[highcallingblogs.com] how to engage community on facebook

Note: This is an excerpt of a featured Community post (written by yours truly!) at HighCallingBlogs.com.

Facebook is a game-changer. Say what you want about sites like MySpace, Twitter, or a number of others, but Facebook is the killer app that brought social networking into the mainstream.

Social networking is ultimately about community, and not just surfing a website. So if you want to get the most out of Facebook, and even use it to benefit your blog, there are some things you should know about engaging community. The good news is the rules aren’t very different than ‘real’ life, even though the tools may be.

Engage People Directly

Whether it’s online or offline, few things are as effective as just talking to people. When you want to talk to someone offline you walk over and talk, or you pick up the phone and call. Regardless of how you do it, the idea is that you take the initiative to connect. Generally speaking, it makes people feel good when others reach out…

Read the entire article at the HighCallingBlogs.com website.

celebrating [12 days of awesomeness]

In case you haven’t noticed, there is a lot of amazing stuff happening in blogging these days! Every time I turn around, I am seeing people stand up and raise their voice for what they believe in. The cool part of this is that people are listening. But the really cool part is that more and more people are joining the conversation!

Blogging has started to make the leap from (somewhat) meaningless hobby to legitimate catalyst for the sharing of ideas.

Working with the community that has developed through this blog has impacted me a great deal, particularly over this past year. However, there are several other blogs and bloggers that have made me laugh, cry, rejoice, think, and rethink. many of them have touched me deeply, and for that I am grateful!

This Christmas season I have been challenged by my friend L.L. Barkat (Managing Editor of HighCallingBlogs.com) to recognize 12 other bloggers. And because I know that there are at least that many who have had a big impact on me, I decided to take on that challenge! So between now and Christmas, I will highlight twelve of the awesomest bloggers that I know!

These bloggers are all people who I respect a great deal, and I believe that you will be blessed by their work. So I encourage you to check them out, subscribe to their work, and get into the conversations that they are generating.

• day one: paper bridges
• day two: church whisperer
• day three: not so fast
• day four: a joyful christian wife
• day five: shrinking the camel
• day six: real live preacher
• day seven: goodwordediting.com
• day eight: the wellspring
• day nine: rock ‘n’ roll preacha
• day ten: charles lee
• day eleven: rich kirkpatrick’s weblog
• day twelve: love notes to yahweh

 

[highcallingblogs.com] the secret ingredient

I was on a community prayer walk recently, and I noticed something funny. Not “ha ha” funny, but the kind of funny that really makes you think. What I noticed was a bunch of individuals walking down the street. Even though there were lots of people walking around, there were very few people who acknowledged that they were in any sort of community with other people.

As I tried to make eye contact with people so that I could give them the nod (which has replaced the need to actually say “hello” to each other), I found very few of them that would even look in my direction.

I know what you’re probably thinking…   since I was on a prayer walk, it was probably my vocal prayers for the heathens and the stack of tracts in my hands that made people turn away from me. But that wasn’t the case! It was the kind prayer walk where we walked in two’s and three’s and prayed quietly under our breath. To other people also walking down the street, I would have been just some other guy walking down the street too.

I didn’t expect people to stop and start random conversations with me, but it was clear to me that there is little sense of true community in our communities today.

READ MORE at the HighCallingBlogs.com website.

live online q+a: fighting poverty in africa

Lately I’ve really been trying to step up my game with using new tools to develop the community here. I’ve created the BibleDude.net group on Facebook, which is now over 720 members strong. I’ve also recently started using Twitter to connect with people, and have discovered many new frieds there as well.

But now I plan to up the ante a little bit…

On Thursday night, May 7th at 9:00 PM Eastern time, I am going to host a live online meeting to connect with people and share some pre-trip insight as I prepare for my upcoming trip to Kenya and Uganda.

Some of the things that I plan to do in this sesssion are:

• Share about how I got involved with Five Talents International (the organization that is sending us out)
• Discuss what microfinance is, and how it helps eliminate extreme poverty
• Share about why I am making this trip to Kenya and Uganda
• Take live questions about this trip and/or what we are doing
• Pray together for the team and the people in Kenya and Uganda
• …and whatever else God leads us to do in this meeting!

I also plan to do something similar after I return so that I can share some of the powerful stories and testimonies that I expect to bring back with me.

This event is free, and easy. All you have to do is go to the Community Room at 9:00 PM Eastern time. However, you may want to check it out early so that you can scope out the technical specifications.

I look forward to chatting with many of you and having the opportunity to share more about this amazing opportunity! Please let me know if you have any questions…