Browsing Tag

social media

Marc Summers

My Marc Summers Twitter incident

As I was waiting for my delayed USAirways flight last night from Philadelphia to Albany, NY and I turned to my phone for something to do. Since I have use a Blackberry, Words With Friends was out and so was FarmVille.  I thought about the last time I was at PHL. Last year, I saw Marc Summers. So I tweeted and Marc replied from his iPad:

As you can see, I don’t think Marc was happy about. I started to doubt that it was really Marc at the other end of the Twitter account:

https://twitter.com/#!/alanrud/statuses/192271739001118720

But then I read about this and apparently it is really is Marc.  This isn’t the first time I’ve conversed with a celeb through social media.  Time’s Joel Stein and I have struck up a few conversations as well. However, this was a first time I ever tweeted about a celebrity and received a reply without mentioning their Twitter account. It seems that Marc is savvy enough to do a social media search for social media mentions.

Once I did a little research, I had indeed tweeted old news. His book, Everything in its Place, recounts his struggles with OCD. It was written in 1999.

By the way, Marc I’m a fan and I’ll never spew old news again. As someone who grew up watching Double Dare, I’ll never tarnish the Marc Summers brand again!

Moral of the story, be careful of the people and celebrities you Tweet about. They just might reply to you.

UPDATE: Marc and I have patched things up 😉 I’m glad things did not erupt into a Roland Martin Twitter scandal.

 

 

social media, White House

Three ways social media impacted my White House meeting

Yep, that’s me there tweeting away. (Photo: EthicsDaily.com)

As many of your know, I’m finishing up on reflecting upon my meeting with the Executive Office of the President and White House staff (read part 1 and part 2). It was an honor to be among 60 other Baptists who met with several advisers to the President.  One of the unusual facets of this meeting was a media blackout.  None of the tradition media outlets were allowed in this meeting.

The media blackout arose from the administration’s frustrations that past clergy leader meetings were nothing more than a photo opportunity. This meeting was supposed to be different, and so it was. We attendees were allow to tweet during the meeting and used the hashtag #BaptistsatWH. This created a direct link to our friends, congregation members, followers, and community individuals back home. Our four-hour long meeting was unencumbered by reporters interrupting or distracting from the meeting’s goal.

My friend and fellow pastor Dr. William Shiell and I discussed how the administration had a message they wanted to communicate. The byproduct of a media blackout, but social media friendly meeting is threefold:

Continue Reading…

blog, social media

Teaching Social Media to Churches

I’ll never forget the day a few years ago that I received a friend request on Facebook from my parent’s friends. Why would I want to connect with a bunch of people in their 60′s?  Facebook is a young person’s game!

That was then.  This is now.  Today, over 700 million people use Facebook. Business, organizations, governments, families, and friends join on social networks to share information. As a pastor, I use social media everyday to connect to congregants and the community.

As a minority in the ministry field, my youth and use of social media is often a source of curiosity in a world of aging churches and aging church people.

This past week at the American Baptist Churches Biennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico.   I gave three interactive lectures on social media entitled, “Sink or Swim: Treading the Sea of Social Media”. My goal was to give a practical frame work around how to use social media for churches and organizations. I truly thought that most of the attendees would be young people.

Continue Reading…

Facebook, social media

3 Reasons Why You Don’t ‘Like’ the New Facebook

Mark it. Wednesday, September 21 2001, Facebook changed the look of the website. Again. What else is new!  Many on Twitter and Facebook are currently commenting about how much they lament the changes to Facebook. For a free service that you don’t have to use, I’m amazed that people are so angry about it.

We’ve already seen stories about how “everyone” dislikes the new Facebook, but is it really that bad? Come on folks, is it really the end of the world? With tweets like the three below, we get a sense of people’s reactions:

“Zuckerberg apparently hired the genius behind New Coke to run Facebook.” — @MarkArum

“Facebook continues to reinvent itself, by making itself less usable yet somehow exactly the same.” — @modeps

“Complaining about Facebook format changes is the ultimate 1st world problem.” — @Jenn1ferJun1per

Despite what people say, here are three reasons why you really don’t like the new Facebook

We are afraid of being uncool.  Changing Facebook is just another “first world problem” of keeping up with the Jones. We fear that if we don’t know how to use social media, we’ll be laughed at or even worse, tweeted about. For most people over 50, that’s not a big concern.  However, for the millions of 15-29 year-old users it is. It’s bad enough that we don’t have an iPad, but to not know how to use Facebook?  We are done for.  But, don’t worry, there are far greater things to worry about in this world.

We only like change on our terms. Read any good book on leadership and you will find out that being a leader is all about change. When our boss wants to change the way we do things at work we want to pour hot coffee down his pants. We don’t like change, but when we are the ones changing things it’s alright. Any successful process of change requires a lot of communication and a lot of support.  Unfortunately, Facebook didn’t do either of these well. As a culture, we struggle with what it means to live life without routine.  Routine is good, but being unable to adapt is our downfall.

We always think we know better. There is a reason why Facebook has like 600 million users. The people running it have the genius.  That doesn’t mean they are always right, but they have been right enough to build a successful company.  We love to complain because we think we know best.  Like Monday Morning Quarterbacks, we sit in our chairs and complain about a free service. Part of life is admitting that you are not always right. There are always two ways of responding to a problem: either you are part of the problem or part of the solution.

So, if you don’t like the changes, let Facebook know and come up with some good ideas.  Let’s be proactive and not reactive people.  Let’s be a culture that navigates change well.

Mark Driscoll, social media

Mark Driscoll’s (non)Ministry of Social Media

If you never heard of Pastor Mark Driscoll then maybe you should. His church, Mars Hill Church in Seattle has over 6,000 members in just 11 years. Driscoll is often described as a maverick in the ministry and has one the most innovative churches in the country. TIME magazine was interested in this pastor’s ministry and has featured him in a few articles.

Recently, the mega church pastor caught fire from Christians with this Facebook update:

driscoll

This comment clearly takes a shot a certain type of person in the ministry.  Not only that, the undertones of a comment like this do nothing to advance the kingdom of God. If you are shocked by this comment, as am I, do not think this is the first time Driscoll said something like this.  Many in the Christian community have a hard time with Driscoll’s “tough guy” persona and some question his ability to lead.

The New York Times wrote about Driscoll’s ministry and his tenancy to “male-ize” his ministry:
Continue Reading…

abc, American Baptist Churches, biennial, celebrate2011

My Social Media in Puerto Rico

Check out the blog this week as I will be live blogging at the American Baptist Churches Biennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico. For you Baptist folks, or observers, I’ll give all the live coverage of events, business meetings, votes, and festivities.

In addition, I’m giving an interactive lecture on social media entitled, “Sink or Swim: Treading the Sea of Social Media” on Saturday at the Pavilion Experiences during the Biennial. Three 50 minute repeating sessions 9 – 9:50, 10 – 10:50, 11 – 11:50 (morning) on June 25th at the Puerto Rico Convention Center. The immediate application will be how to better connect and integrate social media for you, your church, non-profit, or even business.

Make sure you stay tuned into On The Bema and follow me on twitter: @alanrud  Here is a little sneak peak of a social media tip we’ll talk about:

http://flash.locamoda.com/wiffiti.com/cloud/cataclysm.swf?id=66244&title=1

Facebook

Giving up Facebook… for Lent?

Kristi Gustafson, social media strategist/staff writer for the Albany Times Union, recently asked me about a growing trend: giving up Facebook, Twitter, and other social media for Lent.  I was glad to hear that Kristi was very familiar with the practice of Lenten fasting in the 21st century.  Check out her article and my comments:

Chocolate, swearing, eating out. These are things Christians have given up for Lent for decades.

Now there’s something new to sacrifice.

Facebook.

The average Facebook user spends 4 hours and 35 minutes a month posting updates on their relationships, checking friends’ vacation photos and playing games like Farmville on the social networking site, according to a January report from Experian Hitwise, a New York City-based global research firm.

That’s more time than most of us spend doing anything other than sleeping, exercising or being at work.

In an age in which Facebook sees more monthly traffic than Google, some Lenten observers are leaving their “friends” behind as part of their commitment to the 40-day fasting.

“Giving up the same things year after year gets boring and you have to freshen it up,” says the Rev. Alan Rudnick with the First Baptist Church in Ballston Spa. “With the popularity of social media, people will say, ‘I like Facebook or Twitter just as much as I like chocolate.’ “

Read the rest…
Albany

A Pastor Goes to smAlbany…

No, it is not the start to a lame joke, but I served as a panelist at smAlbany.  smAlbany is a yearly small business gathering put on by Liberteks.com.  This year was the 5th Annual smAlbany Small Business Expo.  smAlbany focuses on the technology aspect of networking, business, and career development.  I quickly discovered that smAlbany is a pejorative term for Albany, NY – “small-bany”  The urban dictionary even has an entry for it.

So how did a pastor end up on a panel for a business expo?  Good question.  In addition to my blog here, I also blog for the Times Union Newspaper as their protestant religion blogger.  Michael Huber, the online content manger, thought it would be a great idea to have me as a panelist on the subject of, “Local Social Media and Your Customers.”  In addition to myself, the panel consisted of

As you can see, it is a very eclectic mix of people and professions.  I would say the seminar was well attended and provided people loads of information on social media. Alright, enough with the background.  You are probably thinking, “What did they talk about?”

Continue Reading…

On Facebook