Over the weekend, I surpassed 20,000 Twitter followers. Woohoo! A huge, heart-felt “Thank you” to all of you! I have really enjoyed the encouragement, discussion, learning, and fun I’ve experienced engaging with you on Twitter.
I don’t think the number of the number of Twitter followers is really all that important. But 20,000 is a nice, round, shiny milestone. And I’m always looking for a reason to celebrate.
I could giveaway an iPod, an iPad, or some other gadget, ask you to comment & retweet, blah, blah, blah. But that’s been done a thousand times. Bor-ing.
I’d like to celebrate this milestone by doing something completely unconventional. Something in line with true spirit Twitter.
Twitter is all about building relationships, right? It’s about adding value to those who follow you. It’s about giving and serving others.
So, I’m going to celebrate this milestone by giving away myself.
Throughout the entire day I want to serve you by giving you my time, my energy, my knowledge, and anything else you can think of. So…
- How can I serve you today?
- What question can I answer for you?
- What favor can I do for you?
- What can I give to you?
- What can I do to make this day better or brighter for you?
If you need more ideas, check out the comments on the 5,000 and 10,000 Follower Servibrations. Post a comment and let me know. I will try my best to respond to every request posted. If you think it’s too big an ask, try me and find out.
If the request is too personal to post publicly, you can DM me.
I would love for you to retweet this post and help get the word out, but you don’t have to. This is my gift to you and it wouldn’t be a gift if I required something from you in return.
I would love nothing more than to celebrate 20,000 Twitter followers by doing 50 acts of kindness today for people like you.
Our church needs to get some momentum in the social media area (thanks for the webinar a couple of weeks ago).
We have an *old* Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23320908573&ref=ts), but I am thinking we probably need to shut it down and get a “Fan” page for our church. Any thoughts/confirmations?
Also, we have a twitter account that we are just starting to use. Suggestions on linking the twitter account to the FB page. Assuming that we don’t want every tweet to go to FB, is Selective Tweets a good solution?
Thanks, Paul!
Hi Scott, I definitely think you need a Facebook page for your church. Unlike a group, when you post something to the church’s Facebook page that will show up in the newsfeed for all your “fans” so they will see all your updates.
I don’t think it’s good to link your Facebook and Twitter accounts so they have exactly the same thing. First, people are open to seeing more updates/day on Twitter than on Facebook. Second, if you post a link on Facebook, you can include an image and excerpt from the article, which is much more noticeable than just text and a link.
I recommend using a tool like hootsuite.com to manage both Twitter and Facebook. With Hootsuite you can post to both FB & Twitter simultaneously or just one if you like.
Wow, 20k is monstrous. I’m always down to celebrate. Huge toast to you and what you’re accomplishing. 20K means you must be doing something intentionally, cheers to you.
Thanks! Anything I can do for you?
I am trying to do a book giveaway and would like to get the word out to as many people as possible. With 20,000 followers you seem like the man to go to. You can find the details to to the giveaway on my blog: http://www.jdeddins.com
You’ve been tweeted. Good books, and good to see a fellow “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” -ger still going strong.
Please pray for The Sparrows Nest Maternity Home to be fully funded and operational by 11/2012. Thanks!!
Sure Carissa. I’ve prayed for you and The Sparrows Nest Maternity Home. Sounds like a great ministry. Keep up the good work!
By the way, I looked at your website and the announcement/link stuff in the top left corner didn’t work for me. Couldn’t get to your Facebook or Twitter pages.
Congrats on 20,000 followers. It’s because you are involved, active and likable.
Could you give us some SEO suggestions on ThomRainer.com?
Hi Jon, the most important and most overlooked part of SEO is keyword research.
http://churchmarketingonline.com/2008/06/keyword-research/
If you haven’t done any keyword research, any optimization that’s done is just throwing darts in the dark.
Beyond that…
– the title tag for the homepage should include keywords
– the keyword and description tags should be added for the homepage and each individual post.
– Images should have alt & title tags.
– It would help if the blog had categories.
– And since social media impacts search results, it would be helpful to have Twitter and Facebook Share buttons on each post, to make them easier to share.
I love Thom’s work! Hope that helps!
Thank you, Paul. I appreciate you taking a look at this for me.
Hey Paul… congrat’s on the 20,000!!
I have a little project I’m working on… you can check it out at http://trendJESUS.com
I’d love for you to be a part of it and to let your followers know about it too, if your open to it.
Thanks!!
Sure. I just tried tweeting #Jesus. Is there a delay until a person shows up on trendJESUS.com? Or is there something else I need to do?
Sorry for any confusion…. Those listed on the site are following @trendJESUS on Twitter.
I am going to adjust the site to add the latest tweets with #Jesus in the not too distant future.
Thanks for being a part of it!!
Ahh, OK. I understand now.
Hi, Paul
All I ask for is prayer for better health and financial turn around because I need to get a new wheelchair and perhaps a CPAP machine for sleep apnea. I’m disabled and I have congestive heart failure, diabetes and asthma. As we go into allergy season it makes breathing difficult.
Wow, Vicki, that’s quite a list of ailments. I prayed for healing and that God would give you strength and grace until the healing comes.
Have you got family or people in your church who are checking in with you and praying with you regularly?
Please pray that God would direct my writing efforts so that what He leads me to write would bring Him glory and would accomplish the purpose(s) for which he intended it.Thanks and God bless your efforts for His kingdom!
Sure, Jan. Amen!
I have friends both in and out of church who pray for me. As for my family, my mom and 1 of my nieces are the only ones who are christian. But I pray for THEM!
Glad to hear that.
Paul,
I was going to make a request, but instead I think I’d rather give back to you.
Your blog today was a very clear, very prescient reminder to me of what Jesus values. I needed that reminder today, as I’ve been behaving like a selfish jerk.
I suspect that you weren’t looking for accolades, but I think it’s worth noting when people do good things. Thank you for setting a Christ-centered example.
Thanks Shawn. I appreciate your kind words.
The Bible says we are to serve one another. So how this… Would you pray for my 9 year old daughter Ainsley? She has a 103 fever & the dr at the walk in clinic just told us she thinks she has pneumonia.
Then maybe you can give me the opportunity to serve you. 🙂
I will do that. How strange… My 6 year old son is running a fever of 102. Must be that time of year.
20,000 is a lot of followers Paul. Congrads!
I could use some specific social media/networking advice but can’t think of what those questions are at the moment.
Well, you still have a couple hours if you can think of them. 😉 Just kidding. Feel free to ask me any time, Becky.
I have just started a blog (again, finally). I am looking to hone my focus, serve & connect with others, develop my writing, and eventually make an income. Any specific wisdom? I am reading your blog (now) for info. This is my first time to read it. Thanks for be willing to interact here & on twitter.
Hi Krissi, thanks for your comment. A few suggestions:
1) Focus. Have a clear vision for what you want to accomplish with your blog. Have a clear and narrow set of topics you’ll write about.
2) Learn. Read blogs about blogging like Problogger.net and Tentblogger.com. Last year I led a group of bloggers through ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog ebook. You could buy that ebook, read through those posts – http://blog.ourchurch.com/page/4/?s=31dbbb&x=3&y=10 I may be doing another 31 Days project this summer.
3) Engage. Like you said “serve & connect with others.” Interact with readers, comment on other blogs, develop friendships, really help people.
4) Social Media. Engage with people on Facebook and Twitter. Put links to your FB & Twitter prominently on your blog. Have buttons on every blog post that make it easy to share the post on FB & Twitter.
Hope that helps!
So it feels selfish to ask, having just stumbled on to your blog, but am intrigued enough to ask. 🙂
Am discerning whether being a stay at home mama, (DD 7, DS 3,DD 3mos) but still need to earn income. Have a dream of writing and one day being an inspirational speaker, but am not sure if I’m barking up the wrong tree as it were.
Would you mind praying for me…and taking a look at my fledgling blog and letting me know your thoughts?
Kind regards (and prayers and gratitude)
Pauline
Hi Pauline, it’s tough to earn a living as a writer and/or inspirational speaker. But the good thing is a lot of people have built up to it while holding down another full-time job or being a stay at home mom.
I would encourage you to keep writing your blog and look for any opportunities to speak. It’ll give you practice, help you figure out if you really like it, and help you find out if you’re good at it.
I prayed for you. 🙂
Paul,
I don’t have anything today. But I’m working on a series of blog posts on what the church can do for our returning veterans and their families. I could use some prayer on putting that together (will involve two sites) and maybe even a tweet when it’s up (sometime in March). Thanks for your generosity. And congrats on the milestone.
Hi Connie, I just prayed for you. Let me know when you’re ready to go and I’ll see if there’s anything else I can do to support your efforts then.