Friday, January 7, 2011

#itsthe011son


If you are not using Twitter, you should give it a try. You are limited to 140 characters to speak your peace. This leads to a lot of bad grammar but some amusing statements. It is a much more pithy method of conversation and I find it to be useful when trying to solicit social commentary on specific topics. When you join, follow me @jjpethtel.


One of the things used on Twitter to search for trending topics is hashtags (This symbol: #). You place a hashtag in your conversation such as #snowpacalypse11 (remember you don't use spaces) and then if you do a search your "tweet" will show up along with everyone else who is using the hashtag.


This is useful to me for two primary reasons: Humor (look at some hashtags when you join they are funny, such as the one that is the title of this post courtesy of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) and conferences (every one attending the same conference will be using the same hashtag and you can make new friends or find out about seminars or breakouts you could not attend).


In the church world, Twitter is good for posting short announcement and for connecting with folks you don't know who might have the same or similar interests as you in the same geographical area.


I have learned that if I only spend time with people who know Christ that I fail in the Great Commission arena so this has been an invaluable tool in making virtual connections that precede face to face ones.


2 comments:

House of Leoj said...

I've thought Twitter would also be a good way of sharing prayer concerns. Short, sweet, and less chance to gossip.

John J. Pethtel said...

I can see that use being effective if you got folks to actually share their prayer concerns.