How to Get me to Follow you or Dump you on Twitter

As I was just reading Scott Williams' blog post "5 Best Twitter Tips Of All-Time" I remembered that I have wanted to share the things that I like and don't like about Twitter users (A.K.A. why I follow or dump Twitterers).  By the way, Scott's comments were excellent I just have a few more things to say about tweeting...

First of all, Scott pegged it perfectly - "Twitter is a river, not a lake", it changes how we communicate and using preexisting technologies as examples of how to use it can be dangerous.  Dip your ladle in and take what you can, make sure that what you put in it is clean, safe and usable for those downstream and don't get upset if your contribution just flows on past - it happens.

Let's get on with it...

If you want me to follow you:

• Put a picture on your profile of you or your brand.  Also, Twitter is not so much like FaceBook where you might change your profile picture for fun - find one you like and only change it when completely necessary.  That picture is often how I know to stop and read your tweet while quickly scanning my time-line.
  

If you want me to dump you:

• When I see the twitter bird I move on.  When I see one of the few dozen hot women pictures that spammers use I block it.

If you want me to follow you:

• Fill in your profile bio.  When you write it think about what you would want to know about someone if you were deciding to follow them or not.  Who are you and what is important to you.  Indicating where you are is a plus (and not completely necessary) only if you have a descriptive bio.  
• Give me a link to your website (if you have one) - if I'm not sure based on what I see on your time-line and bio I go there.
  

If you want me to dump you:

• If you use a URL shortener for your website link consider yourself blocked.  If you can't show me where I am going when I go see your site then you must not want me to see it - gone. 
• Tell me that you know how to get me hundreds or thousands of followers and your blocked.  I'll just say it - people like you are sucking the life out of Social Networking.

If you want me to follow you:

• Show me that you interact with the people you currently follow.  I'm OK with one-dimensional brand Twitter accounts (I expect Jimmy John's or Confluence Coffee to mostly talk about their businesses), but when I see 25 straight posts about "herbal enhancement products" that's a quick block.
• If you're new - do this stuff above (a good, quality picture and bio) and show me that you have started using Twitter.  Share your thoughts, add to the flood of comments about things going on and just be honest.
• Share information that is important to you and that would be important to everyone else.  See something happening around you that's of interest - snap a picture and share it with the rest of us.  Have something to say about the current news of the day - chime in!
  

If you want me to dump you:

• If you are following 1,000 people and have 2 followers that's problem.  Think about the EBay seller that has sold 1,000 items and has %50 rating - would you buy from them?  
• I've been immersed in Twitter enough to pick out fake accounts and one of the giveaway's is seeing 15 stereotypical tweets from a new Twitterer - real Twitterers don't have a specific style!
• When I see a pattern of tweets from you that get me thinking that the only thing you are interested in is getting traffic to your site/blog/whatever or so you might get some more followers then I get tired and will eventually dump you.
• When you can't express yourself without spewing out fowl language then you're gone.  Do I believe and occasional curse in exclamation is a big deal - no - but, use your brain in figure out how to communicate without being offensive.
  

Bottom line - I really enjoy Twitter, it's where I get most of my news of the day.  I am more in tune with the world than ever - it's fun to "meet" new people with which I have things in common and when we do have things in common it's obvious over time.

Satan is alive and well and living on Facebook (too)

Yes, Satan is alive and well on earth and social networking hasn't skipped his radar...why would it? Satan is cunning and will use every method you can think of and more because he is DESPERATE.

So, when we as Christians see things like the "F**k Jesus Christ" group on FaceBook we shouldn't be surprised. In fact, we should expect such nonsense as a desperate attempt by the prince of darkness to push one more soul over the brink and away from God. We should see it for what it is and realize that HE IS LOSING!

Does that mean we can relax and let our guard down because he is losing - NO - it means that we should continue with God's good work. This includes praying for just such people as Derek Munson, Costas Katenidis and Adam Ajaja; the officers of the FaceBook group and others like them that are lost and hurting.  Jesus came to this earth and died for these three lost souls just as much as He came for you and for me.

We as a Christian community should also stop being afraid to deal with nastiness like this because we don't want to get our hands dirty even talking about such things.  When we fear such frontal attacks Satan wins the battle.  Satan will lose the war, but we Christians need to stand firm against this nonsense, defiance and blasphemy and bring it out in the light - out in the open - because, "everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed" (John 3:20).

I'm not asking you to join a new FaceBook cause asking FaceBook to delete the group - there are plenty of those and the group is still there, besides FaceBook is not the culprit.  FaceBook is just another normal, everyday thing that Satan is using in his desperation to collected broken souls.  I am asking you to make your presence known each day as Christians and show the darkness the light.

Yes, Satan is alive and well - but he will lose the war.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  John 1:1-5

Ignorance Isnt Bliss

Yesterday I watched an interview with the pastor of Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, NC from my local NBC affiliate.  In this interview he stated that his Church is having a "book burning" on Halloween where they would be burning "satanic books".  Sounds weird...not something I would do...but, to each his own...right?

Wrong...

Then he started listing off some of the main items they would be burning which includes EVERY VERSION OF THE BIBLE OTHER THAN THE KING JAMES VERSION.  Yes, you heard it right, this guy and the rest of his "flock" are going to burn bibles, because they believe that the only true inspired word of God is one released in 1611 for the Church of England and commissioned by King James I.

Like I have stated here many times, I grew up in a rather conservative culture - one with tons and tons of copies of the KJV - the bible I took to college was a KJV (although, it quickly gathered dust in place of my NIV).  For many years the KJV was the only readily accessible translation of God's word and many, many people have come to know the Lord using it as their guide.  I do not believe there is anything really wrong with the KJV if you prefer it, then use it - wear the pages out - that is awesome...

However, what I do have a big problem with are people that condemn others for using anything but that version of the bible.  For me, the decision is easy, the New International Version (NIV), is accurate (over 100 scholars worked for over 10 years on it), and easy to read and understand and it has held up well over the years as a reliable bible version.  There are still very many people that prefer the KJV and I embrace them, because it is God's word.

Marc Grizzard, however, is a different story.  Not only does he prefer the KJV, he believes it is the only true interpretation of the bible and that the others are works of Satan.  Then he get's his face on the news and the next thing you know it goes "viral" and thousands of people get to hear his ignorant message.  To some non-Christians, he becomes the face of Christianity.

Mr. Grizzard, I wish you would shut up and keep you lunatic ravings to yourself and your hand-full of followers - burn your bibles and whatever else you need to keep you fire going and do it next to your Church building and be quiet.

I do have one question...did the apostles carry the Thompson Chain-Reference edition or just a simple Zondervan Study Bible in the 1st century?

The Book of Our Life

We all have at least two versions of the books of our lives...some have more than two versions. What we do with those versions says a lot about how we REALLY feel about those we show our books to.

Assuming that there are only three versions:

Version "C" is the version that shows us as we want the world to see us. Every event has a purpose and a simple, positive explanation. Every thought has meaning. Every crisis a happy ending. We are the hero, never the villain, our motives are always pure.

Version "B" is the version that shows us as we want our friends to see us. Pretty much the same as the "world version", but with a some selected weakness. The kind of weakness that only goes to prove how human and sensitive we are. It's like the answer you give your potential boss while being interviewed about your "biggest weakness" - we take a potentially negative answer and spin it so that it sounds like a strength. This version has a few missing details from the "C" version and maybe even a few accounts that are not there. We are occasionally the villain, but we have learned from our mistakes.

Version "A" is the REAL version. It is the one that we would write to God in our weakest moment - knowing that He already knows how it went so there is no reason to skip any details, no reason to spin anything. It's unabridged and uncensored. We are villain, hero, pawn, king, patsy, queen, shepherd, leader and follower...

Here's the thing about Version "A" - what you do with this version says A GREAT DEAL about who you REALLY ARE...

• Some will never even write it. Yes, I believe that many of us will never write this book. They replace it with either Version "B" or Version "C" - yes they CALL it Version "A", but it is censored before the ink hits the page. The idea of accepting who we are - the way we are is incomprehensible...no sense in opening ourselves up to ourselves and to God.
  
  
• Some will never share it with anyone. They may share it with God in private, but those pages will never be exposed to more than the two eyes God gave them. Their "B" version may fly off the shelves, but this version is locked away in a safe place - hidden from all.
  
  
• Some share it with others:


• Some share it with close friends and family - I can speak from experience here - this is dangerous...fraught with risk. But, as with other things in life, high risk has the potential for high gain. Sometimes you get a big payback and things are great!
  
  
• Some share it with their best friend and spouse - this has some risk, but much less risk than the previous, the rewards can be great too.
  
  
• Some share it with only their spouse - what a wonderful gift to the person you love - your soul mate. A beautiful, open, loving relationship has the book out in the open, on the table next to your bed...open. You take it with you on walks in the fall, you take it with you on drives to see the family, you take it with you when you answer the phone when the debt collector calls, you take it with you when you find out you may have cancer... You write in it and your spouse reads it and remembers and loves every word...

"The Book of Our Life" has only one real version, but may have many arrangements or abridgments. God knows the real version, but He has also read all of the abridgments - He knows what we want everyone else to read about us, He has seen all of the things we want to forget...and...HE LOVES US ANYWAY.

In fact, He loves all the versions of our book, but wants us to share the real version because He's the author (we penned it) but he wrote it and because of that it is beautiful.

Social Networking and The Church Part 1

I'm working on a proposal for managing Social Networking at my Church... I thought I would just let if fly here while I'm working... Silly me...

Communication is critical to success in life – this is nothing new. If you don’t think so, historians around the world believe that one of the greatest achievements in the last 1000 years is Gutenberg’s printing press in or around 1440. It’s interesting to realize that the one of the first things ever printed in Europe was The Bible. Communication was coming out of the “dark ages”, but no one then would have dreamed where that first book would take us.

Fast forward about 569 years and the world is very different, how we communicate has changed a great deal, but our need to communicate is stronger than ever. If there was anyone in Gutenberg’s time that thought what was happening wasn’t important they have long since been forgotten. One of the reasons that the movable printing press was so important in the course of history was that it allowed information to reach people that had no way of getting it before. Now, more common people had a chance to own a copy of God’s word or some other important communication, to read for on their own. 569 years later we take communication for granted, we don’t just like it – we expect it, we crave it and we live for it.

Gutenberg’s printing press was “bleeding edge technology” – I can only imagine those around him clamoring to find out what was next, how it worked and how they could get in on the action – just like some of us do with technology today. Technology is a word that we throw around a great deal in our society and when we do with often put the technology before the purpose behind it (“form over function”). When we do that we often get into trouble and the message get’s lost and our credibility disappears with it which then affects our effectiveness of spreading God’s word. Christ would want us to be as effective as possible with our marching orders in Matthew 28:19,10

“go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”

using every tool available to us and using those tools in such a way as to allow us to be successful in spreading His “good news”.

Knowing this, we need to be diligent, careful and creative with the communication tools at our disposal in order to be as effective as possible in our mission to tell the world about the good news of Christ.