john {WEB}ster

Managing your online presence doesn’t have to be a massive chore, in fact you can make a hug impact in just 60 minutes a day. Having a great online presence does take a little more than simply creating a profile, friending some people and hanging out from time to time. This routine will help you create meaningful relationships online that will ultimately benefit your business or organization in a positive way.

Facebook

1. Post a daily status message relating to your area of expertise.
2. Respond to any comments on your wall.
3. Comment on five people’s status messages or updates.
4. Check in on birthdays and send a personal note via email.
5. Share at least 3 interesting links that you find.
6. Comment on a couple of group or fan pages that you frequent.

Twitter

1. Find seven things worth retweeting in your feed.
2. Comment on at least five things in your feed.
3. Point out a few people that you admire. It shows your mindset, too.
4. Follow back at least 10 people. (Choose people whose updates will benefit your circle)
5. 10 minutes building relationships through conversation.

You just put up a great website for your brand new business. And you have been told for years now that every business has to use the internet to grow a business — But where do you begin?

When Scott Monty, head of social media marketing for Ford Motor Company, was asked about using social media to get traffic to a new company’s website. He did a great job of covering the subject on his The Social Media Marketing Blog. This quote from the story sums it up:

“… I wouldn’t be concerned about getting people to your site/blog. Social media isn’t about getting traffic, it’s about building relationships.”

Read the rest of Social Media for the Entrepreneur to get a good insight on the best practices for using social media. He also includes links to some other really good references.

More than just another crazy internet word, Twitter is a powerful tool for spreading information. With Twitter you can pass along small bits of ministry news, interesting stories from mailing list and blogs, and obviously, “valuable” chunks of information from the Twitter users you follow. These end up being things you could never find the time to print in the church bulletin, post on a website, blog about or blast out to everyone on your email list. Simply the “job” of a ministry program is to spread the word – Twitter is the perfect tool for that.

When I was first introduced to Twitter, it was an immature product that seemed to distribute trivial information about people’s personal lives. I knew I didn’t have time to follow the daily goings on of hundreds of people, so I didn’t buy in at first glance. Since then Twitter has matured into a critical business tool, perfect for following the ideas and whereabouts of people sharing the word of God, combined with your ministry’s thoughts and information.