A More Comprehensive Post on Twitter

Last week I lobbed up a quick Hail Mary of a post up about Twitter. I’ll slow down and try again now that I have a moment.

First off, what is Twitter?

Twitter is the dominate form of microblogging. Since you’re here, you know what a blog is. A micro-blog is where a person makes a short “burst” of a post, no more than 140 characters long. Each one of these entries is known as a “tweet.” Users can send and view each others posts at twitter.com. Twitter invites people to answer the question, “What are you doing now?” as often as you like.

So great, Larry, you are saying that there is yet another form of social networking. I know, I know. Why bother right?

Here’s how I’m using twitter professionally.

First, I visited twitter.com and created my account. I’m lshallenberger if you want to follow me.

Second, I downloaded and installed Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck helps you organize the messages you send and receive, as well a direct messages (private ones), as well as searches (this will come in handy a bit later).

Third, I started looking for people to follow. Here are some of my favorite tweeters, and why…

Young Upstarts
@pudgehuckaby
@samluce
@henry
@mattmckee
@henryjz

These folk are all younger (than I), tech-savvy, visionary, and willing to take chances. By following them I keep up with technology, trends, and new ways to skin the proverbial cat. These folk are also funny.

Leadership Wonks
@jimwideman
@michaelhyatt
@dereksanford
@tonymorgan
@ryanfrank
@kidologists

This group consists of either mentors, executive pastors, or seasoned voices in children’s ministry. Most of these folk use twitter to share with their followers what they are thinking, reading. Some, like Jim Wideman, uses twitter to model what a winning attitude looks like throughout the work day.

And then here’s big help– the hashtag! Hashtags are used to search all tweets world-wide. The official hashtag for children’s ministry is #kidmin. In tweetdeck, you can load a search for #kidmin, and a column will created. Leave that column up and you can monitor every childrens ministry post across the United States as they happen. You’ll meet children’s ministry pastors, discover new ideas, and find people with whom you can ask questions.
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