Tweeting General Conference: Helpful or Hurtful?

We live in a social era. It's an era where ideas move at the speed of thought. Where good ideas and beauty spread virally based upon their assumed worth and popularity - but also where "the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent." Where anything virtuous, lovely, of good report or praiseworthy can be easily sought after - and found.

Which brings me to my question. The leaders of the LDS Church have supported social media as a means of spreading the gospel to others. Elder Ballard encouraged us all to join the conversation back in 2007 when he said

“Now, may I ask that you join the conversation by participating on the Internet to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration.”

The Brethren are very tech savvy, and they have long taught about the power of member missionary work. So when social media finally came about, they were early adopters and very quick to instruct members of the Church to utilize social media to reach out online and share the gospel that they were learning with others.

Many responded, and every year during General Conference there are thousands of members sharing their thoughts and feeling and reactions to the instruction during the Conference, as they have become accustomed to tweeting the events of their life. They tweet and retweet Apostles in real time, using the twitter hashtag #LDSConf. For many, this has become a part of their General Conference experience.

This behavior has been noted. President Uchtdorf even acknowledged the online conversations going on as he commented in a light hearted moment:

With so many social media resources and a multitude of more or less useful gadgets at our disposal, sharing the good news of the gospel is easier and the effects more far-reaching than ever before. In fact, I am almost afraid that some listening have already sent text messages like “He’s been speaking for 10 minutes and still no aviation analogy!”

The #LDSConf twitterstream lit up; the tweeting crowd went crazy, with posts such as "He's talking about us!" And "President Uchtdorf knows Twitter!"

Now, I have heard both arguments. Some say that they get an awful lot out of sharing the quotes and hearing feedback from others. They say that this helps them internalize the content and actually learn the doctrine that the Prophets and Apostles are teaching. Others have pointed out that this may not be the best thing to be doing while trying to learn from an Apostle, where it is so important to be able to be taught by the Spirit. These would likely reference John 14:26, that the Holy Ghost teaches all things and brings all things to our remembrance. They would say that if we are not in a mindset to be taught by the Spirit, we will not profit from the addresses, and our tweeting and retweeting will be in vain.

Now, open your mind for just a minute and ask yourself what you think. There is much the Church could be doing to further encourage these conversations to occur during a worldwide broadcast such as General Conference. The Church could build a page with a live stream right beside a twitter stream. It could offer a heat map of where in the world the #LDSConf streams are originating from. It could even offer a host of twitter tools and ideas for General Conference to-dos right from the pages of LDS.org. But the question is, should it?

I must say that I was 100% gung-ho for all things social at any time and in any place - until last Conference when President Uchdorf said something that opened my mind and got me thinking a bit. He said of social and mobile media:

My dear young friends, perhaps the Lord’s encouragement to “open [your] mouths” might today include “use your hands” to blog and text message the gospel to all the world! But please remember, all at the right time and at the right place.

What do you make of this? Is General Conference a "right time" and a "right place?" Weigh in and let me know your thoughts.

Sacred Spaces

One of my favorite places to be is sitting on my front porch with my wife on a cool summer night. It's not so much that I love concrete, or that I have a thing for people-watching, but my wife and I enjoy a very full life, and the front porch is where we wind down together.

Each spring, as summer approaches, we get excited as the days get longer and we know that our porch days are fast approaching. Sometimes we jump the gun and head outside in wrapped in robes and blankets, trying to thwart Mother Nature and enjoy porchtime beginning in May when the bitter winds would have it otherwise. Those nights we only last ten or fifteen minutes, even with a hot chocolate.



Now Mary and I are about to complete ten years of being married and sealed at the end of this summer, and for those of you who don't know what that means - it means that our marriage has been sealed for time and all eternity in a holy temple by one having the authority of God to perform such a sealing. In other words, our marriage, and our relationship does not end with "death do us part" - it is meant to be so much more than that. It is an eternal marriage, one without end and unchained by the bonds of death. Likewise, our children are sealed to us as a family and we are on our way to being a forever family.

I can't tell you what a blessing that is in my life. Having the knowledge that families are forever is a game-changer. It changes the way that I want to treat my wife, my children, how I want to parent. It reminds me that we are all eternal beings and forms my perspective on how we as humans should treat eachother.

But this is not about my gratitude for eternal marriage, or for my family. Rather it is about my sweet wife Mary. As I mentioned we are going on ten years this November, and in the past decade we have become one. She is much more than my counselor, my financial advisor, my cheerleader, my business partner, my girlfriend, a total hottie, and the Mother of my children. She is also my closest and dearest friend. I love her with all my heart, and with everything that I am.

Now, you can see why I look forward each summer to sitting on my porch with my best friend. It is a sacred space; one where stories are told, experiences are related, and dreams shared. It is somewhere I go seeking peace at the end of a long day and being validated.

See honey? That's why I need a brand new Jeep Wrangler...

it's all about creating American jobs!!!

...you DO love your country, don't you?

Nail It....then scale it

Yesterday I had an opportunity to sit down with a good friend and trusted advisor who gave some excellent advice with regards to a product release, or even a company startup. His name is Lee Gibbons, and he has been a pioneer in the LDS media space and has also founded several successful businesses. Needless to say, I value and respect his opinion greatly.

While discussing the build and potential release of a facebook application that would behave in a very specific way and would allow members to reach out like never before, he gave two pieces of advice. He said,

First nail it...then scale it.

What this means is that sometimes ideas must be proven on a smaller scale before they can be "sold" to larger audiences. "Nail it" is a charge to "go and do" and means to create a prototype, in its simplest form, and figure out how this thing will work, what kinds of features will it have, exactly how will it behave, etc. And of course we'll need data. So after we build it we'll want to perform a limited release just to see how it is performing and if it is actually being used. Then, with a successful limited release it becomes easier to take that data and prove the concept so that the idea can be embraced and implemented by the greater organization.

He also said

fire a cannon down your own street first.

This means that if the product doesn't create value on a small scale it likely won't have legs on a large scale.

What this means is that you should make a little noise with your initial launch among your own peers and network. If people don't come outside and take a look around to see what all the fuss is about, then you probably don't have something remarkable enough to be a purple cow.
Lee said he learned this lesson the hard way and he has two failed business experiences to show for it. In each situation, he felt he was really on to something and he built the thing without "nailing it" or "firing a cannon." In each instance, a consultant he was working with warned him that it wouldn't work. "If this will work for legal people, why aren't lawyers back in Utah already adopting it?" his consultant asked. Lee would respond, "Oh, that's different...they are not part of a large agency like the big firms here in New York." The takeaway? If it (insert YOUR IDEA here) is not adopted by the few then it most likely will not work for the many.
I was grateful to hear both of these pieces of advice as they seem very sound and can likely save me alot of time and frustration. He also had another very interesting comment wherein it felt like he was speaking directly to me. He made the comment that if an idea will not leave us alone, and just keeps coming back to our mind then it becomes our stewardship.

And this is one idea that I just haven't been able to shake. So now comes the hard part...nailing it.

April General Conference