Twitter tools
I had been meaning to put some stuff on my blog, but today brought special incentive. I was preaching at St. Edmund’s, San Marino, CA, and during the announcements, the most excellent rector, the Rev’d George Woodward, gave my blog a shout out. I thought maybe I should put some fresh content here. Don’t want new eyeballs to see all the cobwebs!
Alas, the top item in my blog hopper is some sundries related to Twitter. Not quite my usual fodder, which is church geekery mixed with humor/snark. On the other hand, I do post the occasional article on technology and social media, so without further delay…
A couple of weeks ago, I gave a pair of workshops on Twitter for the Episcopal Communicators conference. I promised — er, two weeks ago — to post a list of resources that I mentioned in my talk. So, if you are Twittery, this will be useful. If not, please stand by. Something else will be along soon.
First off, some current demographic data on social media: there are big differences among various social media related to male/female, urban/rural, and racial/ethnic background. Based on your intended audience, choose your platform(s) carefully. Know your audience, and provide appropriate content on the appropriate channel. Here’s some data from February 2013 from the Pew Research Center. This been nicely summarized into a lovely infographic by Media Bistro. Here’s some relatively recent info on number of users per platform with supporting links.
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Take, for example, the deliverance of the ancient Israelites. God provides for them again and again, and still they complain about how things used to be. Once they escape Pharaoh initially, they see the advancing army, and offer one of the most poetic and ridiculous complaints in history: “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” This is perhaps one of the earliest known examples of snark. It’s just the sort of thing they would have would have tweeted, if Twitter had been invented a few thousand years earlier.
Luke is also the only Gospel which tells us that the sun was darkened as Jesus died. For Luke, the Passion — this collision — has cosmic significance. The Passion is the result of a cosmic collision between hope and fear. The Cross reminds us this collision. Over twenty centuries, we Christians have gotten in wrong much of the time. 







