Voluntwitter
I have begun a process trying something a bit different with our volunteer communication. I am going to try and use twitter to communicate basic and important information.
The Problem: I used icontact to track how many of my volunteers opened emails i sent them and was amazed how many didn’t. I have been looking for a solution to the info gap. So the other day i learned that you don’t need a twitter account to receive updates from twitter. You can follow someone by texting “follow (persons username)” to 40404. It got me thinking. Many teens are not emailaholics so I have made the move posting our lessons to a volunteer blog and now twitter it seems would would be the perfect complement to that move.
Why I think it will work is even though twitter is still very unknown. Everyone has a cellphone and to avoid anyone getting blitzed with unnecessary info I created multiple accounts. One is for Small group leaders, another for Logistics (the check in security crowd), a large group one for our producers and communicators, and a preschool one. At a campus level I created one for each campus for updates on a broader scale that would be helpful for parents and volunteers.
I used to do email groups -HATE them keeping them up to date is a nightmare. With this system the burden of keeping the group updated lies on the individual to connect via sms or twitter.
Updating multiple accounts is very easy with tweetie on the iphone, twhirl on the desktop and web based via brightkit. Sending an update to each group once a week will be cake.
One bonus i am hoping for is that many of my workers make twitter accounts and we can start a 2-way collabritive diolog about ministry stuff and best practices.
Let me know if you have any ideas. I haven’t fully implamented it yet. I have all the twitter accounts up now just have to get the word out.
Great thinking Sam.
RYAN
I love it man. I’m going to be talking to some of the team here about implementing a similar system. Keep it up!
Pastor Sam, great idea.
Thought some of the less phone savvy people (see my mom) may (see will) not read updates regularly, but everyone else will most likely use. An extension is to have each campus computer logged into twitter in it’s account all the time.
Great idea for churches that don’t have SMS texting capibilities incorperated in their ChMS.
WOW! Please keep us posted on how this is working. I totally get the teenager thing. My teen staff NEVER check their email!
Phil
Guys thanks so much for you input. I will definitely keep you in the loop as I figure out if this a good solution to general emails. I am willing to try anything if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work either way I will let you know so you don’t waste your time.
sam
I love this. Thanks for giving the details so I can walk through how to do this!!
Thanks for sharing this idea. I am definitely going to use this!
Correction… can’t use it because Twitter has discontinued SMS updates in Canada.
Hopefully, that will change in the near future.
This is awesome man. One of our amazing volunteer leaders sent me this link. Keep up the good work man.
so… the questions is: months later, is this working?
Just checking in to see how the progress is coming along? What have you tweeked? Changed? Or are you still using? Have you been able to get the majority of your people to join?
Oh please post updates. I have been doing this and it works great. It also is a huge plus for working with ministries outside of my own area, like with cm groups that I am over and all.
Anthony and Todd,
Yes and no. I will do a followup post in the near future. It has taken much longer to get people to sign up than I thought. Works great for teen volunteers, ok for collage age kids and so-so for adults.
It still has value as twitter goes more and more mainstream. I have been making lots of changes to our programs and structure and plan on doing tons of promotion in the fall.
Now that all my blogs/websites are set I plan on using blogs and twitter as my primary modes of communication.
Todd I would love to hear your experience with it.
sam