Twitter is the fastest growing social network on the web today.

Comparatively speaking, the total number of users on Twitter is slightly less than the population of New York City. So, I certainly wouldn’t consider it mainstream, but its growth rate is impressive.

What is even more interesting is who is using twitter. Nielsen’s study corrects some common misconceptions. Twitterers (a.k.a. Tweeters) are not primarily teens or college students as you might expect. In fact, in 2009 the largest age group on Twitter was 35-49 (42 percent of the site’s audience). Majority of people (62%) visit Twitter.com while at work, while 35 percent accessed it from home only.

The assumption that social media is a youth movement is not true. Facebook stats prove this true as well.

The big question is, “Is there a strategic opportunity to use Twitter in my ministry?” In the end, each of us have to answer that question ourselves, but here are some rough ideas of where Twitter could be used within the church:

1. Greeting & Parking Ministry: Each of the parking and greeting volunteers could use twitter to facilitate quick communications regarding real-time updates on parking lot capacities, special needs of visitors, security concerns, and advanced notices to check-in volunteers.
2. Marketing & Brand Monitoring: Twitter is one of the most viral social networks, allowing individuals to ‘pass the word’ with a single click of a button. Using this as a medium to participate in social conversations and to listen to what people are saying about our church can help the church identify its strengths and weaknesses.
3. Spiritual Formation: Develop a curriculum comprised of daily 140 character statements, thoughts, and action items. The progression of tweets would lead individuals through a specific doctrine or life application.
4. Mission Trips, Retreats, Camps: Twitter is often called micro-blogging. Twitter is a great tool to send updates, pictures and short commentaries on what is happening at church events that are occurring out of town.
5. Singles Events: Recruit 2-3 volunteers to tweet updates during your ministry event. Not only does this get the word out, but it also creates a ‘buzz’ about your ministry, especially with Twitter’s new Local Trends feature. See a map of local trends to learn more about the power of this feature.

See Atkinson’s ebook called Twitter for Churches for a more thorough look at Twitter’s use in the church.