Category: Social Media

I just followed three pages of people who live 15 miles from church with the church’s Twitter account. Everyone. EVERYONE. And I intend to keep doing so.

It dawned on me this morning that I haven’t fully utilized Twitter’s potential to reach out to our community. That said, you may be asking how following absolutely everyone in the vicinity accomplishes anything. Glad you asked.

I read a blog post not long ago about another church that handles their Twitter account in this fashion. It intrigued me. I can’t for the life of me remember who wrote it, but here’s the gist.

Twitter has become a tool used by individuals and companies to readily access and assess the thought processes of others. By following everyone in the vicinity, we accomplish a number of things:

1. We show interest in those around us.
2. We meet them on their turf.
3. We show up in their Followers, which others that follow them check for other potential follows.
4. We might get followed back (In fact, it has already happened).
5. We get a glimpse at what our community REALLY thinks about issues. Might discover ways we can help.

Will there be some ugly stuff in our timeline? Possibly. Because our goal is to reach NON-CHRISTIANS for Jesus. That isn’t always tidy. Look at what Christ, Paul, and the Apostles went through.

And what if one of the unsaved Tweeters we choose to follow sees our profile, checks our website, and sees something that changes his or her life for eternity?

Win.