John W Snyder

Has Dez Bryant learned his lesson?

 If you watch college football or are somewhat familiar with it this season you have probably heard that Oklahoma State wide receiver, Dez Bryant, has been suspended indefinitely (ESPN Story) for lying to the NCAA about hanging out at Deion Sanders (wikipedia) home in Texas.  The NCAA asked him if he was at Deion's and he said no.  They then asked Deion and he said yes.  The problem here wasn't that Dez was at Deion's, the problem was that he lied to the NCAA when asked.  If I was the NCAA I would expect the worst then.  That Maybe there was an agent there with them, but fortunately Deion has said it was just him, his wife, Dez and his girlfriend.  Of course Deion could be lying, but if that was the case he probably would have already lied when asked if Dez was at his house.  Deion said he doesn't lie. 

I say we have to take Deion's word for it.  The NCAA wasn't there.  They don't know what happened, but Deion was there.  Now, I know that Dez broke an NCAA bylaw, but it seems that it is over with.  The NCAA only has proof that Dez and his girlfriend were there with Deion and his wife, no agents and no one else.  

Dez and the university have appealed the decision.  He has apologized.  It is now a wait and see game.  Will Dez play college football again?  Will he not?  How will this hurt his spot in the draft? 

What do you think? Should Dez be allowed to play again this season after knowing the facts?  
I say, if what Deion says is true, and we have to take his word for it, Dez should be allowed to play again this season.

(Disclaimer: I am an Oklahoma State alum)

Loving Evernote right now

 I say right now because mine seem to change, probably a lot like yours.  

But at this moment my favorite app is Evernote. It's a place to store all of your ideas.  And, yeah, there's an iPhone app for that. 

It has really come in handy in the last week or so.  I'm currently working on an idea that you will be hearing more about, but it's a great application for storing all your ideas.  It syncs with the iPhone app which makes it even better.  If I'm in bed or out and about and idea comes to me I store it in evernote and then it will sync to the app on my computer.  

Have you used Evernote? If so, what do you think?

So, what's your favorite application at this moment? Would love to hear what you all are using.

God's Timing is Perfect

 There is a lot going on in our life right now.  All of it is good.  Things I have been thinking through when it comes to ministry are coming into place and God is totally rocking my world. And the best part is that I love every minute of it.  I'm finally in a place where I can start doing some things God put on my heart a while ago.  Some of you who read this may even know a little bit of what that is and some of you may not.  Everyone will know in a few months though.  I have had some ideas that I keep tiptoeing around and I'm tired of being that guy.  The time is now and it's time to step up and make things happen.  I can't wait to do things for the Kingdom and to do things for God.  I know that if I do these things he will take care of us.  If you follow me on twitter or Facebook please keep watching for some fun announcements before the end of the year.  I can't wait and I know that God's timing is perfect.  I can't wait for 2010. It's going to be an amazing year.

In the mean time, if you know me and my wife or even if you don't we would love your prayers. Thanks for listening and loving.

Dana Point sunset.
(download)

Why do you Twitter?

 We all have our reasons. Maybe your reasons change. For instance, maybe your tweets are different because you need a job, or maybe you only follow people you know personally, maybe you follow everyone, maybe you follow no one at all, maybe you just RT people, maybe you just post links, maybe you only broadcast yourself and don't reply to people or mybe you use Twitter because you love community and helping others. The last reason is why I do it.

Whatever reason it is, why do you do it?

Does Social Media = Customer Service?

 I am in no way a Social Media Pro, but I do enjoy all that goes into it and what it looks like for me, my friends, ministry partners and business partners. I love helping people out if they have a question. Everyone has 10 steps for this and 8 keys to more of these and 5 tips for this, etc... Obviously these steps can help you, but what it comes down to is being friendly and helpful to people. If you view Social Media as Customer Service you are on the right track to understanding how it can best be used. Odds are you're not a jerk to people in person, offline, so why would you be rude to people online?

So, listen to and use the tips people give you, but remember customer service is a great place to start. I like to provide customer service to people who ask questions on twitter and on facebook just for the fun of it. If I know the answer I will help you out. This is a great practice to do. Be willing to help someone not because of what you get out of it, but because of how it will help the other person succeed. Set people up to win.

I feel like I just threw up some ideas and that's how they came out. What else would you add to this? Do you agree that Social Media is also Customer Service?

Chris Brogan dropped some knowledge on the OC last night

 Last night I had the opportunity to go to Chapman University to hear Chris Brogan's heart and his passion.  This dude loves what he does, but most importantly he loves people.  That's what makes him good at what he does.  I took about 3 pages worth of notes. I want to share those notes with you. Being that they are my notes they will probably make more sense to me. If you don't understand something please let me know and I will explain it in the comments section the best I can. They are mostly bullet points.

Here we go:

How do you get off of auto-pilot? We give the same answers to "How are you?", we order the same thing at restaurants and the same drinks at Starbucks.  How do we break this?

How do you connect with people everyday? Are you connecting with people everyday?

How do you help big organizations to remember what it's like to be little?  This goes for churches also.

In many businesses the social phone is ringing but no one is there to pick it up.  How do you fix this?

Help your friends.  Help people find jobs.

As humans we like to feel like we are on the inside. Like getting an invite to Google Wave.  We want to be known.

With the social media tools we have there are more opportunities to be influencers in a whole other way.

As Chris was speaking he told us he wants us to be his community and not his audience.

You need to put a face on your business.

Businesses want to know what people want.  We now have the right tools to do this, so use them.

Be human

With social media we don't have to feel alone anymore.

We now trust people we don't even know.

No one likes being sold to, but people like to buy.

Get to know people.  

Care about people's outcome, not your quota

Customer Service pays.  Zappos understood this really well.

You have to build relationships for the future.  Your boss probably won't understand this.

Pay more attention to people.  God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason.  Listen to people.

Simple touch points and loyalty are very important.  Know when to ask people for something.

It is said that your circle of friends and people you know well is 150.  Be apart of people's 150

Be the priest, build the church

He then gave 5 tips to get more followers on twitter:
1.  Listen
2.  Ask
3.  Reciprocate
4.  Comment
5.  Comment back

Be the #1 commenter on your own blog.  This requires listening.

If you are explaining something to people tell it to them like they are 6.  Don't use big words.  Talk to them like they are your friend, not a client

Be the relationship before the sell.

You need to be one of us

Customer Service is being out there and being human even if people hate you

Connect to people when you're not asking for something

How are you using social tools for good?

Give your ideas handles.  If you have an idea or wrote out a way to do something, package it so you can give it away easily.

I hope this makes sense.  It applies to how you interact with people online.  If you are a business and you are not using the social tools available to you, you are really missing out.
If you really enjoy social media and want to know how to use it better and what it looks like for you then you should really check out his book, Trust Agents, that he co-wrote with Julien Smith. I read it in about 3 days.  Really good stuff.  

Customer Service is kind of important

 Okay, it's very important.

I've been thinking a lot about customer service. No matter what your job is, customer service should be a very important part of it. We see it every day in the world. Today at Starbucks I had great customer service. I'm sure you had good/great customer service somewhere as well. You also probably had decent or bad customer service. Customer service is what keeps people coming back.

But what does customer service in your church look like. I have been to some churches with terrible customer service and some with the best ever. I think it should be a goal for every church to have better customer service than the business around the corner or down the road.

I guess the best way to put it is, "Don't suck at customer service".

Everybody seems to be a critic

 I write this post because I started looking at things I say online. It seems I criticize things more than I should. Also, just looking at other tweets on twitter I see it as well. I don't want to be a critic to just be a critic. I definitely think there are times to be a critic, but in a constructive way. I want my posts and status updates to reflect Christ, not the world. I ask that if you know me and you actually read this, please keep me in check. If you think one of my posts or updates seems to be rude and/or critical please call me out. I love the internet because of the voice and platform it can give you, but I don't want to use it in this way.

Thanks so much

Church is not a competition, and I'm tired

 I get so tired of hearing people bash other preachers or churches or staff members from other churches. I get tired of hearing how this church doesn't teach the Bible or that church isn't relevant to my life. I get tired of hearing the evangelical movement is old and tired. I'm tired of hearing people complain about worship. I'm tired of hearing people complain when people leave their church for another. If you're complaining because people have left Church all together that's a different story. I could go on and on and on, and I'm sure many of you could as well.

Anyways, I say all this because Church is not a competition. Churches should be helping other churches. Churches should be excited when people find a church home, even if it's not your church. If someone doesn't like your church maybe you could even help them find a church home. If you are in church somewhere and are serving I don't care if it's not my church. We are all in this together. It's for His Kingdom, not ours. If you are treating your church like your own little kingdom you might be in trouble. Let it go. It's not yours. We all serve the same God even if you are at this church and I am at that church.

Am I out of line?

What are your thoughts on this subject?

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