make is to point out that the members of the list are now speaking to a mainstream audience rather than social entrepreneur insiders. I know from my experience writing for the Financial Times, that writing for a mainstream audience is more difficult but also offers more opportunity than speaking to people who already “get” where you are coming from.
Imagine you are giving a talk to a small group of people who are passionate about social change. All of a sudden the walls around the room you are speaking in come crashing down and you realize that their are thousand and thousands of new people outside the room who are now crowding around to hear you.
What would you say?