Do you take yourself to seriously?
Published on Aug 16, 2009 - In: Church| Strategy - By Luke DeMoss
It’s easy to do. You get a couple hundred followers and you think you are it, the big man on campus, head honcho, etc. And you can start to take yourself way to seriously. This week I got a great reminder to not take myself to seriously and it came from Louie Giglio who I suspect many of you have heard of. He’s leading out awesome things like the Passion Conference & Six Step Records. If anyone is the big man on campus…he’s it. But the best part is, he’s learned to not take himself to seriously! This past week Louie decided to finally join all of us on Twitter, and let me just say, I am so excited about this. Louie has been someone that I have been hoping would join the twittersphere, because he has great stuff to relay to us all! Louie, however, decided to join Twitter in a way that I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else do… He had a Twitter Press Conference.
Go here to see the press conference!
(sorry embedding was disabled by Louie)
Twitterlicious Collaboration
Published on Aug 13, 2009 - In: Strategy - By sammahlstadt
I am a part of a launch team for a church that is forming in Winston-Salem, NC. In case you haven’t heard, being a leader in a new church requires constant vision-casting and frequent pleas for donations. Because we are brand new, relatively few people, and focused on wise stewardship of funds, the donation is our currency of effectiveness.
Not only are we launching a church, but also a local movement to help end slavery. Oh, you thought the church part was hard enough, we did too. The focus of our church’s mission will be the abolition of slavery, which is more prevalent today that at the peak of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Yes, you read that right.
To begin our fight, and hopefully spark a local movement that educates people and provides a way to respond, we are hosting a community event. One of our points of importance is excellence, and we wanted to make sure that the event was executed in a manner that reflected that value. We counted the cost, and realized we didn’t have what it was going to take.
Enter social networking.
I sent out a tweet asking for help and was able to get a graphic designer and web designer to donate some work for the event. What should have coste us upwards of thousands of dollars was donated by a couple professional designers who believe in what we are doing.
The moral of the story: collaboration doesn’t happen if you don’t reach out. When your team can’t pull something off, or doesn’t have the skill-set for the task, or your dream is bigger than your collective efforts, utilize the network you have already developed. Reach out to your online community. Send a tweet or two, you never know who may respond.
Twitter at Work?
Published on Aug 9, 2009 - In: Church| Strategy - By Luke DeMoss
So ministry people… are you allowed to tweet it up while on the clock? Does your church leadership say anything about Twitter use?
I believe that guidelines are important. If no guidelines are set up, no one knows what is acceptable and what isn’t, that causes confusion and frustration. No good. But on the other hand, I’m not suggesting a bunch of legalistic craziness either. Let’s pretend I’m Mr. Church Leader and I’ll give you my thoughts…
1. Twitter! People are there both from our church and from the world…we need to go to them. Go make an account.
2. You’re representing God. Don’t be stupid, a little common sense goes a long way. Be appropriate and say God glorifying things.
3. Represent! Share things about this church on there. If you think people need to know about this place, tell them about it. But, don’t be a broken record only talking about church. You’ll get boring, quickly.
4. Tweet at work. Yep, that’s right, it’s not a once a day type thing that you can only do at home. No big deal. Just be reasonable, 90 tweets during the work day probably isn’t having a good balance.
5. We’re flexible, but if you off the deep end we can still ask you to not tweet at work.
So there ya have it, those would be my 5, very general guidelines in regards to ministry employees tweeting at work. What do you think? Am I crazy? What would you add/change on the list? Have you thought about this type of conversation with your employees? Anybody have a list that they have in place already…share it with us!
[image by andy beez]
Twitter Tidbits
Published on Aug 5, 2009 - In: News| Web - By Jay Caruso
So what is the latest news regarding Twitter? Here are the tidbits:
ESPN came under heavy fire when a story went out saying anybody who worked for ESPN could only tweet about ESPN. ESPN quickly responded and it turns out that story wasn’t really true. They did issue some social media guidelines and its understandable they had to do this especially considering the litigious nature of our culture.
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Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie was fined $2500 by the team for a tweet about “nasty food” perhaps being the reason why the Chargers haven’t made it to the Super Bowl recently. After reading this story I am wondering if the Chargers haven’t made it for being dumb.
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No more Tweeting Marines! And no more Farmville on Facebook Marines! The US Marine Corps has banned the used of Facebook and Twitter citing security risks:
“These Internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries,” said the order banning use of the sites for one year.
There’s a ‘Full Metal Jacket’ joke somewhere in here, but I can’t figure it out yet.
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With the ever present threat of spam, malware sites and account hijacking sites, Twitter is taking steps to prevent people from getting to Malware sites by integrating Google’s ‘Safe Browsing’ API. It apparent has holes, but it just started and I am sure it will take some time to iron everything out.
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If you’re a history buff, you’ll enjoy this. The Massachusetts Historical Society has created a Twitter account for former President John Quincy Adams. Yes, that one. What they are going to do is re-recreate Adams trip to Russia that took place over 200 years ago and ‘Adams’ will Tweet the trip. The Tweets will be derived from Adams own journal of the trip. He has close to 3400 followers.
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I like to see when companies, ministries and other organizations utilize Twitter innovatively as that will help ensure the long term success of the tool. Realestate.com has joined the Twitter world:
Here’s how it works: you follow the (protected) account, and as soon as the bot follows you back you can use a variety of commands through direct messages sent to the account. RealEstate.com’s Housewatch can respond to simple commands to automatically deliver data on everything from median home values to neighborhood crime statistics and monthly mortgage calculations.
This is a good start. When it will really take off is when you’ll be able to tweet specs on a home you’re looking for (price range, bedrooms, etc) and get MLS listings sent back to you in response and knowing that as a result, you’ll get the most up to date listings.
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The NFL has become so image-conscious (any remember the ESPN series ‘Playmakers’? It was a critical hit and ratings hit for ESPN but it was canceled after one season and part of it was undoubtedly the pressure the network received from the NFL brass) over the last 5-6 years and anything that might poke a hole in that image is basically a no-no. As such, NFL teams are now banning Tweeting during team meetings and coaching sessions.
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Do you have anything to share?
It’s Worth Another Account
Published on Aug 2, 2009 - In: Church| Strategy| Tools - By Luke DeMoss
In order to not confuse everyone, get another account. If you are mr. ministry worker and you created a twitter account for your church, awesome. Just do me one thing, don’t tweet personal stuff on your church account.
It seems like a simple enough idea, yet I’ve seen many people do this. It gets a little confusing when @ChurchXYZ is telling me they love eating BBQ Wings and watching the game. Get it? Twitter is free, so why not just sign up for @JohnDoe and tell me about those delicious BBQ wings there. And on @ChurchXYZ only tell me about things that affect the whole group.
But you’re worried that you’re going to have a huge pain logging into both accounts all the time to update, right? Good news again. There’s tons of desktop applications that support multiple accounts so that you never have to log out and back in and can update both accounts from the same application. How easy is that?! One of my personal favorite applications for multiple accounts right now is Tweetie if you want somewhere to start.
What are you doing to simplify the experience for those following you?
A few months ago when explaining to someone one of the reasons I am on Twitter I jokingly replied, “to further my tweducation.” After thinking about it a little bit I realized it is one of the most valuable things I get from interacting on Twitter. I’m a learner, and if you’re a leader in business, at home, in the church or any other organization you probably are too.
So what’s a Twedecuation? In my mind it is the vast access to some of the greatest thinking on a multitude of topics brought to you and me instantly (and rather affordably) by our beloved Twitter. I have a lot of formal education – but I’m the first to admit that some of the best learning I’ve experienced is often more informal, and I have Twitter to thank for much of that.
I think our following habits can limit our learning potential (it’s similar to Justin’s thoughts on Christians following other Christians limiting our relational potential.) For instance, if you’re a leader in the church and you only follow other church leaders you’re missing out on a wealth of knowledge in other fields that could enrich you as an individual, and make you better at what you do.
Stop for a moment. Think about what you are already best at or most interested in. Is it Marketing? Church? Art? Philosophy? Now take a look at who you are following on Twitter. How many of those people are outside the realm of what you already know or are familiar with?
For most of us this number probably isn’t many, and that’s ok – Twitter is relational and we gravitate towards what we’re most comfortable with. It can also be much more.
Take a small step; think about something you’d like to learn more about. Maybe it’s human rights, or sociology, or micro-finance. Find out who the thought leaders are in these areas, and more often than not they are on Twitter. Click that follow button and commence with your Tweducation – University of Phoenix has nothing on this, it’s free!
In future posts I will highlight some of the specific follows that have taught me a lot as I leverage Twitter to further my learning potential.
Twitter As Youth Ministry Tool?
Published on Jul 29, 2009 - In: Church| Strategy| Tools - By Jay Caruso
Over at the Youth Min Blog, Shawn Michael (if you’re involved in youth/teen ministry, I would check out the blog as it has some great information) has written an entry about using Twitter as a tool in Youth Ministry. Some of the reasons he lists are:
* It has helped me network with youth workers locally. I can keep in touch with what local youth workers are doing outside of our monthly network meetings. Depending on what they are tweeting, I can find out what they are teaching, what they are struggling with, how I can pray for them, and — yes — what they are eating for lunch and other trivial things that people tweet about. But I see value in ALL of it. I like getting to know people outside of their youth-ministry-world, too.
* I can also follow leaders in the field of youth ministry. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gleaned some of my best ministry ideas in the past couple of years from my Twitter stream. In addition, I’ve even been able to send short comments to them and, in some cases, hear back! What fun!
* Lots of great student ministry sites utilize Twitter. Be the first to hear about new content, prizes, and youth ministry ideas that they have to offer.
* Keep parents/guardians informed and updated on student trips. Parents can now get updates from camp, youth convention, weekend retreats, etc. in real time and it is as easy as sending a text from your phone.
There are some others to look at as well, so you’ll want to click over and read them all.
I am all for the idea. There is one problem however, and it comes down to demographics. Over at istrategylabs, I came across some data put together by Quantcast (the data here is estimated so it may not be precise, but I think it gives a fair overall picture) showing the age range of Twitter users:
The issue is pretty glaring. Only 7% of those who use Twitter are between the ages of 13-17. I know the majority of them are using text messaging and Facebook and/or MySpace as their social media tool of choice.
Don’t get me wrong. Shawn’s list is certainly a valid one and I agree with his overall concept. The question is not if Twitter can be an effective youth ministry tool. The question is ‘How?’
How do we get more kids between the ages of 13-17 to use Twitter? Obviously, the more that demographic will buy into the effectiveness of the tool, the easier it will be for people like Shawn to implement the vision of using it in his ministry.
So what ideas do you have? If you work in youth ministry it would great to hear from you.
image via SignalPAD
UPDATE: In the comments, Shawn says the following:
My post was more about youth workers using it as a tool for networking, getting new resources and tools for ministry, and getting information out to parents. For that — for me — it has been GOLD!
So it seems I jumped the gun a little in thinking Shawn was talking about using it with the students. So I guess the question would still rest on the ‘How?’ — and I am changing direction here — not only has Twitter obviously been an excellent resource for Shawn, but how much better would it be if the students themselves were using it?
Twitter Tidbits
Published on Jul 28, 2009 - In: News| Web - By Jay Caruso
So what is on the radar for Twitter this week?
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Who would have ever thought that Twitter would be part of a White House scandal?? Well…scandal is a little extreme. But there was an online uproar to the revelation that the Obama White House blocks access to Twitter. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said it was so in an interview with C-Span:
This sent blogs into a flurry of activity with some going a little overboard in their reaction. Mashable had a headline that read:
Twitter is Blocked in Iran … And in The White House
White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton stated that Gibbs was right, and that Twitter is blocked for security reasons but that they are looking to get the restrictions relaxed. We’ll see.
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On the other side of the pond, the British government is encouraging civil servants to use Twitter and even published guidelines for doing so:
It tells civil servants their tweets should be “human and credible” and written in “informal spoken English.”
It advises government departments to produce between two and 10 tweets a day, with a gap of at least 30 minutes between each “to avoid flooding our followers’ Twitter streams.”
The advice says Twitter can be used for everything from announcements to insights from ministers, and in a crisis could be a “primary channel” for communicating with the electorate.
The document warns against using Twitter simply to convey campaign messages, but notes that “while tweets may occasionally be ‘fun,’” they should be in line with government objectives.
Nice.
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A poll released shows nearly 70% of Americans don’t know enough about Twitter to even comment on it.
Of the 2,025 U.S. adults surveyed, 69% said they didn’t know enough about Twitter to comment on the service.
Compare that to just 17% of advertisers who admitted to not knowing much about the website — a group whose colleagues would, if they found out about said confession, probably take them out back “Old Yeller” style.
Ha! An interesting result, but not something I am particularly surprised about. I know plenty of people that are just getting up and running on Facebook.
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Remember when I said “Be Careful What You Tweet About”? Well somebody Tweeted something about the apartment they were living in and the end result was a $50,000 lawsuit:
A woman living in the North Side Uptown neighborhood is being sued for allegedly posting on her Twitter account a “tweet” that accuses her management company of being OK with moldy apartments.
Horizon Group Management sued Amanda Bonnen Monday for publishing a false and defamatory tweet on Twitter May 12.
According to the suit filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court Bonnen wrote an update that said “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”
Because Bonnen’s Twitter account is set to “public,” everyone following on Twitter can view the defamatory statement, the suit said.
Horizon didn’t even attempt to contact Bonnen saying, “We’re a sue first, ask questions later type of organization.”
Ouch.
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Whether or not one agrees with the White House policy on using Twitter from the White House, or whether not your agree with President Obama’s health care proposals, you do have to admire their ability to tap into the latest in tech. They have created a site where you can enter your zip code and send a Tweet to your Senator (or Senators) if they have a Twitter account:
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Anything else out there people may not know about? Share it with us!
Does Your Pastor Use Twitter?
Published on Jul 27, 2009 - In: Church| Web - By Jay Caruso
Ah yes. Just when our church Pastor thinks he has Facebook figured out, somebody throws yet another social media application at him to mess with.
While some Pastors have jumped into Twitter with both feet, others have taken some time to come around.
Church Solutions Magazine had a great article called ‘3 Reasons Every Pastor Should Use Regularly’ and the reason I found most compelling was No. 2:
You can remove the “barrier” between pulpit and pew. Often, people in a congregation believe that a pastor isn’t like them and can’t relate. I hear this frustration from both sides of the pulpit. If you use Twitter regularly, the veil will be torn from top to bottom. Christ pointed out many times that he was like us, except without sin. His crucifixion removed the wall between God and man. We can approach him with our every need, knowing that he’s walked in our shoes. Your congregation needs to know your humanity, too. The first time you share that you’re shoveling the driveway after the snowplow went by, it’ll start revealing how real you are. Or what about the revelation, “I’m struggling with my sermon on overcoming sin’s pull”?
This is key. Especially at big churches. Too many people expect the Pastor of a church to be available at any time. Many people say they don’t like big churches because it isn’t “personal enough.” But we have to remember that churches are not their to serve our needs. Take for instance, Andy Stanley. There are over 20,000 people that attend one of the North Point campuses every week. There’s simply no way he could possibly execute his duties as a Pastor and be a husband and father if he made time to meet personally with everybody that attended a North Point church every week.
Twitter allows us to have a little insight into their world. A recent Tweet from Andy Stanley was about his trip home from Daytona Beach where he was speaking at the BigStuf camp:
“There’s something sad about leaving the beach. But Dorothy was right. Then again Dorothy didn’t have to go through security at the airport.”
Awesome.
Andy Stanley is one of some big name pastors who are on Twitter. Others include:
Perry Noble
Mark Batterson
James MacDonald
Steve Furtick
Mark Driscoll
John Piper
Rick Warren
I am happy to report that the Pastor of my church, Greg Peters is now on Twitter. He’s new, so give him a chance, but go ahead and follow him.
So what about you? Is your Pastor using Twitter? Are you a Pastor and do you use Twitter? Let us know in the comments!
image via Thomas Hawk
Be Careful About Using Christianese
Published on Jul 26, 2009 - In: Church| Strategy| Web - By Luke DeMoss
Have you ever been around someone who was speaking a language that you did not know? How’d you feel in that experience? If you’re anything like me, it starts out a little intriguing, but then turns to just frustrating that I don’t know what they’re saying and I usually just end up moving on to something else.
Is that the experience we’re giving to people on Twitter because we are using a Christianese language? What’s this Christianese language I speak of, you ask? Well, OnMission.com provided a great list of a few popular words or phrases. But the really cool part is that they also provided a new, non Christianese way to say the same things. Take a look…
If you look back through your tweets, do more of them fall on the left hand side of that chart, or the right side? How do you balance this? I’m not suggesting that we don’t communicate the story of Jesus Christ, but just look at how we communicate it. Do you see anybody doing an awesome job using language that is easy for new people to understand…?
[image from b tal]
