Saving Time on Social Media

Posted on May 23, 2013 by
Hand holding a Social Media 3d Sphere
2 Crucial Ways to Save Time on Social Media
  1. Limit your time with software accountability. Social media can either be a huge time waster or a huge resource; ensure it’s being a resource by downloading Productivity Owl which allows you to get the info you need, then get out. The owl will close your page if you’re on social media too long.
  2. Plan weekly tweets, blogs, and other resources in one day by entering them into HootSuite, which is a social media dashboard, to distribute and post automatically throughout the week.  Managing Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites on one page with tools like Hootsuite is more efficient than spending your personal time uploading digital information.

How do you manage your time on social media? I would love to learn from your tips!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Creating a Twitter Action Plan: 3 Questions

Posted on May 22, 2013 by

twitter

1. What will I tweet about?

  • The narrower your niche of tweets, the more you will attract super fans; super fans create a valuable community of networking.

2. How do I engage in conversation?

Twitter is similar to dinner table conversation.  Look and respond to your Replies “@” and Direct Messages in order to participate in the “dinner table” conversation, but don’t take over.

  • Automatic Replies and Direct Messages ARE NOT engaging in conversation.
  • Replying publically signifies that you are sociable and want everyone to participate in the conversation.

(Side Note)  If you want everyone who follows you to see your conversation replies, you must fill a character before you enter the person’s twitter name you are responding to… “unless your followers are following the person you are replying to, which is highly unlikely.” For instance, if you want everyone to see your reply and you begin your reply with their name, it may look something like this: (.@chadlogan yes, I’ll be at the conference, is anyone else?)

3. How often should I tweet?

  • My personal philosophy and general rule of thumb is to tweet no less than 2 and no more than 8 tweets per day.

This goes back to the “dinner table” illustration. If you talk “too much” or “too less”, then you aren’t appropriately participating in the conversation. Likewise, someone who continually promotes themselves or their organization will soon be ignored as marketing spam.

What is your Twitter Action Plan? 

Posted in Social Media, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

10 Tips To Brand Building on Twitter For College Ministry

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

10Tips-TwitterI oftentimes get asked to share my thoughts on how college ministers should effectively use Twitter and social media. This Blog is Part 1 of 3 blogs on effectively using social media.

  1. Enter resourceful information in your bio section so that it’s easy for prospective college ministers to find you. It’s also important to link your website’s About Page and other resources in your bio section through creating a URL.
  2. ReTweet (RT) those who are being a valuable resource to you and link to their beneficial information. Generosity breeds generosity.
    1. Remember to keep your tweets short enough for others to ReTweet. (RT’ing Formula=140 characters minus the number of characters in your Twitter name; @chadlogan= 130 character tweet)
  3. Determine your influence, reach, and ability to drive action by discovering your Klout score at Klout.com. You can also test your twitter influence on tweet.grader.com.
  4. Do not check “Protect my updates” in your Twitter settings because it will seriously limit those who should be  following you.
  5. Funnel people to your Twitter account through displaying twitter links on business cards, widgets on your website, e-mail signatures, and other social media sites.
  6. Upload a good picture under the Profile tab. Remember that 700k size is the maximum picture size.
  7. Investigate who others follow and strategically follow who inspires them.
  8. Target your audience by narrowing your focus. Follow others in college ministry on Twitter through searching for #collegeministry, #collegemin & #campusministry in the Search tab in the top right of your twitter page.
  9. Use these hashtags (hashtags are subjects of discussion preceded by #) #collegeministry & #campusministry when tweeting so that others can find you by clicking those hashtags. Using Hashtags created at professional development conferences are also helpful to create a network or community.
  10. The most effective way to grow your following is to create content that’s worth sharing, but don’t promote your stuff too much or it becomes spam. Be a valuable resource worth following!

 The goal is not to gain another follower, but to gain another quality follower. For instance, just because someone has a high number of followers doesn’t mean they are being heard. Someone with only 50 followers may have more influence than someone with 1,000 followers, because those 50 people are interacting through ReTweeting, Mentions (@), and, consequently, experiencing quality online community. The greatest influencers have a high ratio of number of followers to numbers following.

  • (side note: Don’t buy Twitter followers or use an aggressive follow/unfollow method because these methods only attract accounts that have no affinity to your target. Not to mention, these methods are against Twitter policy. https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules , which means your account may be shut down)

I hope this helps! What are some other valuable tips you have for using Twitter in the College Ministry Community?

Posted in Blogging, Leadership, Ministry, Networking, Relationships, Social Media, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Making The Most of Your Summer: Episode 15 Show Notes

Posted on May 17, 2013 by

summertime

What is the purpose of summer for college ministers? We must decide the appropriate balance between work and rest. Chad discusses how to get ahead during the summer and the importance of discovering the rhythm of work and rest. In order to rest appropriately, work must be accomplished. However, for work to be enjoyed, sabbath must occur. Listen as Chad discusses practical ways to work and rest.

Resource Plug of the Week:

HeartMirrorBasic iPhone app provides 50 images along with a few simple questions to help you explore the lives of people around you. Something happens when we look at an image. It conjures up associations that are as unique as we are. Our experiences shape what we see. Although this is geared toward Asians, anyone in any race can play this game with each other. If you would like these images in physical card form, you can order Cru’s  Soularium resource.

Freshmen Transition Video mentioned in this episode:

Click here to listen to Episode 15.

play

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Kingdom Minded Ministry is Gospel Centered Ministry

Posted on May 15, 2013 by

Kingdom Minded

God works through His kingdom, which is not limited to your individual ministry or your denomination.

Why not leverage this principle in your individual ministry?

I’ve personally observed God moving most in partnership with other ministries.

Most Christians are a result of kingdom work, whether it was the intention of individual ministries or not. I can give you example after example of this reality through hearing the testimonies of collegians.

Ministry life is oftentimes so busy, we can’t see beyond our small picture of obligations and responsibilities in our individual ministries; the kingdom is much bigger than individual ministries.

Have you looked at the bigger picture? That is, where God is moving on your campus and throughout the world, not just within your ministry…

The goal of your ministry should not be tracking attendance at your events, but rather, making disciples of all nations; this is kingdom minded. This means planting small seeds everywhere you go.

A kingdom minded ministry serves people not because of potential ministry investment, but because it’s a command of God and a kingdom investment.

A kingdom minded ministry provides a needed campus community service rather than looking more like a business that advertises with a sales pitch. Kingdom minded ministries understand the campus DNA and engages it’s community through service networking.

What if your ministry strategy didn’t revolve around your ministry, but the kingdom of God? Does your programming revolve around your individual mission or the mission of the kingdom?

Beware! Kingdom minded ministries may fly in the face of ministry growth techniques.

A kingdom minded ministry celebrates what God is doing outside an individual ministry because Christ exalting ministries are synergistic and spiritually holistic.

Sometimes the best thing for you to do is release a student to another ministry for the best interest of that student’s faith development.

Be an incarnational tentmaker.

Confuse people with your love and service to leverage the hope of the Gospel in order to live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. The small things you do may not affect your ministry, but make a kingdom difference. You are constantly planting gospel seeds with your life and apart of potential kingdom work

Work alongside other Christ exalting ministries. Together we can better accomplish His Mission more-so than individually or even denominationally.

How do you start? Serve your campus with a “no strings attached” relationship; this will plant gospel seeds and open doors to share with unbelievers and help partner with believers.

Be a small part of His BIG Story until all have heard!

What ways can you partner with gospel-centered ministries?  

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Ministry Websites: It’s Important and Easy to Manage

Posted on May 14, 2013 by

business-website

May is the month of doing things you normally don’t have time doing: this means website management for me.

46% say visiting a ministry’s website was important before physically attending.

64% say the website is important in facilitating ministry precipitation. 

According to Lifeway Research, only 78% of churches have a Web site. While that statistic may seem high, less than half of those churches use their site for interactive purposes. The Web site is simply an informational “dumping ground.” A full 42% of churches update their site once a month or less. Add the 7% of churches that update their site once a year (a year!), and you have a near majority in under-updated church Web sites.

First impressions are no longer physical, but virtual.

I won’t go into the primary reasons that websites are under-updated, but there’s no excuse anymore; anyone can update an online template like Wix. Let me first say that I’m not all that tech savvy and creating a website was surprisingly easy to do.

After doing some investigation into website builders, I pleasantly settled on Wix; the criteria I used to decide included visual appeal, free plugins, and ease of use. Thanks to all of the tech consultants that helped me decide on Wix, I didn’t consume hours of investigation.

After deciding a website builder, you will have to choose which storage and bandwidth plan to purchase. I would suggest getting the Unlimited Plan because our website  shut down last year for high traffic for high traffic during August “when you NEED your website most!”. Don’t try and save a couple dollars a month for much less bandwidth!

One of our students created this website in only a couple of hours and I’ve been perusing the editing mode and making small changes here at www.astatebcm.com, which is up-dateable in literally seconds!

If you need a free graphic design program to customize your pictures like adding text, filters, artwork, etc.. You can go to www.picmonkey.com

I’d love to know how you manage your website!

Posted in Communication, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

College Ready with John Bryson: Episode 14

Posted on May 10, 2013 by

0e689519_bryson2011SHOW NOTES:

John Bryson is the author and presenter of Collegeready.com. John is the former college minister at Denton Bible Church and is currently co-pastoring with Bryan Loritts at Fellowship Memphis. In this episode, John discusses how incoming freshmen can prepare for college and how college guys can pursue biblical manhood. You can keep up with him on his blog and by following him on Twitter. John is also the lead writer and co-presenter of curriculum entitled 33 The Series.

You can find out more about this movement at authenticmanhood.com.

Enjoy Episode 14 of The College Ministry Leadership Podcast: Click Here

Posted in Biblical Manhood, college, Gen IY, Incoming Freshmen | 1 Comment