Book Suggestion: Gary V's Crush It

I highly suggest that you read Gary V's book Crush It. This is the first non-Christian book, music, or podcast that I have suggested on this blog. I believe though that the things that Gary suggests in this book are not just game changing for the marketplace, but for the church as well. We live in a different age that is changing so fast due to social media and technolgoy that we have to be in tune to the possibilities.

In this book, Gary lays out a practical Social Media plan that any entrepreneur can adopt and take their passion, product, or organization to the next level. I believe that the ideas that Gary suggests can be easily adaptable when it comes to the church and opens up windows to possibilities that we have never dreamed of before. It is mind blowing to think that a small home church in Indiana can now have a global impact using Facebook, Twitter, and a Flip Cam.

I really can't encourage you enough to pick up this book with an open mind. It's a quick read that took me about a day and a half or so. I have to give fair warning that some of the language is PG-13 but pretty clean in comparison to some of Gary's keynotes. When you've read it email me at nilssmith1204@gmail.com and let me know what you think. I would love to buy you a cup of coffee or iChat and get your thoughts and discuss how we might Crush It together. You can get more info about the book on the Crush It website or at Amazon.

The State of the Internet

I saw this video on Church Crunch (which is my 2nd favorite blog to read second to The Kisers) and thought I would share it with you as well. One of the YouTube videos that first captured my attention about a year ago was Social Media Revolution. You can read that blog post here. This video takes things to a new level and continues to blow me away at how fast the internet is progressing and how it is changing everything! It's changing the way we meet people, interact with people, reconnect with people, and on and on. I read today that Facebook has now become the #1 website in the US passing up Google. The world is changing fast around us!

As I watch these videos, I continue to get excited about what this means for the church. How our lives can now impact and be connected to anyone, anywhere through the internet. How can we as the church better Love God and Love People using these resources that are now at our fingertips?

iPad Tablet... It's official!

I've been hearing rumors for the past couple of years and it's finally official... the iPad tablet is here! While it looks very cool, I'm not sure how exactly it will be an effective median between my iPhone and my MacBook but I'm eager to play with it. I had lunch today with a Software Engineer who works predominantly with PCs and has developed many Windows Mobile applications. He just sold out and bought an iPhone and he's blown away by the capabilities. We were talking about everything you can do on the iPhone now. Every day I use my iPhone to wake me up (clock), read my Bible (YouVersion), record my calories (Lose It), check the weather/news, use the calendar, to do list, check my bank account, update my Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In, and best of all play games! There's really not much I don't do on my iPhone in any given day. It sounds like with the portability of the iPad it expands these possibilities and looks to much easier to read similar to a Kindle. I will be excited to get my hands on one of these very soon! Do you plan to get one?

New Facebook Technique: Sniping

Last night when I was on Facebook I was sniped by my friend Jaime Puente. He taught me a new technique that he coined "sniping". You see Jaime has a goal to get people to go and vote for his commercial, "Casket". If you read my previous post about Vote for Casket you can find out more about his project. So he needs people to go daily to the website www.CrashtheSuperbowl.com to vote for his commercial "Casket" so that it will be aired during the Superbowl. Instead of just sending out a mass message he's chosen rather to snipe. His technique is to watch the Chat board and see who is online. As new people pop in he immediately sends them a quick message (a snipe) that says: "Have you voted for my video yet today? Go to www.voteforcasket.com. While this could obviously get obnoxious if overly used, when you need action asap this technique is genius! I'm definitely going to try this during a live feed of one of our services soon! I apologize if I snipe you and it's unwanted, but I hope if I do that it leads you to respond to my request. It definitely has more effectiveness than hoping that your status shows up on someone's news feed.

How about you try it? I believe getting people to vote for casket is a great cause. See how many people you can snipe and vote everyday for this commercial! You can used bit.ly to create your link and see how many people actually go to the site. Leave me a comment and let me know how well this technique works for you.