Is Your Church Social - Part 14 - Twitter – What’s a Twitter?

Social media, or Web 2.0, is all the rage. Since millions of people are flocking to the various social media, it’s a great opportunity for churches. We’ve been looking at the various forms of social media and how Church’s can use social media as part of their church marketing strategy and more importantly, use social media to share the message of Jesus Christ. My previous set of articles focused on the social networking site, Facebook. Today, I want to turn our focus to another social networking site, Twitter. It’s a Blog. It’s a Facebook. No, It’s Twitter: Twitter is currently the third most popular social networking site in the world. It’s kind of like a cross between Facebook and a blog. Instead of posting entire articles as you would in a blog, you post short messages, called “tweets”, that are 140 characters or less. Like Facebook, your messages get shared with all the people who are “following” you. Unlike Facebook, there are no ways to share pictures and videos, setup events, or personalize your Twitter homepage, like you can a Facebook Page. It’s all about the tweets. Anytime – Anywhere: One of the best aspects of Twitter is that it’s easy to use (not technical at all) and it’s able to be connected to your mobile phone. If you can text, you can twitter (though you can also tweet from your computer). So, unlike your blog, website, or even Facebook, you can tweet from anywhere. If you’re standing in line for a movie, you can tweet from there. If you’re in Paraguay on a mission trip, as long as you have cell service, you can tweet from there. If you’re in church listening to the sermon…well, maybe you should wait until after the sermon. What’s The Point? So, what can you do with a 140 character message? You won’t be writing an exposition on predestination or posting a sermon transcript. Twitter is self described as being about the everyday, the little things that you wouldn’t normally email someone about or blog about. “Real life happens between blog posts and emails.” On a personal level, Twitter helps you connect with people and get to know them better, by giving you a look into the everyday lives of the people you follow. It’s like adding details to a drawing. Even people that you see regularly have aspects of their lives that you probably are unaware of, whether it’s books they are reading, shows they watch, or concerns they have. Twitter helps people share those parts of their lives. That in and of itself could be beneficial for churches as it can help your congregation connect on a more personal level and help members of the congregation connect with non-members. But there are more uses of Twitter for churches. From announcing upcoming events, to involving people in devotions, Twitter can be a useful tool for churches both in church marketing and in achieving the mission of your church. In the next few articles I’ll be talking a little more about Twitter and why your church should be Twittering.