This weekend I attended a conference called Create South which was all about South Carolinians embracing social networking (Facebook, Twitter etc) and using it to build community both online and off line. The key note speakers were excellent and they really helped me to understand why it is important to utilize these tools in the market today whether you are a business or a professional consultant or every day user.
In one of the classes that was held in the community track in the afternoon I was told that Twitter gathers metrics on all of the tweets that are sent out on their network and the more tweets that are sent out by an individual or company using # (hash tags) the more likely that person or company is likely to be trended. The bottom line is this. If Twitter sees that you are very active on their network because of all the #(company name) hash tags showing up then your company will be highlighted.
Does that mean that one single individual person at one location needs to sit at their desk and constantly tweet this or that with the #(company name) hash tag? No, absolutely not. What it does mean is that every single location that has a marketing person assigned to BUILD COMMUNITY within the Twitter/Facebook communities should be using the #(company name) hash tag so that Twitter will begin to build metrics on our activity. I guess this is sort of like the way Meta tags work on web pages. I am assuming that meta tags are still be used to build metrics on web pages.
I was also reminded of a tool that is being used online to build community. This tool is called Meetup.com. Meetup is used to bring people together in real life in a face to face meeting who have common interests. For instance there is a Meetup for Photographers and bloggers in Charleston. How can you use that for you or your company? How about searching Meetup for people who are interested in a specific aspect of your business or hobby?
Another tool that is used for building online community is Podcasting. Podcasting is where you create a 5 or 10 minute video snippet about your business or whatever and post it to your website for others to view. You also can have folks download the podcast to their iPhone or iPod touch or whatever. There are podcasts on almost any topic you can think of.
No matter what tools you use or how you use them the key element of using them is to BUILD COMMUNITY. To make personal connections with other people and businesses who can help you network your talents and what you are trying to sell or share with others.
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
chiefpropellerhead@comcast.net
Showing posts with label God uses ordinary people for extraordinary things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God uses ordinary people for extraordinary things. Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
God is looking for ordinary people....
God is looking for ordinary people to do extraordinary work.
I had the opportunity to do street ministry in Houston Texas. I was called into street ministry early in life when I was in my 20’s. God taught me some tough lessons by allowing me to live on the street for a short amount of time. You could say I was stubborn, bullheaded and very rebellious. I had the Burger King mentality of having it my way. Trust me when I tell you that if you are a child of the king HE knows what motivates us and makes us tick. God will allow you to be your own person even if that means that you chose to live in rebellion to his word and purpose for your life. God will also chose to chasten you and get your attention. It took a 45 day visit to a county jail and 45 days in a street rescue mission to get my attention.
One of the things that I told God when I saw the street people sleeping in front of the Star of Hope Mission is that “ I am better than those men”. God showed me that I was no better than those men even if my issues were slightly different than the issues that they were facing. In other words what brought me to the side walk in front of the Star of Hope Mission was not alcoholism or drug addiction. What brought me there was my rebellious spirit and my desire to do my own thing. I kept asking God, why me Lord, what have I done to deserve this? God kept telling me that it was not what I had done but what I had not done. Once God drilled this lesson into my brain and spirit I was able to shut up and start listening to His plan for my life and to repent of my rebellious spirit.
I spent 45 days listening to God’s word three times per day and through the process of lots of prayer, counseling and talking to Gods people I came to the realization that God did have a purpose for my life and that He wanted to use even me. God taught me that He loves everyone and that includes the people that live on the street and the prisoner that is locked up behind bars. None of us are worthy of Gods grace and love. It is only because of His love do we have access to His grace and mercy. Our righteousness is like filthy rags in Gods nostrils.
I learned that God can and will use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I am one of those people. God picked me up, spanked me, cleaned me up and gave me a new purpose. He filled me with His spirit and forgave me of my sins. He loved me despite of who I was and still am. He is not finished with me yet and I praise him for that on a daily basis.
One of the things that I constantly had to remind folks of when I was involved in street ministry is that God is not looking for us to be the next Billy Graham. I belonged to the largest Baptist church in Houston Texas that had a singles department with thousands of active singles. It took me 60 days in advance to find ONE single person who would take 30 minutes out of their schedule to tell folks what the bible means to them, what church means to them and what God means to them. One of the hurdles that I had to overcome with these folks is that they all felt as if they were not worthy of standing before some men at a street rescue mission and tell them how God has changed their lives from the inside out. I told them and I remind us all that God has created us in HIS image. He loves us and wants fellowship with us every single moment of every day. He has a purpose for our lives and that is for us to tell the people in our world of His wonderful life changing love for them. God wants us to tell people that there is something better than what this world has to offer. There is more to life than the finite time that we have to spend here on earth. Yes, God can and will use YOU to spread this message. He will take your life, clean it up and empower you to share your story with those that desperately need to hear it. Be encouraged today and know that you are special to God and that He has someone in your sphere of influence that you can share the good news with.
May God bless and keep you in his loving arms….
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net
I had the opportunity to do street ministry in Houston Texas. I was called into street ministry early in life when I was in my 20’s. God taught me some tough lessons by allowing me to live on the street for a short amount of time. You could say I was stubborn, bullheaded and very rebellious. I had the Burger King mentality of having it my way. Trust me when I tell you that if you are a child of the king HE knows what motivates us and makes us tick. God will allow you to be your own person even if that means that you chose to live in rebellion to his word and purpose for your life. God will also chose to chasten you and get your attention. It took a 45 day visit to a county jail and 45 days in a street rescue mission to get my attention.
One of the things that I told God when I saw the street people sleeping in front of the Star of Hope Mission is that “ I am better than those men”. God showed me that I was no better than those men even if my issues were slightly different than the issues that they were facing. In other words what brought me to the side walk in front of the Star of Hope Mission was not alcoholism or drug addiction. What brought me there was my rebellious spirit and my desire to do my own thing. I kept asking God, why me Lord, what have I done to deserve this? God kept telling me that it was not what I had done but what I had not done. Once God drilled this lesson into my brain and spirit I was able to shut up and start listening to His plan for my life and to repent of my rebellious spirit.
I spent 45 days listening to God’s word three times per day and through the process of lots of prayer, counseling and talking to Gods people I came to the realization that God did have a purpose for my life and that He wanted to use even me. God taught me that He loves everyone and that includes the people that live on the street and the prisoner that is locked up behind bars. None of us are worthy of Gods grace and love. It is only because of His love do we have access to His grace and mercy. Our righteousness is like filthy rags in Gods nostrils.
I learned that God can and will use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I am one of those people. God picked me up, spanked me, cleaned me up and gave me a new purpose. He filled me with His spirit and forgave me of my sins. He loved me despite of who I was and still am. He is not finished with me yet and I praise him for that on a daily basis.
One of the things that I constantly had to remind folks of when I was involved in street ministry is that God is not looking for us to be the next Billy Graham. I belonged to the largest Baptist church in Houston Texas that had a singles department with thousands of active singles. It took me 60 days in advance to find ONE single person who would take 30 minutes out of their schedule to tell folks what the bible means to them, what church means to them and what God means to them. One of the hurdles that I had to overcome with these folks is that they all felt as if they were not worthy of standing before some men at a street rescue mission and tell them how God has changed their lives from the inside out. I told them and I remind us all that God has created us in HIS image. He loves us and wants fellowship with us every single moment of every day. He has a purpose for our lives and that is for us to tell the people in our world of His wonderful life changing love for them. God wants us to tell people that there is something better than what this world has to offer. There is more to life than the finite time that we have to spend here on earth. Yes, God can and will use YOU to spread this message. He will take your life, clean it up and empower you to share your story with those that desperately need to hear it. Be encouraged today and know that you are special to God and that He has someone in your sphere of influence that you can share the good news with.
May God bless and keep you in his loving arms….
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net
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