I often find myself brainstorming posts for my blog using Twitter search. There you can easily search terms and trending topics. Recently, I found myself conducting a search but localizing my search based on my zip.
I found that when I searched the term “pray for” and segmented my search to my zip code, a staggering number of tweets were returned. It was a reminder that our world is full of people in need, are suffering and seeking prayer. You or even a church prayer team could simply respond to each request with a reply, indicating that you are praying for them. A simple message can have an enormous impact without being intrusive.
This is how you can create your own prayer search:
- Visit the advance Twitter search page
- Add the term ‘pray for’ to the phrase field
- Add your zip code to the near this place field
- Choose 15 miles for distance.
- Click the search button
My search found hundreds of results in my community, and nearly 20 prayer requests from the last 24 hours. On the result page you will find a “Feed for this query” text link in the upper right corner of the page. This will provide you with an RSS feed that you can add to your feed reader. The feed reader will allow you or your team to easily track a live feed of prayer request. I use FeedDemon to monitor my RSS feeds. Best of luck.
Thanks to Justin Wise for first sharing this idea with me at a recent training event.
Pray Button: Photo8.com
