As a twintern – “an intern in charge of their companies’ Twitter feeds” – Robinson spends the majority of her time on Twitter “sending out messages about special promotions, responding to customer complaints, and trolling Twitter for mentions of Pizza Hut.” According to Caitlin McDevitt:

Despite a lack of in-house experience—she worked for only one day in a Pizza Hut restaurant—Robinson seems to be doing a fine job thus far. She has increased Pizza Hut’s Twitter followers from 3,000 to more than 13,000 and successfully executed a sales promotion over the Fourth of July weekend. And despite having only been on the job for a month, she seems well-informed about the company offerings. In response to a customer inquiry, she tweeted on Tuesday: “Currently the Stuffed Pizza Rolls are only available with pepperoni. I’ll keep you posted if anything changes.”

Who are some of your favorite LDS twitterers you follow?

Bookmark:

Access to mobile phones: 77% of teens in the USA had their own mobile phone in late 2008, 12% had no phone, and 11% borrowed someone else’s mobile phone on a regular basis, as shown in the chart below.

Just 13% of teen mobile subscribers told the Nielsen survey that they were allowed a limited number of text messages. About 1/5 had a limited number of voice minutes.

Mobile video: Teens also watch a lot of video on mobile devices–an average of 6.5 hours per month–which is significantly more than the 3 hour 37 minute average across all age groups. Music and comedy videos are the most popular with teens.

Mobile Internet: Mobile Internet was used by 37% of US teen mobile users. Among the countries studied by Nielsen, only China had a higher teen use rate at 50%.

Sources: “How Teens Use Media” and “Teens Go Mobile for More Than Texts.”

Bookmark:

The Liahona Web site contains access to current and future issues of the Liahona magazine in text and PDF formats. Since the Liahona is created for a broad audience of adults, youth, and children in a variety of cultures, pretty much everyone will find something on the site of interest to them. The Liahona is published in English and 50 more languages, most of which are available online. (See note below on how to access them.)

• The site has links to interesting material in the current issue and previews the next issue. The site is refreshed monthly, a day or two before each new month begins.
• The archive of current and previous issues makes the site useful for researching talks and lessons and questions about doctrine and history. The material you find is available in text and PDF formats (so you can see and print the full graphic layout of the magazine).
• The language editions enable you to read international Church news.
• The site allows you to listen to and download music published in the Liahona since 2008.
• Home teachers, visiting teachers, and Primary workers will find helpful links to the current and past month’s First Presidency Message, Visiting Teaching Message, and Sharing Time ideas. In fact, the Liahona contains additional ideas for Sharing Time beyond those in the Friend magazine.
• For would-be authors, the site suggests several topics the magazine is always interested in. It tells readers how to prepare a manuscript for submission to the Liahona, and then how to submit it. Authors can even submit their manuscripts to the Liahona directly from the site.
• Youth will enjoy the archive of past posters and Mormonads.
• Children can get quick access to pages where they can color online, solve puzzles, find hidden pictures, and view slideshows. From the site, teachers and parents can print coloring pages for use at home or at church.
• Also on the site, readers can find links to an online subscription form, subscribe to the Deseret News’ Church News, and order other Church materials.

If you would like to receive updates about the Liahona, you can sign up as a friend on the Liahona magazine’s page on Facebook (facebook.com/liahona.magazine). Plans are to use the page to explore ideas and get feedback about the magazine from readers.

For example, while on the Facebook page, you can read the discussion post about the new design and configuration for the Liahona magazine. You’ll also see an e-mail address to request an electronic prototype to review. In January 2010, the Liahona will have a new look and organization, with material accessible and useful for a broader worldwide audience. This new magazine contains some engaging new innovations, and the prototype gives those who review it an idea of what the new magazine will be like.

In some ways, the Liahona is unique in the world of magazine publishing. In an attempt to compete in a crowded marketplace, most magazine publishers are focusing on narrower and narrower audiences in an attempt to make themselves the only magazine for a given narrow audience.  However, the Liahona magazine is actually broadening its focus. The entire world is its audience—all ages, all cultures, married or single. The common interest for all these readers is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and the organization on earth the Savior has established to spread His gospel. 

The Liahona’s main purpose is to help people draw closer to Jesus Christ and receive direction from living prophets, who act and speak on the Savior’s behalf as He directs them through current revelation. Supplementing that prophetic counsel are stories of faith, endurance, and courage shared by members of the Church all over the world. The magazine provides a way for people to have life-changing and soul-enhancing experiences with the Lord’s Spirit. It lifts, enlightens, comforts,  and encourages its readers to develop spiritually. It teaches gospel principles, explains Church doctrine and policy, expounds on the scriptures, explores the history of the Church, and reminds us all of our common spiritual heritage as sons and daughters of God. It builds faith, instills hope, and enables readers to better develop in their lives the gift of charity, the pure love of Christ. Like its namesake in the Book of Mormon, the Liahona is a director pointing the way to the promised land of eternal life in the glorified presence of our Father in Heaven.

How to access language issues of the Liahona:

Until the navigation of LDS.org is available in more languages, you can access the language issues of the Liahona in the following two ways:

1. In the upper right corner of the page, click Languages, and select the language you want to read. You’ll then be given a list of online materials in that language, including the Liahona.

2. Navigate in English to the issue of the Liahona you want to read, then click the Languages selector within the article to view the article in another language. Note that only issues up through 2007 are available online today. A system upgrade later this year will allow all the issues of the Liahona to be viewed.

Bookmark:

	April 2009 General Authority Chart, 14″ x 20″ (item number 08375000) that shows the current First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, First and Second Quorums of the Seventy, and Presiding Bishopric. This chart is updated each spring and fall after general conference.
	Quorum of the Twelve 16″ x 20″ picture (item number 06889000).

You can order them both online from LDSCatalog.com. Clicking the links above will take you straight to the product pages.

Bookmark:

The Visit Temple Square Web site (visittemplesquare.com) provides information for both individuals and group tours, explaining all the free things you can do on the 35 acres of Temple Square. It has a walking map of Temple Square with links and information on events, attractions, food, news, services and tours for your visit to Temple Square.

Bookmark:

To sign up, text the word ldsnews to 29222 (United States and Puerto Rico). If you’re outside the United States, text the word ldsnews to 447624805710.

Bookmark:

Be sure you use FireFox 3 or Internet Explorer 7 because earlier versions of these browsers will cause the double-byte Korean characters to appear as boxes.

You can also find a link to these online scriptures on the individual LDS.org language materials pages. The online triple combination provides footnotes, study helps, maps, photographs, and the ability to mark scriptures.

This brings the total number of languages on the Church’s scriptures Web site to 14: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Tongan.

The next triples to go online will be Chinese and Japanese. The Spanish Bible will go online in September.

Bookmark:

Facebook now allows you to choose a username for your user page. For example, rather than the Web address (URL)being a randomly-assigned number like “id=592952074,” it can now be a name  of your choosing, like facebook.com/larry.richman. 

This makes it much easier to share with others your profile or some other Facebook page in a more personal way. It also adds authenticity and helps create a trusted environment because the identity of the people and things on Facebook will be more clear.

While the Church is still developing a strategy on how to use Facebook appropriately, preliminary pages have been created for the following:

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Facebook
• LDS Newsroom (facebook.com/LDSNewsroom)
• Liahona magazine (facebook.com/liahona.magazine)
• Ensign magazine (facebook.com/ensign.magazine)
• New Era magazine (facebook.com/newera.magazine)
• Friend magazine (facebook.com/friend.magazine)

You’ll notice that we’ve establish an easy username for each page, except for the main Church page. That will be set up once Facebook provides instructions to us and releases the names reserved around trademarks, such as “Mormon.”

To claim your own username (sometimes called “vanity URL”), visit facebook.com/username. Usernames can only contain romanized letters, numbers, and periods–no hypens or underscores. Think carefully about the username you choose. Once it’s been selected, you won’t be able to change or transfer it.

Bookmark: