22 Ways to Use Twitter Fast Follow

Twitter’s introduction of the Fast Follow feature is a brilliant strategy for expanding the reach of Twitter to non-users. Fast Follow is a great tool for churches, ministries and businesses to add to their social media tool belt.

Here are 22 ways that I see these organizations adding Fast Follow to their social media strategy.

Church social media uses

Sending time-sensitive messages Sending service time or event reminders Notifying people of inclement weather service cancellations Promoting ministry-specific events Communicating prayer requests or member needs Sending daily devotionals Providing supplemental information...

Twitter Introduces New “Fast Follow” Feature

Yesterday Twitter announce a new service that allows anyone in the US to subscribe to any user’s tweets via SMS. Accoding to Twitter’s blog:

Fast Follow. Anyone in the US can receive Tweets on their phone even if they haven’t signed up for Twitter. This is a simple way for people to get information they care about in real-time. For example, let’s say you want to get Tweets from New York City’s office of emergency management (@NotifyNYC). Just text ‘follow NotifyNYC’ to 40404 in the US.

Fast Follow functionality allows people to subscribe to an organization’s tweets via text messaging regardless if they have a Twitter account or not… effectively extending the reach of Twitter...

All Your Data Are Belong To Us

Concerned about Facebook’s use of your private data? Consider this – while a lot of attention has been given in the past year to Facebook’s aggressive push to capture more and more data about users, Google has (more or less) managed to fly under the radar as it embedded itself into the entire fabric of the entire Internet.

Google is watching you right now

The amount of information that Google collects from your web browsing session is staggering. Yet we don’t hear as much backlash against Google, largely in part because the data collection happens behind the scenes with most users unaware of how frequently they’re sending data to Google.

The guys at Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab have developed a clever browser plug-in that demonstrates this by...

Social Media Demographics – Top Social Networking Sites

Effective social media strategy starts with knowing your audience.

Every social media site attracts different users for different reasons. Whether your a business, a church, or a ministry, your ability to effectively reach and engage through social media greatly depends on knowing where your audience is online.

Below is demographic information for the world’s most popular social networks. Knowing the demographics of your target audience allows you to determine how much of that audience you can reach on each of these sites. Focusing on the sites with the greatest reach will maximize the effectiveness of your efforts and help you make the most of your social media strategy.

Top Social Network Demographic...

Facebook, location-based services, and opportunities for local churches

During an interview at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Facebook is working on adding location-based services to the popular social network. Soon users will be able to add a location to their status updates, communicating not only what they are doing but where they are doing it.

This is just another move in Facebook’s strategy to become the information currency system of the web – aggregating all the  information about you by connecting to your Facebook profile and then selling access to that information to marketers.

In addition to the demographic, social, opinion, and digital behavior data...

Information Currency Systems and the Future of the Internet

In my post about the impact of Facebook’s Community Pages on churches, I referred to Facebook’s desire to be the information currency system of the entire web. Let me explain that a bit.

The next phase in the evolution of the Internet will be the “Semantic Web” where machines not only exchange data and information but are able to derive “meaning” from the information that is being shared. Because meaning is subjective and influenced by situational factors, information on the Web...

Facebook Community Pages and Church Social Media Strategy, part 1

In April, Facebook quietly introduced “Community Pages“, a new feature that creates common pages for interests, activities, and entities. According to the Facebook blog:

Community Pages are a new type of Facebook Page dedicated to a topic or experience that is owned collectively by the community connected to it. Just like official Pages for businesses, organizations and public figures, Community Pages let you connect with others who share similar interests and experiences.

Amid the outcries against Facebook’s aggressive push to allow public access to all profile data (including personal private information), the introduction of Community Pages has not...

Online Ministries – Internet Evangelism Day

Today (April 25th) is Internet Evangelism Day.

Internet Evangelism Day is a single day designated every year to bring focus on the efforts of global evangelism using digital media. The effort is centralized at InternetEvangelismDay.com and is lead by Tony Whittaker. Tony is a leading thinker in online ministry and we were fortunate to be able to interview him as part of our research of Excellence in Online Ministry.

Internet Evangelism Day

I recommend...

Internet Ministry Research

I have been working with the Christian Leadership Alliance and Monk Development to develop new research that looks at how ministry organizations plan and execute their web strategy. The goal of the research is to identify best practices, trends, and case studies in the hopes of providing clarity, guidance, and new opportunities for ministries online.

In addition to interviews with different Internet ministry thought leaders, we have developed two research initiatives that will provide a broad picture of the current state of Internet ministry.

The