Can Social Media change the world?

Some of you have seen this, but it’s a great summary of the tech change we’re experience right now. The question is, how can we as full-time Christian workers use this new technological landscape to help fulfill the Great Comission?

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 overwhelming 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 Catalyst 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.