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Archive for January, 2009

In Their Own Words: Park Church on Twitter

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Twitter. 140 characters to communicate a message, an idea, or a thought.

I don’t know about you but I’m addicted.

Twitter provides a great way to stay connected with people you know, people you want to stalk (that was sarcastic) and provides a great way to network and connect with people you might not normally have the chance to interact with.

Using Twitter for yourself is one thing – but using it for your church is something completely different.

Church Marketing Sucks gave Park a nod in an article they posted about churches that use Twitter, so I thought I’d take a minute to tell you why and how we decided to use it, and how we hope to expand our use of it in the future.

Before I go further I’ll say this… we have absolutely no shortage of ways to communicate. Facebook, texting, Twitter, email, websites… you name it. Just because we can doesn’t mean we should. We should only use technology that fits the context and the everyday life of the people in our churches and in the communities where we find ourselves.

Before you decide to invest time, energy and resources in any new media, you need to stop and ask yourself why. Are you engaging in a conversation on a medium people in your community are using? Or, are you just trying to up your “cool” factor?

So Twitter…

I set up an account for Park on Twitter about 6 months ago and connected it to the email address where a majority of our churchwide emails generate from (mine).

I didn’t do anything with it but let it sit there. I sat and watched. And I saw more and more people who were in our church were finding us (through the Search feature on Twitter) and saw that it was indeed something people in our church were using.

After we crossed 50 followers (who actually attend Park) I decided enough of our people were using it to go public with it and start using it… which we did a little over a month ago.

Since that time, we’ve accumulated quite a few followers and have seen it take off and are excited to see where it goes from there.

How we plan to use it…

communicate churchwide news and announcements
notify people about upcoming events
give people a sneak peek into the life of our church office(we have fun ideas planned!)
advance previews of videos and print
as a means to communicate prayer needs for our church family

Who we will Follow…

People who attend Park, or people who follow that live in Chicago
Chicago-based media and news outlets

Other benefits of using it…

Transparency – not that we’ll share all of the nitty gritty of church life, but it’s a great way to be transparent, to share and to lower the barrier between people who attend Park and our staff. It creates space for us to interact.
Research – it will serve as a great window into the lives of some of the people who attend Park – we’ll be able to see and observe what they care about, what’s on their mind, etc.
Presence – I think it’s great to be present where people are talking… and if a conversation our people are having is happening on Twitter, then we should be there too.
Connection – You never know who you might be able to connect with via Twitter. Some people would never come up to you in person, but will interact with you online. Obviously, you don’t want to sacrifice personal contact, but this could serve as a bridge to creating personal contact.

Who Owns it…

For the interim, I do but we are exploring ways of having multiple staff members to have access to it and to update our status and to reply and interact with Park people who use Twitter.

Final Thought…

I want to re-iterate what I said earlier… just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. I think we often tend to look at what other people (or in this instance, other churches) are doing and be quick to jump on the bandwagon.

Before you do, just make sure it’s the right direction for your church. If it’s not going to put you into closer relational proximity to the people in your church, don’t do it.

I’m no expert on how to use Twitter for a church… I’m still learning!, but Anthony Coppedge recently released a $5 e-book entitled The Reason Your Church Must Twitter. I encourage you check it out!

Down the road we’re going to see how it goes and possibly expand Twitter to other audiences in our church… singles, 30s, small group leaders, etc. In the meatime, feel free to follow us @ParkChurch

Tags: Park church, reasons, schraeder, tim, Twitter
Posted in Uncategorized | 312 Comments »2009-01-30+02%3A14%3A54Anthony+Coppedge

iSelf – The Need to be Followed

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

In the e-book “The Reason Your Church Must Twitter”, I warned about the perception of some that Twitter is polluted by narcissists who can’t wait to share inane details of their every move. These folks take literally the Twitter question of “What are you doing?” and apply it to the minutiae of their daily lives.

Some people love this kind of microscopic detail; others abhor it. Fortunately, it’s easy to follow – or unfollow – anyone on Twitter at any time, so the flow of information is entirely in your hands.

Still, I want to address a thought process brewing in the recesses of my mind about this need to be followed. Perhaps more accurately it’s a desire to be heard.

A solid, thought-provoking article was recently published by Relevant Magazine. In the article “The Problem of Pride in the Age of Twitter”, author Brett McCracken offers this food for thought:

There’s been a dissonance between who we are (boring, unknown) and what the media [or culture] has made us want to be (interesting, glamorous, famous). The result is a massive cultural longing to be known. Not by a few, but my many.

McCracken uses the term “iSelf” – with a nod towards Apple’s marketing genius – as a way to describe this self-obsessed culture.

Yet Twitter – or really any communications platform or tool – is nothing more than a tool. In perspective, the use of Twitter is akin to the use of money.

1 Timothy 6:10 talks about this: “For the love of money is a root of all evils;”

Money isn’t the problem; it’s the love of money and the greedy actions that come from it that cause the problems. Similarly, Twitter isn’t about narcissism; the way Twitter is used will determine if the content is self-centered or selfless.

So – the question remains: Do you have a need to be followed? Is your iSelf in check? Or are you selflessly using a fantastic communications tool to reach others, create community and edify the body of Christ?

Posted in Uncategorized | 261 Comment »iSelf+-+The+Need+to+be+Followed2009-01-29+20%3A42%3A58Anthony+Coppedge

Inherent Twitter Value

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

The value of Twitter as a social media has been proven within commerce for promotion, brand-building, message reinforcement, and a host of other very effective means to owning consumer mind share. Twitter has had a global appeal and has transcended niche industry or application. The value it adds are nearly unmatched. However, the irony of this is, any attempt to recapture this value necessarily destroys it.

Imagine for a moment that your organization has opened an additional location in an underserved market. Now, these that are in your newly underserved market are seeking your services at this very moment. What is this worth to you? What would you have paid for real-time, immediately seeking, prospective consumers of your newly serving location? To many, it is worth a great deal. In commerce, an almost surreal opportunity worth the price of any CRM or marketing services at most any price–an untainted and unfettered prospective lead seeking you at this very moment.

Twitter delivers this exact value inherent to its daily function. Using any number of tools, you can mine Twitter for a stream of these untainted and unfettered prospective leads. Its easy to think, if a prospective lead in your new location is thinking about it, they are likely tweeting about it as well. Their tweeting is an invitation to talk about what they have posted (*Please do not over read this. An invitation to talk about or to what they have posted still has limitations).

So, it is widely accepted that Twitter has three inherent values:

Twitter is a disinterested party.
The Twitter population lacks meaningful sampling bias.
The Twitter population is large and growing rapidly.

Unfortunately, any attempt to recapture Twitter’s value destroys these same factors that create value. Remember, it is relationship that for us in church is *real value. What in your Tweetery habits shows that you are chasing hearts, not the inherent values of Twitter alone?

Comment in! @marksnewton

Posted in Uncategorized | 20No Comments »Inherent+Twitter+Value2009-01-25+09%3A06%3A11Mark+Newton