Tweet You Tweet Me: A Twitter Startup Guide for Churches

Now Featured at the Patheos Book Club
Follow You Follow Me
Why Social Networking is Essential to Ministry
By John Voelz

Also Available:
Tweet You Tweet Me E-Book

Read An Excerpt

Jumping into the world of Twitter can be a little frightening at first. It's not that it's difficult to set up an account, but it can seem everyone who is already on Twitter has been given a secret decoder ring. One look at a Twitter feed can make a beginner feel like he or she is spying over a 13-year-old girl's shoulder while she texts in acronyms and signs. Enough to scare off anyone.

However, it is really a lot easier than it seems at first blush, and you don't have to use all the codes to enjoy Twitter anyway. New acronyms and shortcuts show up all the time, and even those of us who are elbows deep in it often learn something new. This guide, a supplement to the book, Follow You Follow Me and written in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format, assumes you can login and create a new account. The goal is to help you get over initial fear and familiarize you with the world of tweeting.

Why should I Twitter?

Sharpen your communication skills. Lighten up. Learn new things. Be aware. Hear info first. Learn of breaking news. Talk to people you normally can't call on the cell. Participate in conversation. Find deals, sales, and coupons. Find out about new media. It's a cultural epicenter. Meet new people. Laugh. Find out about new restaurants. Swap info. The list goes on . . .

I'm not real "techy." Do I need any special equipment or know-how to do this thing?

You're in luck. You just need a computer or a mobile phone. A lot of people only use Twitter on their phone once they are up and running. It's easier to start an account from a computer—especially if your vision is getting to be like mine.

The number to post to Twitter once you have an account linked with your phone is 40404. Then you can post tweets just like sending a text message to all your friends at once. You can also choose which friends' updates will go to your phone and which will not. But you can always see all your friends' updates by logging in to your account, using a Twitter client. I select my closest friends' Twitter updates to go to my phone, as I do with any other text message.

To read the rest of Tweet You Tweet Me, click here to purchase the e-book.