A Twitter’s Worth @bryan_duncan
I thought building a fan base on line was the new way to validate my career until I saw a 13 year old girl’s twitter page the other day. She had 20,000 followers! And she doesn’t sing or play an instrument. They tell me if you can amass 1000 followers you can make money! I wouldn’t know that for sure. I can only talk to maybe a hundred people a day even limiting myself to 140 characters. That’s also the number of “characters” that follow me should the truth be known. Granted that’s a larger audience than Ali Baba had with the 40 thieves. But eliminate the social media experts, real estate agents and positive affirmation gurus. Then see how many followers are junk twitters with pretty face twit pics attached to make you think yer talking to some hot young thing. You then discover yer true followers start to round off closer the numbers you might find at a Tupperware party.
I was disappointed to find that two of my followers were actually the same guy with two accounts! And now I’m feeling like Gideon has surrounded me with just 300 of his finest but they all have matching torches. Now if you sit for five minutes in front of the home page where your followers post their incomplete sentences @someoneelse, you get the feeling of watching the river run. There are no ripples when you throw a pebble into a babbling brook.
Twitter mania gives me this visual of a hail storm on a lake. It’s an awesome sight! But then no one is focusing on any one splash. I can still remember being told you weren’t serious about your career if you didn’t have a website! Now my website is just a junk drawer where I post my twitters for those who missed em on Facebook. And with the new tech I can now have my twitters broadcast to any number of web configurations. Have you ever been in a restaurant when suddenly the volume goes up because everyone in the place has decided to start talking at the same time? You can’t hear your own conversation at some point. It’s not long till you find yourself shouting “LETS GO SOMEWHERE QUIETER WHERE I CAN HEAR YOU.”
Now don’t get me wrong here. The new social media has it’s place. But it’s also the equivalent of the hotel lobby some of you might remember during Gospel Music Association’s week long convention. If you’ve been there you are aware of how many times someone was talking to you and looking over your shoulder to see who else might be worth handing their service card to. Once again we must be reminded of individual relationship and personal attention. Seeing real people and hearing them as well. It’s an age old human defect, where our one mouth outperforms our two ears.
The first time I listened to a twitter head was when I was looking for advice about how much time to devote to amassing a twitter following. Hop Hopkins of Oklahoma told me he spends maybe ten minutes a day taking an interest in one or two individuals. The one truth that I have seen floating through Twitterville is that everyone is looking for encouragement and motivation. It’s the new recovery group phone call when yer facing relapse. Coined phrases float across every page, words of wisdom and insight and in my case humor! I have real people sorted into group listings to keep up with followers who resonate with one or more passions: Ministry, motorcycles, rehab and recovery, readers and quote-rs, musicians, and business professionals.
I see social media as a perpetual convention mostly. It beats handing out flyers in the parking lot by a nose. So, yes, meet and greet but don’t forget the eye contact. Work does come from the effort but not before the synergy of resonating with passionate souls. And who knows maybe you’ll find some like minds who don’t fall into your marketing demographic! If there’s one thing that inspires me about “on line fishing” is that every once in a while I’ll have a conversation with someone in Indonesia or Scotland who’s feeling the exact same sense of futility in tryin to talk to too many people at once!
Here’s where I don’t want God’s job, hearing all the prayers and direct messaging the entire worlds population. But I do believe it’s a whole new way of being “in the world” just as long as you’re not “full of it!”
On Twitter I have only 140 characters before I’m through. Here I get at least 800 words! “OMG” It’s like 3200 tweets with no interjections!
But if you’d rather hear less of me, I’m at twitter.com/bryan_duncan where you can find me immediately if you feel my take is not that ”GR8”, or just to “LOL”. Here’s a new one “GFAC”..(Go Forth And Conquer)
Hey Bryan, Sounds like you need to get back on track is all. You are extremely talented, have a faithful fan base (me included) and are rooted in the Lord. Your music ministry has touched so many lives and I know the Lord is not done with you yet. I’m thinking of a verse from the song “Make Me Aware” by Salvador, “Make me aware, make me see, Everything I am is not all about me, Take my world, turn it around
So that the obvious can finally be found.” If you are like me, and most of the Christians I know, God needs to hit me with a brick before I can see where and what He wants me to do. Just relax and try a few doors. The Lord will guide you (Prov 3:5 – 6).
Have you contacted GMC (Gospel Music Channel) or JCTV to get your videos played. Believe me, you would be a breath of fresh air! Also, my family and I recently went on a Christian cruise called the “Music Boat” and you would have been a popular show for sure. Since we live in Washington State it would be great to see you at Creation West. These venues would be a great avenue for you to share your music with a whole new generation.
You are right about everyone being in a hurry but that doesn’t mean your style can’t fit in. I would love to see you perform with Toby Mac, Kirk Franklin, Mandisa, Mattew West and others. Not sure if you noticed, but “Things Are Gonna Change”, well, I mean, things are a changin. The calmer, non shouting songs are becoming popular again, like New World Son, Jimmy Needham, Jason Mraz, Colbie Caillat, and Owl City.
Best wishes
Bryan,
I Just to say that I don’t think you realize how important your “Radio Rehab” ministry was to me! I just now stumbled onto it here in Texas. I used to live in the high desert in Calif. and after my 18 year marriage ended in divorce. I just wanted to “get out of dodge!” I was so emotionally drained, and spiritually exausted, from being with a woman who ‘claimed’ to know Jesus I wanted to get away as far as I could! I stopped going to church, and kinda went into deep, deeper depression..little by little I started going back to church, but I’m still leary of people who say they are “Christians” so I keep my distance, I have made a few friends, but have learned not to get ‘too close’. your program is REALLY helping me with myself! and I realize, that I am the problem more times than others, and that what REALLY matters is what God thinks of me! MORE than what people think of me!
So, thank you Brian! and God bless you! Keep singing! and do it YOUR WAY! and don’t do any ones program but your own!
Rich Lynd
Hey Bryan!
I just checked in to bryand.com after a few months’ absence. Lemme quote you’re previous speech:
“All I know is I’ve been in the music business for 40 years. I’m still here. So I guess I’m successful.”
Reminds me of what I’ve been telling friends who ask how my business is going: “Well, these days, it seems like survival is equivalent to success. So I guess things are going well.”
Now, it occurs to me that a basic problem faced by yourself is that in your profession, success is determined (or measured) by popularity. This is a fundamental problem for you, which requires special handling. Is it possible that in your social media endeavors you have forgotten a basic underlying principle? Is it not God Himself who provides? When you tweet, are you motivated by the results that are promised to arise from engendering a lifestyle of habitual tweeting? Or do you tweet because God has shown you that tweeting is His will for you at this moment?
I know this sounds kinda ridiculous, but let me explain. One thing I have heavily struggled through is this dilemma that God has placed before us: On one hand, He tells us to trust Him as our provider. On the other hand He says that a man who does not provide for his family is worse than an infidel (1Timothy 5:8). There is something like a balance here that every man must find for himself. This has caused me more anguish over the years than I can describe. It has been a thorn in my side. But I believe I have found the answer.
As long as I am pursuing God’s will -and- doing it, then my professional success is no longer my own responsibility. Has not God promised to provide? Yes, and He will. This doesn’t give me license to be lazy or slothful, since God’s work includes neither of these.
I have had to learn to dismantle what would be my normal analysis of cause-and-effect. In the flesh, I see clearly that dollars earned are directly proportional to hours put in at work (which leads to neglect of my wife and kids -in the interest of providing for them! -how crazy is that?). But God’s economy has an entirely different set of causalities. What I need to do is simply realize that God gives me everything I need. I don’t earn it! The way this translates in daily life is that I simply claim only the responsibility to be diligent and work hard while I’m at work. Then I go home, partly to provide the numerous intangibles that are also my responsibility for provision, and partly to rest.
I want you to get the rest part. It sounds like what you need is rest. Have you been working harder and harder, only to reap reduced return on your investment of effort? The natural response is that “I’ve been doing the wrong things, so I need to do something different.” You know, of course, what kind of treadmill this can put you onto, which is why you have learned to change course cautiously. So I would like to offer you an alternative analysis: “I’ve been doing the things I’m doing for the wrong reason, so I need to change the reason I’m doing them.”
This kind of conclusion cuts right through some things rather like a chainsaw, professional pride being near the top of the list. In my case, I have a very clear vision of what my business should become, so I’m not naturally inclined to let God put His hands into the mix. He may not share my vision, after all. It’s tempting to try to find a way to relegate “God’s good and perfect will” to a set of prescribed rules, which I could follow as a subset of my greater body of life’s activities. In the end, I will still be regarded by men as one who pursued God’s will, since most people have little idea of what that really should mean.
The problem is that God has put His finger on me. I’m learning that I will not be satisfied with a superficial godliness. Even after 24 years of walking with Christ, I still have God’s calling laid out before me, with a decision to make. Are you in the same situation? It sounds like perhaps you are. It seems clear to me that God has put His finger on you, and I’m guessing that He might be looking for your personal attention.
So there’s my lengthy introduction to the following statement, which otherwise might go by as a shallow attempt at “encouragement through quotation.”
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matt 6:33
-In Christ,
Eric
P.S: “If I had a million dollars, I’d give you a hundred thousand.”
Type your message here …Hi Bryan…I have been a fan of yours since the early 90′s. I saw you in Fort lauderdale and met you backstage. Justin Smith Productions…I thought you were great, and still are..Love ya!! Donna
Bryan,
Just listening to your old CDs again and wondered where you were. Last time I saw you was at a CR Summit and then when you came out to help us kick off our CR program in Dillon, CO.
You have great talent and I would love to see you travel again. There is a big Loveland CO Christian music weekend coming up July 30th. I don’t know who sponsors it but there are many across the country. How about joining some of these? Blessings and never give up!!
Carla