Social Media The Church

&What Can Facebook, Twitter & YouTube Offer Your Church?

Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation (Mark 16:15)

Excellent Advice for churches interested in social media

• Connect with other pastors (prof. development)• Connect the congregation during the week• Reach out to people outside the congregation• Increase visibility of the church & its programs

WHY?

Some examples from around the web

How?

people are more likely to interact with a photo (like it, comment, share) than with Just links, OR text.

19,907 photos tagged with #rethinkchurch [the tag used on social media for this project] on Instagram alone.

People from other denominations [and no denomination], young, old, inside the US and outside, participated.

Results:

Pictures collected on Pinterest

The Episcopal Church Advent Calendar on PinterestNote the number of repins, likes and comments

Other ways to use PinterestInspiration boards, activities boards, etc.

Similar use of Pinterest by a church

The Big Bible Project on Pinterest

Visual Psalmists

Inspirational pictures that answer the question, "Where did you see God today?" Visual psalmists see photography as an extension of their spirituality.

Parishioners holding signs that read “I love my church” & the web address www.findoutwhy.co.

“Instead of simply sharing images on their page and leaving it at that, the church encouraged people to use the photos as their profile pictures on Facebook, which most did. leveraging their fans’ connections to expand the reach of their content.”

Covenant Church:

www.holony.com/blog

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Find out Why Microsite:who we are, preaching, worship, kids, visit

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Another Facebook example: create cover photos for eventsCannot include: images with more than 20% text; contact info; calls to action

Video Allows your church to tell its story:experience worship, people, culture & virtual participation

A fun weekly web series about the objects, symbols and terms used in church, produced by the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Discipleship.

Chuck knows Church:

Busted Halo® Ministries:

helps young adults explore their spirituality, discover (or re-discover) the rich depths of Catholic tradition, and connect to communities of faith.

Noone to produce your videos?Why not ask a youth group for help?

Twitter as a Church Communication toolSome local examples - Not trying to pick on anyone!

Responding

Building Community

Listening/Monitoring

Broadcasting

Level

s o

f En

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1-way

2-way short-term

2-way long-term

Some local Examples:

• Following very few

• can’t see their tweets• difficult to interact (no

@replies)• difficult to build

community• Indicative of 1-way

broadcasting model

• Decent number of Twitter followers

Some local Examples:

• Following only one

• impossible to build community

• Indicative of 1-way broadcasting model

Some local Examples:

• No @replies

• Missed opportunities for interaction & visibility• When talking about

people/orgs/businesses, use their Twitter handle (if they have one)

• When talking about major events, use hashtags (gives you visibility outside your network)

Some local Examples:

• Simply adding #ATX would have made this message visible to anyone who follows the #ATX hashtag, not just the 144 followers. Possibility to reach the Austin community not affiliated with the church.

• Same: Using #Boston or #PrayforBoston could have taken this message to an international community

Some local Examples:

• Try to create interest/give people a reason to click on your links

Some local Examples:

• Retweets, but still no direct interaction (@replies)

How Successful Brands use Twitter:

• Use hashtags for visibility

• Use @username when talking about others

• Promote other causes

How Successful Brands use Twitter:

• 2-way communication

Why you should care about twittertweets from religious leaders are very popular among Twitter users

How to Develop your Twitter

Network

Growing your Twitter network

Use Twitter’s search engine to find their Twitter handle

Follow them on Twitter

Expand the list of people you follow by:

+

+

Checking their following/follower lists

Checking out Twitter lists

Identify people in your field, people you admire

Start with a Twitter search if you don’t know anyone

Check out promising twitter users by clicking on Twitter handle

Check their tweets to get an idea for what they tweet about

If they used a hashtag that looks promising, check it out: #chsocm

Check following/followers lists Check Twitter lists

Subscribed to: lists the user has created or is following

Member of: lists other users have added this user to

You can follow the entire list or pick individual list members to follow

Click on a list, then click on list members

Follow the entire list or individual members: check out last few tweets

Don’t just go with the first one. Check activity, date of last tweet, etc.

Check their tweets to get an idea for what they tweet about

Check the people they are following

If the tweets look valuable to you, click follow ...

... or create your own list to add them to!

Sample list I created: twitter.com/corinnew/smministry

Growing your Twitter network

Use Twitter’s search engine to find their Twitter handle

Follow them on Twitter

Expand the list of people you follow by:

+

+

Checking their following/follower lists

Checking out Twitter lists

Checking out #followfriday & #hashtags +

Identify people in your field, people you admire

Check out #followfriday suggestions

Go to twitter.com/username (leave out the @)If you like, click follow or add to your list

Growing your Twitter network

Use Twitter’s search engine to find their Twitter handle

Follow them on Twitter

Expand the list of people you follow by:

+

+

Checking their following/follower lists

Checking out Twitter lists

Checking out #followfriday & #hashtags +Checking RTs to find out who sent the original tweet +

Identify people in your field, people you admire

Checking RTs to find out who sent the original tweet@NewMediaAtCTS retweeting @ReligionEthics

1. Filter your incoming tweets: Use TweetDeck or Hootsuite to divide followees into groups

2. Test drive your subscriptions Then re-evaluate

3. Repeat steps to add new voices to your Twitterstream

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3

Keep Tweaking IT

TweetDeck

Find their individual and/or organizational blogs

Subscribe to their blog’s RSS feed

Expand the list of people you subscribe to by:

Checking their blog roll

Following links on their blog to other blogs

Checking to see if your favorite twitter users blog

+

+

+

Growing your network through Blogs

Identify people in your field, people you admire

Subscribe to blogs with a feed reader such as BloglinesIt makes the info come to you (click to watch the video)

Download the file and import it into BloglinesAnd voilà: you’re now subscribed to these blogs!

Developing a network is just the First step

Step 2: Engage & maintain, or else:

Remember

How toEngage otherson the social web

8020 Rule

Thou shalt not use more than 20% of thy tweets to promote thyself

80% of thy tweets shall add value to thy followers

What toTWEETAbout?

Church News

Sermon/Bible Verse/Prayer

Pics/Behind the Scene Pic

Peek into Personal Life

Public Thank You

Listen/Learn/Grow

Offer Encouragement

Engage, Interact, RT

Questions/Answers/Feedback

Behind the Scene Pic

Sermon/Bible Verse/Prayer

Sermon/Bible Verse/Prayer

Bonus Points for adding a personal touch

Sermon/Bible Verse/Prayer

Bonus Points for adding a personal touch

Recognize, encourage others

Questions/Answers/Feedback

Listening toConversationsWho & what to listen for? How to do so?

Set up a search in Tweetdeck or Hootsuite:

Listen for:• community/city name• church name• event/program names• pastor names• relevant hashtags

Type in keywords

Click go

Monitor the web for mentions

Click “Feed Settings”

Copy URL into

Feed Reader

15minutes a dayRelationships take time to grow & maintain

• Listen to the conversation• Respond to people• Check the resources shared by your network• Share other people’s tweets/links• Share your own thoughts or content

Create or Re-use?Make a list of already existing content

Advent devotionals written by church membersWhy not share on a social platform & allow writers

to share it with their social networks?

Ideas for kids’ ministry:

Children’s message activities. Pin activities related to the weekly children’s message to a Pinterest board.

User submitted artwork. Encourage your community to share their own artwork based on the weekly message or current sermon series. Repin and highlight all their great work.

Churches Already have lots of contentCollect and share it on social platforms

CREDITS:Corinne Weisgerber, Ph.D.

Associate Prof. of CommunicationSt. Edward’s University

corinnew@stedwards.eduTwitter: @corinnew