The first thing you need to do is log into your Facebook account and navigate to your Facebook Homepage.

Once inside your Facebook account, scroll down to the very bottom of the Home Page and look for the link that says Advertising, Click on it to continue.

On the next page, look in the sub menu for a link with the text Pages. Click on it to continue.

On the next page you have two options,

1. Create a page.
2. Edit existing pages.

Click on the Create a Page button.

In the next page, simply fill in the relevant details of your page and confirm.

I have numbered each of the points and listed what each of these points are below the image.

1. Chose the Category that best suits your page.
2. Enter in the name of your page.
3. Click to Confirm you are authorized to Create the page.
4. Enter your name or electronic signature.
5. Click On the Create Page button.

Note: Make sure you are familiar with the terms before you Click on the Create Page button.

You have now successfully created your Fan Page, all you need to do now is fine tune it with a few more details and page specifics and start getting some Fans.

If you liked this tutorial why don’t you join me on Facebook by becoming a fan.

More On This Topic...

• How To Link A Facebook Fan Page To Twitter.
• How To Log Into Feedburner.
• How To Find Content That’s Worth Tweeting.
• Why Your Church Should Be On Facebook.

This short tutorial will show you how to log into your Feedburner account.

Since Google.com purchased Feedburner, logging into your Feedburner account can now be as simple as logging into your Google account.

Once logged in to your Google account you will see a link to your Feedburner account on your Google products page.

Simply Click on the Feedburner link to access your Feedburner admin area.

Because you’re already logged into your Google account, the first screen you will see will be the welcome back screen.

This page will display a list of your current feeds, along with the number of subscribers to each feed.

It is also your starting point when adding a new feed to your Feedburner account.

Alternatively you can simply go straight to the Feedburner homepage.

You can access the feedburner homepage by simply typing into your web browsers address bar feedburner.com

If you are already logged into your Google account, the first page you will see is a welcome back page(see image above), if you are not already logged into your Google account you will see the standard Google login box to the right of your screen(see image below).

To log in, just type in the Gmail email address and it’s relevant password to enter your Feedburner account.

More On This Topic...

• How To Add Your Blog To Your Feedburner Account.
• How To Sign Up For A Feedburner Account.
• How To Add Feedburner To Your Blog.
• What Is Feedburner?

You can recognize a Re-tweet by the capital RT before the @username

The idea or concept behind Re-tweeting really epitomizes the social aspect of Twitter.

When Re-Tweets are done properly, Every one wins.

For example…

The person who gets Re-tweeted, or in other words the person who originally posted the Tweet wins, because their message now gets read by a list of people that would never of seen the Tweet unless it was Re-tweeted.

The people who received the Re-tweeted message win, because they get to read a Tweet from someone they weren’t following and now have been introduced to someone that they may have similar interests with, who they can now follow.

and You win, because your the guy who brings all parties together and you get to share great content by doing a small amount of effort.

Re-Tweeting can also be a great way to attract new followers to your twitter account.

By sending out regular Re-tweets, It shows the Twitter community that you are not single minded with your approach to sharing content on the web, People may see you as a means of getting their content Re-Tweeted.

Re-Tweeting can also be a great way of getting noticed by someone.

As an example If I see someone who starts Re-Tweeting my Tweets, that person will show up in my feed and I will almost always start to follow them back.

I think where people make the mistake when Re-Tweeting, is they send out a continuous barrage of Re-Tweets with nothing more than a list of twitter user names, thinking they are doing these people some kind of favor, when in reality they are just bordering on spamming their list of followers.

The typical message I’m referring to could look something like this…

RT @twitteruser1: @twitteruser2 @twitteruser3 @twitteruser4 @twitteruser5 @twitteruser6 @twitteruser7 Thnx 4 RT

I personally don’t see the value in sending something like this to my list of followers.

If you really want to thank me for Re-tweeting your Tweets, Then go to my blog and Tweet about one of my articles, or Re-tweet one of my tweets about an article I wrote.

I also think your Re-tweets should stay relevant to your main goal or focus.

Ask yourself why you want to build a list of followers on twitter?

This can be a major factor on the type of content that you will Re-tweet.

If you take a look at the way I use twitter, I align my twitter use with my end goal, this helps me to focus on my Twitter activity and also helps in my efforts to build a targeted list.

Which is to provide a quality resource to Christians who want to learn how to effectively use the internet in their ministry or business.

As a result 95% of my Tweets will be related to Social media, Wordpress, Prayer requests, or Scripture.

Where as the remaining 5% of Tweets are usually responses or conversations I have through my public twitter feed.

As a result, whenever I have something  come through from someone I follow that falls in line with my end goal and I think it is worthy of sharing, I Re-tweet it.

When it comes to Re-tweeting, It’s important to remember that your list of followers is a list of real people. Assuming you haven’t used some random follow me, follow you program that automatically starts following every twitter bot online.

So think about who your true followers are, with Twitter don’t try to be all things to all men and Re-tweet every single thing that comes your way.

More On This Topic...

• What Is Twitter?
• What Is A Tag?
• What Is Keyword Research?
• What Is The Browser Address Bar.

The major point of that article came down to this, If all your using Twitter for is to literally tell people what you are doing, then you will loose the attention of your followers.

This post is more about making sure that doesn’t happen.

I want to share with you some of the best resources online that will help you find good quality content to keep your Twitter followers engaged in your Twitter activity and eagerly waiting for your next tweet.

I’m not talking about any old content, I’m talking about the best of the best. This is content that is already proven to be popular, well recieved and up to date, so you know that your readers will also enjoy it.

The first place I’d like to start is Digg.com

Digg is a very popular site where people can vote on the quality of specific content.

On the Digg home page there are a couple of features that make it easy for you to quickly find articles, video’s and images that have been voted on as being a high quality and popular.

You can tell if something is popular because of the number of Digg’s associated to the content, the more Digg votes, the more popular the item.

1. Use the search box to find specific content you are interested in.
2. Browse through the latest popular stories.
3. The most popular articles on Digg over all categories.

There is a massive amount of content on Digg, I’m sure you will find something your readers will enjoy.

The second site is Technorati.com

When you land on the Technorati home page, you have a couple of options to choose from when looking for popular content.

1. A dropdown menu with a link to the top 100 blogs listed by authority or the number of subscribers.
2. The most popular on Technorati.
3. The blog posts and news stories that are currently receiving the most attention.
4. The tags associated to content that is receiving the most attention.

If you find a blog on Technorati that provides good information relevant to your interests a good idea is to subscribe to the RSS feed so you can automaticaly recieve new content delivered to your RSS reader.

The next site to look at is a site called Stufftotweet.com

Stuff to tweet pulls in the top content from a handful of the top social sites online.

Although you don’t currently have an option to search for content that may relate specifically to your list of followers, and the amount of content here is pretty limited, you can still find some great stuff here without too much effort.

The next site on the list is Alltop.com

Alltop gives you a lot of flexibility to find specific and relevant content.

Much like Digg,  Alltop has the function to search it’s database to find content on blogs specifically related to your keywords.

Alltop is pretty comprehensive and will return some great results definitely worth a look.

Another great site is a site called Popurls.com

Popurls has a user interface very similar to the Stuff To Tweet site, but it provides a lot more resources to choose from.

Popurls also updates it’s content every couple of hours, so you know you are getting the very latest content online from a list of the most popular social bookmarking sites, video sites, image sites, magazine and news websites, and more.

Popurls also provides a search feature so you can search the site for key word specific content.

Using just a couple of the sites listed here regularly will provide you with some great content to keep not just your Twitter followers happy but help to keep you informed and educated about the latest news online.

More On This Topic...

• Are Your Tweets Falling On Stony Ground?
• How To Link A Facebook Fan Page To Twitter.
• How To Do Basic Competition Research In Google
• How To Create A Facebook Fan Page.

But, I have found there are a lot of Pastors and Christians in general who are using Twitter in their ministry that are just so incredibly boring.

I know that every one has the right to use Twitter or any other social media how they like, and I may be completely off the mark with this post, but when I look at following a Pastor in particular, I kinda expect to receive a few scriptures now and then, maybe some guidance or spiritual insight, some breaking news that may affect the Church and Christianity or even the odd Prayer request.

But sadly, the majority of the time, all I get from Church leaders are tweets about, who they are having dinner with, what movie they are watching with their wife or what cafe’ they are at, and so on.

It is such a shame that this is the best we are getting from our Church leaders when it comes to using this incredibly powerful social networking tool.

Tweets about sipping lattes in beach front cafes at 10 o’clock in the morning, when everyone else is slogging it out at work isn’t very uplifting or inspiring in my opinion, and being constantly told how Awesome church is going to be looses it’s Awesomeness after a while.

Now please don’t get me wrong, I love church, I think church IS Awesome and just like every one else, Pastors need time out to recharge, relax and fellowship, but if your going to be using Twitter in your ministry, there needs to be a balance.

If it’s constantly all about YOU, your tweets will seem irrelevant to the people following you.

People will still follow you, but it may end up being out of a sense of loyalty or obligation, but in all likelihood, you definitely run the risk of fewer and fewer people reading your tweets, every time your avatar shows up, automatically people will assume your talking about your self again and they just won’t bother reading what you have to say.

Please don’t take what I am saying as an attempt to beat up on pastors, I am not, I eagerly follow a handful of Pastors and I love what they send out through twitter, I am just trying to explain that…

There is a better way to use Twitter to engage the people in your ministry.

I guess getting started on Twitter can be fun and exciting, you open a new account and it’s like you want to tell the world, “Hey, Look at me I’m on Twitter“, and every single Tweet is all about you, I mean Twitter does ask What Are You Doing? doesn’t it?

But as an avid student of social media and a Twitter user myself, I have found that the people who are most successfully using Twitter are the people who are…

• Constantly engaging with their followers.
• Sharing useful and relevant resources to their list of followers.
• Re-tweeting the Tweets from the people they follow.
• and
• Think more about providing quality content to their list rather than just sending out a Tweet for the sake of Tweeting.

If you want to use Twitter effectively, then there has to be a balance, a balance between what your doing, what the people you follow are doing and what information you can share that will help the people who are following you.

When you actually stop and think about the concept of real people, living real lives, who have to deal with real life issues, who are following you on twitter, how many of these people do you honestly think want to know that your Driving to Church? or Having Coffee with Friends?

Some things to consider for using Twitter in ministry.

• If you read a good news story, blog post or see a great video online and you think other people would find it useful then tweet it. (even if it is a post from a Pastor that doesn’t belong to your Church)
• Tweet out prayer requests.
• Share Scriptures and spiritual revelations.
• Testimonies of healing and Salvation.
• News on missionary work.
• and so on,

Remember, Twitter in ministry is not all about YOU, Remember the words of Christ when he talked about the greatest among us will be a servant of all; Matthew 20:26-28

Be the servant on Twitter, your followers will thank you for it.

More On This Topic...

• How To Find Content That’s Worth Tweeting.
• What Is A Retweet?
• Making Your First Tweet At Twitter.com
• Forcing Links To Open A New Window.

I wanted to share with you one post in particular that I found interesting titled “10 Reasons Your Church Should Be On Facebook“, and I would definitely recommend you have a good look around Franks site, as there are plenty of great articles to read and check out.

In the opening paragraph Frank pretty much sums up his entire argument and also supports why I believe Churches and Christians in general should be using sites like Facebook as part of their outreach and ministry.

Just in 2009 Facebook has grown 276% in users aging from 35-54, So you can’t ignore this communication tool.

Frank goes on to list his 10 Top Reasons Why Your Church Should Be On Facebook, they are listed below in summary, check out the original post for the full descriptions.

• Effective Communication – People are already using it.
• Share Photos – People love to see pictures of something they were a part of.
• Share Video – Facebook makes video so easy.
• Connection Point – Church websites are great, but lets face it, a church website is a one way conversation. (Unless It’s A Blog Frank )
• Easy Invitation – Since facebook makes it so easy for a conversation in an online environment, it can also be a great way for your people to invite others to church.
• Staff Visibility – As churches grow larger, it can be challenging for the average person that attends church to know who does what on your staff.
• It’s Fun – If you make the choice to have fun with it, you can have a great time on facebook.
• Celebrate Success – Sometimes in ministry I feel like we spend so much time focusing on areas we need to improve, that we forget to celebrate what we’re doing right.
• Rally The Troops – After you’ve got a good following, facebook can be an easy way to communicate a need quickly.
• IT’S FREE

Go and read Franks post and leave a comment if you have any other suggestions on how your church could be effectively using Facebook.

And while your at it, Follow frank on Twitter and join him on Facebook, this guy is definitely on track when it comes to using the web in ministry.

More On This Topic...

• How To Create A Facebook Fan Page.
• How To Link A Facebook Fan Page To Twitter.
• What Do You Do With The Time You Spend Online.
• My Top 5 Ways For Churches To Use Twitter

Here’s a quick walk through and a basic introduction on how to use twitter for the first time, I’ve also included a couple of tips to help you make the most out of your twitter messages.

The reason I wanted to put this post together was to show some friends of mine how simple twitter really is to use, mainly because I know they have an account with twitter but don’t use it.

OK, for starters lets assume you have a favorite website and you just have to share it with someone, anyone for that matter.

All you do is copy the URL from the address bar of your Browser.

Log in to your twitter account and on the home page, paste into the “What are you doing?” text box, your URL, along with some descriptive text about the link you want to share, then Click on the update button.

Congratulations you have just used Twitter, it’s really that easy.

and… If you decide you want to delete your tweets at any stage, all you do is hover your mouse cursor over your published tweet, you will see a couple of small icons show up, by Clicking on the icon that looks like a Trash Can, you will delete your post.

So what do you do if the URL you want to share takes up all of your text space? seeing how you only have 140 characters to work with.

For example; lets assume I want to tweet about the latest post on my blog, but as you can see from the image below when you copy the entire URL and paste it into the Twitter text area, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room to write any text.

The solution, Make my URL shorter.

To Do that I need the services of a link shortening site.

One that I suggest you try is a site called “www.bit.ly”

The reason I suggest you try bit.ly is…

1. because it’s free and…
2. you can track your click through rates, you can tell exactly how many people Click on the link you have sent out through Twitter.

Using a tracking service gives you some idea on how effective and responsive your twitter list is.

So after I have taken my long URL and shortened it using the bit.ly shortening service, I Copy and paste the link into the text area on the Twitter home page.

As you can see from the image below, I now have plenty of room for my description text with plenty of room to spare, and I still have 65 characters left, so if anyone wants to re-tweet my tweet they can do so without deleting any of my text.

So hopefully this should give you a couple of pointers to get you started with Twitter, and if your still wondering what to tweet about, why don’t you Tweet this page just for some practice

More On This Topic...

• What Is A Retweet?
• How To Find Content That’s Worth Tweeting.
• Are Your Tweets Falling On Stony Ground?
• A Quick Tour Of Your Twitter Account Settings.

To access the Google Analytics home page type into your web browsers address bar the following URL, “www.google.com/analytics/” and hit the enter key on your keyboard.

When you arrive at the Analytics home page, you will see a link on the right hand side of the page with the text Sign Up Now. Click on the link to continue.

In the next screen you will see a sign up box similar to the one you use when you log into your Gmail account, Simply enter in the same Gmail user-name and password you use with your Gmail account.

After you have successfully logged in, you will see in the bottom left hand corner of the screen a small Sign Up button, Click here to proceed.

Next, you will then be asked to put in your websites URL, location and time zone details, Click Continue when finished.

After proceeding to the next screen you will need to put in you personal details Last name, First name etc.. Click the Continue button when finished.

The next step is to read the user agreement, if you agree to the terms Click in the check box next to the Yes, I agree then Click on the Create New Account button.

The next screen will be where you can get your Analytics code, this is the code you need to insert into your blog or website.

If you are not ready to install this code yet, Don’t worry we can always come back and get this code later, the main point of this tutorial is to get you set up with an Analytics account, Click on the Finish button, and that’s it, we’re done.

So basically, that’s all there is to adding the Analytics service to your Google account.

If you now go to your Google Account home page you will see a link added for your Google Analytics, This link will take you straight to your Google Analytics admin area.

More On This Topic...

• How To Log Into Feedburner.
• How To Add A New Website To Your Google Analytics Account.
• How To Set Up A New Google Account.
• How To Do Basic Competition Research In Google

I had seen a plugin that would do this about twelve months ago, but the plugin itself was no longer supported and had been that way for a couple of years, so making it work with the current version of Wordpress could become a problem.

Then I saw someone in my twitter feed tweeting about a plugin that would allow users to open external links in a new window called Target Blank in Posts and Comments.

I decided that I might give the plugin a try, but before setting it up I thought I would find out if there was a way I could manually code this function into my site without having to install another plugin, So I went to the Hybrid support forum and posted the question.

I can’t tell you what the exact response was because you need to be a member to read the reply, but the response I got made me wonder if I was doing the right thing by my visitors by forcing all of my external links to open in a new window.

I started looking into it further to see what other people thought on the subject, and seeing all of the responses, my attitude on the topic started to change.

But their was one comment in particular that really made me stop and think, and it was from Darren Rowse at problogger.net, his comment was…

My priority as a blogger is to develop communities of readers who have positive user experiences.

While keeping people on a blog by opening new windows for links might seem to make a blog stickier – I’d rather keep people engaged with content that they just can’t live without coming back to.

If they do leave the site and want to come back they’ll use the back button.

It was this comment that made me understand the responsibility I have in creating such good Quality content for my readers that they will want to come back to my site over again.

It also confirmed my desire to build community around my site among Christians wanting to use the web as part of their outreach and ministry.

To be honest I personally don’t have a problem with links opening up in a new tab, but after reading the comments and opinions of others I am inclined to see that the argument for opening links in the same window is a valid one.

Some of the articles which helped in making my decision are listed below.

Should Links Open In New Windows? Smashingmagazine.com

Should Links Open In a New Window? Problogger.net

Use interim solutions. w3.org

How Should Outbound Links Function. Wiliam.com.au

To most people reading this, having links open in a new or the same window probably isn’t an issue, but for me it’s about making my site usable for the majority, especially for the non technical visitor who expects links to open in the same window.

So I guess I have a pretty busy time ahead of me as I go back through each of my posts to reset all of the links I have opening in a new window.

More On This Topic...

• I’m Moving Out
• How To Do Basic Competition Research In Google
• Googles Free Keyword Research Tool
• Conversations With The Bible College Dean

Before we start I just want to say that optimizing the settings in your Twitter account is very easy to do and taking the few minutes setting this up will make a huge difference to your Twitter profile.

It’s important that you add some info about yourself, so that people can quickly decide whether they will want to follow you or not, and I’m not talking about the follow anyone crowd, I’m talking about real people who have the same interests as you, who find value in the content you tweet about and who want to connect with you through twitter.

And don’t worry if you don’t like what you initially set up now you can always come back and edit all of these settings later, But I must warn you that setting up your profile in Twitter Is Extremely Easy To Do, So Be Warned.

The first place to start is to log into your twitter acount, once you are logged in Click on the “Settings” link in the top right hand side of your twitter page.

The first screen to open up within the settings area is the Account screen,

You will see the initial details you used when setting up your account, you will also notice that twitter provides some really useful tips on the sidebar to your right, I suggest you read these tips as you go through the settings of your profile.

Lets first look at the screen shot and I will run trough each of the fields below.

A lot of what you’ll see on this page is pretty self explanatory but I will quickly go through all of the fields for you as well as share some tips that you may find useful.

1. The Account Page Link. This link will always get you back to this screen.
2. Your Name. This should already be filled in when you first open this page.
3. Your Desired Username. This field should also be filled in, but Twitter gives you the opportunity to change your Username and still keep the same account, I would only suggest you change this if your account is very new, you have found a better Username, and you haven’t added your new Twitter account ID to any of your other social media accounts.
4. Your Email address. This field should already be filled in with the same email address you used when you signed up for your Twitter account, If you decide to change your email address at a later date you can change it here.
5. Time Zone. Click on the dropdown menu to find your cities timezone.
6. More Info URL. Do you have a Blog? If you do, put the URL in here, If your not blogging yet, put your Facebook page URL in here, Give the people who visit your twitter page somewhere to go so they can get some extra info about you, remember Twitter is about connecting people, tell the world about yourself by linking to your other profile pages.
7. One Line Bio. Twitter only gives you 160 characters to tell your story, try to be as specific as possible with the information you want to share with the twittesphere, A little tip for writing your bio is is to open a new tab go to your twitter home page and start typing a profile description, when you hit the 140 character limit add another 20 characters and there’s your 160 characters for your profile. I suggest you try different Bio’s and test which one works best over time.
8. Location. Enter your home town, city or state, By telling people your location you give them an opportunity to connect with you on a more personal level, if your a Pastor or a business owner and you genuinely want to connect with people offline then filling this out is a great idea,, Or if you feel like you would prefer to keep your location private you could use this space for showing your wit and sense of humor, Be creative and have some fun.
9. Language. What language do you speak? For more choices click on the dropdown menu.
10. Protect My Tweets. Unless you want to keep your tweets totally private, so only your friends and family can see your Twitter activity, then make sure this is left “Unchecked“.
11. Save. Make sure you save all of the details by clicking the “Save” button.

The next tab along is the Password tab.

Here you can change your password, Twitter has some pointers in the sidebar about your password I suggest you read them.

The next tab is the Devices tab.

On this page you can set up your Twitter account to work with your mobile phone, make sure you are aware of any costs associated with linking your mobile account with your twitter account.

I have this set up so I can send tweets to my twitter profile from my mobile phone but I would not suggest you receive tweets with this feature, when you start to follow people from different time zones around the world you will be receiving SMS messages to your phone 24/7.

The next tab along is the Notices tab.

On this page…

1. You can decide if you are sent an email when Someone starts to follow you.
2. Decide whether you want to receive an email when you get a direct message from someone you are following.
3. Choose to receive any notifications from Twitter HQ.

When your getting started it’s kinda fun to get the odd email letting you know when someone starts to follow you, but after a while you may prefer to stop these alerts coming into your inbox, I found I was receiving a lot of Make Money Online people starting to follow me, so I decided against receiving the New Follower Email alert.

In the Picture tab you can upload your Profile picture or your Avatar.

If you read through the instructions on the sidebar, you will find twitter gives you some suggestions on how to choose your Avatar, and the maximum file size you can upload for your photo (700k).

The Design tab is where you can modify the look of your Default twitter page.

1. Select A Theme. You have the option to choose any of the theme’s you see on this page, Simply click on the theme you like to see how it looks.
2. Change Background Image. Here you can upload a single “Twitter Background” or you can have a photo or image tiled across your Twitter profile page. If you decide to upload a single background image the minimum image size should be about 1024px wide and 800px high.
3. Change Design Colors. When you click on this link you can then choose a different color for your Twitter theme background, text, links, sidebar, and border.
4. Save Changes. Make sure you save any customizations you make.

And finally the Connections tab.

This is where you find all of the external Applications you have set up to work with your Twitter account.

If your account is brand new you shouldn’t see anything on this page, but as you start linking to twitter from any of your social networking sites you can find out what’s connected on this page.

And that concludes our Free tour of Your Twitter Account Settings, Have some fun with Twitter because once you get the hang of it, you will really start to see the power and potential of this tool.

More On This Topic...

• What Is A Retweet?
• How To Find Content That’s Worth Tweeting.
• Are Your Tweets Falling On Stony Ground?
• Making Your First Tweet At Twitter.com