To Tweet or Not To Tweet – Why your church should not use Twitter
2009 December 18
You’ve seen other churches and ministries use it, you’ve heard a lot about it, and you’re thinking, “Maybe we should start a Twitter.” Well hold your venti double shot skinny frappachino, hipster. Here are some things to think about before you jump on the bandwagon of 140 characters and Re-Tweets.
photo via xotoko
- Do You Know What You’re Doing? – The great thing about Twitter is its simplicity of use. Anyone can start using it right off the spot without much instruction. However, there is some culture that only exists in the world of Twitter. Chances are, the people who would benefit from your church being on Twitter, have been on there for awhile and are already well adapted. Last thing you want is to apologize for incorrect usage.
- Instead – Start your own personal Twitter for a little while. Test the water, see if you can envision ways for your church or ministry to be useful if they had an account. Follow other church accounts to see what they’re doing.
- Resist the Hype - There are so many accounts with their last tweet looking something like this: “Twitter is awesome, can’t wait to tweet more tomorrow!” And that was 4 months ago. Don’t jump in, tell everyone, then jump right back out. You’re either in or out.
- Instead - Start quietly for a few weeks. If you think you’re in, then start announcing.
- Are the People You are Trying to Connect With, Using It? - Don’t start a Twitter account expecting everyone to join it in order to follow your church. Twitter growth of new users is down. However, those who already there, their usage is up. (*See chart below) Don’t continue to remind everyone every Sunday about your cool Twitter account. If there isn’t a decent percentage of well established users in your church, don’t expect everyone to join in on the party.
- Instead – Find and talk to those you are trying to connect with who already use Twitter on Twitter. This will help in the development with interaction with your followers.
via
- Have You Tried Facebook Yet? – If your church or ministry doesn’t have a Facebook, don’t cut in the line of succession or take on two new applications at once. Facebook has well over twice the amount of users, and statistically, you’ll be connecting with more of your attendees on Facebook over Twitter.
- Instead – Start with Facebook, then move on to Twitter.
- Remember That Twitter is Not the End-All of Communication – Some get frustrated when others don’t connect with them in convenient ways for themselves. *(Like me – I hardly ever leave voice mail) Don’t get frustrated when you finally make the move to consistently be on Twitter and people still want to call you on the phone or meet with you for lunch.
- Instead – Connect with others in ways that speak to them. Isn’t that why you started a Twitter account in the first place?
That’s all I can come up with. What are some other things to think about before starting a Twitter account?
ps. You can follow the Sheep on Twitter @GodlySheep!
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"Well hold your venti double shot skinny frappachino, hipster." I laughed at that for a little while. best line of the day.
Brett thank you for calling this out. You are exactly right and this conversation is needed.
The church I attend have a twitter and a facebook fan page. I do not follow them on twitter simply because all the tweets they have are "you should be our fan on facebook" that is it.
Instead of rushing into technology, it is important to leverage technology for what you are doing. Having a plan is often neglected, but the most important thing to start with.
I see a lot of churches who get excited about something, and then try to push it onto their congregations and then wonder why no one is jumping on their enthusiasm. Part of this is because people are slow to change.
You can't go in tweets blazing and expect a change overnight. It takes patience, commitment, and a little fun to make it work. If you're not willing to put forth that kind of effort, don't start knowing you're going to quit.
Great advice. I think a pet peeve of mine for churches would be jumping into things and then leaving them undone or hanging. Its out there for everyone to see. In my opinion, this is how a church or ministry needs to be more like a business, more professional. Business always ‘count the cost’ before they jump into anything. Great advice Brett!!
One thing that I failed to mention in the post is to have fun with Twitter. You don't need to be all suit and tie, sushi eating, professional with your Twitter account.
Keep it fun and light.
If you're never enjoying it, either re-evaluate or stop.
Good stuff. Thanks.
I think Twitter can and is an amazing tool for connection and information distribution. I especially like that you can have updats text'd to you. I have found you have to be careful of the demographic you are targeting. I know with our congregation, we still have ministry leaders who refuse to use email. Which just blows my mind because I live in my email inbox…but it just reminds me that you have to be individual as well as corporate when your trying to distribute information. Not that one person can personally call all 500 of it's church members, but I'm just saying it's important to note the demographic your targeting and find ways to cater to them.
I have slowly started trying to integrate Twitter and Facebook into our methods of connecting with Ministry leaders. And I have found, just like you said…one thing at a time, test the waters before you jump in, and be sensitive to your target.
It's funny because we don't understand why people don't use email, but I find it hard to return phone calls. They are probably thinking, "Why does this guy refuse phone conversations?"
We all have a way we prefer to communicate. None wrong, just different. Great thoughts!
Agreed
This was exactly what I was thinking as I was reading the post and comments! If you want to be an effective communicator, you MUST identify the preferred methods of communication of those you're attempting to communicate with.
One thought as far as social networking for a church goes, why not offer several ways for people to "stay in the loop"? For instance, if someone wants to follow my blog, they have a choice to either subscribe to my feed via a reader OR via email. If neither of them suits the person, they can follow me on Twitter and they'll see not only links to my posts, but other cools articles and site too.
In my youth group, we have parents on many different technological levels. It is for this reason that we print calendars and fliers AND post activity information on the website. SO, they can get info via hard copy, email, rss reader, OR visiting the site. For a church's online presence, having a central "hub" (probably being the website) if probably a good idea. Different modes of communication can then shoot off from there. The site could link to the church's twitter stream, facebook page, etc. I could go on…
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