Twitterizing Your Ministry
I’ve been singing Twitter’s praises for the past couple of months now, but I’ve never been able to give a clear explanation as to how it can actually help in a missions context. Until now. @djchuang (as he’s known in Twitter World) wrote an interesting blog post today called “Using Twitter at Work and Ministry.” He quotes Sarah Milstein of the New York Times and her “Five ways to use Twitter in your business career:”
- 1. Share ideas. … note cool work-related things you’ve discovered — a great article, a new Web site or an intriguing idea.
2. Show respect. … “retweet” something interesting somebody else has Twittered.
3. Build your brand.
4. Engage customers. Run contests, solicit feedback and thank customers for supportive messages.
5. Provide customer service.
And speaking as a missionary in a foreign country, there are even more advantages for international ministries and missions agencies:
- 1. Stay connected, in real-time, with the home office or other missionaries around the world.
2. In the context of short-term missions, keep the friends and families of team members informed while their loved ones serve overseas.
3. Use Twitter as a supplement to a blog, providing ministry glimpses…and another avenue for supporters to follow the daily activities of their missionary in the field.
4. Promote a ministry website, or (as in the case of my missions agency, a blog network (coming soon!).
5. Publicize an outreach, an event, or a cause.
6. Sharpen your writing skills — as a missionary who has to write a lot of newsletters, blog posts, emails, and countless other documents, this is invaluable!
7. Have fun! Spend as much or as little time as you want writing and reading “Tweets.”
If you’re still not convinced, here’s an article on “50 Ideas for Using Twitter for Business.” If you can think of more benefits of using Twitter in the realm of ministry or missions work, please share. In the meantime, feel free to follow the daily stream of consciousness of @nathanbabcock and happy Twittering!
