Social Media Consulting Archives - Page 6 of 8

3 Ways to Use Twitter

Giselle Aguiar of AZ Social Media Wiz says, “Yeah, some people may “hate Twitter”, but it is a great tool to get exposure. People hate Twitter because they don’t understand Twitter. Twitter is like a never-ending news ticker. It’s what happening right now in real-time. At any given moment on Twitter, one can see what’s trending – what thousands of people are tweeting about.”

I like to call it a giant chat room. It’s easier, I think, for older people than Facebook. She writes about trends, like #ThursdayThoughts, #TravelTuesday, etc. For instance, if you follow Grace Baptist Church‘s Monday Motivation blog, I would encourage you to share a response using the trending hashtag #MotivationMonday. Your response can spark a reply from someone else. Perhaps someone from another country?

Here are some definitions for Twitter:

Retweet: A cute way to say you repeated a status someone else posted. You would hit the tail-chasing arrows to do this. You can retweet without sharing anything or retweet with a comment.
Reply: Self-explanatory. Hit the thought bubble and reply to that person.
Heart: Twitter’s version of a Facebook like.
The weird symbol with three points: You can share a tweet to another social media or copy a tweet.
The envelope: That’s how you direct message or private message someone on Twitter. Useful for bringing public conversations private to keep trolls away.

As a believer, what is the best way to use Twitter?

Communication. You should use this to communicate with people who need to know the Lord. It can be used privately or publicly. You can lock down your Tweets so you can choose who sees your Twitter wall.
Discipleship. Intentionally follow a few people who are open to friendship. Build trust. Speak truth into that person’s life. Walk with them through the tough times. Help them come to know Christ and learn how to share that new faith.
Learn Something New. Follow some organizations that help you use Twitter or other social media sites better. Blogs and videos get shared on Twitter. It’s a great way to learn new things. Use discernment.

Personally, in the last couple of years since my appointment with WorldVenture in 2015, I’ve chosen to stay away from politics. Because I work with many different people from different political parties, I’d rather not have my views become a stumbling block to a good relationship with Christ. If you were to ask me, I would tell you in a kind way what I believe or why I made a certain choice, and in person over a coffee or by video conference.

Twitter and other social media are a communications tool. If the church body uses it right in partnership with a missionary organization, Twitter can be a powerful way to share the Gospel with the unreached, the unloved, and the unchurched worldwide.

To learn more, go to www.worldventure.com/nhahn.

3 Ways We Are Limiting Ourselves

When someone like Bill Gates presents a list of books he is reading this summer, people pay attention. More importantly, his choices influence others towards his worldview. The church, in general, according to some sources are losing its influence on the world. This trend can change, but only if we stop limiting ourselves.

Fast Company wrote,

“One of the world’s most revered painters and thinkers was largely self-taught and didn’t let the technological restrictions of 500 years ago limit his conjectures about how the world around him might work.” Bill Gates suggested a book about Leonardo DaVinci. Recently, a pastor at a local church shared his own book suggestions.

Pastors and people like me are expected to share what they are reading, even our faith journeys through reading the Bible, but as I explore digital discipleship and talk to people about supporting WorldVenture by supporting my position within WorldVenture, I find unusual roadblocks in sharing the vision of digital discipleship.

People get an opportunity to share their faith and, like handling a hot potato, try to give it to someone else more qualified quickly. Maybe they doubt their own capabilities and lack some confidence? My typical response: Trust in the Holy Spirit to give you an answer in your conversations. There’s no harm in saying, “Let me get back to you on that.” Come to the conversation as a learner, too. Learn together. Friend them online. You don’t need to have all the answers right now.
Ageism. A recent article about Liv Tyler reported how she feels like a second-class citizen in Hollywood. The roles for top movies go to much younger actresses. 32 and 38-years of age are considered “old” according to that article. Age and how people view age affect even the church. Our Senior Adults hold a special place in my heart. We are quickly losing their wisdom as the age gap widens between them and the younger crowd. Social Media gives our Senior Adults an opportunity to remind their grandchildren and “spiritual children” about their faith journeys and that God is indeed real and alive. When the topic is brought up about social media, many back away from it. Social sites like Facebook and Instagram are not just a way to see what the others are doing, but a chance to interact, share our faith and have real conversations. Refrain from automatically hitting the share button. Share your story. Be you. Be personal. Learn how to be discerning in what you share.
“We’ve Always Done it This Way Before.” In the article by Fast Company, the quote that struck me the most was how Leonardo Da Vinci, “…didn’t let the technological restrictions of 500 years ago limit his conjectures about how the world around him might work.” Many digital discipleship programs are showing up on the web. The church doesn’t lack the opportunities to learn digital discipleship, but many, many ministry leaders all share the same roadblocks to mobilizing their church. Social media is polarizing. People go from anger to apathy regarding its use in missions and evangelism. I’m interested in teaching our partner churches, allies, and individuals to team up with their church and have their church team up with WorldVenture (or other missionary organization) for a massive movement of discipleship–unity in one purpose. Teaching the solid Christians within the church, mobilizing the retired missionaries to think about serving from home using that knowledge they have gained, and connecting those who know a second language. Don’t limit yourself. Continue to live with hands open to whatever and wherever God leads you.

Bill Gates shares his summer reading list. A pastor or worker may share their reading list, thus creating solid, online conversations. What about sharing your reading list this year? What about sharing what you are learning to tease out some conversation about tough topics? The world is changing. Church and missionary organization should work together for greater results. Tap into the knowledge of social media experts and start with the small stuff.

Your first step should be in prayer.

**If you feel led to support this work, please go to this link to start your financial partnership today. You can also use the contact form here to send me a message and arrange a meeting to talk more about this supported staff role. I am only at 34% support. I cannot serve this new role with WorldVenture without full funding. Help me and you help WorldVenture and its workers. Contact me for a full list of duties this new role has for me to do.

2 Reasons a Video Matters

“How can a video like THAT get a thousand views?!” My husband punched the next button on Youtube after growling out his protest. The video’s title indicated a subject about a trail. Little of the trail was actually shown. Most of the video was a selfie of someone talking, his face taking up the whole screen.

Lesson here?

If you log into your own Youtube account, you’ll see the actual view time of one of your created videos. According to Cynthia Hoppe of Mobile Ministry Forum and other sources, videos need to be 2 minutes or less.

“This breaks my heart a bit, as I was in a classic literature program during my university days, and the Torrey Honor’s Institute gave me a strong respect and appreciation for dusty tomes of wisdom. I love literature. But with literature, in particular, there has been very little serious effort to translate Aristotle, Plato, Dostoyevsky, Spencer, Chesterton or Augustine into engaging popular level, 2-minutes-or-less videos. Which in turn, makes it very difficult for me to share compelling insights from those works with my peers.”

According to Cynthia’s article from here, video is becoming more influential than text. Her article indicates that…

Videos mean 1200% more shares. Shares are viewed in marketing terms, but from a discipleship viewpoint, it’s great for building your own personal brand. Brand is a fancy term for, “the core of who you are.” More shares means fostering relationships and meaningful discussion.
Viewers, Hoppe says, retain 95% of the message compared to 10% in text.

Two minutes or less is not a lot of time, but if you follow Strunk and White’s Element of Style, whatever material you write, eliminate unnecessary words. Learn to to tell the visual story of your church, your faith, and help people come to know the hope you have within.

And this isn’t just positive talk or some New Age hype, but sharing the hope visually and meaningfully through video or photography with some words can be an effective way to share the Gospel.

What is a Calling?

A writer I like to follow posts interesting, even controversial content (I absolutely love his status updates!). In one post, the writer wrote about how he dislikes the word “calling.” Why can’t a calling be to a barista, an auto mechanic, etc rather than noble or glamorous fields like missionary or pastor? Calling is indeed loosely used without an understanding of the word and all it entails.

In my experience, a calling is, “…something that drives you to live in obedience to where God has called you to serve. Callings are not glamorous, require you to die to self in painful ways, being humbled at times by people who are smarter than you, being a life long learner, and drawing closer to God because you are leaning more and more on Him to walk the unknown path. It is being honorable in your calling in words and actions. (my comment in response to the status)”

In looking up “calling” on Got Questions, it said, “Sometimes, God does give an individual a specific ministry, but He always does so in His own timing. Like training before a competition, it takes time to develop the wisdom and skills we need (1 Corinthians 3:2). If God were to give us the mission before the training, we’d try to do too much too soon. Instead, God holds us back, taking time to build our practical skills (Luke 2:52), spiritual knowledge (2 Peter 3:18), and faith (James 2:22). James spoke to this in James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

The last part of the above quote doesn’t quite sound so glamorous or noble, does it? In fact, it sounds like hell. And why not? If you examine the Scriptures and look at the Apostles, their jobs weren’t glamorous.

I relate to the above quote. My calling didn’t come until the last couple of years. I served in a variety of positions in the church as a ministry leader or sometimes just a follower supporting a leader. In fact, even as I say this, I realize how broad my calling is. My calling is with WorldVenture, but under my title is a variety of duties and lots of creative freedom. Many might call writing a calling.

I remember reading in a book written by a literary agent how writers fall into two categories: glory seekers and (forgot the name now) serious writers (for lack of the actual word in the quote). Glory seekers usually only want a name on the front cover, less the work. If it’s a calling, this writer also said, why aren’t we perfecting our work to publish quality stuff? I agree, but my biggest issue is this–What I do with WorldVenture isn’t glamorous.

It’s hard work, and doubly hard when I face people who lack understanding of social media. When you call yourself a writer, people want to hear more and buy your book. You are selling a product they understand. What people can’t imagine without hearing the whole vision is how social media and the church go together.

I’m interested in partnering with the local and global church to empower their understanding in the use of social media to use it for godly purposes, not for marketing, but for outreach, utilizing their own congregation, to change most of the church in how they use it, and help the creatives who lack technology know-how grasp this wonderful communication tool. I’ve consulted with Christian writers, business people, and churches as well as individuals who simply want to share God’s love and their hearts through different and creative online venues.

In the end, I agree with the writer on Facebook. Calling is too loosely used and little understood as to what it entails. I simply take exception to the words glamorous and noble in reference to pastors or missionaries, but agree that we need to view our jobs that we go to every day in a different way.

Go to your job and be a walking testimony.
Make honorable decisions.
Make difficult decisions well.
Go the extra mile.
Work with humility.
Serve as Jesus served.
And stop looking out after “number one.”

If we are going to name something a calling, a new level of commitment needs to be undertaken whether we call ourselves a missionary, pastor, barista, auto mechanic, writer or church secretary. Are you ready for that level of commitment?

If you would like to hear more about what I do with WorldVenture, leave a comment. If you wish to support this work and the global church, click here to start a monthly financial commitment.

How the Church Needs Facebook’s New Update

The Church Communication’s Facebook group had a post that said, “So is anyone else freaking out about Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement about Facebook Pages yet or is it just me?”

This was in response to Mark Zuckerberg posting here about a major update coming in a few months.

“One of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent. We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us. That’s why we’ve always put friends and family at the core of the experience. Research shows that strengthening our relationships improves our well-being and happiness.” Zuckerberg posted today (emphasis mine). “But recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.”

In a recent workshop for pastors and ministry leaders held on Tuesday, January 9, 2018, hosted by Southwest Church Connection and led by me, two people shared the frustrations they have with their congregation. The efforts of creativity go unrewarded when they post on their Facebook page. One person shared how the congregation only reacts to the page posts. They never share or comment. Another said, people in their congregation are inspired by what they post, but never give credit to the church Facebook page. In other words, if a church inspires you to add to the conversation on your personal Facebook, help promote your church by tagging them in the post. When Zuckerberg’s new update goes into effect, the church congregation will need to participate more in the church’s postings and online conversations in order to keep their church page from becoming irrelevant and keeping their budget down (pages and posts would need to be “boosted” to show up). Think of participating online as part of your stewardship and giving of your time. Is this an unfair decision from Zuckerberg?

Zuckerberg is absolutely correct in making this change. It’s a business decision, the radio reported earlier today, and very risky. He could lose advertising dollars, but the radio host is predicting that this decision will bring more signees to the already 2 billion people on this social media platform. It’s also an opportunity for the church to recognize their congregation as part of their marketing platform. When I say marketing, it’s a distasteful word, but when I say it, I mean it as marketing as ministry; or authentically connecting in meaningful ways using marketing techniques that work for business. It’s also important to note that this change backs what I have said many times to people–people don’t want to connect with a brand name; they want to connect with people. This is why a church should consider creating a social media team that they train on cross-cultural communication, story, evangelism, false cults and religions, and technology.

One person on the Church Communications Facebook group suggested a Facebook 101 class, but that’s not enough. I agree with one who said we shouldn’t share just Scripture all the time, but stories of our faith. I take this one step further; we should SHOW how we are living our faith through every day encounters, sharing our life with others we friend online through recipes, gatherings, online Bible Studies and life groups, etc. The face-to-face and online communities do not have to operate separately; it can operate together. After all, my philosophy is using technology and social media to bring people into meaningful conversations that lead to face-to-face encounters.

To partner financially in helping me mobilize the church body in social media, click here.

“You Bring Your Phone to Church?” #Christian

“You bring your phone to church?” John asked me somewhat surprised and cautious.

“Yes, and so do other people.” I launched into great detail as quickly as I could due to a lack of time. “One person invites people to sit with her at church. She brings her cell phone to follow along the live sermon. Our church does a live sermon and a handful of us work to inspire deeper conversation about the sermon in the comment section of Facebook. I have a new phone, and this means, it can go total silence so I can have the live video playing and be there to serve the community online without disturbing others around me.”

“How do you focus on what you are being taught?” John looked troubled.

“Before the live sermon, I used to Facebook and Twitter my sermon notes. I can easily follow along the sermon. I even use my YouVersion Bible on the same device so I can keep up. So many times, when one does handwritten sermon notes, they go into a Bible or a notebook and never are used again. Why not share what I am learning with my community? If I am wrong, people can talk to me online about that, and I continue learning; and if an unbeliever is watching my notes, it allows for the possibility of more private conversations. The whole idea is to build a community inside and outside of church. Being available to pray for and answer questions during the live sermon is no less serving than handing out bulletins on Sunday or manning the Welcome Center. Some children workers can’t even hear the sermon most Sundays because of their service.”

When I had this conversation with John, I wanted to explain so much more, but we had to part ways. The most important thing one can remember when thinking about how social media impacts missions and evangelism is how we should use it to serve each other online. You can arrange for teams of people to serve on Sunday and some to serve during the week. All online and all using their own social media. With today’s technology, you can even do so while sitting in the service (tip: if your phone doesn’t have total silence, plug in head phones or go to the cry room of your church; you don’t have to wear your headphones; it’s just a way to keep the sound off).

Let’s reflect Jesus in our conversations as it is not about growing the church, but inviting people to participate in meaningful conversations so we share the Good News with people in our communities.

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