Category: Social Media (page 7 of 10)

A New RSS reader

September 18, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Our culture is operating faster than the printed page.  And though I think there is still a great place for books and magazines, if you don’t read blogs, you’re missing out on the cutting edge of information and idea transfer.

I like to keep up with blogs.  In fact, there are over 100 I (try to) check regularly.  And the more and more I find that are good, the more and more I subscribe to.  And the more and more I subscribe to, the more and more content I have coming through.  And the more and more content I have coming through, the further and further I get behind in trying to keep up with it.

New posts go up at random times on random days, and, since I’ve got a family, a job, hobbies, and lots of other things to fill my time, I don’t always catch when new content is posted.  And though Google Reader helps (I wrote on it HERE), I just don’t check it enough, leaving me with hundreds of unread posts.  And I feel really bad, but I often end up “Marking all Read.”  It’s not that I don’t want to read them…I just get so far behind that I don’t have time to catch up.

But I think I’ve found the solution.

NetNewsWire. **

It is an app that you can run in your back ground on your Mac or PC.  It syncs with Google Reader, and automatically uploads all of your new feeds into its browser.

Here are the features I like:

1. Easy to comment. I can click through and make a comment on a blog, without leaving the application.  This is a huge win for me.  It’s quick and easy to leave a comment on somebody’s post, because I don’t have to open up a separate window.

2. Latest News. I’m able to sort all of the updates by the latest post, and even condense it down to just the ones that were posted in the last 24 hours.

3. Updates throughout the day. I have mine set to update my feeds every 4 hours, so a couple of times a day, I’m alerted (via a pop-up window on my screen) that there are new feeds.  At that point, it takes  10 minutes (or less) to read them all.

4. It syncs with my phone. This is a huge plus for me, and part of the reason I didn’t find myself keeping up to date with my Google Reader feeds.  If I have an extra few minutes, I can just open up the app on my phone, read my updated feeds, and it will be synced up with my computer next time I log on.

5. Organized feeds. Like Google Reader, I can organize my feeds by folders (and it automatically picks up your existing folders form Google Reader).

6. Quick sharing. I can quickly and easily email the link to a particular post to others I think may benefit from it.  Though I wish I could also update to social media sites…

7. I can subscribe to other feeds within the app. I can quickly and easily add feeds that I want to read…very similar to Google Reader.

8. It’s free. I probably wouldn’t have tried it if it weren’t.

So, you see, it’s similar to Google Reader.  The main difference for me, because of the frequency of the automatic updates and the usage on my phone, is that I actually find myself using it consistently.

Do you read many blogs?  Which do you read?  What are your favorites?

**This post has not been solicited by NetNewsWire.

 

5 Women leaders you should follow

September 17, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Continuing in my “Follow Friday” series (you can catch up HERE), I’d like to recommend 5 more people I think you should follow.

This time, they all happen to be women.  And they’re all incredibly strong leaders.

Jenni Catron – Executive Director at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, I first met Jenni as she led our staff in thinking critically about recruiting and maintaining volunteers.  Jenni is an incredible thinker and leader.  Read her blog HERE, and follow her on Twitter HERE.

Lindsey Nobles – Director of Corporate Communications at Thomas Nelson Publishers, Lindsey is also a Compassion International Blogger, and just returned from Guatemala.  She’s a great writer.  You can read her blog HERE, and follow her on Twitter HERE.

Rachel Evans – Author of Monkey Town, Rachel offers a refreshing look at faith and theology, and offers readers the freedom to doubt, question, and wrestle through major issues.  You can read her blog HERE, and follow her on Twitter HERE.

Anne Jackson – Anne is an author and speaker, and her book Mad Church Disease (Amazon link) is an incredible read (I’m sure her newest, Permission to Speak Freely, is good, too…I just haven’t read it yet).  But the coolest thing about her is that she rode her bike across the entire country in order to raise money to build wells in Africa (via the Ride:Well Tour).  You can read her blog HERE, and follow her on Twitter HERE.

Heather Zempel – Heather is the Discipleship Pastor at National Community Church in Washington, DC, and author of the small group study, Sacred Roads.  When I first came on staff at Grace, I began trying to connect with small group pastors around the country, and came across National Community Church.  I connected with Heather, and her blog was invaluable as I began to shape my views on small groups.  You can read her blog HERE, and follow her on Twitter HERE.

Who would you have included in this list?

 

Twitter & SMS

September 15, 2010 / / 2 Comments

I hear this a lot:

I just don’t have time to be getting Twitters on my phone all day.

Let me debunk a Twitter myth for you: Twitter isn’t just a text messaging social network platform.

If it were, I wouldn’t have time for it either.  Here’s the skinny:

When you “follow” somebody, you are subscribing to every one of their updates.  But you’re given a choice.  You can leave your subscription on the web (I use a third-part client, Hootsuite, to check updates).  Or, you can indicate certain people’s updates to go straight to your phone via SMS.  You’re able to change this setting at any point.

Here’s a shot before I clicked to “Follow” Jack:

Here’s a shot after I clicked “Follow.”  Notice the mobile phone symbol.  If i want to receive Jack’s updates via SMS (short message service…a.k.a., text messages), I’ll click on that icon.  If not, all of his updates will appear in my timeline only. (To get caught up on the language of Twitter, read my guide HERE)

I don’t receive any Twitter updates via SMS.  None.

Twitter is too powerful to not jump in and try it.  And it won’t dominate your time unless you allow it.

Let’s leverage this resource for good.

Ready to give it a shot?

 

Follow Friday

September 10, 2010 / / 0 Comments

I’m convinced that Twitter and social networking are operating on the cutting edge of society.  Not necessarily the platform itself, but the opportunities it opens up for the spread of ideas.  What used to take hours to reach the print is now being spun out in real time.  What you used to have to wait for the evening news to see, you can now see instantly wherever you are.  What used to take months to get to to the print press as a book is now updated daily.

But social media is so large, now, that it can be tough to find those people that you’d like to follow.

For a while now, Twitter users have been promoting their friends using the hashtag #FF (which stands for Follow Friday).  Basically, on Friday, you mention a few people that you enjoy following on Twitter, and encourage others to follow them, too.  (by the way, if you need a crash course on the language of Twitter, read mine HERE)  Here’s an example:

It’s kind of like Facebook’s “Suggest” button.  Mike suggests that people follow these Twitterers.  Make sense?

I’m taking this concept one step further.  I’ve been on Twitter now for about 2.5 years, and have stumbled upon some great leaders.  To save you the time of reading their updates and visiting their blogs to see if they’re worth following, I’m handpicking the best of the best.

Not on Twitter?  No worries. Even if you don’t use Twitter, you can follow people on Twitter. Just open up a Google Reader account, and subscribe to their RSS Twitter feed. (that sentence lose you? Don’t fear. My explanation of Google Reader is HERE)

Each week, I’ll present a different crop of Twitterers that you need to be following.  This week, I give you 5 people who are influencing me right now.  You should follow them…immediately.

5 people influencing me:

Seth Godin – Seth Godin is a entrepreneur, author, and speaker.  And he’s a marketing genius.  His books are helping shape the way I think about leadership and influence. Follow him on Twitter, @ThisIsSethsBlog and find him on his website HERE.

Matt Chandler – Pastor at The Village Church in Dallas, TX.  I often listen to Matt’s sermons when I run…which means I laugh, I’m convicted, and when I’m done running, I have pages worth of notes in my head.  My small group is also going through his Philippians study.  Follow him on Twitter, @mattchandler74

Michael Hyatt – Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, Michael is a prolific blogger (blog HERE) and Twitterer.  His content is consistently helpful and insightful for me in my area of leadership.  With my love of leading and writing, I don’t miss one of his posts.  Follow him on Twitter, @michaelhyatt

John Burke – Pastor of Gateway Church in Austin, Texas. His book No Perfect People Allowed will mess you up. Follow him on Twitter, @johnburke_, though he’s not a prolific Twitterer.

Rick Warren – To be honest, when the Purpose Driven Life craze was in full swing, I was not on that bandwagon.  Not because I had anything against it…I just hadn’t bought in yet.  Or read it.  Which explains why I hadn’t bought in.  On top of that, early in my ministry career, Rick Warren was lumped into a category of pastors who were seeker-friendly at the expense of the Gospel.  I’ve learned that that category is far from fair with Rick.  His short Twitter updates strike to the heart. Follow him on Twitter, @rickwarren

Who’s influencing you?

 

Twitter vs Facebook

July 24, 2010 / / 5 Comments

I have found great benefit in social media.  I’ve written about social networking HERE.  Primarily, I use Twitter (you can follow me HERE) and Facebook (you can follow me HERE) when it comes to sharing short bits of information.  Right now, though I find great benefit in both, I much prefer Twitter to Facebook.  Why?

5 Reasons I prefer Twitter over Facebook:

1. It’s quicker. Facebook takes a lot of time.  When you read a status update, especially one that you like, you feel the need to read all of the comments.  Then you find a friend that you haven’t talked to in a while, and you click on their page.  And find a status update…and the cycle continues.  Facebook can quickly become a never-ending pit of time-wasting.

2. It’s more information-driven. I’m a “learner” (according to Strengths Finder), so I love gathering information.  Twitter is a great tool to share news and ideas quickly and efficiently (especially because it’s limited to 140 characters).

3. There’s no Farmville. Or Mobster.  Or Cafe World.  Or Treasure Isle.  I just can’t get myself excited about that stuff.

4. There’s no poking. I’ve been poked by somebody.  Seriously.  I just looked at my Facebook page.  And I have no idea what that means, why they poked me, or what I should do in return.

5. With Twitter, you can reach well beyond your circle of friends. On Facebook, for us to interact, you have to accept my friend request before I can see anything that you’ve shared.  Facebook seems to me to be designed for you to interact with people that you personally know.  Twitter is built for interaction with a broader audience.

What about you?  Do you prefer Twitter or Facebook?

 

6 reasons not to use Twitter to bash your organization

July 13, 2010 / / 2 Comments

I posted this on Twitter the other day:

Church politics are stupid.

It was based on a conversation I had with a guy about his past experiences with local churches.  He had been burned many times, and still carries some of those wounds.  It wasn’t based on anything that’s happening in the church where I serve on staff.

I’m all about challenging my system.  And I’d encourage you to continually evaluate the effectiveness of your system, too.  Tweak it, hack it up, throw it out.  Make your system do what you want it to do.  Criticize it.  Mock it.  Stomp on it.

But if you’re a leader in your organization, don’t do it on Twitter.

Why not?

6 reasons to not use Twitter to bash your organization

1. It’s too easy. For me, wisdom doesn’t roll off of my tongue.  Stupidity does.  If I’m going to say something that’s dumb, it’s going to be because I don’t think before I speak.  I just rattle off something without putting diligent thought to my words.  Twitter makes it incredibly easy to post whatever you’re thinking.  It’s as easy as a text message.  And though that’s one of the beauties of social media, it can be one of the uglies when you don’t think before you update. (Which makes me so thankful that social media wasn’t a big deal when I was in high school…because I would have publicly said some dumb things)

2. There’s little accountability. You can fire off an update and then just let it ride.  Although there’s the false sense of accountability because Twitter operates on the public sphere, it’s not really accountability.  Because you can always wriggle your way out of what you said.  “Oh, that was just what I said on Twitter…”  And an @reply or a direct message (for you Facebook users, a wall post or a message) is much more easily ignored than a coworker sitting across the table from you.

3. All of the right voices don’t hear it. As much as we Twitterers would like to think, the whole world hasn’t adopted social media.  Though it’s changed the landscape of information sharing, not everybody has bought in.  And even for people who have bought in, there are varying levels of involvement.  Some people check it once/week.  Others check it once/hour.  Lots and lots of information is shared…and lots and lots of information is never read.  If you’ve got some scathing criticism to say about your organization, there are other key leaders who need to hear that…not just your friend from 2nd grade.

4. You’re limited to 140 characters. How would you feel if your boss came into your staff meeting and said, “Can’t believe the decisions our finance team is making! Hope they enjoy getting fired…” and then walked out of the room?  You’d want a little more explanation, right?  You want more than 140 characters to help you understand where you went wrong, and possible solutions to the problem.  There’s too much left up to interpretation when criticisms come through Twitter.

5. You have little control over the conversation. If criticisms are introduced in person, they can be immediately addressed and explained in person.  If they are introduced via Twitter, your words are stewed over, conversed, and twisted before you can ever fully explain yourself.  It could be days before you are able to sit down with those you criticized, and in the meantime, your words have taken on a life of their own.

6. It could get you fired. Read the story about the Cisco employee HERE.

If you feel the need to be critical of an organization you don’t work for, that’s a different story.  I’ve done that…and it’s worked out well.  Read my story HERE.

But if you work for, or are a leader in an organization, and you feel the need to be critical, that’s fine…just don’t do it on Twitter.

 

Blog-iversary

June 24, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Today marks 2 years for my blog!

If you’ve just gotten on board, welcome!  Here’s a snapshot of what goes on here at Life and Theology:

If you’d like to get updated every time a new post goes live, click HERE to receive it by email, and HERE if you use an RSS reader.

 

Google Reader

June 14, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Before the invention of newspaper deliver services, if you wanted the daily news, you had to visit a newsstand.  And if you wanted more than one newspaper, you were having to go to more than one newsstand every morning to purchase the papers (in hopes that they were still available by the time you arrived).

But then things changed.  Enter the newspaper subscription service.

Wake up.  Walk to your front porch.  Bam…you’ve got your newspapers waiting on you every day.  Genius.

Convenience for you.  Guaranteed service for you.  Guaranteed sales for the newspaper industry.

But when news began to be offered increasingly online (through media outlets and blogs), we as a consumer industry fell right back into the days of walking to multiple newsstands.  We would peruse multiple sites, visit countless blogs, and still not get all of the great news that was available.  Because for every site you checked, there were 1,000 others you didn’t check.  And it just wasn’t feasible to keep up with all of the blogs you found helpful, because you would forget to check them for a few days (or a few weeks), and when you finally remembered, you were way behind.

It’s time to make the internet work for us.

Google Reader

Enter the automated delivery service for digital media: RSS (Really Simple Syndication).  Google Reader is my feed reader of choice.  It gathers all of the new content from the blogs and sites that I visit, and keeps me from having to visit each of those sites individually.  And I can read this content on any computer or mobile phone by simply logging into my account.  Here’s how to get started:

1. Register for a Google Reader account.

2. Come back to my site and click the “RSS” link.

The next step is to visit the sites you love, and look for this symbol: Just click on that button (to the right), and it will prompt you to subscribe to their content.  Simple.

Here are some of the small group sites (some not solely focused on group life) that I have on my Google Reader:

Google Reader is free.  And it keeps you from having to visit multiple newsstands every day.

Did I miss any blogs that are small groups-related?


 

The Best Bible app

June 1, 2010 / / 1 Comment

More and more, Bible apps are dominating the landscape of churches and small groups over physical Bibles.  At least in the circles that I run.  And you’re welcome, as a church or small group, to fight against that.  Maybe it’s a battle worth waging.  For me…I’m happy that people are interacting with the Scriptures, whether it’s on tablets carved from stone or on a mobile device they carry with them all of the time.

I’ve been using my computer and phone to read and search the Scriptures for some time now, and thought I’d highlight for you the two options I believe are the strongest.

YouVersion (developed by Life Church in Oklahoma) has quickly become the industry standard for Bible apps.  It’s interactivity, combined with the depth of translations and resources available, leave nobody questioning why over 350,000 people subscribe to one of their reading plans.  The unofficial poll that I conducted via Twitter was overwhelmingly dominated by YouVersion.

YouVersion (desktop HERE, mobile app HERE)

  • 41 different translations in 22 languages
  • Free
  • Sync with desktop client
  • Multiple reading plans (I’m currently using the Chronological Plan)
  • Share verses easily via Twitter and Facebook
  • Post notes for others to view (desktop client only)
  • Audio Bible (desktop client only)
  • Interact with Live Events (when using YouVersion Live, and when the event you’re attending has posted notes)
  • Share verses easily via Twitter and Facebook

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I’ve used Crossway’s (publishers of the English Standard Version Bible) app for less time, and though it only contains one translation, I have found great value in it.

ESV Bible (iPhone app HERE)

* Available whether you’re connected online or not
* Free
* Quickly and easily find a specific passage/verse
* Record personal notes/highlights and save for future use
* Share verses easily via Facebook and Twitter

What Crossway’s app lacks in power (as compared to YouVersion), it easily makes up for with its ease of use and beauty. It’s incredibly simple to jump to various passages, and the user interface improves readability (as compared with YouVersion and other apps). The font and style of the app matches the font and style of the ESV Bible (my translation of choice), so when I’m reading this app on my phone, I almost forget that I’m looking at an electronic device.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

When I’m in small group, or just needing to look up a specific verse, I use the Crossway app. When I’m reading through the Bible on my own (daily), I use a combination of the desktop and mobile versions of YouVersion.

Do you use a Bible app?  Or do you think it’s better to use a physical copy of the Bible?

 

How to write a good blog post

May 12, 2010 / / 4 Comments

I’ve written quite a few blog posts.  On my blog alone, it’s over 250.  And though that doesn’t make me an expert, I can say that I now know quite a bit more about the art of blogging than when I started.

So how do you write a successful blog post? While I could delve into SEO, social media marketing, and strategic timing of information, and while those things are important, I’ll talk more in this post about the actual nuts and bolts of writing a successful post.

What goes into writing a successful blog post?

1. Get creative with your title. If your title is lame, you’ll lose most readers.

2. Grab people with the first paragraph, at the very latest. If possible, grab them with your first sentence.  If you don’t, people will never read your content.

3. Be provocative. Your momma (and Thumper from Bambi) may have told you, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all,” but I’m telling you, “If you don’t have something interesting to say, don’t say anything at all.”

4.  Leave people thinking about what you wrote all day long. Try ending with a memorable, original statement.  Think, “How can I say this in a catchy, repeatable way?”  If your ideas are provocative and easy to remember, you give people the chance to marinate on them.

5.  Don’t be afraid to offer your opinion. That’s why people are reading…they want to hear what you think.

6. Reread and reword any extraneous material. I don’t mean for you to take out illustrations.  But think how you could word them more succinctly.

7. Provide lots of links. Go crazy with the links.  Making your posts interactive allows your readers to crawl from your posts to other related info.

8. If your post has to be more than 250 words long, make sure it’s scannable. In other words, make use of bullet points and numbered lists.  Bold and italicize words so that somebody could quickly scan and get what you’re talking about.  If they want more info, they’ll read more carefully and click the links that you provide.  If there’s no way to get your idea across in less words, and no real way to make it scannable, you’ll need to offer the info in multiple posts.

9. Invite conversation. If you always end with a conclusion that’s definitive, and leave no room for discussion, readers will check out.  Make sure you give the freedom for differences of opinion.

10.  Consistently post quality information.

 
Older posts Newer posts

© 2025

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑