Yesterday we upgraded the blog to WordPress 2.5. While things on the front side of my blog look the same, everything looks different for me on the back end of it. I’m looking forward to playing with it and making it my slave as I get time to play with it. For now, it’s all good.
Still using blogger or another non-hosted blog platform? It’s time to switch.
Like a lot of people, I’ve gotten used to the quirkiness that is Twitter. (what is twitter?) It’s kind of cool to connect with people in 140 characters or less. Follow me.
One measurement tool that I use when looking at someone who wants me to follow them is their ratio between followers and following. If someone has 500 followers and they are only following 12 people. (+488) That’s interesting to me but tells me they likely have something important to say. Conversely, if someone is following 2500 people and only has 12 followers. (-2488) I don’t want to follow that person.
Personally, I like it when a persons Twitter numbers are reasonably the same. Right now I have 96 followers and I’m following 92 people. That puts me at +4.
As Twitter finally takes off into the common usage of bloggers and general internet users… it’ll be interesting to see how this ratio effects things.
Ultimately, how do I decide whether or not to follow someone who is following me? I’ve got some standards. The ratio is very important. Also, when I look at a profile I want to see a link and a bio.
If your bio says you work at a church or do student ministry… I’m going to follow you automatically. If you do something else and I’m interested in that or know you personally, I’ll follow you. Other than that I’m not interested.
Last night I had the chance to talk to Brent Myers, an evangelist for Zloop. Zloop is a new social network that is built around two general concepts:
If you are looking for a more detailed description, here is Zloop’s description: About zloop
(pdf file)
Last night I got an invite and created a few loops. At this point, it’s clear that zloop is in a late Alpha, maybe early Beta testing mode. There are some cool features to this idea and some weaknesses. Here’s what I like/dislike so far.
Like
Dislikes
If this were something I could install on my servers, run it as my brand, and manage it within a terms of service… this would be an incredible tool for YMX. But it’s not. As cool as it is I really wonder if it will take off as the current version is not significantly better than Facebook. It has potential, it’s worth checking out, but right now… it’s got some “cool factor” to inject.
Don’t take my word for it, try it! Leave a comment and I’ll send you an invite.
In the last two weeks Twitter has gotten extremely popular among Youth Ministry people. The two biggest Youth Ministry companies, Youth Specialties and Simply Youth Ministry put their Twitter accounts in this weeks newsletter. (YMX was ahead of them by a couple months on this one!) And it seems like every youth pastor around is jumping on the bandwagon now that Andy (the main dude at Simply) has a battle with Doug Fields to get to 1000 Twitter followers. (Both YS and SYM seem to be using Twitter for viral marketing, bravo!)
I maintain that Twitter is a fad that will fade as soon as a more interesting platform is created. But for now Youth Ministry is on fire with Twitter.
What is Twitter all about? (see the video) It answers the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. Think of it as “open” instant messaging. I look at it as a back-channel communication for my friends. No fluff, no pontification… just simply “What are you doing?” I’ve found it a cool way to get to know people in a new capacity.
Man, I wish I knew how to do this. I love what we can do… but sometimes you look at this stuff and go… WOW. This is something a church created for their worship services. Amazing.
This does a way better job than I could to explain what Twitter is and how it works.
Let me invite you to follow me on twitter.
I’ve had this video ready for a couple of weeks. Below is a description video for our churches vision.
Since I already had a couple of people ask me how I made the video, here are the details.
– Obviously, the animation is from Google Earth. I set up the points as a tour and clicked through when it came time to record. (Just timed it out in my head)
– I recorded the Google Earth presentation using IShowU. This is a simple video screen capture tool available for OSX.
– I used the Google Earth video as the background in Adobe Premier.
– I did the voice over at the sound board at church. I recorded it using Garage Band, using some effects to make my voice more “voice over” quality.
– The rest is just done in Premier. Titles, video layers, etc.
It was a lot of steps. But I was pleased with the results. The fun part was doing some parts of the project in Premier (PC) and some with Garage Band and IShowU. (Mac) Before I started I actually took the time to make a project list… which helped me keep all of the parts in the right place.
Where did the idea come from? I saw a video similar to this on Granger Community Church’s website. I based the outline of the script on that video as well as the idea of using Google Earth as the animation tool. Anything beyond the concept I came up with. It was a fun project!
Since I’m sharing videos, here is the bumper video we made for the service too.
Someone asked me today how long these videos take. Here’s a ballpark.
Our Vision for Our Community: 20ish hours. (Conception through completion)
Lean In Bumper Video: about 1 hour (Conception through completion)
I use Twitter a little bit. You can find my Twitter page right here, follow me if you’d like.
But I don’t think Twitter will last long. Sure everyone is talking about how cool it is. And all the cool kids are posting tweets from a desktop application or the internet or with text messages or mobile internet connections on their phones. I think it is interesting and I like to answer the question “what am I doing right now” 5-6 times per day. I think it’s a little narcissistic to think that anyone cares where I am driving or what I had for lunch. But I don’t think narcissism alone will fad Twitter’s fad. If that were the case you wouldn’t be at a website named after me. To the contrary many millions of blogs will be started in 2008.
I think Twitter will fade because it has no real usefulness. It’s not a utility. There is only so much I care about what my friends are doing this very instant. In fact, it’s as sad as when we had binoculars when we lived in a high rise. When you stare into someone else’s life… even someone’s life you greatly admire… you discover they are just as boring as you are.
At the end of the day I want to know what you think. I don’t really want to know what you are doing this very instant. What you do is uninteresting to me. What you think… I will read that.
p.s. I will still use Twitter. Just I still have the binoculars. You never know if a purpose will emerge for either.
p.p.s I think something like Twitter, with true utility will become more popular than Facebook and Myspace combined in 2009.
Romeo member Bob Carter and his ipod repair business, The Pod Drop, are appearing on NBC 4 tonight.
Very cool stuff. I think he’ll be on in the morning as well.
Update: I just watched the segment on the 11:00 PM news, awesome job. The hidden camera investigation “caught” Bob’s people fixing an ipod perfectly for $45 in about 20 minutes. That’s the kind of thing Bob wants his people getting caught doing all the time!
Here’s the story on Channel 4’s website.