When people ask me what I do for work, I half-jokingly tell them that I Twitter for a living. At any given time I can have up to 4 different Twitter clients up on my screen. I monitor a lot of different conversations and do my best to keep tabs on the vast number of discussion taking place. This can be a little crazy since @Logos has almost 5,000 followers and we follow all of them (spammers and SEO experts excluded, of course).
While there is a lot of information being thrown at me, there was one tweet that caught my eye the other day. @pastorjamie tweeted this:
I immediately stopped and thought, "Wow, what a great use of Twitter." Here we have a pastor using Twitter to not simply share that he's having a cup of coffee, or that he's washing the dog. Rather, he is using Twitter to lead his church, or at least those following him on Twitter, to engage in the study of God's Word. I was also pretty happy that he used our tool, Ref.ly, to do it.
The advancement of technology, especially in the social sphere, is nothing short of amazing. The challenge is how we can harness this technology for the kingdom and glory of God. At Logos, we are trying to do our part with projects such as Ref.ly (for Twitter and Facebook), RefTagger (for blogs and websites), and Bible.Logos.com. We hope that these tools serve you well and help you engage in a meaningful way.
So, how about you? Are you using Ref.ly or RefTagger? Drop a comment below with a link. Also, what are your thoughts on social media? What ideas do you have for engaging people in a meaningful way?
You should follow us on Twitter 
Hey Ryan,
We use RefTagger over at ChristianBlog.Com (and have been for a long time now. I continue to get folks saying how much they love it!
We do use twitter (@christianblog) and we push out all new blogs to the twitter account, as well as allow members to link their own twitter account to our website so we can push them additional content, and let them push stuff they do out to their twitter account.
However, I have not yet been able to think of some really good way to integrate ref.ly into the whole mix of things. I am totally open to any suggestions you (or anybody else) might have of how we could help push Logos products out. Drop me a message on my personal twitter account (@abelajohnb) if you got any brilliant ideas!
Blessings,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com
i use Twitter & Facebook to communicate to my congregation thoughts, scriptures, and quotes from last Sunday's sermon and also quotes, thoughts, and scriptures for the upcoming sermon as well.
i do this to "spur them on" to be well read, and had time to think through the general sermon ideas and scriptures BEFORE hearing it in person. i consider it a form of "pre-work". preparing their minds during the week and hopefully they will be more engaged during the sermon as well.
I'm using RefTagger on Prayerity to link to Bible references in user's prayer journals.
I think that social media is under utilized in today's church. It's getting better, but we have a long way to go. Community is key and social media allows us to foster community with very little effort.
How can I use REf.ly on Facebook?
Maybe a dumb question, but I just started using Facebook and I want to reach people rather then just rambling on about washing the dog, etc.
Thanks.
Ken, you can use it anywhere you would include a link. The advantage of ref.ly is that, because of the format, it is easy to remember and create links without having to go to another site. Second, the links are human readable. That means when someone see http://ref.ly/Jn1.1 they can easily identify the verse you're talking about. And, it is short. So, it takes up less room than a longer link.
I really like these Bible url shortener services. I did a write-up about Ref.ly on my blog. http://bit.ly/T7L20
What software do you use to monitor and track accounts on FB and twitter with?
Hey Jeff, I mostly use twhirl, tweetdeck, cotweet, socialoomph, and twitter search rss.
I use ref.ly a little bit. This is a great use of the tool. Just wish I could get my people to realize the value of Twitter. I think there might be one or two others in my church on it. Till then I add the old #fb so those tweets will go to facebook where I do get some of my members following me.
Using both ref.ly (great tool!) and RefTagger (great tool!) on our blog and website. We have lots of young couples/adults and Twitter and the Blog are just right for reaching them apart from our Celebration of Worship.
I use RefTagger on my blog, christosdoulosric.blogspot.com. It is so useful and convienient. I would also use ref.ly on facebook. So, how do you set it up for fb?
In this fast pace society efficient tools like RefTagger and Ref.ly are effective ways to allow folks to quickly view a refernce scripture with a simple "mouse-over" or "click"! This simple, almost effortless, actions puts the Word of God right in front of the viewer. I started using twitter(@kwiksword) and have used ref.ly to put a scripture at the end of every 'tweet' relating to the subject matter! RefTagger has been a welcomed addition to our church website (APAchurch.com) and we'll continue to use it as we develope the site. If you haven't seen/used these tools...check them out!