How I’m Engaging In Social Media
As most of you know, I took a short break from blogging several weeks ago to “recalibrate” my use of social media. I thought you may find it beneficial to know how I’m presently using Twitter, Facebook, and this blog.
Here’s how I’m engaging in social media at the moment:
I’ve labelled my Twitter account my “firehose” and it has replaced the need for me to “microblog” here at NWBingham.com. Up until this week my account had been active from approximately 9am-10pm (GMT+10) with tweets every hour. But last week, due to timezone differences, I had a message from someone “missing” my presence on Twitter. They assumed I had gone offline as whenever they were awake and on Twitter I was asleep and not tweeting. Therefore, I’m currently testing tweeting two hourly and spreading those tweets over a 24-hour period. For people like the one who contacted me, it means they’ll get better access. If 24-hour tweeting appears beneficial to others as well, I’ll keep it that way.
These scheduled tweets offer a broad overview of what I’ve found interesting online that day (either for good or bad). The tweets are an intentional balance between links to Christian resources, Scripture verses, and quotations, as well as links related to my other interests, including technology, social media, design, photography, and miscellaneous.
Dispersed amongst these tweets are occasional observations and insights into my personal / family / church life, and links to any iPhoneography I upload.
Please follow me on Twitter @NWBingham.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I also own and operate another daily Twitter account, @tweology, which you can follow here and read more about here.
I have a Facebook page that is updated most days. It is the opposite of my “firehose” with less than two or three updates on any one day.
I select Facebook as the platform for more concentrated, purposeful conversation and discussion. Updates include my blog posts, quotations similar to those I tweet (although often expanded versions), as well as insights from my personal reading. Occasionally I do video updates to remind you I’m a real person.
Please “like” my Facebook page here.
Blog
My return to writing original content on my blog will be slow and steady. I presently endeavor to write a blog post once a week.
I intend a balance between blog posts that deal with Christian living, Reformed theology, and book reviews, as well as articles discussing how you as a Christian or Christian ministry can best make use of social media and technology. I’ve already had requests for such articles and questions people would like answered, so please feel free to do the same.
In addition to the weekly post I’ll also do a round up of some of the most retweeted or favourited tweets from Twitter. These posts are entitled “From the Firehose” and here is one from last week.
And as always, I’ll try and get sound Christian resources into your hands with giveaways like the one I’m running this week. If you have a product you’d like to donate as a prize to giveaway to my subscribers, please be in contact.
Please subscribe to the blog freely via RSS or via email.
What about you?
Consider how you’re engaging in social media. Here are some questions to help provoke your thinking:
- What social media platforms are you using? Are you an old-school MySpace user or have you discovered something new?
- What’s unique about your blog, Facebook, Twitter? Why should we follow you if we’re not already?
- Leave a link to your social media accounts.
- Is there anything you’d like to see more of from my use of social media?
In the coming weeks I’ll discuss how I came to these decisions and the importance of you asking “why” before jumping onto social media.
Please leave a comment, discuss it on Facebook, or send me on a tweet on Twitter.