Another good piece from Furtick:

Another dangerous dichotomy is our frequent separation of prayer and action.  Don’t get me wrong, we all need to rely a lot more on God and less on self effort in our day to day lives.  But that doesn’t warrant the divorce of prayer and action.  Doesn’t God often call us to action in direct response to our prayers?  Aren’t the two supposed to work in tandem?  Aren’t they as inseparable as wet and water?  Then why do we approach them like two opposite extremes?  Why do we insist on stopping to pray?  Shouldn’t prayer and action flow naturally from one another?  Isn’t this the pattern of Scripture?

From Steven Furtick:

I really do not believe God is going to hold you or me accountable for gifts that He did not give us. But He will definitely ask what we did with what he did give us. So I have decided to orient my life around the most significant thing God wants me to do and it’s the thing that I’m good at. I know my strengths, and I’m leveraging all of my time and energy towards them.

Stop making the easy things hard by trying to make the hard things easier.

You know what I’ve realized since my son was born? I’m less likely to post something on Facebook saying how much fun I’m having with family, and instead I’m actually enjoying that time with my family.

I got into the habit of posting to Facebook or Twitter just how much fun I was having with family, or how much I loved my wife, instead of actually doing those things. Don’t get me wrong, I was having fun with them, but I was getting distracted by the desire to tell everyone how just much fun I was having. 

Each year around the fourth of July, our neighbors put on an amazing fireworks show. It lasts about a half an hour, and they literally fill both sides of the street for a quarter mile with all of the people that attend. This year I specifically remember taking my phone out and snapping a couple shots to upload to Facebook and Twitter. Nothing too bad about that, right?

Wong. It took away from the experience. I wasn’t focused on the show. I wasn’t focusing on enjoying time with my wife and daughter. I was too busy trying to get pictures so I could tell people what a wonderful time I was having.

It’s important that people to see Christ through my life, specifically through how I interact with my family. Unfortunately I was focusing too much on telling people about it instead of showing them.  So don’t be alarmed if you don’t see me talking about how much fun I’m having with my wife and kids on Facebook and Twitter. I still love my family, I’m just too busy actually loving on them to tell you about it.

Don’t worry. Lots of brands do it. You’ve been taught by an old world that it works this way. 

You’re focusing on the “media” in social media. You hear the phrase and immediately think, “Great! Another avenue to push our products and services on to people, just like TV, radio, and print.” If that’s your focus, you’re dead. These platforms are for conversation. Join it. Don’t make the pitch.

Picture a sports bar. The local team is playing. 50 TVs tuned in to the same event. The place is packed, everyone cheering the big play. You walk in. What’s the first thing you say?

If you answered, “We just released a new widget Click here for details: http://shortlink.com/abcdefg” you’re dead on arrival. You’ve walked onto their turf, into their social lives. Selling from the second you walk in is guaranteed failure.

The only question you can ask is “What’s the score?”

Introduce yourself, find out what the score is, get to know the crowd, buy some guy a beer. Join the conversation. Only after this—gaining trust, getting to know people—can you even think about selling to them (which we all know is the real reason you’ve decided to sign up for Twitter and Facebook). 

It takes time

Don’t expect to sign up for an account, respond to a couple customers for a week, and then be able to Sell! Sell! Sell!. Trust takes time. Loyalty isn’t built in a week. You have to show your customers you genuinely care. One thing social media forces is transparency. It’s not an option. It’s required. If you’re faking it, customers will eventually find out.

Maybe instead of Sell! Sell! Sell!, you should use social media to Care! Care! Care!

(Sports bar reference borrowed from Rocco who borrowed it from someone else. My apologies that I can’t provide the original source.)