"I don't get Twitter"
is the apparent sentiment of the general public, or at least an increasingly prominent view I've personally seen and heard expressed as of late. I overhear snide elevator quips such as, "I don't care what you had for breakfast". A common conversation goes something like this:
A: What's the point of Twitter anyway?
B: I think it's just so you can tell the world what you're doing at every moment.
A: Who really cares what I'm doing all day? And isn't that what Facebook is for? What's so great about Twitter if it's only for status updates?
Now, let me tell you -- I am a big fan of Facebook. It's revolutionized the way I keep up with friends old and new, organize events, and share news/thoughts/video/photos/anecdotes. The fact of the matter is, though, that Twitter is a different animal -- and much like Macs, it gets a bad rap from those who have never given it a shot.
Blogger Adam Pash from Lifehacker states it well:
"Discounting Twitter altogether because you think it's ridiculous that people tweet about what they had for breakfast is like claiming that email is useless because of forward chains. It's a mistake, and you'd be missing out on a great tool if you let that put you off Twitter completely." In this post, he goes on to share "Six Ways You Should Be Using Twitter (That Don't Involve Breakfast)".
Another blogger, Kurt form Church Marketing Online, writes "The Top Ten Reasons for Churches to Twitter".
So those articles addressed the point of Twitter...what's my point? Obviously, I'm not telling you what you should and shouldn't do...but I do want to inform our friends, customers, and ministry partners about a great tool that they may initially overlook due to its "silly" stigma. At LifeWay, we're continually exploring how we can use social networking to reach people. Perhaps more importantly, we're finding out how we can use it to listen, and for that I think Twitter is spectacular.
Personally, I listen to what the world is saying by using TweetDeck to constantly follow relevant keywords, such as "LifeWay", "Beth Moore", "VBS", etc.
It is enlightening and [usually] encouraging to see what folks have to say about us and our resources. I love it when I see a question or comment I can immediately address (or know who else can) -- it's fun to take customers by surprise with a timely, personal reply!
Many of us here also tweet regularly about recent product releases, research, updates, upcoming products and events, contests and giveaways, or just what we're currently working on. It's a great way to give customers and other ministry partners an eye and a voice to the inside of LifeWay, which I believe is profitable for achieving our chief end of Twittering: building relationships. I hope you'll catch our Twitterpation and I invite you to follow one, some, or all of us LifeWay "tweeps".
You can follow me @LifeWayMedia.
Bucky Elliott is a Motion Graphcis & Media Developer for LifeWay Digital Media Publishing.
