All posts tagged Twitter

Twitter Stories

by Tim Schraeder on 11/01/2011 in Church Communications with 2 Comments

I can say without reservation that Twitter has changed my life.

Well, the actual application itself hasn’t changed my life, but the connections, opportunities and relationships that have been a part of my life the past four years [yeah, I was a nerd in 2007 when I joined] were in many ways a result of my engagement on Twitter. It’s pretty hard for me to imagine my life without Twitter and the good it has created in my life, both personally and professionally.

Thanks to Twitter, I’ve been connected with people I would have never had the opportunity to meet before and have people in my life who I would consider to be close friends that I haven’t even met in person yet. Projects like Outspoken and the Cultivate Conference would have never been possible without the Twitter community of church communications people backing it. My friendship with people like Jason Fried would have never been possible if it weren’t for Twitter [that's a crazy story I'll have to tell you sometime]. And, from my days @ParkChurch, there were countless stories of how people found out about Park through Twitter.

Twitter is a a simple tool but the good that it instigates and creates is non-negotiable.

Twitter launched a new initiative today that I’m already in love with: @twitterstories… real-life stories of how Twitter has created good, connected people, saved lives, given people a voice, and sparked movements. It’s beautiful, worth following and definitely worth the time to read.

And, being a church communications guy let me say this…

First, if your church or church leaders are hesitant to embrace social media, let this be yet another example of why it works and why it matters… you and your church MUST engage with social media. Just forward a few of these stories to your skeptics and see what they say. And use these stories as examples of ways your church could reach out and connect with people in your community. Creating good is just a part of “loving our neighbor as ourself.” Twitter puts you in direct connection with your neighbors and your community in ways that were never imaginable before. There are countless examples of how churches are leveraging this simple platform and reaching people with the Gospel.

Second, this again illustrates the power of storytelling. Stories create powerful human connection. Instead of just sharing statistics or information, this site brings the human side to the good being created by Twitter. It’s much more moving than some analytics. The stories are moving and give Twitter humanity beyond the technology… imagine if your church could create a similar platform for people to share their stories? Just some food for thought.

Thanks, Twitter for all you do. I’m a believer.  Thanks for sharing these amazing stories and for giving us space to tell them.

+1 for Google+

by Tim Schraeder on 07/19/2011 in Church Communications, Social Media with 16 Comments

I’ll preface my thoughts by admitting the fact that I’m far from being an expert on social media. I would consider myself a passionate user of social media and have watched it morph and change over the last decade or so… from Yahoo Groups to Xanga [my site is still active and is embarrassing], from MySpace to Facebook, to Twitter and now, Google+.

As many other bright and much more brilliant minds that I have pointed out, the social web… the ability to share and receive information with networks of friends, co-workers, and acquaintances… is one of the most significant culture shifts to take place in our time. While the mediums have changed and continue to morph, the idea, relationships, and power of the social web have only continued to increase.

It can be exhausting to try and keep up with everything… I mused last week on Twitter: Tweets, Likes, Circles, +1′s, Friend Requests, DMs, Pokes, Adds, Status Updates… it’s all too much! #socialmediaoverload

However, after poking around and reading up on Google+, the early adopter in me is thinking this is something with paying attention to. Think about it:

  • Radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users
  • TV took 13
  • Internet took 4 years
  • iPods took 3 years
  • Google+ added 10 million users in less than 3 weeks… and this is just in the exclusive, by-invitation-onluy debut. It’s just beginning.

I loved this video description of Google+:

Sharing is the currency of social media.

Google+ is redefining and simplifying the way we can share information. Instead of making lists or groups, Google+ makes it easy to add your friends to various circles and customize both your view of their news feed and allows you to select the content you share with your circles.

But, don’t take my word for it, here’s some great content from people wiser than me that’s worth reading:

One of my favorite movies last year was “The Social Network,” and in a lot of ways, I feel like we are in the early days of “The Facebook.” There’s still some kinks in the system, it’s not perfect, everyone isn’t fully-connected yet but there’s room for infinite possibilities. We have no way of predicting where this will be in a few months or in the next year.

Google underwhelmed us with Wave and Buzz, but I feel like they are right on target for redefining the social web experience with Google+.

For church communications folks,  you would be well-advised to get ahead of the curve on this one. Who knows how this could be leveraged for churches or how the church could use it to empower our people to spread the word?

The entire social web revolution is in many ways a 21st century return to the roots of our faith. Our faith was a grassroots movement. There was no marketing or fanfare, only a group of people who knew they had something they needed to share with the entire world. Our faith spread from person-to-person from household-to-household, from city-to-city to the ends of the earth. All we see and experience today is a return to that personal sharing and telling of our story, from individuals to their networks, circles, and friends.

Google+ is a new platform and opportunity for us to consider what’s next.

We’ve got the greatest message worth sharing and we would be taking it and sharing it wherever people are… offline or online.

What about you? What are your thoughts on Google+?

Let’s Circle up! Add me on Google+!

Not on Google+ yet? I’ve got some invites, so drop a comment and I’ll try to an invite to as many of you as possible.

Jack Dorsey :: CatWest

by Tim Schraeder on 03/04/2011 in Catalyst West 11 with No comments

Jack Dorsey is the creator, co-founder, and Chairman of Twitter, Inc.  Originally from St. Louis, Jack’s early fascination for mass-transit and how cities function led him to Manhattan and programming real-time messaging systems for couriers, taxis, and emergency vehicles. Throughout this work Jack witnessed thousands of workers in the field constantly updating where they were and what they were doing; Twitter is a constrained simplification designed for general usage and extended by the millions of people who make it their own every day. Jack is dedicated to creating public goods which foster approachability, immediacy, and transparency, and has started a second company named Square focused on bringing these concepts to commerce.

  • Only the courageous will engage problems that never have been addressed.
  • His father started a pizza restaurant with his best friend called 2 Nice Guys when he was 19 years old.
  • Their business was doing well and they needed to hire more help.
  • They made one rule: they wouldn’t date the wait staff.
  • The first person they hired would later be Jack’s mom.
  • His parents willingness and commitment to living in cities gave him a love for the city.
  • “I get most of my inspiration from walking around in the city.”
  • “The city is my muse.”
  • When they first got a computer he would draw maps of cities.
  • With a police scanner, he began mapping out emergency vehicles, and eventually added cars, trains, etc that made a living-breathing picture of the city.
  • He started a career for a company called DMS, the largest dispatch company in the country.
  • He got his job by finding a hole in their website and contacting them letting them know how to fix it.

Start of Twitter

  • Worked in dispatch and moved to San Fran in ’99 to start a more web-centric dispatch firm.
  • Dropped out of school.
  • Hired a CEO to run their first company and that was mistake #1.
  • He used LiveJournal and instant messenger a lot.
  • He was good at recognizing when technology should be blended.
  • He realized his dispatch work gave him a beautiful, vertical picture of the city, but there were no humans in it.
  • There were no citizens.
  • In early 2001, he decided he wanted his friends on there and wanted to be able to instantly update where he was and what he was doing and share it with his friends and receive their updates.
  • Took a weekend with a primal version of the blackberry and coded a program to send email updates with his blackberry.
  • It’s not important to be lucky but to cultivate an awareness when fortunate situations arise.
  • Began working at a podcasting company with Evan Williams and Biz Stone.
  • They were crushed by iTunes podcast  directory and decided to find something else.
  • They started twitter in February 2006.
  • He sent out the first tweet, “Inviting co-workers.”
  • The greatest value of twitter is that is changes every single day with every single tweet.
  • Twitter is a utility.
  • A utility is something you can build products and your own definition upon.
  • Twitter is being redefined every single day with every single tweet sent by millions of people around the world.
  • The “@” symbol, the RT:, the #, the trending topics and search were all invented outside of the company.
  • The word “tweet” was something they thought was ridiculous but they embraced it.
  • The word “tweet” came from the users.
  • Twitter is a utility people can see as a blank canvas and build whatever product they want.
  • People can build a social movement, promotion, market research, create a distribution network, etc.
  • Twitter is a concept that is up to everyone to define.
  • People define and redefine the system every single day.
  • The true inspiration is that people can take something that was a small spark of an idea and make into something impactful to the world.
  • We are just building a tool.
  • We need to make sure it stays up, technically.
  • We need to make sure we can sustain it.

On What He’s Learned Leading Twitter

  • You can only do so much when you are alone.
  • It takes a team working together and excellent communication to make something massive happen.
  • My role as a leader in the company and a leader in this organization is editorial.
  • First editorial role: Concern yourself with building and editing a team: getting the best people and make sure they are happy and love what they are doing. Remove negative.
  • Internal and external communication.
  • Internal communication = that everyone has on the surface what is most important.
  • They have all-hands meetings every Friday where they share everything they are doing and working on.
  • Second editorial: Culture built around transparency.
  • External communication = product and utility we are building.
  • Product has to be extremely well edited.
  • Ideas aren’t coming from the leadership, engineers or team… they are coming from users.
  • The people closest to what needs to happen make decisions for the utility.
  • Third editorial: Make sure there is money in the bank.
  • People need to feel confident there is runway to do the amazing things they want to do in the world.

Square

  • Square is a simple technology, it’s up to you to make it revolutionary.
  • Square is a way to send and receive money using a mobile device.
  • Square doesn’t require a merchant account or anything that is typically required for accepting donations or taking payments.
  • It exempts fees, which is great!

Commitment to Doing Good

  • I’m always looking for a carbon offset to what we are doing.
  • While we are getting rid of paper and ignorance … there’s a lot behind them we need to balance out and an offset we need to account for.
  • Technology is simply a tool. It is not an end.
  • It’s a way we can all use to foster more adoption, adaptability, and approach the world differently.
  • Technology only mirrors what we already have
  • It’s a reminder of what we have in our heads and souls to constantly connect
  • Twitter at its best connects people instantly to what matters to them most.
  • Technology is only great when it makes us more human
  • Being human means doing good things.

Dawn Nicole Baldwin on 5 Ways Social Media Can Kill Your Brand

by Tim Schraeder on 12/02/2010 in Church Communications, Social Media with 3 Comments

Dawn Nicole Baldwin is a strategist with a passion to help churches reach people more effectively. She lives this out as founder and lead strategist of AspireOne and as a senior partner with Jarbyco, a mobile communications firm specializing in live events that works with organizations such as Park Community Church, Lifechurch.tv and Youth Specialties.

A former staff member of Big Idea Productions [creators of VeggieTales] and Willow Creek, Dawn Nicole frequently contributes to today’s leading-edge thinking of integrating Christianity and culture but is best known as a change agent who is intent on stretching imaginations, connecting people and making a difference.

Dawn participated in the M2LIVE webinar series sharing on 5 Ways Social Media Can Kill Your Brand. Here’s my notes and you can check out Dawn’s here.

  • Over 500 billion minutes per month are being spent on Facebook.
  • One of the fastest-growing demographics is middle-aged women.
  • Twitter is growing fastest in the age 12-16 demographic.
  • People are now connecting with brands through social media.
  • Everything is moving mobile.
  • Over 30% of people who are connecting to social media are doing it through their smartphones and mobile devices.
  • Hear how Park is using texting.
  • Technology can be leveraged for “holy” things.
  • Some churches are allowing people to text in prayer requests.

1 – To be unprepared

  • Organizations are rushing into the space out of a fear of being left behind.
  • Since social media is free, many people are jumping into it without thinking about why.
  • “If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.”
  • Being unprepared will kill your brand.
  • So many people are throwing darts without a bulls eye in mind.
  • We have to have a clear, defined target.
  • Planning is a key component of effectively using social media.
  • There is no perfect fix.

2 – Having the wrong people lead it.

  • Social media channels can get delegated down to the wrong person.
  • It’s not the job for a tech person… they often don’t have the larger picture in mind.
  • You need to look at social media as one of the first ways your church interacts with the public.
  • Whoever is spearheading you communication channels needs to be involved in the flow of social media.
  • Social media isn’t a siloed function of organizations.
  • You have to have a cohesive identity in how you are expressed in social media.
  • The people you put in leadership of social media will be “brand ambassadors” for your organization.
  • Social media isn’t a task to tackle.
  • It’s not an item on your checklist.
  • Communications is another channel to deliver your vision.

3 – It’s not set it and forget it.

  • It’s not uncommon for organizations to set up multiple accounts but have no one championing it.
  • “If you build it they will come” doesn’t work anymore.
  • If you build it, they expect a response.
  • Silence on social media is worse than not having a social media presence.
  • Every communications channel has its own rhythm.
  • Content is king when it comes to blogs.
  • Audience interaction determines the rhythm of other channels.
  • Check Facebook and twitter hourly and daily and respond when appropriate.
  • It changes the way we communicate and will impact our daily activities.
  • Social media isn’t something everything should do.
  • How does it fit around what you do well?

4 – Not Adding Value

  • SPAM applies to content.
  • People are looking value.
  • Don’t just repeat what people have already heard.
  • Leverage it to give new, relevant information to your audience.
  • It’s not about YOU, it’s about your audience.
  • How can you meet their needs?
  • Social media is a two-way conversation.
  • It’s also a listening tool to connect with your audience.
  • You don’t have to always know the answer.

5 – Expecting miracles.

  • Technology isn’t the end-all-be-all.
  • Social media isn’t a substitute for other media channels.
  • Print still has a place in most places.

Some examples of social media impact:

Closing Thoughts

  • People have always had conversations but social media gives people a public platform to amplify them.
  • Google removed front doors. It made everything accessible.
  • Don’t get overwhelmed… you don’t have to do everything at once.
  • Think through what you want to accomplish and how it fits who you are as a church.
  • Does it matter to the people you are trying to reach?
  • Planning will help your efforts become more fruitful and effective.
  • Choose channels that are manageable. Try one at a time.
  • Experiment and let people know about it.
  • Experimenting gives you freedom to adjust.
  • Don’t be afraid to collect information.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask people questions to find the right channel.
  • Conversation beats everything.
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