Kerry Bural

One Simple Twitter Tip for Better Relationship Building for Ministries

By Kerry Bural
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In theory, social media is designed to be, well . . . social. Sometimes, however, technology and the tools it spawns are anti-relational. Enter auto-responders.

No doubt, auto-responders are convenient, but they can work against your ability to truly connect and to develop meaningful relationships through this medium.

Using auto-responders sends a message to your audience that seems to say “Hey, you mean a lot to me and I’m totally excited that you connected with me. I’m so excited, in fact, that I’m letting a machine communicate my enthusiasm.”

What a missed opportunity.

If your volume is so high that you simply must use an auto-responder, here are some great tips and examples for how to use them well.

If you are not using an auto-responder (recommended for as long as you can hold out), I’d like to offer one simple tip for ministries and churches to build better twitter relationships.

So, here goes.

When someone follows you, rather than either not responding at all or letting an impersonal auto-responder do the work (which may actually hurt you in the long run), you might consider sending a personal message that includes something like this:

“This is NOT an auto-response” or “This is NOT an auto-responder.”

That’s the tip. Simple, I know. I’ve been amazed at how well this statement has been received and how it has caused people to pause and actually read my initial response rather than assuming it has been auto-generated. I’ve gotten several responses back that indicated that they noticed the statement and actually read my response rather than simply hitting the delete key.

I’m aware that you could cheat and include this statement within an auto-response message, but you wouldn’t do that, would you? ;)

Check out these helpful tips about Twitter for Ministry Strategy 101 and 102.

Here are a couple of good Twitter tip sites you may find helpful: TwiTip and Twitter Tips

Here are some great people to follow: @JosiahRoad @julmer04 @tonynolanlive @davidyeiser @wGregFinley @mthawk @DanDumas @erguncaner @DanDeWitt @kaylab7 @shawnelledge

Sample snapshot below.

Like this idea? Think it stinks? Post up. Just follow me @KerryBural to see how I do it.

twitterauto2

Posted on July 8, 2009
Tags: , ,
Categories: Relationship Building, Social Media, Technology

5 Responses

  1. John (Human3rror) Says:

    July 10th, 2009 at 7:27 am

    have i missed this blog? i like it.

  2. Kerry Bural Says:

    July 10th, 2009 at 9:20 am

    Thanks, John.

    We recently underwent a complete overhaul of the site which may be why you feel like you’ve missed it. It is radically different than before.

    I appreciate your feedback.

    Kerry

  3. Don @abovethenorm Says:

    July 15th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

    I am proof! Thanks for the attention to excellence Kerry. It was your personal reply to my follow that brought me to your site, not the link at the bottom of your profile.

    Top notch!

  4. Teaching the Young Dogs New Tricks « Living Above The Norm Says:

    July 15th, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    [...] be sharing them with you over the next week or so, so stay tuned. But, until then, check out this blog from my new friend in the Twitter world, @kerrybural. Man, I can’t believe the opportunity I [...]

  5. Kerry Bural Says:

    July 15th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    Thanks, Don!

    To all MMC friends, be sure and check out Don’s new blog
    here. Soon he will be sharing some Twitter tips and tricks he’s learned.

    Kerry

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