Heather and I were asked to address three topics at NCU this fall.
3. Social Media & Ministry
Topic 3 is today's post: Social Media in Ministry:
Rule #1: Anything you do MUST SUPPORT THE MISSION!
Rule #2: Start
with Why: You must know why you’re doing
social
·
Raise awareness (church planting)
·
Promote dialogue
·
Foster community
·
Deepen engagement level
Rule #3: Commit to
doing it well / Bad marketing is worse than no marketing
Facebook:
·
Page: Everything
we do on our Facebook PAGE is intended to invite people in
·
Billboard advertisement for outsiders
·
Restrict Admins / Control the message
·
First impressions = quality images / spell checked posts
·
ALL Church Group: Foster Community - This is where we engage
with each other.
(Living Room)
o Closed Group:
(Request invite) Members only
§
Gives you a chance to acknowledge their commitment
·
Once they complete the membership class and sign, we add
them to the group.
§
Creates a common ground for a safer environment
o Lose concern
with messaging
o Allow for
dissenting opinions
§
Still needs PASTORING!
·
You’re even a Pastor on Facebook!
·
Guiding / correcting / directing
·
Small Group / Groups: Communicate/coordinate and sharing
ideas
o Secret Groups
(Invite only):
§
Young Adults
§
Youth
§
Affinity (Dodgeball/Soccer)
§
Bible Study
§
Leadership
·
Places/Check-In
o Make sure you
have your address and location for check in
o Encourage
people to check in
·
Advertising / Promoting / Boosting on Facebook
o Advertising is
not evil:
§
If you believe in what you are doing, then you believe it
can help people.
·
Getting the word out so you can help people is worth the
$.
o Taps in to the
#1 most effective form of marketing ever known to mankind
§
Word of Mouth / Personal Reference
·
Terry Likes Corvallis Church
o I like Terry
§
I like Corvallis Church
o Targeting
specific regions
§
It’s a waste of $ and poor etiquette to advertise a local
ministry outside of your local area.
·
Specify your community you are serving
·
Pastoring Tool:
o You can build
a great prayer list for your people by watching the postings of your people on
FB.
o Also, when you
see someone and ask them how "their cat’s surgery" went, they instantly feel
cared for.
§ Some people have an expectation that their Pastor should
know stuff that the don’t tell them.
·
This allows you love them where they are at by entering
in to their world.
o Many people
use facebook in a way that is unhealthy.
§
Crying for help
§
Passive aggressive comments
§
Rants
o If you are
their shepherd, engage in conversations about healthy facebook use.
§
The rules are the same as any you would have about public
behavior
·
Appropriate levels of transparency
·
Appropriate tone, volume and quantity
TWITTER – Different
Target – People use twitter for
different reasons
·
Twitter is for narcissists, Facebook is for
creepers.
o We are all a
bit of both
·
Our goal with twitter is to inspire people to dig deeper
o Engage people
o Inspire deeper
thought
·
Shaping perception/image control:
o Branding
o Halo affect of
marketing
·
Preaching:
Encouraging people to tweet a line or two from your sermon can draw
friends in.
o Also, can help
friends spark their personal witnessing conversations.
Does Leveraging Social Media help make disciples?
§
Yes, it helps us engage people, invite people and gives
us opportunity connect face to face to introduce them to Jesus.
Nice work!
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