One of the challenges of using social media is its incredibly rapid evolution. How we use any given medium changes rapidly, and keeping ahead of the curve is challenging.
Twitter, for example, started as a way to check in with friends and tell them what you what your were doing at any given moment, in 140 characters (including spaces) or less. And of course, many people continue to use it that way. The short 140 character posts are called “tweets,” and anyone who “follows” you on Twitter can see them.
People quickly realized the marketing power of these short updates. Because you can include links to other websites in your tweets, they’re terrific for authors who want to stay in touch with a large group of people (your readers). The fact that you can link to photos, videos, blogs and websites makes it a fantastic portal through which you can connect readers to your other content.
Like any social media, Twitter can be something you do just for fun. It can also be time consuming. In order to use it well, you need a strategy.
Decide on a specific amount of time each week you’ll spend on Twitter. After all, you are a youth worker and you need to create content for the youth, parents, and ministry updates. Twitter allows you to share that content with a larger group of people, but you need to make actually creating content a priority. You may want to start with just 10 minutes a day. Make sure you do at least 10 minutes, but no more than, say 20 minutes. While you need to engage with people via Twitter, you can’t let it take up so much time that you don’t get a chance to create longer content.Jeff Smyth is a youth worker who has been involved in both the local church and non-profit areas of Canada. He works with DOXA Toronto, providing resources, training and coaching for local churches. Jeff lives in Toronto with his wife Heather and son Nathan. Jeff's blog ThinkYouthMinistry.com
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