Some people just feel perfectly at home on the web and become fluent in all its workings in absolutely no time at all. Darren Rowse is such a man. The rest of us mortals have to struggle to figure it out.
Darren, who you know as the founder of ProBlogger, is one of the world’s most famous and most linked-encrusted bloggers so when he sends a video to the transFORM conference in the USA with his thoughts on the church and how it should use social media, it’s worth a listen. Believe me. MUCHO MUCHO thanks for Steve Knight, a seasoned blogger in his own right, for getting Darren to speak out and pointing out this video to me today.
Darren is famous for making some decent money from the internet, namely 6 figures in the first year – which is something most of us poor bastards have never done – but actually Darren is much more than that – Darren is a guide [a “cybernaut”- a web-navigator in the truest sense of the word] for social media practitioners in many realms and he understands the ins and outs of blogging and social media, he knows his way around google ranking, impact, usability, graphics, search engine optimization (SEO) and a whole lot of stuff that seems to come naturally to him but much slower to the rest of us. Which is why I mentioned the re-release of his book last week.
Darren also gets the impact of the church through new media which is why I am blogging this right now. And I dont just say that because he mentions me a few times in his video. Which he does. Quite incidentally.
OK – you got me – that WAS an initial motivation for me to listen to his message [thanks for the tip from Steve Knight on twitter] but actually, forgetting about my swollen ego for a moment, and my typical pathetic blogger impulse to mention anyone who mentions me [DONT YOU JUST HATE BLOGGERS!!!!], Darren offers superb advice for any church or church leader hoping to impact their world through social media. Which is why I recommend listening to his talk.
Video from TransFORM on Vimeo.
Brilliant video, Darren. And a crying shame that your hair has never reappeared!
Darren warns about the danger of abusing the internet to build up our own ministries rather than helping people find God and find community. He suggests we:
1. Go into other people’s worlds and websites
2. Build our strategy on listening to the culture of the internet and responding to it appropriately.
Darren’s video reminded me of 2 scenarios: the Tower of Babel, where people tried to make a name for themselves [wrong move] and Mount Zion, God’s holy mountain, where God brings people organically and without ego [bloggers take note] to be built into a new temple for God’s purposes, stone by stone, pixel by pixel.
OK nuff said.
HINT – This is where you stop reading this post and start listening to Darren on the video.
Related on TSK: I once blogged that Darren Rowse owed me a coffee but then I flew down to Melbourne and Darren bought me a bloody coffee – so I suppose we are even – but after two mentions on that video, I think I owe HIM a coffee!
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blog, social media, problogger, darren rowse, church, religion
very informative video, worth the watch
Excellent advice … one more point to add .. author/speakers need to come clean if their blogs are paid for by their publisher or some other funding entity that has a vested interest in shaping their product. In those cases, the aim is to produce provocative that will enhance one’s blog ranking thereby hopefully increasing one’s book sales instead of creating a community. You can tell if a blog is publisher sponsored because there’s often a banner of sorts tipping you off – and if there isn’t, then check at the bottom to see if the (c) symbol lists publisher as the copyright holder. (I’m not talking about the donation buttons for a ministry or the banner ads – which I get why missionaries use these as fundraising tools.)
In these cases, I suggest that we all just stop going to these blogs – and if possible, gently let the person know why you’re departing. If enough people leave, then maybe the person might get off this PR machine and then settle down and start blogging in a more organic fashion. Some of the loudest voices are raising a racket because they want you to buy their product.
And I highly recommend having someone like Andrew around who can kick your hiney if your head gets too big – though be careful as Andrew has some pretty thick workboots. 🙂 We do need to pray for how to engage in this critique so we can put Matthew 18 into practice or else all these logs and specks will start flying around blinding us all.
Totally agree. Building relationships with non-Christian bloggers is essential if we consider ourselves missional bloggers in the full sense of the word.
Missionary Blogging? Wow, I had no idea.
This is truly inspiring!