Blog and Twitter favorites, suggestions

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Blog and Twitter favorites

Blogs

Steve Griffith is a UMC clergy colleague in Lincoln. He writes with care, intention and clarity about issues that are important to him. I think this is an excellent example of the pastor-as-author genre.   www.gatherfragments.wordpress.com

Kelli Samson is a cousin of mine who lives in Olympia, WA. I enjoy her blog because she has a very consistent writing voice, writes about food and books, posts photos that make me want to take more photos, and doesn’t mind offering an opinion. Something she does especially well is cross-reference her Instagram, blog and Facebook accounts. I usually find her blog within two hours of being posted, which I think is a sign of social media giftedness on her part.  www.freshscratch.net

Hacking Christianity. You might not agree with Jeremy’s content, but I think this is a fine example of excellent writing. He stays focused on his blog’s purpose, plans out his posts so his readers are not bombarded, and does a fine job editing. A new blogger could learn much about this communication form by studying this blog.  hackingchristianity.net

Twitter

UMNS  @UMNS United Methodist News Service

Methoblog @methoblog They post UMC-related blogs! How convenient!

Trent Rosencrans, Cincinatti Reds reporter

Indian Country Today @indiancountry “Serving the nations, celebrating the people.” also have a fb feed from their media network

The Root @TheRoot “news and commentary from a variety of black perspectives” They also have a fb feed for their digital magazine

Rethink Church @umrethinkchurch

Great Plains UMC @gpumc

GCSRW @GCSRW I chair the Justice for Women committee, please follow

Tweet Smarter @TweetSmarter  They post tips for doing better with twitter

I feel like it is smart to subscribe to at least one of each of the following on twitter, at least as you get started. I’m thinking of clergy here, but I think the list works for others as well.

Weather update source, national or local

Local news source

National or regional news source edited by people of a different ethnicity than you

Local sports team of your choice

Social justice advocacy group

Local arts or food feed

Official denominational news source

Unofficial, yet actual, denominational news source

I find the above gives me a good chance at being aware of what my parishoners are likely to bring as prayer requests and gives me a chance at knowing enough about what is going on around me to be able to converse with others.

I find the best way to add to your twitter feed is to ask friends for suggestions or check the list of what they follow. It is very easy to add and subtract accounts from your twitter feed, with little to no risk of the kind of angst that happens when people “unfriend” one another on facebook.

Steph and Biebs

Guessing that Lyn Seiser took this October 2011 photo for me. We were in Washington State for a food justice meeting, and were so pleased to have time to catch up with our friend, Justin.