I do believe that I’m officially a twit now. I have been signed up and using Twitter for a while but I’ve only recently started to be active with it. Chris Brogan has promised to stop blogging about Twitter so I guess I’ll have to start.
The problem that I see with Twitter and the rest of the social media crowd is just figuring out what I’m supposed to do with it. Keep in mind that figuring out what I can do is not the problem — it’s figuring out what I should do. I have the same dilemma with Facebook, Digg and Delicious too. I haven’t been brave enough to tackle any more as yet but LinkedIn and MySpace are on my to do list .
The biggest issue I see right now is what purpose should I find for the various tools. From what I’ve seen there are many ways to use them. This is what I’ve discovered on Twitter so far.
- Communication between existing off-line friends
- Communication between existing on-line friends and looking for new friends
- Networking for business contacts
- Networking for website traffic
- Putting out a message to followers
Most of the follows that I have seem to be a blend of 2 or more of these. I, personally, fall into the first four of these categories although I must admit the business angle is more important to me. I tend to use e-mail and Facebook for the personal stuff. I still enjoy the banter and conversation with people that I’ve met here.
There is still a lot for me to sort out. It is a big investment of time. There are some people who have more than 10,000 people that they are following. I don’t believe that they realistically are reading everything that they are following — even at 140 characters per tweet that must amount to a fair size novel if every person they follow only tweets once a day. So that means people are following someone but not really paying attention. This is probably to allow an increase of followers since you are limited to 110% of the number that you follow.
There are a lot of opinions about what is acceptable in Twitter. I actually follow @twetiquette which posts some guidelines, but @briancarter probably said it best when I jokingly asked where the rules for Twitter were written. He replied “in your heart my friend.”
So, take a chance and try it out for yourself. Tweet what you want, when you want. Follow whomever you like. Unfollow those who get tedious or oversell. See what is there and don’t be afraid to change the rules as you go. Let me know what you find out.
Shalom
Tags: how to use, Social Media, Twitter
As Christians, this season is a very special time of year. We celebrate Christmas as the birth of our Lord and Saviour.
But a thought has been digging at my brain for quite some time now. What does it really mean that Jesus is Lord? Most of us understand the meaning of saviour but lord is a word which is difficult for most North Americans to really understand.
In Canada we do have a monarch, but they are very removed from us. The queen does not even rule directly, but indirectly through representatives known as the Governor General and the Lieutenant Governors of the provinces. Even this authority is limited and the parliaments and senates do most of the governing. In the United States they do not have a monarch at all.
Those of us who have lived our lives in this type of setting don’t have the experience to truly understand the concept of lordship. For me, I have to struggle with the idea that Jesus as my Lord means something deeper than Her Majesty as my Queen. For the latter I have respect and admiration but little reverence or awe. She has very little sway over my life.
Jesus must have a higher place in the life of a Christian. He is directly involved in our lives. When he was born in a stable in Bethlehem, he was worshipped as King by the angels, the shepherds and the magi. In his death he was labelled as King by his killers.
As Christians, we own him as King, but do we truly understand what that means?
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?’
The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 26:34-40 (NIV)
Tags: Jesus Christ, king, lord, lordship
It seems that John Fogerty needs to write a new song for Muskoka. We’re only half way through December (not even officially winter) and we’ve got 3 feet of snow on the ground.
I love the snow here — don’t get me wrong about that — but I’ve been struggling with the early snow and the constant nature of it. I’ve still got 6 cords of firewood that I didn’t have time to get from the back 40. It is partly my fault since I was trying to get a couple extra weeks of drying time, but I did count on having little or no snow until mid December. Now its a process of dragging some in with the snowmobile in between bouts of shoveling the driveway.
I am looking forward to the winter though. I love the snow provided I’ve got all my fall chores out of the way. I’m getting my snowshoes fixed up and looking forward to starting the slide for the kids. It’s going to be really great this year. Having a snowmobile (even though it is 21 years old) is a blessing too since it will speed up some of the winter chores.
But every time I have to fire up the snowblower and look at the 200 yard driveway full of snow I want John to write me a new song. For now I’ll have to edit CCR in my head as I go.
And I wonder, still I wonder, who will stop the snow?
Tags: chores, Creedence Clearwater Revival, fun, John Fogerty, muskoka, snow, winter
With apologies to Tommy Hunter, I want to welcome you to Ramblings, my blog for anything that pops into my wee head!
As some of you may know, I have a golf blog called Howls which is focused on golf. I also have a new blog for humourous stories and jokes called Cookie Crumbles.
However, there are many topics that I want to be able to write on so I’ve created Ramblings as a place for them to call home.
I hope that readers of this blog will be entertained, amused, challenged and provoked as I speak my mind on various subjects. I know that we will never agree on everything but I do believe that we can disagree harmoniously.
I am a rambling man, following the breeze.
Rambling here and rambling there, gathering memories.
So let me … ramble! Let me ramble, all my life away.
Just rambling every day.
KYSOTI
Tags: blog, introduction, welcome
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