This is a place to share social media items that you have found.

Some of them may spawn threads to discuss them;however, it would be awesome if this thread was really focussed on the information that you feel is worth passing on to others.

Suggestion:  Pull the links, and put a short description of why you think it is awesome.

Consider it a library.,

Why? 

Hi Folks, 

Has anybody here started using Google+? Yesterday they launched their "brand" or organization pages and we've started one for WonderCafe. You can find it here:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/109098387293426028001/

Congregations also might want to get on board with Google+. It's still developing, but has a lot of great tools like "Circles" and "Huddles" that could really be helpful in a church setting, imo.

RevJohn has made some wise observations about the nature of online communications and Wondercafe in Go_38's thread "Question from a lurker". Perhaps some of you missed it. So here is a thread to discuss the meaning of our online community (and others), it's usefullness, it's detriment, it's very nature.  Has it done us good? Are we kidding ourselves? Are we turning ourselves into hopeless introverts? I'm looking for true honest opinions.

People leave this place. There are reasons for that. Will we all still be here in 10 years time?

Hey, Wondercafers, fbfriends, tweeps, foursquare-followers, linked-in-links, orkut (etc., etc., etc.) -

Hi Folks,

You might be interested to check out some of the interesting comments issuing forth on Twitter from the United Church Conference Annual General Meetings happening this weekend.

You can view them here, with a search on #UCCAN

https://twitter.com/?lang=en&logged_out=1#!/search/%23UCCAN

Peace, Aaron

Have people had the chance to read "Alone Together," the United Church Observer's new article on social media? It's an interesting, wide-ranging piece that includes a variety of perspectives (thanks to them for quoting me too!). But I'm a little frustrated that it doesn't really convey the community and (for some) spiritual experience we've had here on WonderCafe and that is possible on social media in general. What do you think?

http://www.ucobserver.org/living/2011/05/social_media/

My story is: I thought I could actually deepen or grow friendships on Facebook.  I was on there only for about a year and for some reason I thought it would actually help me build up a support network!  Maybe it's possible if you already are very good friends and see each other outside of Facebook.  But, no, for me at least, it just didn't work.  

Hi Folks,

I want to let you know about a couple new tools available to share WonderCafe with others.

The first is an E-Z Answer Squirrel iPhone app:

It won't be news to anybody that the way we communicate has changed. In the new on-line medium shaped by social media our stories get heard based on the relationships we have formed. Communications that are based on the blunt force of a public relations machine are no longer going to be as effective as they once were. This is especially true for faith-based organizations. We can no longer assume people will listen to our message just because it comes from the church.

It's not about technology, it's about relationships. In the world of social media, this is how communication happens. And relationships are organic - they happen between humans, not machines. If we want people to pay attention to our message and share it with others, we have to build relationships with them. This is what "going viral" is all about.