It’s been a crazy year.
At the beginning of the year I traveled to South Carolina, New York, and Maryland (ok, that one’s a short trip) to do some campaigning. I was hoping to find a job in a Presidential administration (assuming my candidate won, of course).
A side note (but a cool one) was that while campaigning I made my first trip to New York City.
Also at the beginning of the year I started attending Christian Masculinity 2.0 (which has had a major impact on my life) and launched this blog.
In March I was sitting in a Good Friday service at NCC, and I felt God renewing the call to ministry that He had placed on my life nearly seven years earlier. I stopped campaigning and started trying to figure out what was next.
In July, after much thought and heartache, I applied for and was accepted into the new one-year-internship program (i.e. Protege Program) at NCC.
During July, August, and September, I built a very large and robust new website for the House Committee that I worked for.
On September 7, I started working at NCC as a Protege, and on September 30, I quit my job on the Hill.
The fall was filled with retreats and conferences, but the one that had the biggest impact on me was the Catalyst conference in Atlanta. Craig Groeschel spoke on “It,” and he and the Holy Spirit rocked my world.
In November 2007, I launched http://polfeeds.com, a website aggregating news from Congress, the President, and the Presidential campaigns, and in the two months leading up to the election it received 94,834 visits. Along with this I built many Twitter accounts, some of which now have between 1,000 and 5,000 followers.
All in all, it’s been quite a busy year. What’s on tap for 2009? Stay tuned tomorrow for more.
An important part of setting goals is revisiting and reevaluating them. They don’t do any good if you just set them and forget they exist.
I posted on my Fall ‘08 goals previously, but here’s the short version:
- Strengthen relationship with God through regular Bible reading and prayer.
- Be a better husband.
- Finish first draft of my book by May ‘09.
- Support the men’s ministry at NCC.
So, how did I do?
Well, I have been praying and reading the Bible more than in the past, but neither of these are as regular or consistent as they need to be. This will be something that makes the list of goals for 2009.
Honestly, I failed at being a better husband. If anything, I have been getting upset more easily. Correcting this will be a big focus for Spring 2009.
First draft of my book? What’s that? I don’t think I’ve written anything on it since I blogged my Fall goals. Honestly, this one is on the back burner for now, and I’m okay with that.
As for the men’s ministry, while the group that I help lead is going quite well, I have done nothing to support the other parts of the men’s ministry at NCC. (Note that this is not to say that there is anything wrong with them, just that I haven’t done anything to support them.) This is one that I am not sure will happen in early 2009. My responsibilities at NCC have shifted, and I am not sure what effect that will have on my ability to do this.
Overall, I can’t say that I’m super-happy with my accomplishments this fall. I made only moderate progress on one of my four goals. This spring needs to be a time that I increase focus on my goals. I spend a lot of time working on things, but I have a tendency to forget the more important stuff.
I’m adding a new category to Mind Muse called “Deep Thoughts.” By “Deep Thoughts” I suppose that I mean something like philosophy but with a broader scope (think philosophy, arts, history, literature, et cetera). Of course, not all of these random musings will be all that deep, but I hope that most of them will make you think, or laugh, or both.
Just wanted to give you an update on what we’re thinking about Ethiopia. As many of you know, Rachel and I had been discussing moving to Ethiopia for a period of time. While we’re definitely still open to and considering that, at this point we are thinking that the chances are pretty small. Both of us our less enthusiastic about this prospect than we were previously. However, we still want to be open to what God has for us, and we certainly haven’t completely closed that door.
I know that we’ve been asking for donations to help us fund our trip in March, so if you happened to send us something based on the idea that we were considering going back long term and would like your money back, please send me an e-mail at will.f.johnston@gmail.com. I will be happy to refund it with with no hard feelings! I always try to be honest, and I feel an even bigger responsibility to be so when asking others for financial assistance.
We’re in Chicago for Christmas this year. It’s good to be back with family, friends, and FOOD. I love DC, but there’s nothing like Chicago food: Italian beef sandwiches, hot dogs, chili dogs, and deep dish pizza (which I’ll hopefully be having tonight).
Been a busy trip, I’ve visited a friend in Chicago, spent some time with my mom in the hospital (minor surgery, no worries), and beat Gears of War 2 with my brother. (He did most of the work.)
Tonight we’re heading to church with my dad. Been talking with two of his pastors, Jon and Dave Ferguson on Twitter, so looking forward to attending. I’ve been before, but it’s been a while. If you happen to be looking for a Church around Chicago, check it out. They have several campuses in Chicagoland.
Have any last minute Christmas shopping left to do? If you use this link
to get to Amazon.com, they will give us a small percentage of each sale, and we will use this money to help finance our trip to Ethiopia. Don’t worry, the prices are the same as going directly to Amazon.com!
Oh, and this will still work after Christmas!
Earlier today Ed Stetzer, the President of Lifeway Research, wrote a blog post entitled “The Pros and Cons of Social Networking.” While I agree with his pros (and would probably add in a few of my own), many of his cons strike me the wrong way. I’ll dive right in. (Bolded and italicized content is Ed’s, emphasis mine.)
- When Twitter friends ask me to promote their product on my blog or Twitter.
Stop it.
Sometimes people ask you to do something for them on Twitter. You’re free to take a look at the product/service and accept or deny their request. You can also ignore all of these entirely. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. If all someone ever does is self-promotion, that’s pretty frustrating, but if someone asks for something once (or every once in a while), I don’t have a problem with that, especially if it’s someone who dialogues with me regularly on other issues. In fact, Guy Kawasaki just wrote a post on using Twitter as a promotional tool, and he says the exact opposite:
Ask for help. Don’t be shy about asking people on Twitter to spread the word for you. If they like what you do, they will. If they don’t, they won’t. It’s as simple and transparent as that. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for some of us), most people don’t have the chutzpah to ask for help.
- When conferences ask me to promote their conference on my blog.
Stop it.
See Above
- When people want to argue with me through Twitter.
Here’s how it goes down: “Do you really think it is right for LifeWay to not sell this or that product?” Yes, let me think, could I have the privilege of debating you about this while 2000 people watch and we put our thoughts into 140 character Tweets? Genius.
I realize that Twitter is not always the best forum for debate, and that some issues are best not discussed quite this publicly, especially in a format that removes a great deal of nuance. I think I know the issue Ed has in mind (although I obviously could be wrong about that), and it is a sensitive one.
I do need to mention that before publishing this post I got in touch with Ed. I always want to be careful when being critical. He happily gave me the go ahead to post this criticism, so it would certainly be unfair to say that he’s unwilling to deal with criticism, but rather that he particularly dislikes Twitter for this type of dialogue. When I initially read this point, it seemed to be a repudiation of all public criticism or questioning online.
That said, I think we can only expect that just as our Twitter followers will say things like “Hey great decision!” or “Loved your blog post on missions!”, they will also actively disagree with and question us as well. We’re free not to engage them if we so choose, but just like in the real world, people are going to express their opinions on social networks.
- When people do drive by questions.
For example, I tweet, “Going to be in Chicago for a week teaching at TEDS.” My next tweet is, “Just landed in snowy Chicago.” Then, I get two replies, “Ed, how long will you be in Chicago?” Three words people: READ THE FEED. It’s not as violent as a drive-by shooting, but it’s just as impolite.
I’m not sure about comparing a drive-by tweeting to a drive-by shooting, but regardless, it’s tough to follow everyone’s complete twitter feed. While I don’t follow as many people as Ed, I do have a few hundred, far too many for me to read every update or visit every profile. Yes, I usually visit the profile before asking this type of question, but if you tweeted about going to Chicago two hours ago, and I sign into Twitter just in time for your “Just landed in snowy Chicago” tweet, then I might ask what you’re doing there. It’s fine if you don’t want to answer. (Although continually ignoring people’s questions on Twitter is rude. Note that I’m not saying Ed does this. He responded to my inquiry.)
- When people try to discuss blog posts via direct message on Twitter.
Look, if I wanted to have a private chat about it I would not have posted it on the blog.
I’m not a big fan of DMs either, but it’s not that big of a deal. (Yes this is serving as notice to my Twitter followers that I prefer to discuss things in the open unless they really are private. Had a lengthy conversation [for Twitter] last night, parts of which were better left for DM.)
- When people ask me random questions via Twitter.
“Ed, we have 300 people in our church. How many students should we have in our youth group?” My name is Ed, not “google.” And, that has a lot to do with your community, by the way.
People are following you and interacting with you because they value your opinion. If they wanted random information on youth groups, they would Google it. They’re asking Ed Stetzer because they want Ed Stetzer’s opinion. If you’ve already answered that question somewhere online or in a book, you can kindly refer them there or simply tell them to search for that content.
Although, Ed is right that certain questions can’t be answered without context, his youth group example being one. My church of ~1250 as a youth group of around 6. Then again, the average age is something like 27, and I’m glad most people in our congregation didn’t have kids at 15! So I agree, think before asking.
- When Facebook friends ask me my email address.
Look– if we are friends, it is right there. This is almost like someone calling me up on my cellphone to ask what my area code is. *sigh*
Okay, this one I completely agree with. If my e-mail address is on my Info page, then you don’t need to ask me for it. Don’t be lazy.
- When Facebook friends invite me to an “event” they should know I cannot attend.
If it’s not a real event, I don’t want to “attend.” If it is a real event and it’s out of state– it’s irrelevant to me.
When it comes to non-real events, people may not know that you don’t want to “attend.” It’s easy enough to ignore these or simply decline. Yes, if I obviously can’t be there (and it’s not a significant enough event that people would travel for it), then don’t invite me.
- When people invite me to join their “cause.”
I am not joining your crusade for or against the “new facebook,” the “reason for the season,” or anything else. You aren’t going to change hearts and minds and overcome the evil one with what amounts to an electronic petition that no one cares about.
Fair enough, you don’t like it, some do.
- When people invite me to play some kind of a Facebook game.
Look– you may enjoy Dungeons and Dragons but I don’t want to play it with you at this stage in my life. I’m not networking here to see your magic castle, become your squire, or fight your mob war. Just sayin’
Once again, a personal preference (one that I share). I recommend the “Block” feature for most Facebook apps. That way you won’t get that one again. A side note, if you want to play Scrabble or Boggle with me, I might be up for that! But I’m not going to zombie bite anyone.
Ed obviously has a bigger influence than I do online and a MUCH bigger influence offline. I’m sure he is bombarded with far more questions and requests than I am. On the other hand, it seems unreasonable to expect people to only interact with you on your terms.
I suppose the tone of this post is more what I take issue with. It doesn’t seem to be just a listing of things that are/could be frustrating about social networks. It’s not a kind ask for people to stop doing these things. It seems to be a series of complaints about people not acting the way you want them to, and most of the things listed aren’t inherently rude. I don’t always like the way people interact with me online, but that doesn’t make them wrong.
I don’t mind if people ask me to help them promote something. If I like it, I will; if not, I won’t. If you want to ask me my opinion, go ahead. I may or may not have a good answer. Don’t ask me a factual question that Google answers in the first result, but if you want my take on something, go for it. Social networks are communities. Communities are full of people. People dialogue with other people. People ask people questions.
I hope that I have not been overly critical in this post. I suppose that I am not giving Mr. Stetzer the benefit of the doubt at most points, but the way his post is written it doesn’t seem that he is giving his online community that either. Perhaps I misunderstood and there was more humor intended in his post than I give him credit for.
What are your thoughts about social networking etiquette?
A few weeks ago I came across a blog called Without Wax. While Without Wax is written by a pastor, Pete Wilson of of Cross Point Church in Tennessee, I think that all Internet marketers, social media gurus, etc. could learn a lesson from Pete.
The thing that’s so amazing about Without Wax are its comments. It’s updated an average of once per day and has 585 subscribers in Google Reader (GR).
By contrast FireDogLake, a liberal political blog with 1,449 GR subscribers (2.5x as many) and a significantly higher Alexa ranking, receives roughly the same number of comments as Without Wax.
Here’s another comparison point. Matt Cutts’ personal blog has 14,887 GR subscribers and has an Alexa ranking between FireDogLake and Without Wax. He posts 2.8 times per week and actually gets fewer comments than Pete does. While the following information isn’t super-helpful for comparison purposes because we don’t have it for any other blogs listed here, I can tell you that during 2007, Matt had 2.27 million visits and 31,373 RSS subscribers.
We can also look at another blog in the same genre as Pete’s. Evotional is written by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church (where I attend/work). Mark has 1,114 GR subscribers, posts at a similar rate as Pete does (10x per week), and has a similar Alexa ranking. He receives far fewer comments than Pete.
What’s my point? Well, Pete Wilson, author of Without Wax, has the highest level of community engagement that I’ve ever seen on a blog. Sure, some blogs get more comments, but they’re huge. The mighty TechCrunch with its nearly 1 million RSS subscribers and 3 million daily visits doesn’t get that many more comments. The number of comments on Pete’s blog simply blows me away.
While I’m not sure exactly why Pete gets so many comments, here’s my thought. He writes relatively short posts, not Mark Batterson short but still short, and at the end of many of them he asks readers a question that they can answer in the comments. This question is written in red to make it stand out.
Maybe we can get Pete to drop by and give us some more insight. You can always ask him on Twitter. UPDATE: Pete said he’d drop by and comment later, so no need to bug him on Twitter, although feel free to follow him!
Do you have any insight into this?
Live, Laugh, Love is a new blog by Min Kim. Min is part of the mission trip to Ethiopia that Rachel and I are going on, and her first post is about the trip. Unfortunately, Min is going on the early trip, and we are going on the late one. Both Rachel and I would love to have her with us. Regardless, Min is an amazing person with an awesome story. You should check out her blog, and if you ever get the chance to meet Min, your life will be better for it.
