Top 10 Popular/Influential Nonprofit Twitter Accounts

I am a senior studying Public Relations at the University of Northern Iowa. For 3.5 years now, I have been told time and time again, the importance of getting your local community influence leaders on board for every PR campaign your organization develops. Influence leaders hold a special position in communities and thus, a special position in your campaign. Influence leaders have the power to effectively gain support from others on your behalf. These leaders come from all walks of life, with different backgrounds, experiences, and influences in various groups across a community. With the support of an influence leader, you are more likely to gain earned media from a key leader in a group/community which leads to many successful outcomes.

The same goes with Twitter. Identify your influence leaders on Twitter and build a relationship with them. Whether they are influence leaders in your community or nonprofit influence leaders in the industry- these connections are important. Below is a list of the top 10 nonprofit twitter accounts. However, some of these aren't necessarily organizations, but instead news and tools for nonprofits in the industry. But it still serves to make my point.

As a nonprofit, or any organization in general, it's important you identify key influence leaders in your community and on your social media accounts in order to connect and build a relationship with them. Influence leaders are one way to gain support for a campaign. Simply, search your geographic location under "popular accounts" under your industry type on Twitter and a list of key influencers/twitter accounts related to your industry will be identified. 

In addition, here are the top 5 nonprofits on Social Media. Connect with these top five nonprofits to learn more about their successful strategies on social media. 

(Source: http://topnonprofits.com/lists/top-nonprofits-on-social-media/)

Rank	Organization	Facebook Likes	Twitter Followers
1	Ted Talks	4609381	2580528
2	National Public Radio - NPR	3606813	2331434
3	United Nations Children«s Fund (UNICEF)	3168263	2645543
4	WikiLeaks	2425191	2217414
5	Public Broadcasting Service	1775342	1876259