Greg Atkinson

I thought this was a great article/blog post by Michael R. Macias on that I came across on the Small Business Tech blog. This is what I try to get across to clients that I work with: social media marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Just like I said in my older blog post “Diving into Social Media” – you have to be in it for the long haul. Read what Michael had to say to business leaders:

Far too often in the business world the term return on investment (ROI) is used to justify actions or strategies. Though the term certainly has a place in the small business sector, it doesn’t fit everywhere. And there is one place it should never be used-social media. Imagine if all of us treated our “real” friends based on the concept of “ROI” like we do with our “virtual” ones. Chances are it would look a little something like this: “Today I hung out with Billy, but got nothing in return, so I won’t be doing that again, even if we’ve been friends for 20 years.” We’d all end up without any friends if we lived our lives that way. Well, the same rule should apply to any social media efforts your small business engages in. Using Facebook shouldn’t be about tracking ROI, or measuring the benefits of your friends.

Granted, there are metrics or insights, available to show you how effective your messages are, but that shouldn’t define your efforts. Social media is about more than just sales conversions or coupon deliveries…it’s really about relationships. Today’s consumers want to feel connected to a brand, and have a personal relationship with it. It’s about engaging people, inspiring them, motivating them, and encouraging them to appreciate your brand. When you decide to dive into social media, think about treating it exactly as you would a new friend. As you get to know them, and they get to know you, you start to like each other more, and the next thing you know, you are introducing each other to new people. I believe in the business world we refer to that as word of mouth marketing. So before you try to rate your “virtual” friends, or create a system to track their value, stop and think, “Would I do this to Billy?”

This was a guest post and thank you Michael for taking the time to write this great post. You can find out more about Michael and his business at his website www.insidethecube.com . An impressive website and it is worth taking the time visit. Also you can follow Michael and his business on twitter http://twitter.com/CreativeQube.

Did you know I do social media marketing for businesses? I never really talk about my day job on here. I consult with churches from time to time and do secret shoppers at churches on weekends, but during the week I run a social media marketing company called GTK Solutions. The “GTK” is named after my three kids: Grace, Tommy and Katie. By the way, if you want to get social media and social media marketing tips and quotes and links to blogs that educate and inform, follow my company on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gtksolutions.

I consult and market for clients in the social media realm, dealing with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization). I thought I’d do a couple of blogs on here that educate you on things like this and share with you what I share with my clients.

If I can help out doctors and businesses, you know I want to help out Church leaders. So what do I do with businesses? I first do a discovery meeting with the client to learn more about their business, their target (who they want to reach), their existing online presence and their goals. The discovery process and questions I ask are some of the following (these are things you need to think through in your situation):

GTK Solutions Discovery Questions

1.         Do you believe in what you do?

2.         Would you buy what you are selling?

3.         What social marketing are you currently doing? Even unintentional communication about your business.

4.         If I searched social media sites today what would I learn about your business?

5.         How do your customers use social media?

6.         What is your brand?

7.         What is your reputation among those you serve?

8.         What social media marketing seems to be working?

9.         What social media marketing seems to not be working? What will it take to stop this?

10.       Who is your target audience?

11.       What date are you thinking of going public with this new campaign?

12.       What goals do you hope to see met as a result of this social media campaign?

***  First, things first. If you’ve never read my blog post “Diving into Social Media” – stop and read that. It’s a great place to start. So before I start answering questions you’re not asking: What questions do you guys have about social media marketing and how it can benefit your church and boost your online presence? Of course, I’m assuming you’ve seen the Social Media Revolution video, know how important social media is, how many people can be reached by it and that you want to reach more people for Christ.

I’m going to list the most beautiful churches in the country. Are you ready? Follow me: If I said, “You have a beautiful church”, would you reply “Thanks. When did you visit our building?” or would you reply “Thanks. Who did you meet?”

It’s simple and subtle, but potentially dangerous. So often we refer to churches’ facilities or campuses and define that as a “church”, as if they’re synonymous. One of the reasons that I love church plants and those in portable facilities is that they don’t have to overcome this hurdle like churches with their own building.

We don’t go TO church. We ARE the church. If you want to see the most beautiful churches in America, you’ve got to spend some time with believers that are sold out to Jesus, filled with His love and grace, display the fruits of the Spirit and have a passion to serve their community.

While I’m thinking about it, read Dino Rizzo’s book Servolution – that’s a beautiful church. Each time I’ve visited a church that has a Dream Center, including the LA Dream Center led by pastor Matthew Barnett, I’ve seen a beautiful church. The ironic thing about this is churches with Dream Centers often are doing messy ministry and get their hands dirty; still, they are what I consider to be a beautiful church.

I remember years ago being at the Evangelism Conference at Willow Creek and hearing Bill Hybels share his heart and vision. What I left with is at the end of the day, it’s about people sharing their faith and life with other people. Please know I run a social media marketing company. I’m all for marketing and branding and using tools like social media, but when it comes down to it – people are the church and they, by their word of mouth, are used by God to grow a church and be salt and light in a dark world.

How can your church be a beautiful church? By making disciples and growing up people in their faith. Spiritually mature Christians are beautiful in their own way. They’ve had years to practice spiritual disciplines and give off the scent of Christ. New Christians are beautiful in their own way. Yes, they’re sometimes rough around the edges, but their passion and zeal is inspiring and their new found “first love” is a breath of fresh air.

I’m curious: If I came to your community, would I experience a beautiful church?

The New York Times best-selling authors of One Month to Live are back with another 30-day plan in Love At Last Sight: Thirty Days to Grow and Deepen Your Closest Relationships.

The new book by Senior Pastor Kerry Shook and Chris Shook, co-founders of Woodlands Church in The Woodlands, Texas, helps readers focus on their key relationships—spouse, children, close friends—with the aim of deepening each. Instead of what they call “love at first sight,” the authors are encouraging a “love at last sight” mentality.

With regard to marriage, Chris Shook said: “Love at first sight is the idea that you meet that one and fall in love and that’s it. As Kerry and I found out in our 26 years of marriage and in raising four children, we found that love is really what happens in the in-between times, what you do in the tough times and in the times when you aren’t filled with butterflies and roses and music.

“We want the last time that we see each other, we want us to be more in love than ever before,” Shook added. “Since that’s our goal, it means working on that every day.”

Readers are challenged “to think of three key relationships in your life—and it could be family members, friends, co-workers—and tell them they are important to you,” Shook said. “Find people in your life that mean a lot to you and then really focus on those three relationships during the first 30 days, and we hope that after that month, this will become a lifestyle, a ‘love at last sight’ lifestyle.”

The book divides the 30 days into four weeks and the four keys behind the “love at last sight” lifestyle: being all there, acting intentionally, risking awkwardness and letting go.

As with their previous book, Love At Last Sight can be used by an individual, group or whole church. Drumming up interest among churches, Shook said: “There are actually many churches who did a campaign for One Month to Live who have already expressed a lot of interest in doing this as well, so we will be launching and meeting a lot of churches this fall with churches across the country.”

As one part of the book’s launch, the Shooks are encouraging participation in a Facebook Fast on Aug. 25.

“We do feel like it’s really important to recognize that we’re becoming too dependent on social-networking sites to conduct everyday affairs of relating to each other, to the people we love,” Shook said. “So we are encouraging a national Facebook Fast where for a day you don’t go to social-networking sites and only use your computer for necessary things that day for work or school or whatever—not texting if possible, but calling people or seeing them face to face.”

To order the book, go HERE.

Yesterday, I had about 6 hours of flight time as I traveled back from my trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. When I fly, I have time to think. I started thinking about the fruits of the Spirit and how they seem to be missing from some Christians that I deal with from time to time.

I thought back to the time I read the book The Spirit of the Disciplines. What impacted me about that book was I was brought up in the church to be trained how to react to tough situations. I was told to practice being gentle or to reflect on joy and one by one try to act out the fruits of the Spirit.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. - Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

What dawned on me as I read that book many years ago is that the fruits of the Spirit are not to be drilled into us; rather they are what comes out of us naturally when we’re walking with Jesus. When you’re walking step in step with Christ and spending time in prayer and His Word, your natural reaction to troubles and trials are love and joy and peace and patience, etc. Get it?

Do I always display the fruits of the Spirit? No. Unfortunately, I go through dry spells in my walk and sometimes get too busy for the devotional time that I so desperately need and truly want. But, when I do get in the Word and spend time in prayer, I find myself more kind, more gentle, more self-controlled, etc.

My prayer for you, dear friend, is that you walk step in step with Christ, seek Him daily, pray continually and let the fruits of the Spirit be (naturally) evident in your life.

This blog post has been on my heart for quite some time. I don’t want to come across as negative or a party pooper, but I feel this is something we need to openly and honestly discuss. I started thinking about how blessed we are as a nation and how well we live compared to the rest of the world. I started to question if the average American takes that for granted and if we realize we’ve been blessed to bless others.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I was watching a comedian (I’m a big fan of comedy). In one of this comedian’s jokes he laughed about how in other countries they don’t have clean water and how here in the US we play in water. He went on to pretend he was at a water park and splashing around in water and going down a water slide. Something deep inside me hurt when he made his joke and I sobered up to the fact that we do play with our water.

When I go to Six Flags, I love the water rides. I stand on a bridge and get splashed. I felt sick thinking about washing my car and how I have taken having clean water available for granted for too long. I have blogged about clean water before – as you know, I’m passionate about social justice issues. I also supported a Twitter campaign to raise money to build wells in other countries. I was also on staff at a church that raised money to build wells.

All that to say, I’m no stranger to the facts, but to hear the comedian laughing about it really stung. It upset me and made me want to do something about it. If you’re wondering how serious this issue is, here are the cold, hard facts:

Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. Unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all disease and kill more people than all forms of violence, including war.

Want some more hard truth? In many countries, people wait in line for food. Here we wait in line for iPhones. Let that sink in. Again, my heart is not to be negative, but to speak the truth in love. I sincerely believe we have been blessed to bless others.

If you have safe, clean drinking water and you’re not waiting in line for food (which is probably all of you reading this), then what can we do to make a difference? I’ve decided to add a free ad for Charity: Water on my blog (over to the right). I encourage you to click on it, read more about them and support them. I’ve blogged about organizations I support on here before. Here are a quick few that you can get started with right away.

• Water Missions Int.
• Charity: Water
• Food for the Hungry
• World Vision – My wife and I have supported WV for 15 years.

What will you give? What can your church do? How can we make a difference? We MUST wrestle with this and not ignore this part of God’s creation. If you’re up for donating something to one of these organizations, please leave a comment. Your action may inspire someone else to act. Together we can make a difference.