i saw this today. and i consider myself pretty “connected” to the social media scene. but there’s still a lot i haven’t been a part of, or simply don’t “get”.
and then i started thinking how i’ve kinda been neglecting my social media “skillz” because of how busy we are with MPD* and family. and then i started to wonder, “can we really afford to let our social media presence take a back burner if it’s turning out to be such an important aspect of the culture we live in?”
what are people saying about YOU?
- – - – - – - – - -
*MPD = Ministry Partner Development – that’s the name given to the process of us raising a team of supporters so we can report to Little Rock as fully funded staff missionaries with FamilyLife
in our recent podcast (itunes link) we stated that divorce sucks, on the other end of the spectrum; weddings ROCK! i came across the video below via @youcanknowgod on twitter (great twitter name btw).
i love the fact that this couple took the time to be so fun, creative and original to begin their wedding. but more importantly to begin their marriage. my prayer for them is that they would continue to put that much time, effort, creativity and fun in their marriage in the days, months, and years to come. in fact this video even made me cry because i was so overwhelmed with joy for them.
i’ve been asked several times over the last year about “what’s twitter?” and “why should I use twitter?” while i’ll be the first to admit that you don’t really “get” twitter until you actually start using it, and you get equal value from twitter as you put into it.
so i’ve compiled a list of links to resources giving the various ways people are using twitter, as well as a post i wrote a while ago when i first started using the service. since then it has EXPLODED into mainstream use.
if you fast twitter or facebook and you get cravings to get online and just check is it called an “appetite being starved” or an “addiction going through withdrawals”?
a couple weeks ago i fasted Twitter/Facebook for a week and i was surprised to find out that the mental/emotional feelings were the same for me compared to times that i had fasted food.
there’s many people who may have tried to fast for a day. and many of them have given up half way through the day or a couple hours before the 24hrs are over. and because they don’t feel successful at this attempt at fasting, they give up on the idea of fasting altogether. (just in case any of you start thinking that i’m boasting that i’m all “holier-than-thou”; i’ve been one of those “give-up-before-the-day’s-over” people many times; even though i know what i’m about to tell you.)
there’s a little thing called twitter, have you heard of it? and on twitter there’s a way to get an ongoing trend from one person or multiple people at the same time/event/place. it’s called a hashtag.
a hashtag is a word, phrase, or just letters preceded by the number sign. such as: #olympics, #superbowl, #election, #christmaslist, etc.
anyone can create these hashtags either for personal use or for use by anyone that knows about it. the other day i started one such hashtag for the days leading up to Valentine’s day (but i plan on continuing it past v-day).
i recently wrote on twitter about having figured out how much money we’re putting towards our debt – a whopping 45% of our net income. and then an additional 13% of our net income goes towards tithes and charity work. so essentially we’re living on only 42% of our net income.
@sarahsdandelion they musta slipped past me. i hadn’t seen/read them until you mentioned it. thanks for the heads up. :)
so now that i’ve given you a recap for those who don’t currently use twitter, (go ahead and sign up, i know you wanna.) or for those of you who use twitter but don’t follow either @sarahsdandelion or @lauraanna i’ll now commence with my reply to the thought about my pride and income.
just wanted to let everyone know that yes, i still am participating in my twitter/facebook fast for this week. but i do have my blog automatically post a link to twitter when i write new content, and then that also gets posted to facebook. (this is 2009, after-all. the interwebs are cool like that)
i also technically get emailed whenever a comment is left in facebook, or a direct message is sent via twitter.
so i still get some twitter/facebook interaction via email, but i am not reading, posting personally, nor going to the sites at all this week.
sorry for the confusion this may have caused everyone.
———-
ps. oh, and yes, this post count’s toward the 120-club. :)
i recently got an email from a friend asking about how to increase traffic to his blog, my response to him is what follows:
How do I get my blog more action i.e. visits?
simple answer: let people know you have one and keep them coming back by having content they want to read about.
what that means is include your blog site address in your email signature as seen below. when you write a new blog post, let people who follow you on twitter or facebook know about it. (and so you may also want to get more people to follow you on twitter and/or facebook, including people you don’t know but seem to have similar interests. Continue reading
so you may have noticed that i’ve started updating my blog with a daily digest of my tweets. there’s lots of life that takes place in between when i have time to write a blog post.
but, since i’m not as faithful as other bloggers to write something everyday or multiple times a day, it started to seem like my tweets were overtaking my blog.
