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ChurchMag / 2009 / Archives for February 2009

Archives for February 2009

5 Step Plan for Social Media Ministry


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Some of you (and your respective ministries) are at the point where you want to go ahead and "dive" in; you've been convicted (or convinced) that your church and/or ministry needs to be doing some sort of "social media." Ok, so now what? Getting to the point, you need to develop a plan, because very quickly you'll find that you can be "in" so fast and so deep that you'll have no time left to do other things. So here's a 5 Step Plan for how to start "doing" social media for your ministry: ... Read More

Creative Twitter Uses in Ministry – Your Stories Please!


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Every so often someone will shoot me an email about how they have personally seen or used web applications that were extremely creative or were outside the original intent of the developers and product. I think that's cool. I think that's innovative. I think that's where the Church can be a thought-leader in the web technology space. So, if you've got some creative or unique (or strange perhaps) ways in which you've seen or used Twitter for your church or ministry, please drop a comment below ... Read More

Buzzable – Twitter Groups?


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Marketing a new product or service for Twitter is easy because you really only have to use one word: Groups. I'm not even sure your product needs to do it well for you to have thousands of signups within hours. But "grouping" in Twitter is in serious want and so people will sign up to do it. If you've got a moment I'd check out Buzzable.com, a new grouping platform for Twitter. Here's what's up as analyzed by TechCrunch: You sign in using your Twitter ID, which lets you join and create both ... Read More

The Church Could Learn From Etsy


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Etsy, for those who may not be familiar, is a mega online marketplace where individuals and small businesses can set up shops to sell their personal wares that are made by hand. It's raised more than $30 million in venture funding and is growing like a weed. Although there is a lot of things that have contributed to its success, it's Word of Mouth marketing strategies have made it a force to be reckoned with. Their internal survey which was recently released is a stunning proof of their unique ... Read More

Innovation is Doing the Unexpected


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This might be the best 8 minutes you'll spend this weekend watching online video. Right from the proverbial "horses mouth" comes Twitter's Co-Founder Evan Williams and how Twitter has evolved due to unexpected uses by its users, especially in terms of helping each other out. I think there's so much to unpack here, but I'll let you have a shot at it without my random commentary. ... Read More

A Case for The Church Blog – Some Facts


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So, you've been thinking about creating a blog for your church but you're still in the "mix" about the "why." You've been told a thousand times over that you should by "everybody" but your leadership team needs a bit more "concrete" reasoning other than "Hey, everyone's doing it and they say it's awesome!" speech. Perhaps the chart on the left can help? What it explains are the fundamental reasons why large enterprise businesses choose to do "Social Media Marketing." Also, what their ... Read More

Blogging Nuggets – 10 Small Pieces of Advice


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For a few of you yesterday was a doozy. Catalyst One Day blew my mind and then Off The Blogs event was perhaps the best event and night of worship that I may have ever had. So, I'm exhausted. And there's tons more work to be done this morning and today. One of the consistent things I shared with others yesterday at Catalyst was small 'nuggets' of wisdom in regards to how and what to blog. Here are 10 easily-digestible pieces of advice that I shared yesterday: ... Read More

Friday 5 – Russ Hutto


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The first time I ever met Russ Hutto was in a somewhat random hotel room in Austin, Texas. We had never intended to meet yet it was just one of those "things." I believe he and Fred McKinnon were attending a worship conference (I may have that totally wrong) and I had wanted to share with them a personal development project that I had launched (or was planning on launching). That feels so long ago... Wow. And ever since we've met he's been growing his blogs and doing very cool stuff over at ... Read More

Choosing Your Social Networks Wisely


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I've started to do some very serious thinking about how I personally engage in the social media space, and much of it has to do with the hundreds of social networking websites which I currently am a registered member. The simple fact is that its humanly impossible to manage all of them at the same time. As a obvious result, it's impossible to become an "expert" at any of them. I know that Chris Brogan has suggested more than once (both on his blog and live talks) that businesses should choose ... Read More

Don’t Be An ‘Idiot’ Commenter


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Sometimes it's just good to sit back, relax, and learn from large enterprise and marketplace businesses that simply act infantile. Take, for example, Ryanair's recent comments on an "idiotic" and "pathetic" blogger who happened to blog about their company website and a perceived flaw in their eCommerce portion: "Jason!" a commenter identified as Ryanair Staff #1 wrote. "You're an idiot and a liar! Fact is, you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different ... Read More