It seems to me that Twitter is a channel very well suited to getting the religious Word out onto the street – short, sharp gems of faith-based inspiration delivered almost effortlessly into the hands of an hungry audience (preaching to the converted).
Yet comparing the Twitter activity of the The Dalai Lama and Pope Benedict XVI, only the former is on board, tweeting as @DalaiLama. HHDL opened his account over three yeas ago – as of today he or his aides have posted 783 tweets and amassed 4.42 million followers (small f). And of course he follows no-one…
But where’s Benedict? According to a recent article by The Guardian the Pope is getting ready to pop out of his newbie purple egg: “The tweet can be reformulated, redistributed, relaunched and disseminated,” said Father Claudio Maria Celli, the head of the Vatican’s pontifical council for social communications, as he announced the initiative. I’ve not heard a tweet explained in that way before – I should start taking this social media stuff more seriously.
HHDL is also including pics and videos within his tweets, along with links to his regular webcasts. No doubt a Pinterest account is in the making.
RT @DalaiLama On a personal level, we all appreciate people who are kind and warm-hearted
HHDL, thanks for sharing.