This is the very first “official” guest post by Leo Wurschmidt (Twitter), Co-Founder and Marketing Director for Triune Designs.
I’ve gotten to know Leo through this blog and another and have loved his passion and insight into marketing and the social media space. It is an honor to open up my blog to those that are passionate about using technology for the Kingdom, and so thanks Leo for being one of the first.
Charlotte finally put its name on the social media map – the Queen City hosted a bloggers’ conference. It was a great conference full of “expert” panels and Q&A discussions that aimed to help local bloggers become better at their craft.
CLT WordCamp’s how-to sessions provided information on utilizing current blog technology, creating better blog content, and ways to promote your blog. Mark Jaquith gave the final keynote address and discussed WordPress as a whole: its mission, how it operates and why the programmers leave it as an open source platform. Mark also gave us a preview of an awesome upgrade to WordPress 2.7.
While the conference served as a great learning experience, it accomplished something more important that should not be overlooked: CLT WordCamp took a small part of the Charlotte blogging community temporarily offline and enabled participants to have personal interaction with one another.
Do not get me wrong, I love technology and the Internet. The tools they provide are helpful in connecting people all around the world. They provide an extreme amount of value to our work, friendships and social lives.
We should not forget, though, that technology simply acts as a set of tools that provide us with a better opportunity to meet people (both locally and internationally) and reunite with distant friends. As we become more entrenched in technology and make it an increased part of our world we must not lose sight on the value of true, face-to-face interaction.
The WordCamp conference provided us the opportunity to get that human interaction every person needs. AT&T’s old campaign: “reach out and touch someone” seemed very appropriate in my mind. Tweeting, blogging and even video chatting can not replicate what a bunch of handshakes and conversations over pizza gave us.
It is important for church leaders to keep this concept in mind. As churches become more reliant on technology to reach people and help them come to know Christ the person-to-person relationships can accidentally be overlooked.
The value of human touch with non-believers or new Christians is something that cannot be replaced. The question to be asked when addressing the Great Commission is “are we truly investing in other people’s lives one Tweet or Facebook comment at a time or are we missing out by relying more heavily on the tools?”
Here is a good related article about our goals relationships (and investing in others) as opposed to falling back on simple marketing: Why Churches Should Stop Marketing.
I think social media has many values that are all great. One of the greatest is using online connections to inspire offline action. Whether that action is meeting face to face or just serving in your passion. I don't know that the relationships need to exist in both "planes" of community, but I do think the scope of how you express yourself needs to be in both of those planes. Does that make sense?
And… it's the TONY! (the man speaks truth).
i agree that we are no infinitely extendable and that our online persona's do not necessarily have to match 1:1 in the offline.
thanks for the weigh in. always appreciate.
I thought about it and maybe it is more clear this way. The greatest value of social media is that it is socially driven and expressive. The danger is that we become socially obese from all the connections we've made, and we get satisfied with just connection, and never being socially healthy. What is very cool to see is the number of site, widgets and UIs that are encouraging healthy social behavior through a renewed sense of civic, religious and compassionate responsibility.
I have to admit that I have found myself connecting via social networking with people I interact with face-to-face. Often it is easier to send a message via twitter or facebook instead of just calling them. I've had times when I just want to retreat to my office and communicate from afar. This is a reminder that I can't fall into that trap and that others need interaction, even if I don't, and it's not about me. Thanks Tony!
great post leo
at the end of the day Christ’s grace doesn’t save computers or social medias, it’s the people we connect with God desires
Tony, would love for you to "guest" post about this… you got time?
I think there's a deep need for boundaries in regards to our usage…
Thanks for stopping by Dave. I actually have dropped a few of my real-life contacts… interesting, huh?
it's da sullied.
right on.
Tony brings the pain. He blogged about it too.
Thanks sullied. Much appreciated.
Yeah, regardless of where we are (e.g. in front of the computer, at the coffee shop, or at church) we need to be mindful of our connections with people in actual relationships. I like your thought: "Christ's grace doesn't save computers or social media." Too true.
Thanks sullied. Much appreciated.
Yeah, regardless of where we are (e.g. in front of the computer, at the coffee shop, or at church) we need to be mindful of our connections with people in actual relationships. I like your thought: "Christ's grace doesn't save computers or social media." Too true.
amen and amen.
I think it makes perfect sense. I believe you are right in that it is how we express ourselves (in either plane) that is important. I always hear social media consultants refer to it as authenticity. Through that authenticity with others we inspire some of the aforementioned offline actions.
Did I confuse your thoughts too much?
you confused me.
j/k.
Nicely said, and I completely agree. Thanks for following-up with my confusion.
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