Friend vs Follower: How to use Social Media as it is intended

On Facebook, you have friends. On Twitter, you have followers. This difference is significant.

Understanding the difference will help you use social media more wisely. Or maybe even, as it is intended. Failing to understand, will most likely lead to a few problems.

So what’s the difference?

Friends are probably interested in what I’m DOING. They like to see pictures, learn about what’s going on in my family, hear about new things, etc. This is why there are comments and the like button. It encourages interaction.

You’re friends with somebody “just because” you went to high school together, find each other funny, have some social connection, etc.

Followers are interested in what I’m SAYING. I can admit, it’s perfectly acceptable to post whatever you want, but chances are you won’t gain any interest from people if you post nonsense. This is why it’s important that you follow a set of rules (see my posts here). Think of following a leader. If that person is a fool, chances are you’re gonna go find someone else to follow. This is no different on Twitter. I don’t typically have any interest in following someone who has nothing important to say. I’m expecting you to impact my life in some way. This really is the point of Twitter.

You don’t follow someone “just because.” You can, but you probably wouldn’t. And if you do, they’re probably leading you somewhere you don’t want to go.

Here’s an example.
In my getting older age, I’m trying to write more about youth ministry. But my guess is that not every one of my friends is interested in reading about youth ministry or my thoughts on Jesus and the Bible (some of them aren’t even Christians, and I don’t adhere to the bullhorn style of evangelism). So I don’t post blog entries (typically) on Facebook.

Twitter is different though. It’s for followers. Or, people who have an interest in what I’m saying. You can’t watch TV and NOT see Twitter being advertised, especially in news and sports. That’s because people desire to know what’s being said by these organizations and celebrities. We have an obsession with following the leaders we respect. This is exactly why Twitter is so successful.

Problem #1: “I can post whatever I want”
That being said, this is where I get frustrated with how teenagers use Twitter, or with people who think it’s dumb. It’s not about posting whatever you’re thinking or doing at the moment. If you must, Facebook is slightly more appropriate for that. Twitter, however, is helping to bring relevancy to social media. Think of it as you would a book. You don’t just write whatever and get published; it requires thought and to be relevant on some level. We dumb it down when we ignore this. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

I don’t understand why we post random thoughts about what we’re thinking. I need a good resource on this subject. I’m sure future generations will look back and wonder why we posted so much nonsense online. Narcissistic, maybe? Probably.

Problem #2: Mixing purposes
The problem with posting on Facebook as if you had followers, not friends? If you post links to articles or info you’re interested in, chances are a good number of your friends aren’t interested in it and they will find Facebook becoming irrelevant, especially the more people post stuff like that. Which is why you shouldn’t do it. Have you ever seen somebody try to sell something on Facebook? I have. And I can guarantee that 99% of your friends aren’t interested in buying your car. Use ebay. I can understand that it’s a simple way just to see if anybody is interested. But chances are they’re not. And the more we do stuff like this, the more irrelevant social media becomes.

This is why Facebook added pages. It’s a way to follow organizations. There’s a little bit of an identity crisis goin on, however.

So in conclusion, get a journal. And be a leader worth following online.

WWJT: What Would Jesus Tweet

It’s no surprise that I have a set of standards when it comes to how one tweets. I typically don’t get any push-back from adults with these rules, but some of the high schoolers, well they downright despise me for my Twitter opinions.

I heard that one of them was telling others how my rules are stupid. Of course I just laugh at that thought and respond, “Who’s tweets are more annoying? Mine, or theirs?” The answer is obvious. However, in reply they said, “Well that’s how you use Twitter, but they can use it how they want to as well.” But later I was thinking about how ridiculous this thought is. You can’t say there are no rules for how to use Twitter. That’s like saying, “I can drive a car however I want. I don’t need to follow the speed limit.” Good luck with that one. This may be an extreme example, but it’s true.

Why do some people hate the rules? I’m not saying if you hate my Twitter rules, then you hate rules in general. Not at all. However, our culture practically begs you to ignore the rules. It’s filled with, do-whatever-makes-you-happy. This kind of thinking is what leads us to say, “Well that’s how you use Twitter, but they can use it how they want to as well.” Our society is big on tolerance. In other words, for the sake of peace we can agree to disagree. You don’t tell me what to do, and I won’t tell you what to do. Sound familiar? Arguments like this probably happen within your family on a regular basis, I’m guessing.

There’s a problem with this thinking though…it’s not biblical. 1 John talks about being led astray, painting this picture of good vs evil. It talks about letting our hearts guide us to action, and that we’ll know what to do by the Spirit God gave us. Then chapter 4 says, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” As Christians, we’re actually called to test whether or not what we see around us is from God. There’s a sense here then that we don’t just do whatever we want. If it’s not from God, be careful not to be led astray.

Our society gets it wrong. We actually SHOULD be listening to each other and coming to an agreement on what to do and what not to do. Because…NOT.EVERYTHING.IS.FROM.GOD.

My point here is not to use 1 John to defend my Twitter etiquette. That would just be silly. My point is to get you to think, using Twitter as an example. What happens when I ignore the rules? You know the answer here. What I’m getting at is order. We have rules to control the order. To prevent chaos, or…mayhem (which occurs when you blow up my Twitter feed). If you tweet all day long about nothing important, just blasting out all of your random thoughts, what good does that do? How does it contribute to the order? And if we don’t agree on some sense of order, mayhem will result. You can take offense all you want to my suggestions, but I guarantee you are contributing to the mayhem if you just blindly tweet all day about nothing.

There are more important things in life than Twitter, I know. So listen to your family. Have healthy conversation about what is from God and what isn’t. Then figure out how to do the good things.

And listen to your youth pastor as well. And for the record, yes, it all starts with Twitter. #stopthemayhem

Twitter Etiquette – According to Dave

This isn’t a comprehensive list, but just a few thoughts at the moment on appropriate usage of Twitter. And please, don’t take offense. I’m just sharing some of my own personal thoughts that I think most Twitter-fanatics would agree with.

1. Only post informative thoughts.

•  This is a tough one because it’s all subjective. What may be informative to you may not be to me, and vice versa. Ask yourself, “Is this tweet helpful or thought-provoking?” If the answer is no, chances are no one wants to hear it.
• Proper things to post or share may include: quotes; links to websites, blogs, articles, news stories, music; funny or serious thoughts, whether original or retweets; etc.

2. THIS IS IMPORTANT: Don’t…I repeat…don’t, blow up Twitter.

• Unless you’re Einstein, you’re clearly violating rule #1 here. We all post dumb stuff from time to time, even me (I know it’s hard to believe). But Twitter is no place for a brain dump. Do everyone a favor and get a journal. What good does it do to share with the world that your cereal is soggy? Or what purpose is accomplished by sending a barrage of tweets ranting about how much you hate annoying people? There may be exceptions to this rule (i.e. it’s informative somehow), but most likely not.

3. Don’t link your Twitter posts to other social media accounts.

• I understand, you want Facebook friends to see your Tweets. 2 birds, 1 stone. Got it. I’ve been there myself too. But if the two were meant to be linked we’d have Tweetbook. But we don’t. Truth is Facebook is meant for one thing, Twitter another.
• I think when we post to multiple places we’re more concerned about everybody seeing what we post, rather than posting for the sake of sharing relevant info. We all need a social media spanking because we’ve gone overboard. Get over yourself and pick up the phone if you really want everyone to know what’s going on in your life (I need to be better at this, too).

4. Pictures…eh.

• Same goes for pictures. If I wanted to look at pictures, I’d go to Instagram. Post um there, or on Facebook.
• However, Twitter wants you to post pics. So if you MUST, use twitpic or something. But no insta, please!

5. Use, but don’t abuse, #hashtags.

• A hashtag is meant to allow you to see a group of tweets with the same topic. So if 10,000 people tweet about the Boston marathon, and they all include the hashtag “#prayforboston,” you can easily see those tweets by searching for that hashtag.
• Sometimes it’s funny to post hashtags that have no significance (i.e. #averydoesnthavetwitter…it’s funny because he doesn’t). But inserting a thousand of those, in every tweet, is just ridiculous.

That is all I have to say about that, for now.

Twitter for Dummies: the basics, the point, and how it works in Youth Ministry

The two biggest complaints I hear from people about Twitter are:

• “What’s the point? Twitter is stupid. I don’t care what people are doing!!!“
• “I’m too busy. I already have email, text, web, etc – now Twitter? Why???“

MYTH: Twitter is for telling people what you are doing every moment of the day.
FACT: Twitter is a means for sharing IMPORTANT information.

The TRUTH is that Twitter:

• Connects you with the people you care about
• Offers you an abundance of relevant info
• Is quick and convenient

_______________________________________________________________________
In This Blog Post… ______________________________________________________

I. The Basics

• What is Twitter?
• Example message (Tweet)
• Twitter is Stupid?
• Sending updates: Easy as text messaging

II. The Point

• Stuff Worth Tweeting
• Twitter Stats

III. Youth Ministry Implications

• View links to important websites
• Send tweets to specific people
• Spread relevant ideas
• Search using categories

IV. Conclusion

Twitter is a simple tool by which to communicate!_______________________________________________________________________I. The Basics
What is it?

“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called ‘tweets’ of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile [and] sent to your followers.” *

Here is a screen shot of my Twitter profile (www.twitter.com/dhub, yes, my username is dhub). My most recent “tweet” is seen in large font, older tweets are listed below it. However, with Twitter we aren’t really concerned about profiles (unlike Facebook). Instead, when you log in to your home page, you will see a public timeline. A public timeline is simply a list of updates from people you follow, posted in real time. No need to go searching through a bunch of pages.

What does it mean to follow someone on Twitter?

You can see in the image here that I am following 39 people and have 21 followers. When I log in to Twitter I will see recent tweets from the 39 people I am following; that’s it. And for the 21 people that are following me, they see my tweets when they log in.

Following is not like friend requests on social networking sites.

“Unlike most social networks, following on Twitter isn’t mutual. In other words, someone who thinks you’re interesting can follow you, and you don’t have to approve, or follow back. If you want to approve who follows your tweets, you can – just protect your account.” *

Example Message (Tweet)

So, lets say I just went out to eat at Red Robin and had a really good burger. I want to tell all of my friends. I could call them, text them, email them, snail mail them, drive over to their house, blog about it, or some other means (all of which I still encourage you to do) ORI could tweet it. And on the public timeline it’ll look like this:

Instantly, everyone knows that I just ate a good burger.

Twitter is Stupid?
Now, I know that some of you are thinking right now, “This is stupid” (remember, biggest complaint). And even though I personally make statements like these on Twitter from time to time, I have to admit that I agree with you. Who really cares that I ate a good burger? No one (and if you do, it’s a bit obsessive). Which is why making statements like these aren’t the point of Twitter. What is the point then? We’re almost there.

As easy as sending a text

How can I send updates to Twitter?

“Twitter offers many ways to post updates: from the web in the update box, from your phone, from your mobile web browser using m.twitter.com, or from any third party application.” *

The other big complaint from anti-twitterers is that they don’t have time to check it. But, that isn’t true. It really isn’t very time consuming to use Twitter, nor is it difficult. If you don’t want to log in to the website, use your phone. It’s as easy as sending a text message.

“Setting up your phone allows you to: Send tweets with text messaging on your phone. Receive texts for…the tweets from users you want to be notified about.” *

(Setup is easy: on your Twitter home page click the Settings tab, then click the Mobile tab, and follow the instructions). See, now there are a lot of you who text me frequently, but tell me you don’t have time for Twitter. The truth is, you do have time for Twitter. Note: Many phones now come with Twitter apps. With this app you don’t even need to log in to the website to see your public timeline; it’s all on the app. I highly recommend this approach to using Twitter.

II. The Point of Twitter

Stuff Worth Tweeting

We’ve already discussed that it can be stupid to use Twitter to tell people about the burger you ate at Red Robin, but there are some things that are actually worth tweeting; things that people really do care about. There are probably lots of things you like to read about. Twitter can help you find all of them. You can still read the paper and watch TV, but with Twitter you can follow your favorite sources or people (Internet sites, sports teams, newspapers, businesses, etc) and be notified of relevant information.

Twitter Stats: 105,779,710 registered users

If you doubt that you’ll find anything relevant on Twitter, look at these stats from Chirp, the official Twitter developer conference held in April 2010:

•Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users.

•New users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day.
•180 million unique visitors come to the site every month.
•75% of Twitter traffic comes from outside Twitter.com (i.e. via third party applications.)
•Twitter gets a total of 3 billion requests a day via its API.
•Twitter users are, in total, tweeting an average of 55 million tweets a day.
•Twitter’s search engine receives around 600 million search queries per day.
•Of Twitter’s active users, 37 percent use their phone to tweet.
•Over half of all tweets (60 percent) come from third party applications.
•Twitter itself has grown: in the past year alone, it has grown from 25 to 175 employees.

Twitter isn’t completely occupied by weirdos (although there is spam), but by tons of businesses as well. I don’t have an official stat but everywhere I look I see businesses and people using Twitter to share their information. I’m sure you’ll find something you’re interested in on Twitter; like YOUTH MINISTRY INFO.

III. Youth Ministry Implications

Links, Send tweets to specific people, Spread relevant ideas, and Search using categories

Links
Since this is a youth ministry blog, lets look at it in the context of youth ministry. If you were following me on Twitter, this tweet would show up on your public timeline:

If you’re interested in reading my blog and hearing about what’s happening in youth ministry at Peace, you can do so very easily. All you have to do is click on the link. You no longer will forget to check my blog.

Or let’s say at Confirmation next week we are teaching on a particular topic and there is a good article you could read to help better understand how to speak to your kids about it. BAM. I post it and it is right there at your fingertips.

In a busy world where it’s easy to overlook information, Twitter helps you personalize the info YOU want to see and allows you to receive it in a variety of ways.

Send tweets to specific people (Reply)
For illustration purposes only, let’s say that you have a Twitter account and your username is Imold. If you wanted to ask me a question, you could send me a message (in Twitter this is called a “Reply”). To do so, you simply put the “@” symbol in front of the username.

So if you were to ask me a question in regards to youth ministry, it would look like this on the public timeline:

I would see that on my public timeline and reply back to you. Since Pastor Al is on Twitter (his username is AZXfollower), and he is speaking this week at Confirmation, I could mention him in the reply too. You and Pastor Al would both see something like this on your public timeline:

Spread relevant ideas (Retweet)
Have you ever heard of the Robbie Seay Band? If you hadn’t and I wanted you to see something they posted, I could easily share it with you. Simply hover over the message and press what Twitter calls the “Retweet” button. All of your followers get the message. Here is a retweet I posted for Robbie Seay’s concert last week:

If there was something important you read about youth ministry, you could easily share it with others using the retweet feature.

Search using categories
We are all familiar with searching the Internet. You can do the same thing within Twitter. One way to find specific tweets is to label a them. To do so, you simply put the “#” symbol in front of a word (in Twitter this is called a “Hashtag”). If we were to, say, tweet about how cool youth ministry (ymin) is at Peace using the hashtag #peaceymin, it would look like this:

By clicking on the hashtag, #peaceymin as seen above, theoretically you would see a list of tweets. So if there were a bunch of us talking about Confirmation using this hashtag, our search result would show us what everyone is saying about youth ministry.

IV. Conclusion
Still wondering how all this is beneficial to youth ministry at Peace?

Twitter is a simple tool by which to communicate! I’ve shared a lot of information with you, but like most things, once you learn how it works it makes sense. Twitter really is simple. If you read my last post then you know that I’m blogging because I want to share the story of what’s happening in youth ministry at Peace. Twitter is another way to do so. You can either be a Twitter hater (which is fine), or you can see that it is an excellent way to communicate. So how ’bout you give it a shot? Any questions?

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*Excerpts taken from Twitter’s website. Learn more here.
Note: This post went through a few drafts. Thanks to Denise, Rita Mae, Nanette, Brent, and Lara for proofreading and helping me come up with the final format.