Tag Archive - Twitter
The power of social media (a case study)
A while back I connected with Russ Martin, who serves as the operations leader of Campus for Christ (the campus ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ) in Canada. I thought I’d share how it happened, because it gives some cool insight into the power of online communication.
- I wrote a post on video conferencing and somehow Russ found me and commented.
- I tracked down his blog and various insightful and witty comments ensued.
- We began following each other on twitter
- I posted a tweet wondering if anyone had some contact management software recommendation. (I know…I’m a nerd)
- Russ send me a message saying he would demo the software they’re using
- At the scheduled time I logged into a Dim Dim webinar and was added to a Skype conference call with Russ and Josh on the operations team up there.
Interesting notes: Russ and Josh live a long way from me…I would have never met them if not for my blog. The first time I talked to Russ was after a lot of online communication, and by then I felt like I knew him already. All of the communication used was free!
Side note: Skype conference calls was way better the the free conference call service we’ve been using. You can tell who’s talking because of the voice indicator on your screen.
Does anyone else have experiences similar to this using social media?
Behold…the power of Twitter (a case study)
Recently I’ve started using twitter search to listen in on what the twittersphere is saying about Campus Crusade (I know…I’m a nerd). A while back I saw this post from a guy working at the hotel in Denver that served one of our regional winter conferences…
I was about to engage in a twitter conversation with @stephenwebb when I happened to notice that one of my regional directors already had! @mattmikalatos responded to @stephenwebb and wrote this…
I watched their conversation unfold online as Matt offered his help to right the situation…even going so far as to offer his phone number. I don’t know exactly what took place beyond the twitter conversation, but I do know that this was @stephenwebb’s post a day later…
3 reasons why Twitter has almost peaked
Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter. I use it almost every day. But here are a few reasons I think Twitter may have maxed out it’s popularity at the 
moment. Hopefully Twitter is working hard to prove me wrong. Sidenote: I think Twitter search is here to stay and is changing the game of news distribution.
- College students aren’t using it (for the most part). College students are the trend-setters. Just look at Facebook. They’ve been on it forever. They started the revolution. Those college students are going to graduate and very few are going to start tweeting.
- It get’s too noisy. Once you start following over 100 people it gets a little overwhelming. Information overload.
- The advertising by businesses is going to turn some people off. People want to be connected relationally to other people…not to businesses.
What do you think? Are you using Twitter now, will you continue?
Whats the Return on Investement (ROI) of Social Media?
Check out this video from Socialnomics. Some hard data for the value of Social Media. Thought provoking.
The 8th Continent?
You’ve been around long enough to know that communication is changing in a drastic way. (See Clay Shirky’s video) But still the question lingers, “is it worth my time to figure out how to use social media?”
The honest answer is… I don’t know. There are to many variables to it…capacity, skill, giftings.
But I do know that Andy Stanley’s quote “To reach people that aren’t being reach, we have to do things that no one else is doing”, resonates in my mind. I’ve heard it said recently that the danger our organization faces is experiencing just enough success to keep doing the same things.
Steve Douglass called the online community the 8th continent.
There’s a ton of questions in my mind like, how do we leverage online applications to boost local movements (especially in cities)? We also need to figure out how to make our DNA (Win, build, send) play out online. But one thing is certain the people that we’re called to reach are online, what are we going to do to intersect their lives?
Don’t try and do it all at once, bite off a little bit at a time. Here’s where I would start:
- Begin to utilize Facebook more intentionally: Stay in touch with key disciples. Maximize advertising for strategic events on Facebook.
- Start using Twitter. Beginners guide here. Follow the right people and you’ll be inspired and learn.
I think we have to engage in this conversation (and adapt) even if your computer is a “necessary evil”. What’s your perspective on utilizing the internet for ministry?
Selective Twitter application for Facebook
Want to connect the Twitterworld with the Facebook empire? It’s easy.
First option: I originally started with the Twitter application for Facebook. This essentially takes all your tweets and puts them in your Facebook status. If you don’t tweet very often this is fine, but I soon starting using Twitter more often and didn’t want a complicated tweet with all kinds of RT’s, @’s, #’s, twitpics and tinyURL’s to show up in Facebook. (sidenote: I think this application doesn’t link updates with the @ symbol in them anymore, so it’s not as over
whelming as it used to be).
Better option: Now I’ve found the Selective Twitter Application on Facebook. Just follow the directions to install and then enter #fb at the end of the tweets you would like to show up on Facebook. Please note, this will not work if your Twitter updates are protected.
If there are any better options out there, let me know!
How to convince yourself or someone else to Twitter
…or maybe I need to justify why this full-time campus minister uses Twitter
- First of all I watched this to figure out what I was getting myself into. This helped me begin the process of understanding what Twitter is capable of.
- Tons of other full-time Christian workers use Twitter including: Andy Stanley (Northpoint Church), Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill), John Piper, and Steve Douglass (Campus Crusade President).
- According to Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson books it puts a human face on the organization, or in other words; it builds credibility… which, is increasingly hard to do in our culture.
- Lastly, it’s been incredibly helpful in staying in tune with what’s going on in the Christian leadership landscape. All you have to do is follow the right people and you get all kinds of helpful info. Right now my favorites are John Saddington/Church Crunch for tech info, and Catalys
t for leadership thoughts. It has also allowed me to connect with other Campus Crusade staff members around the world which has spurred innovation thoughts in me.
When I first heard about Twitter, I thought it sounded pretty lame. I gave it a shot for a few days and I’ve grown to appreciate it. You can live without it for sure, but it’s kind of fun.
Don’t worry about connecting Twitter to Facebook, or third party applications Tweetdeck, or Tweetie just yet. Just get the hang of Twitter first.
