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Twitter? That’s just like Facebook statuses without the extra stuff, right?

January 17, 2011 By drbexl Leave a Comment

Well, Twitter and Facebook may both be social networking sites, but they are quite different. Facebook is officially a ‘private’ space, where you interact with people that you already know, whereas Twitter is a public space, giving lots of opportunities to meet new people. If you have a smartphone, it’s even easier to use Twitter!

What is Twitter?

Whilst Facebook has been around since 2004, Twitter.com first came on the scene in 2006. It’s a form of microblogging, based on text messaging, so every message (known as a tweet) is limited to 140 characters. Messages are displayed on your profile page, and read by subscribers, known as ‘followers’ (rather than ‘friends’). Messages usually aren’t as personal as Facebook statuses… “I had toast” tends not to work… unless you’re a celebrity (find them on: http://www.celebritytweet.com/)!

Twitter is great for “meeting” others with similar interests, as it’s easy to search for particular words. Twitter also uses #hashtags which make it easier to find specific interests. Take, for example, if you were looking for the TV series “Lost”. If you search for ‘lost’ you will find all the tweets where people have lost things, but if you search for #Lost you are more likely to find people talking about the TV series. Users often repost other users messages, known as a ‘Retweet’. The message then gets circulated to their followers, spreading the message much wider. This is the basis of the power of Twitter.

So, that’s what it is, what can you do with it?

We’ve already said that Twitter is great for following celebrities, and for making new contacts. I find it much easier to work out what someone is interested in on Twitter, as people tend to write more frequently and more ‘openly’. Twitter has few rules, but does have a strong etiquette, and the tone is generally friendly, genuine, with people engaging where their passions are. It tends not to work if you’re not interested in something!

Once you have a decent following, you can seek feedback and questions (as Stephen Fry famously did when he got stuck in a lift!). Want to be the first in the know? News stories tend to break first on Twitter, including the plane crashing into the Hudson River, and the death of Michael Jackson.

What about if you want to get serious?

Twitter is great for reputation building, and with every Tweet being treated as a separate ‘page’ by the search engines, your name will jump up Google, and you’ll be easier to find. Just think what it’s appropriate to post!

If you want people to follow, and continue following, you, you need to make yourself interesting, justify their investment of time. Give them insights into the real you, your passions, and a touch of humour. Some of the big companies are on Twitter, and you can get discounts, support, competitions and an idea of what’s new? Look at how Radio 1 use Twitter, all part of building a relationship with their audience.

Do you need to be on it?

If you need to network, before an event, or when job-hunting, Twitter is great for this. You can have great conversations with people before an event, and it makes it easier to say hi, and then carry on the conversation afterwards! If job-hunting, demonstrate your passion for a field, and an awareness for the latest news stories, and the key people in the field.

It’s important to accept that it takes time to build up a following, and that you need to put time into chatting to others. It can take time for Twitter to make sense, and, one final note… your followers will come and go – don’t take it personally!

Article written by Bex Lewis for the Winter 2010 of Thoughts Magazine (a free magazine for teens, twenties and students), and first published on BigBible.

Filed Under Press Coverage, Social Media Tagged With @bigbible, Facebook, Publication, Social Media, Thoughts Magazine, Twitter

Focusing for October

October 8, 2010 By drbexl Leave a Comment

So, this year, pretty much everything that I’m doing is digital, so I’m starting to be a bit more strategic about what I’m doing, and allowing my projects to inform each other….

I’m really looking forward to reading @unmarketing’s book (see right), as I’ve never been a fan of marketing, it’s always been about the community, and community engagement… I’m expecting to see ideas for how to kick-start communities and the kind of tactics that need to be undertaken to push forward social media so that it feels genuine, authentic & reflects the brand.

I’m also hoping to get to a day of the Like Minds conference.

The BigBible Project

The BigBible Project is a project that I’m working on 2.5 days a week. I’m very much enjoying getting some great guest posts, but I need time to sit down and make a list… and I’m also giving 3 sessions at conference (16th Oct). I’m learning loads about content, strategy, utilising WordPress to give me what I want… I plan to use @problogger’s 31 Days to a Better Blog to identify gaps!

Super Fun Days Out

I have been working on this site since Summer 2009, and it’s been ungoing a lot of changes, with a few more to come, to make the site more usable. We have sat down for a great strategic meeting this week, and talked through what we want to achieve (and what’s manageable), so I have returned to my original plan of dealing with Adrenablog and Twitter (and bookmarking once those have embedded), which means I can focus on being more strategic, and hunt out some great stories! We have come up with some targets, so let’s see how we take off… come and visit us!

Other

As a part of my role as Blended Learning Fellow, I continue to develop the Blended Learning Blog (and other internal material, both paper and VLE based). I have great plans for @digitalfprint (but it’s a bit of a case of Cobbler’s Shoes), and continue to add material (if rather sporadically) to http://drbexl.co.uk/ and http://ww2poster.co.uk/. I am also teaching on a great new module (which is involving a lot of ‘set up’ work):

Manipulating Media

See: http://manipulating-media.co.uk/. I have around 20 more blog posts to write for this, 10 practical & 10 more instructional. We’re in Week 2 this week, I need to be ready before Week 5! We plan to have our students digitally literate by the end of the first year, but they also need to pick up a number of academic skills.

Filed Under Portfolio Tagged With @bigbible, @maipm, @sfdo, Blogging, sites, Strategy

The BigBible Project; Housegroup… with a new media layer!

September 10, 2010 By drbexl 1 Comment

I have just written the following blog post to summarise the project that I am working on with CODEC this year… I came on board on the 1st July, working 2.5 days a week, and after looking around at the number of other projects that existed, and knowing that the book formed a central part of this project… this is what has now exists:

The BigBible Project is an exciting new initiative tying in with the larger Biblefresh initiative for 2011. This ecumenical project is produced by CODEC (‘Christian Communication in the Digital Age’, St John’s College, University of Durham), funded by The Methodist Church and Methodist Evangelicals Together, and supported by Premier Christian Media, SPCK and Twelve Baskets.

As the project develops, you can get first hand updates through the blog: http://bigbible.org.uk, Twitter http://twitter.com/bigbible and Facebook http://bit.ly/bigbiblefb.

What is The Big Read 2011?
Over Lent 2010, the people of Durham got together for “The Big Read“, working their way through Luke, using the first of three texts to be written by Tom Wright, using events, podcasts and housegroup materials. This was such a success, that for the second text, Matthew, the activity is going national in The Big Read 2011.

The book, published by SPCK, will be available in the shops/in Kindle in January 2011, and a subscription option will allow you to receive the materials daily. The project will then offer further opportunities for Bible Engagement: Online and Offline.

How is this different?
The BigBible Project will provide housegroup materials to accompany the daily readings contained within the book, offering items for reflection and discussion within your local group. There is also, however, the opportunity to participate in national discussions with those partaking online, whether individually or with their own housegroups, and also to upload your own material produced in response to the issues raised. Podcasts and Vodcasts will also be made available.

Why should I be using social media?
There are already millions of Christians online (note, we talk online/offline, rather than virtual/real), and there’s no need to feel that you need to join every online service! One of the joys of social media is that it tends to encourage transparency and authenticity, so if a part of your life is your Christian faith, that is likely to come through.

The more genuine indicators of our whole lives that we can give to those inhabiting online worlds, the more positive indicators of a Christian faith we can give.

A number of those Christians already online may qualify as those who are “ranty” offline, and therefore also will be so online… allow the wider world to see the range of viewpoints and the common purpose that all Christians hold.

Contribute your voice to social justice and other campaigns, such as the anti-burning-of-the-Qu’ran Facebook group and SuperBadger.

Save re-inventing the wheel by sharing ideas and inspiring and encouraging each other. Once you know how to use some of the social media tools, you can join in deeper with the housegroup materials…

Bex, who is project managing this project, has found it a real joy and encouragement to make contact with others online who challenge and encourage her in her faith journey.

I’m scared of/don’t get/don’t know how to use social media?
We see this project as a wonderful opportunity to help more Christians to experience being a part of the ‘online’ world within the context of something that most already understand – the Bible, and also to encourage a rise in Bible reading – those who spend the most time zooming around tend to be those who have smartphones – so can take opportunities to check in with online materials!

The BigBible Project is involved in the New Media Conference co-hosted by Premier and CODEC, to be held in central London on 16th October 2010, which will allow both ‘newbies’ and experienced new media practitioners to learn – both practically and theologically.

How can I help?
The blog is intended to become a ‘crowdsourcing’ space, a term which simply means to use the ‘wisdom of the crowds’, allowing us to share our different levels of expertise (and in both the Bible and social media, there’s no one that ‘knows it all’), and our responses to the materials that we are engaging with. We are therefore looking to draw upon the experience and expertise of all.

If you are having your first go at using a form of social media, especially for Bible engagement, we’d love to hear your experience- what you enjoyed, what you learnt – and feel free to indicate those things you didn’t like as well.

If you have lots of experience in new media, or are interested in the debates surrounding theology and new media, we would love you to contribute your thoughts and your practical tips in order to allow others to get past their fears and feel confident online – no tip too small.

For now, please feed through bex.lewis@durham.ac.uk, although we are anticipating using BuddyPress shortly to provide community functionality.

Where can I find you online & how can I join in?
Remember, you don’t have to join all platforms, and can join as little or as much as you like::

What will happen afterwards?
This project is excitingly new and experimental, but even in its early weeks, has already attracted a lot of attention and support. As we continue through Biblefresh for 2011, we are already identifying further texts for Autumn and Christmas, and the material deposited in 12Baskets will provide great resources for others to share.

Filed Under Christianity, Portfolio Tagged With @bigbible, blog, Facebook, Portfolio, Project Management, Twitter

Social Media Boot Camp #dmingml

September 5, 2010 By drbexl 6 Comments

On Saturday, the Social Media Boot Camp was held at LICC, just off Oxford Street. I’m finding it really interesting working within both the Higher Education and the Christian sectors with regards to digital tools – both have groups who are keen to utilise the potential available with social media, both are pretty evangelistic about the purpose of the message they carry… and both have big groups of people who are resistant to social media, who need to understand that social media is not the be all and end all, but a tool!!

Event Host
The event was co-hosted by a number of organisations, but http://dmingml.com/ (Global Missional Leadership Doctor of Ministry) appears to have been the driver behind it, and look at this great opportunity to share resources online, and then build upon those with further resources… (The hashtag for the event was: #dmingml). The wonderful app below is just recently released, and is continuing development – hopefully with a more general licence release in the spring!

Jason kicked us off with a bit of an intro, with an overall message that social media is just a tool, and just because it’s there doesn’t mean need to use it (as in, no need to panic and think you need to join every social media outlet out there). However, it’s good to be aware of its potential, and then look to use it well! Antony Billington from LICC then tied the event in with John Stott‘s original aims in setting up the LICC, ‘double-listening’, to both the world and to God, and looking for joins between the two (rather than dismissing the world!)

Video Content
Krish Kandiah (from EA), who was currently flying back from Australia, then provided us with a bit of video chat! He is incredibly excited that so many Christians are positive about social media engagement! He encouraged us that the Church should be early adopters of new technology to spread the good news, as was done in the Reformation/with the printing press. Through social media, the world is becoming a smaller place, allowing, for example, more effective prayers. Such prayers can be sent out by Twitter (rather than monthly newsletters), shortly before the event, through the event – and allows us to know what is happening ‘now’.  Social media has lots of potential for mass book groups, podcasts & vodcasts from sermons. One of the things Krish seemed particularly chuffed with, was that he set up Nick Griffin does not speak for Christians and gained over 4000 fans very quickly!

Excited?!
Yes, it was an excellent day (maybe a little difficult for those who know nothing about social media to follow, but think overall well balanced, gave me things to think about and reconfirmed some of my own thinking!) – and I got to meet some people face-2-face for the first time. There was a big call for a site/wiki on which to share experiences of what has worked… For the project on which I’m working: @bigbible, we are keen to get people engaging in Tom Wright’s ‘Matthew for Lent’ and will be providing some traditional style housegroup material, but also, an optional layer, engaging with new media! As it is clear that so many are unfamiliar with new media, the intention is that the blog will allow those who have experimented with social media in a Christian context (particularly in relation to the Bible) to blog about their experiences (so let me know if you’re interested), so we start to build a resource of ‘best practice’ (and also what to avoid!). Potentially a wiki may also help… [I was tweeting as @drbexl BTW]

Read More:

Filed Under Christianity, Digital Literacy, Social Media Tagged With #dmingml, @bigbible