Media Outreach

I’ve been working with the junior high youth group at my church for the past few months. I’m not really an expert on kids…ok, I know nothing about kids, but have enjoyed learning about junior-high-aged kiddos. If I had to describe them in three words they would be:

1. Random (fun!)
2. Insecure
3. Hyper

I sat in on the Sunday morning youth service last week and as I looked around the room, I noticed that about 75% of the kids weren’t listening…or maybe they are just really good at multi-tasking. Some of them were poking their friends (maybe they spend too much time on Facebook?), some were scribbling notes to their neighbor, while a few of them listened attentively to the message on worship.

Oddly enough, I immediately thought of Twitter. Maybe I spend too much time on Twitter or thinking about what would make a good Tweet, but I realized that tweeting your followers is like talking to a group of junior highers.

1. You never know if they really heard what you had to say.
2. The more loud and random you can get, the more likely they’ll pay attention.
3. Most of your message will go in one ear and out the other.
4. You might get a random comment from the back row during your message.
5. Some will actually listen and tell their friends.

What does all this mean?  Here are a few quick tips that I learned about Twitter from watching these junior highers:

1. Keep your tweets short and sweet.
2. The quality of a single tweet will go further than a dozen uninformative tweets.
3. Don’t expect every one of your followers to read your tweet.
4. Don’t be afraid to post something random that will open a discussion.
5. Thank those that re-tweet or mention you in their tweets.