Opus Dei today

Hearts on fire!

The creator and administrator of opusdeialdia.org, Mr Antonio González, has come up with “10 Easy Steps to an effective work on the Net”.  We offer here a translation to English:

(1) Provide good content:

Content is king on the Internet: it is Rule #1.  If you don’t follow this rule, the remaining 9 ideas here are of no use.  If you’ve got good material ―videos, explanations, pictures, news―, by itself it shall spread.  If yours is not original material, feel free to spread the good content you find on websites or news channels which you find interesting and helpful.  Speak in today’s language…  Use videos a lot: those that are original, impactful, amusing, are the most desired by readers.

(2) Always positive:

Speak always in a positive manner, speak personally to the heart of your reader.  You should never be against anything or anyone.  A friendly and amusing explanation would do much greater good than a long list of arguments, no matter how well reasoned out these are.  You might not convince a given reader or listener, but if you write in a sufficiently gracious or humorous manner, you might win a friend Only then will you be able to help.  We should practice refinement and an extreme respect for the freedom of others.

(3) Speak ‘to the world’:

The use of e-mail is useful for person-to-person dealings.  But it would be passé for today’s need to speak ‘to the whole world’.  Learn to use, to your advantage, the many-to-many modes of communication that are more and more available.  Avoid being a spammer, that incessantly sends out mass mails containing all sorts of things or with requests to “forward to everyone you know”.

(4) Speak up! Leave a comment

Statistics show that one comment (on a piece of news) elicits 100 readers.  On the internet, your opinion is just as good as mine, as good as the global expert on the issue.  It is for this reason that huge companies or lobby groups employ people who dedicate at least 8 hours daily just to leave comments, anonymously or using aliases, on blogs, forums, social networking sites.  Opinion is, thus, created and disseminated.  When you don’t comment on a piece of news, the understanding is that you are not interested in that news, or at least that you may not know the rules or consider the e-news as hardcopy news (they tell me this, I listen).  If you find a certain item important, leave your comment, whether you’re in agreement or opposed to it.  Write it down!

(5) Send in suggestions

I don’t mean a one- or two-line comment, but a suggestion that’s studied and deep.  If you look around some more, you’ll find ways in which to communicate yourself better, with anybody, and to make helpful suggestions: learn to use contact emails you find on websites, to GoogleSearch or to search via Facebook, or simply ask for the email address of the source of the item.

(6) Social networking sites

…are the “in” thing, especially for all sorts of communication.  You need to sign up in order to participate.  Out of the 10 most visited internet sites, 9 are social networking sites and the other is Google, which in turn has its own social network via googlegroups and gmail Buzz.  In all of them, everybody talks: through videos (mostly via YouTube), articles (eg, wiki’s),  headlines (especially via Twitter), Facebook status messages…

(7) Participate in online forums

Answer questions on forums.  Help us out in the forum here, or in the Forum at catinfor.com.  They’re a great place to meet people! to make your ideas known, or to help others resolve their doubts or problems.  Wouldn’t that be great?

(8) Blog! Create your own webpage!

You’ve never created a blog on wordpress.com or on blogger.com? If you DO have a blog or website, please place links to those websites or blogs that seem important or interesting to you.  [If you’re reading this now, and have a blog or webpage, kindly put the following link: http://opusdeitoday.org/ ]  You might also want to write out a simple news item on the website or blog of interest: your readers are intelligent: they READ your news, not the links… They CLICK on the links, though…

(9) Train the others! Learn the rules of the game
The following is KEY: start a conversation, and make your friends speak up.  The more people you get involved in the conversation, the greater your Christian influence in cyberspace! How could you start? Send THIS POST you’re reading to your friends, or tell them about it

(10) Anybody has problems? See us!

Is there anybody you know that wishes to ‘perk up’ his/her website or blog? Put him/her in touch with the team at revaloria.org or with us here at opusdeitoday.org – We’d be glad to help you out or give you ideas