act.ly vs twitition: Battle of the Twitter Petition Sites
Okay, so it's probably not really a 'battle', more a comparison really. Twitter's one of those online tools that everyone (well, except commenters on guardian.co.uk) loves but isn't entirely sure what to do with yet. I think this is especially true in the not-for-profit/NGO sector where it's becoming increasingly popular. One of the things I think people would like to do with it is gather support and push particular agendas but until now it hasn't been that easy. Just following someone isn't really showing support and it's a very passive way to interact with a not-for-profit.
Luckily two new petition sites that should make campaigning and advocacy on Twitter a whole lot more effective have just been launched. Act.ly and Twitition are both pretty new but are already gaining in popularity. Here's a quick rundown of their features.
Before I start it's only fair to mention that Twitition was created 'for fun' whereas Act.ly seems to have been built far more as an advocacy tool with some serious thought put in to its functionality.
Act.ly
Petitions: 245
Tweets/signatures: 6413
Petition to Signature ratio: 1:26
Best feature: Retweet to sign
Worst feature: You can only petition Twitter users
Act.ly's lets users petition existing Twitter account holders to take action by sending them an @username message every time the petition is signed. So if your petition is signed by enough people your 'target' is definitely going to notice.
Act.ly is fully integrated with Twitter's API so you just sign in using your Twitter details and either sign existing petitions or create your own. Every time you sign a petition your Twitter feed is updated with a message that follows this pattern: "petition @personyou'repetitioning Petition Title http://bit.ly/xx http://act.ly/xx retweet to sign". Very nice.
I especially like the retweet to sign feature, it should give petition's a lot of 'viral' potential especially if you can recruit popular/influential Twitter users to your cause.
If you're creating a petition you get to give it a title and provide a bit more information about why you're doing it. You can also optionally let signatories follow you for updates - a real bonus for not-for-profits who should be entering into conversation with their campaigners. The person/organisation being petitioned also gets the right-to-reply which is great. Because of the Twitter integration only the genuine user should be able to do this - let's just hope Obama created a secure password.
The downside for Act.ly is that you can only petition people who are already on Twitter. Not much use here in Zambia where virtually nobody with power is Tweeting (but then there's probably not enough Zambian users to make it worthwhile yet anyway) or where you know/think that the person controlling the Twittter account doesn't have much influence in their organisation.
Twitition
Petitions (or Twititions if you will): 1581
Tweets/signatures: 79986
Petition to Signature ration: 1:50
Best feature: You can petition anyone
Worst feature: Too many spurious petitions rising to the top
Much bigger than Act.ly at the moment Twitition is a slightly more basic option. It offers similar functionality in that users can either create of sign petitions using their exisiting Twitter account and their feed will be updated with a Tweet that looks something like this: "#Twitition Petition Title http://twitition.com/xx @petitioncreator". I think that tagging with petition (like on Act.ly) would have been better here but basically it all works. The retweet functionality isn't there which is a shame but obviously that hasn't stopped Twitition becoming very popular very quickly (and there's always an argument for saying that people should read the full details before signing anyway).
Unfortunately its popularity seems to be driven by quite a lot of ridiculous petitions about McFly or members of McFly. Fair enough if that's what people are into I suppose but it doesn't look great for people who are trying to use it for serious advocacy, especially if the sensible stuff gets completely drowned out. I fear this might also happen to Act.ly when it gets bigger but maybe the direct nature of it will avoid this problem.
The big bonus of Twitition is that you can petition about anything to anyone. They don't need to be on Twitter so you can just gather a load of signatures and then send a link to the relevant person (NB: you might want to do something a bit better than just sending a link if you want to have any impact...).
Which one should I use?
As you've probably guessed if your 'target' is on Twitter then Act.ly wins hands down - it's got a lot more interaction, greater viral potential and should have an immediate and direct impact on the person being petitioned. If not, and you feel you must use Twitter, then Twitition is your best bet but in this case I'd be tempted to look at other options.
One issue for both these sites is geographical relevance. A lot of petitions are location specific (e.g. UK or US only) but anyone can sign them on Act.ly or Twitition. This might be good news for getting numbers up but when someone asks you how many of them are British are you going to know? Analytics are in the pipeline for Act.ly and hopefully some location data will be included but until then it's something to bear in mind.
Oh and I'm sure there are other Twitter petition sites out there too. Would love to hear about them or your experiences of these two.
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