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SOCIAL MEDIA AND FAITH (ORGANISATIONS)Dr Bex Lewis (@drbexl)
Director, Digital Fingerprint
Research Fellow in Social Media and Online Learning, CODEC Centre for Digital Theology, Durham University
June 2015 for Coexist, St George’s, Windsor
http://www.slideshare.net/drbexl/social-media-and-faith-organisations
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
Session Overview
• Social Media Exercise• Social Media
• Why?• Where?• What?• Who?• When?
• A Digital Marketing Framework
• Action-Planning@drbexl
https://twitter.com/drbexl
Let’s “tweet” each other… “Let’s Tweet Each Other”
@drbexl
WHY?
Image Credit: Facebook Meme
Image Credit: The Worship Cloud
SOCIAL media@drbexl
Connect & Listen
@drbexl
Networks of Networks@drbexl
http://pennystocks.la/internet-in-real-time/
@drbexl
Social Media: More than the cherry on the cake!
@drbexl
Embedded Practice?
• As indicated in my book, Raising Children in a Digital Age, although children aren’t ‘digital natives’ who are ‘fundamentally different from us’, they have grown up in a time when the digital is an embedded part of their everyday life.
• Most politicians are clearly not using social media in an embedded way, but as a digital marketing tool, and this is seen as inauthentic. We need to look at the underlying culture and assess whether traits such as collaboration, innovation, transparency, and openness belong solely to the younger generation. Reports such as the Ipsos MORI Who is Generation Next? have indicated what the concerns of the younger generation are, and what they might expect from their politicians.
• Young people want to know that they are being listened to, that their voices count, and that they are not being patronised.
https://www.dur.ac.uk/generalelection.2015/news/?itemno=24588
The digital environment is not a parallel or purely virtual world, but is part of the daily experience of many people, especially the young. Social networks are the result of human interaction, but for their part they also reshape the dynamics of communication, which builds relationships: a considered understanding of this environment is therefore a prerequisite for a significant presence there.
Pope Benedict XVI (2013)
@drbexl
Increasingly, young Arab Muslims are asking questions from people they identify as religious authorities through Facebook, Twitter and other internet social media apparatusesDr H.A. Hellyer
Associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, Non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Research Associate at Harvard University
@drbexl
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2013/03/24/Social-media-religion-in-the-new-Arab-world.html
It has always been two Jews, three opinions. But we are in a world, unfortunately, where people take sides too strongly and have forgotten the grain in the middle. … It has created a negative discourseAlan Edelman,
Associate Executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas city
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/74339/if-social-media-gives-everyone-a-voice-who-speaks-for-judaism/
Social media becomes an important way to connect and make your religious experience a 24/7 experience rather than something you do on the weekends.Heidi Campbell , Asst. Professor of Communications, Texas A&M University
Author of Digital Religion, Routledge 2012
http://national.deseretnews.com/article/464/How-social-and-digital-media-are-changing-religion.html#AUzFVzUURB6Zspw5.99
@drbexl
Even though in practice, face-to-face communication can, of course, be angry, negligent, resistant, deceitful and inflexible, somehow it remains the ideal against which mediated communication is judged as flawed.Prof Sonia Livingstone, Children and the Internet: Great Expectations and Challenging Realities. 2009, p26
@drbexl
"If you want to build a presence in the social media platform, then you need
to be present." - @unmarketing
@drbexl
The Front Door?With literally billions in the digital spaces, the online social spaces presented by churches need to be appealing, welcoming, and not look like they are just an afterthought: they are now effectively the ‘front door’ to your church for digital users, and you ignore those spaces at your peril.
http://www.churchgrowthrd.org.uk/blog/churchgrowth/growing_churches_in_the_digital_age Image Credit: Sxc.hu@drbexl
https://www.gov.uk
@drbexl
Clarify Audience• Age?• Gender?• Location?• Educational Level?• Beliefs?• What are they searching for?• How can you make it easier for them to find?• How can you make it easy for them to want to share?
Separate Sites?
In the last few years, numerous Jewish Social networks have emerged. Most have never gain traction. A few are household terms. While I believe the future of Jewish community leadership will require social web applications, I think we need to review what’s worked, hasn’t worked, and what’s possible.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jewish-social-networks-flops-successes-and-the-future/
Push/Pull Media…
@drbexl
WHERE?
https://conversationprism.com
Twitter in MinistryIf you don’t know how to use Twitter, check https://
support.twitter.com/articles/215585
Twitter Spokesperson:
“Twitter brings you closer to the things you are passionate about - and for millions of people across the globe that is faith.”http://news.sky.com/story/1022800/senior-bishops-to-tweet-christmas-sermons
Core Terminology
•Tweet•Followers•Hashtag•Retweet•Favourite•Lists•Verified Accounts
It’s good for…
• New connections via shared interests• Building your “brand”• Pre/During/Post Event Conversations• Breaking news• Asking questions• Sharing good resources• Sharing pithy statements/quotes• Being “polemical”
http://bigbible.org.uk/2013/03/looking-for-an-opportunity-changingworship/
http://anglicanmemes.com/2013/03/25/the-church-of-england-goes-to-hollywood-the-best-of-churchofenglandfilms/
https://twitter.com/biblesummary
https://twitter.com/Natwivity
Facebook in Ministry
If you don’t know how to use Facebook, check https://www.facebook.com/help/345121355559712/
Personal Profile
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny him by their life style. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
Brennan Manning
Sharing Settings
Pages
https://www.facebook.com/DigitalBible/info
Page Rules
Reach?
Groups
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2211562545/
Events
Pinterest in Ministry
If you don’t know how to use Pinterest, check http://help.pinterest.com/en/articles
Instagram in Ministry
If you don’t know how to use Pinterest, check https://help.instagram.com/
https://instagram.com/crosswaychurch/
YouTube in Ministry
If you don’t know how to use YouTube, check https://support.google.com/youtube/?
hl=en-GB#topic=4489102
Simple ideas for Video:
• Think of the STORIES you have to tell, and how you might tell them –• Events: Before/After• Sermons: Quick Overviews/Responses• People & Their Lives• Creative storytelling• What can you “How To”?
• ‘Remote’ training within organisations
Create Playlists
WHAT?
A few thoughts on content:
• Identify keywords & mind-map ideas
• Repurpose existing content
• Not just words: visual, audio, video
• Define a ‘voice’ for the organisation
• Repeat content ‘differently’ (but not too often)
Human Beings at machines, not “are machines”
Image Source: Stockfresh
Who sees this?
1. God2. Parents3. ‘Kids’4. Newspaper5. Enemy
WHO?
Who does social media?
“It’s all about me”
It then dawned on me, that many people were using Hadiths and other wise quotes merely for the sake of getting more likes, retweets, ‘friends’ and followers. By design, social media has all the right instruments to be the ultimate mechanism to feed your ego. (I do acknowledge that this is NOT the case for everyone).
https://themuslimvibe.com/featured/digitalpiety-we-need-to-stay-true-to-ourselves-on-social-media/
New Ways of “Doing”
http://www.islamintheageofnewmedia.com
bigbible.org.uk
WHEN?
In a Crisis?
Don’t overthink. Running through committees, endless drafts and approval processes to get a response out there can cause far more damage than good. As long as you have taken the time to assess the situation and can take a rational, respectful tone in your response, even an awkward response is OK to start with, and buys you time to continue to respond to the problem.
http://twitterforchurches.com/blog/2009/06/29/crisis-communications-for-the-social-media-age/
http://small-bizsense.com/the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media/
Hootsuite
Principles of Good Engagement
•Be interesting•Be encouraging•Be active•Be helpful•Be authentic•Represent your organisation well
The Big Questions
•Why•Where•What •Who•When
•To achieve what?
•How do the digital tools help achieve this?
@drbexl
A Digital Marketing Framework
• Discovery (most time intensive): • ID goals & objectives• Select strategies & tactics• Explore new opportunities• Set metrics and targets
• Internet Business Analysis• ID target market/niche• Create ‘personas’• “Competitor” analysis
• Build• Resource planning &
allocation• Set up/modify digital assets
• Implement• Schedule for launch &
activate
• Measure• Measure & monitor target
metrics
• Manage Results• ID what’s (not) working
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E9I9H80?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o01_
What is your ONE takeaway action?
@drbexl @digitalfprint
QUESTIONS?
Images: Stockfresh, iStockphoto, RGBStock, The Worship Cloud, Screenshots
http://www.slideshare.net/drbexl/social-media-and-faith-organisations
