an online movement?

April 13, 2009 in blogference with 16 Comments

Thank you for commenting on if you blog it, will they come?

I’d like to answer my own question from yesterday of how I’ve seen social media work.

  • I’ve seen overstock.com ask for more followers on twitter to receive some gift cards.
  • Mophie: a way to charge your iphone on the go – had a sweepstakes, to be automatically entered to win, just follow them on twitter
  • Congo Cast: a project about the Congo, created a cause page on facebook, a website, and it’s own podcast
  • Everystudent.com urges their local campus owners to advertise on facebook (a steal of a deal when it comes to dollars to hits) and have used youtube hand-in-hand with their site

So, there are no doubt, plenty of examples that could be listed. But, I can’t help but think – a blogference, without twitter! Crazy. Hey Brian, can we get a blogference twitter account?

I just read this idea of how to lead and interact well with “Gen F” the facebook generation. (Thanks Ken) and I can’t help but to agree a little bit, one of my favorite comments in the article was the 2nd principle among the 12:

2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
When you post a video to YouTube, no one asks you if you went to film school. When you write a blog, no one cares whether you have a journalism degree. Position, title, and academic degrees—none of the usual status differentiators carry much weight online. On the Web, what counts is not your resume, but what you can contribute.

I think that’s why blogs work. Movements are started through the web – (uh oh, I most likely just struck a nerve among you Crusaders by mentioning the word “movement.”)

But think about it, a movement, by definition is “change of place or position or posture” which I find interesting because I think I just pictured movements with a very narrow view in years past.

I dug up some stats for us to see the reality of the social media movement and how it’s shifting our culture to become very connected through these outlets.

As I was reading an article about 2009 social media trends (by the pros), I found it interesting that some of the ways that they suggest corporations blog – is to be less corporate and more authentic, “to write openly and honestly about your industry.” And, if our industry is Christ (pardon the comparison), then we should write openly, authentically about our lives as Christ followers. We don’t have it all together – and we should be willing to share that through our blogs, twitter, myspace, and facebook accounts.

I don’t want to get to ahead of myself here, so, I’ll pose this question, in what ways could we use our communities (both online and in-person) to stop masking who we are and to live authentically (appropriately)? That is, if everyone knew someone who truly followed Christ, (even if that person was just someone they knew online -through blogs, twitter, etc)?

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  • http://kellycain.com admin

    I’ll add another question too, “what prevents you from being authentic through online tools?”

  • Kheng Boon

    Hi Kelly!
    I’m from Singapore CCC. Thanks for providing those stats and trends stuff on this blog.

    For your latter question, staff in Singapore may encounter more problems being authentic. Not that they don’t want to, but they have certain obligations not to. For example, most of our staff have opportunities to lead mission trips to creative accessed countries. Some have concerns having a facebook accounts or their own blogs because they cannot divulge too much info about their ministries with CCC especially if they are going into those creative accessed countries as missionaries in the near future. So think there’re still certain protocol for online security to follow because of the nature of our work in creative accessed countries. I also subscribed to Google Alert service to be aware of my identity leaking out in other people’s sites or blogs.

    Of course there are a group of staff who only read students’ blogs just to peer into their lives, and I’m guilty of that. Staff read blogs to find out if the students are in a BGR or why disciples are not attending their discipleship groups. So blogs became a tracking tool of the disciples spiritual lives, and not seen as a platform to connect with the students hearts.

  • http://victorcandy.com Victor

    I’d say we’ll have to get into writing a lot more about our lives, and do it a lot more thoughtfully. In the end I think it’s still more helpful if our online writings are seen as tools for relationship building. The same needs to be truthful and frank exist in our our communication online as they do in communication offline, but the mechanisms and methods are very different.

    One challenge: it does seem much harder to share something through careful writing than it does to share in a verbal face-to-face conversation. I’m talking about deeply-felt, complex, hard-to-put-in-to-words ideas that are absolutely vital if the relationships are to get deep enough to make a difference.

  • http://twitter.com/romission cristian voiculescu (romania)

    we don;t really need a twitter account for this blogference. we only need to use an official hastag for the event. somebody said #cccbf would be appropriate. let’s use that one!

  • http://twitter.com/romission cristian voiculescu (romania)

    we, as ccc people are focused on reaching the leaders. Unfortunately sometimes we target the wrong category of people. Most of the time we interact with the people from the dorms not because they are the leaders but because they are accesible and we ignore the real leaders that are not in the dorms. We can find the real student leaders in the virtual world blogging, twittering and meeting offline with their blog community. Targeting well known bloggers in our country may mean that we are doing our job on reaching the leaders of today, today!

  • http://victorcandy.com Victor

    Are there some practical ways we can be effectively having a positive impact, preferably one that is measurable and coordinated? I can’t help but feel that it’s going to take a LOT of blog posts and comments to move a person’s perspective even a little on the Engel scale.

    It just seems there has to be a coordinated strategy that we would be motivated to keep doing because we can say with reasonable certainty that it’s making a difference.

    On a different note, have any of you here played with Seesmic (video blogging and responses) and considered the potential of that tool for ministry? I was wondering if it’s hard for some people to write, does Seesmic make it easier to get certain voices heard (namely those who tend less to write) if it gets much more popular?

    I have to confess: i’m not blogging very much and have only recently started to participate more actively in online conversations, so my comments do not come from any basis of personal experience.

  • Kheng Boon

    reminded of this account penned by Don Tapscott in his book Wikinomics, that when Jonathan Schwartz took over the CEO of the troubled Sun Microsystems, he decided that every employee could have a blog. Of course his legal and PR departments are horrified — suddenly anyone in the company could issue a press release. But in three years of Sun bloggers they never have a problem, despite the guidelines are very simple: “Don’t do anything stupid.” “Write about something you know about.” “Make it interesting.”

    Our campus director did think of mandating every campus staff to have a blog and facebook account. It could create a paradigm shift of how campus staff minister online and offline, and perhaps have an indirect impact on those students whom staff cannot meet face-to-face. I mean staff could have a bigger impact through their blogs (whether blogging a QT lessons, teaching, personal life stories or day-to-day happenings).

  • http://kellycain.com admin

    Kheng: Interesting thoughts on how we use blogs just to peer into peoples lives, to be “nosy” and to not really connect with the heart. I have to be careful of that myself, even within my own community. I want to be sure I’m blogging from the heart but also maintaining relationships with those that I know read my blog.
    Most of the time, though, what I experience through blogging is interesting. It is an ability to multiply my thoughts to multiple people in many areas of my life. So that, a lot of people know “what’s going on” with me without going to coffee with me once a week. Do you experience that as well? I’m interested to know what the blogging culture is like in Singapore and Romania?

  • http://kellycain.com admin

    Christian: I love the thought – reach today’s leaders today. Those who are influencers both online and in the classroom. Those are some good thoughts!

  • http://kellycain.com admin

    Victor: I think this question is like gold,
    “Are there some practical ways we can effectively have a positive impact (through online tools), preferably one that is measurable and coordinated?”
    I’d love to toss it out to the community for feedback and thoughts.

  • Kheng Boon

    I found wisdom in what my fiancee said about new strategy for ministry… “a mediocre idea embraces by many is still better than a good idea embraces by few”.

    SCCC started the Campus Internet Ministry in late 2007 and the main strategy is using EveryStudent.com, and recruiting staff and students to reply emails of contacts from EveryStudent.com.

    Then we moved on to OIC (Online Intentional Conversation) where we encouraged students to have intentionally have spiritual conversations with their friends on msn chat or facebook (http://epal.sccc.org.sg/oic). However, the idea of OIC strategy sadly died prematurely although we did some vision casting.

    My personal assessment is that the vision of OIC is not fully embraced by staff yet, and the potential of OIC is not translated down to the student level. I still think that OIC is still a very feasible online effort to reach out to students. But strategy still needs time to formulate and vision must be continually casts until it’s captured by the staff and students. If not, I have to “bypass” the ministry leaders and get to their students to try out new ideas.

  • http://danielcurran.blogspot.com/ Daniel Curran

    If authentic, growing, struggling followers of Jesus opened up their hearts and contributed their content online “in the world” the Kingdom will grow in the virtual world. The Kingdom of God is without borders or bounds. The King wants to be glorified and identified in all cultures and subculters, …especially via social media. Back in Jesus’ day it was the whispering of the women at wells and laundry tubs where news spread, …today it’s online in a hundred different varieties. Let’s whisper at our wells to our friends and others will overhear. If it’s truly good news on our lips, …it will spread like gossip wildfire.

  • Kyra Goffeney

    Hi Kelly! I am really enjoying the blogference this year :) I have just entered into the blogging world myself a few months ago. I’ve found it to be somewhat therapeutic, for lack of a better term. When I am able to write authentically and not mask myself, the Lord allows me to experience such freedom in that. I think if we as Christians did this more it would be exactly as Daniel mentioned…like wildfire. There is something attractive and contagious about living authentically. I’ve also found myself highly encouraged by my friends as I read their blogs and gain some insight into their walks with the Lord. It challenges me to take steps of faith like they have, to pray like they have and to write freely like they do. I would love to see believers use these social media tools to be real in their lives even more. Thanks for challenging me to do that, too. Hmm..maybe I should write an updated blog :)

  • Lawrence Chua

    Hi Kelly,

    Good questions and well placed in these times. If you think about it, many people are open about their lives on facebook/twitter/linkedin for the very fact that it is an excellent mechanism for them to network or share their lives. We could state our loves, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, allegiances and detachments from people/events/our lives. It’s similar to an online diary which we share to the rest or the world or our friends.

    There’s a movement to consolidate all accounts(emails, social networking etc) into one entity to ensure that authenticity of the person blogging/twittering etc, under Identity 2.0. Think of it as a virtual driving license.

    It is scary to think of what people can use with this “public” information, as you never know what/when your data has been mined for insidious purposes. Bosses monitoring subordinates, teachers students, lovers each other, online stalkers even. I do agree with QW that some thoughts are better left private than shared. So now, the question is to what extent are we going to be authentic? Where’s the line?

  • http://kellycain.com admin

    I don’t want to get too technical of where is the line of being “too authentic.” I really think it depends. I will say though that as Christians we can live authentically and blog purposefully as we face trails and share openly about how we’re trusting in Christ and not in circumstances.
    Take the economy, recession, job losses, etc – many people can relate with this, I think we have an awesome opportunity before us to life openly and share how we’re struggling in this area and how we’re dealing with it.

  • http://EveryStudent.com Marilyn Adamson

    Hi Kelly,

    I value being authentic. God is the one who makes us authentic. As we realize his grace. Understand his word. Ask for his leading. I think he will use us. I also want to be effective…leading & accomplishing as much as we can in sharing the gospel & building believers.

    Would love to grab some time with you at CSU, if possible. I’m on a learning curve in best ways to use Social Media. I’m hoping that you and others can lead the way!!!

    I’m currently on the Chicago Summer Project. I’m catching that students want to share the gospel, but in a way that INVITES other’s initiative. That draws in students. I think that’s possible via the Internet.

    I’ve been sending out a newsletter every week or two with some ideas of how to make use of the Internet in Campus ministry. If you’d like to receive that by email, let me know and I’ll add you. Emails that go out are then put here: http://www.EveryStudent.Wordpress.com.