My First #ChSocM Chat. Now What? The Wiki!

Editor's Note: We're well into our third year with #ChSocM chat and I'm still super-thrilled when new people discover this chat and want to get involved. Since the February 4th chat, I've had a number of great exchanges with Raymond Emery (@raymondemery). Here's his post about moving forward. 

Wow, what an experience! February 4, 2014 was my first #chsocm Twitter chat, and it was great!

When it was over, I thought, " Now what? So many great ideas shared, it would be a shame to lose them." So I set out on an incredible journey, sifting through and organizing 398 tweets by topic and categories. It was an enriching experience, but just sharing this eight page document wouldn't be very helpful. Sure, we'd have an idea sheet, but what we really need is to take some of these brainstormed ideas and nurture them.

The #ChSocM is the perfect solution and next logical step in the process. Not only can the ideas be added to the wiki on a weekly basis, but once there, they can be built upon and referenced year- after-year. Ideas become strategies and strategies turn into specific actions.

Ready to contribute to the wiki? Let’s look at a specific example from the chat.

I love this idea that came up: “Brainstorm: how should we use #chsocm to prepare people for #Lent?” So here's what I did:

1) I visited the #chsocm wiki at http://chsocm.wikispaces.com/ and clicked on "Join" to get added as a contributing member.

2) Once I logged into the wiki, I chose the Seasonal link from the right sidebar, then clicked on "Lent."

3) After clicking on the "Edit" button, in the upper right hand corner of the Lent page, I began typing in my contributions. Editing a wiki page is very similar to using your favorite word processing software (e.g., Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, Google Docs, or Apple Pages).

4) Once I finished adding my ideas, I saved my work by clicking the "Save" button.

Done! That’s it! You can see a sample of what I added in this screenshot:

Ready to get started? Still need more help? Visit the #ChSocM wiki and look at the "I’m New To Wikis" page for more help. I can’t wait to see what we come up with!

Raymond Emery (@raymondemery)the owner of Shout Yes!, a company that helps churches, small businesses and entrepreneurs discover and communicate their message. Learn more at http://www.raymondemery.com.