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Social Media: Why Take the Time? (Stafford Diocese, October 2013)
1. Social Media:
Why take the
time?
Dr Bex Lewis, Director, Digital Fingerprint
URL: http://j.mp/socmed-whytaketime
2 October 2013 for:
http://www.lichfield.anglican.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
14. The Church Front Door?
• For many churchgoing is no longer
the ‘cultural norm’. People don’t
actively ignore the church: they
don’t even think about it. Matthew
5:13-16 calls us to be salt and light
in the world, and for thousands in
the ‘digital age’, that world includes
social networks such
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and
Pinterest. 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/churchgrowt
h/growing_churches_in_the_digital_age
Image Credit: Sxc.hu
15. • We are not selling something to the world that
will make more people like us, believe in our
story, join our churches. We are trying to be
something in the world that invites connection
and compassion, encourages comfort and
healing for those in need, and challenges those in
power to use that power in the service of justice
and love
• (Drescher, 127)
20. • An incredible new
technology enables the
transmission of text on a
worldwide basis. It rapidly
reduces production and
distribution costs and for
the first time allows large
numbers of people to
access text and pictures in
their own homes.
21.
22. • The new technologies will bring
„every individual… into immediate
and effortless communication
with every other‟, „practically
obliterate‟ political
geography, and make free trade
universal. Thanks to
technological advance, „there
[are] no longer any foreigners,‟
and we can look forward to „the
gradual adoption of a common
language.‟
23.
24. • “For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of
those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their
memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external
characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage
the use of their own memory within them. You have invented
an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your
pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they
will read many things without instruction and will therefore
seem to know many things, when they are for the most part
ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not
wise, but only appear wise.” (Phaedrus 274c-275b)
26. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/lc
s9603.html
• “Furedi suggests that moral
panics have a tendency to
occur „at times when society
has not been able to adapt to
dramatic changes‟ and when
such change leads those
concerned to express fear over
what they see as a loss of
control.”
Image Credit: Stockfresh
29. http://bigbible.org.uk/digidisciple/
• Whether as a Christian or a digital explorer, you’re a newbie or
an old hat, a rookie or a bishop (and in the digital sphere, there
will be some who fit in all categories), we all have something to
contribute to the digital space. The concept of the digital as
‘space’ or a ‘culture’ is important as we come from a
perspective in which:
• As Christians we live 24/7 for God, in whatever spaces we live
in or engage with (see LICC for more on this).
• There is no such thing as ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ worlds: only online
and offline space/cultures – the connection between the two is
different for each individual.
• We need to take seriously our Christian presence both online
and offline. Are we the same person, living by the same values
in both ‘spaces’?
33. Love thy neighbour?
• What does it mean to ‘love your neighbour’ in a
world in which a ‘friend’ might as easily be the kid
from down the street you grew up with as a woman
in Botswana whom you’ve never seen in person and
only know in the context of Facebook status
updates, photos, and notes? … How can we
negotiate spiritual interaction in these contexts
without losing sight of basic elements of
Christian faith expressed in traditional embodied
and geographically located practices of
prayer, worship, and compassion towards
others?
• Tweet if You Heart Jesus, p.xiv
45. 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/1
022800/senior-bishops-to-
tweet-christmas-sermons
47. What‟s it good for?
• New connections through shared
interests
• Building your “brand”
• Pre/During/Post Event
Conversations
• Breaking news
• Asking questions
• Sharing pithy statements/quotes
• Being “polemical”
Image Credit: Stockfresh
67. What can you do on Facebook?
• Find friends
• Post status updates
• Comment on others photos
• Post & Tag people in photos
• Offer pastoral care
• Leave public messages on the „wall‟
• Send private „messages‟
• Join Groups, Like Pages
• Link to other social media
• Set up events
68. Facebook functions in ministry?
• Encourage Community
• Whole (life) Church
• Groups (e.g. 20s30s)
• Give others insights into „church
life‟ e.g. photo sharing
• Offer pastoral care
• *Youth: PM‟s, CC parents/another
leader in
• Advertise Events
80. Blog Characteristics?
• A reverse diary (most recent entry
first)
• A publically accessible personal
journal
• Reflections, comments and hyperlinks
• Commentary/news on a particular
subject
• Text/Image/Links including media
• Interactive, especially comments
• Potentially informal tone
81. Ideas for Content?
• “See what we‟ve been up to”
• Thoughts & Reflections
• Reviews
(Books, films, websites, etc)
• Challenging ideas for debate
• Interviews (Text, Audio, Video)
• „Best Of‟ Content
• „How-to‟ Posts
• 10 things you can…
• Guest Posts
Image credit: RGBStock
89. Think About
• Who are you blogging for?
• How often can you blog?
• What style of blog will you
use?
• What content can you
produce?
• What do you want Google to
find?
• Who else can you bring on
board?
115. http://www.methodist.org.uk/ministers-and-
office-holders/technology-and-church/social-
media-guidelines
• The principles applied to this are:
• Be credible. Be accurate, fair, thorough and transparent.
• Be consistent. Encourage constructive criticism and deliberation.
• Be cordial, honest and professional at all times. Be responsive.
When you gain insight, share it where appropriate.
• Be integrated. Wherever possible, align online participation with
other communications.
• Be a good representative of the Methodist Church. Remember that
you are an ambassador for Christ, the Church and your part of it.
Disclose your position as a member or officer of the Church, making
it clear when speaking personally. Let Galatians 5:22-26 guide your
behaviour.
• Be respectful: respect confidentiality. Respect the views of others
even where you disagree.
Definitely Wed 2 Oct, 9.15-12.30. I know that is shorter than we originally discussed, but I think giving folk the why they should take it seriously and how it can be used to benefit their ministry and organisation is more critical than actually getting them online – we can follow that up locally. There should be 12 people there:Diocesan Bishop, Jonathan Gledhill,two Area bishops: Mark Rylands (Shrewsbury) and Geoff Annas (Stafford)*Four archdeacons (one of whom uses FB)Dean of LichfieldCathdral, Adrian DorberDiocesen Secretary/CEO, Julie JonesDean of Womens’ Ministry, Jane TillierMeOur new Dir of Officer, Neill Harvey-Smith @nhs999 will also be there-he needs no training but it will be the first day that he meets that senior team: after lunch we are having a session to enable the team to brief him on their interests and concerns as we begin to review our comms strategy. Do let me know if you need either collecting from a station or driving directions, overnight accommodation etc. You will be very welcome to stay for lunch.
Social Media – all about RELATIONSHIPS, so we are going to start by getting to know each other as if we are on Twitter.
[Form: Twitter exercise]
Something about me … often gets people talking to me – esp if I wear t-shirt as in my Twitter photo…
Commonality – finding a starting point & getting to know each other – essential building blocks of any evangelism, etc… with a strong focus on LISTENING! You’re looking to provide information, engage in dialogue, listen to your audience … build a community who will be interested in the other things that you do .. Expect that these next few days will take some time to digest … it can seem like a lot of information, but this is intended to challenge, enable strategy and move us forward.
Is this your experience? Right, so we’re going to see what else we can do with this…
Best part of 4 mins, still the best video, even though it’s really old …
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-takes-twitter-by-storm-in-the-first-papal-selfie-8792660.html twitter.com/abcjustinDon’t’ forget the SOCIAL in social media … about engaging rather than broadcasting (FOR MOST) thought argument for e.g. just not possible… These are two of the most powerful men in Christian circles … both actively engaging online – see here Justin Welbyapologises for not engaging with everyone … makes sense!
What you’d expect from working missionally…
Qualman – 4 mins (business focused, but worth thinking about…)
The same article, but the beginning of it… the church is just not on many people’s radar .. On a Sunday the Cathedrals of the shopping mall and the football pitch draw people in and provide the social spaces that people used to get from the church… so is there something else that Christians are seeking to offer… (But also need care that not using that space just to promote what you doing … if the church community gets onboard can see true community)
Building relationships takes time, but church has never been about “bums on seats”, so much as about encouraging those who attend to live full lives of discipleship. Many of those who enjoy the digital spaces are skeptical about being ‘preached to’. We live in a world of “pull” rather than “push” media (show me why I will be interested, rather than tell me I should be interested), but as Elizabeth Drescher says:We are not selling something to the world that will make more people like us, believe in our story, join our churches. We are trying to be something in the world that invites connection and compassion, encourages comfort and healing for those in need, and challenges those in power to use that power in the service of justice and love (Drescher, 127).
Scary – so many, or encouraging as you clearly can’t use them all, so think about what you need to do, and which tools might fit that…
Ever seen this? Quite old now (last year!), but quite helpful in demonstrating the purpose of different spaces online and which aspects you may emphasise.. E.g. on Twitter looking to build relationships around common interests, whereas Facebook to develop those you already have – will change the kind of things that you can say… We’ll come back to this after the break!
Within the church we need to think about how we engage more - this is the model many churches have now… (as a educational developer, I note that many teachers do this too….)
Can we move towards something more like this – what does this mean for church leaders, especially you as youth leaders…?
http://wondermark.com/socrates-vs-writing/
This book written to help fight against ‘moral panics’ – we’ve survived every other technological development … and we need to think what differences it makes to our lives … but not be over-awed by it all…
This is something that I work with… explain…
Explain ‘The Jesus Arms’ at Greenbelt… (2mins) … “being comfortable in your own digital skin” [digital not a replacement for other aspects of life, but part of it…]
Online/offline = REAL – not the same, but real!
Always remember that there is a human being at the other end of the keyboard - each uniquely created by God… and as is noted by many communicators is not what you’ve said, but what others have ‘heard’ … not everyone receives the message that you send in the same way .. And one message definitely doesn’t fit all… we’re in the world of what is described as “the long tail”, where rather than being able to send out a mass message, we have to have more concern with individuals (which I always hope we as Christians do anyway, but…. ) – Google searches for ‘niches’ (small keywords/multiple entry points, etc.) So…
Apologise to those of you who may already have seen this … seem to produce a new one each year, and last year it was June, but I think it helps set the scene really well as to why this online space is SO important to engage with! (2-3 minutes)
This was kinda summed up at a recent conference…
This is something we’ve done a couple of times with Big Bible – love to see more – great way to get people to engage with the Bible – think about how to “change” the words to apply in the digital age…
EXERCISE with flip-chart… Integrity (own comments “I feel, etc.)Self-control (consider consequences of interpretation – inc revisited later) Patience (expectations for response times)Authenticity (consistent to “you”)Trust (information can be out there, don’t speak on others behalf unless permission)Non-manipulative (audience aware, do someone down, bad spin; “If you love Jesus share this”)Respect (encounter different opinions – think through reactions); Good Manners; not ‘entitled’ to respect – respect others first.. Treat as you expect to be treated“Freedom of Speech” – think carefully; LibelSelf-awareness – context; read differently – can you “hear” tone of voiceDon’t press “send” in anger …Kindness – encourage online, messages of supportTransparency – do we know the source of all this… Aliases? Who’s saying what? Accountability. Who are they?
Not PUBLISHING, but looking for CONVERSATIONS/relationship building
Lots of people have this response to Twitter, but it’s got a growing user base … a couple of years ago had about 100 million active users, now nearly 300 million… http://www.landingnet.co.uk/blog/the-truth-about-all-this-twitter-ing-twoddle/
Celebrity culture – be aware that power structures from “offline” (note online/offline) also work online – e.g. you’ll trust something from the BBC more than from someone’s blog… so need to build up credibility…
Straightforward…
Thinking through how things have changed – we don’t PUSH the message at people – we seek to be intriguing and draw them in…
Explain send one small message and cascades out .. Message gets bigger with each RT – I have 5k followers, someone with 30k RTs – they are saying message is worth listening to .. And all their audience may see it too.
ModeratedRetweet (esp to make it shorter), and Hat-Tip … all about collaboration, acknowledging the source, etc…
Who is going to do this? When aka “how often” (twice a month = lost)? What content is worth sharing – each tweet doesn’t need to be a mini “War & Peace” but also let’s not have too many breakfast tweets…
Great tool (others might use Tweetdeck) – allows you to preset tweets, across accounts – free up to 5 accounts!
Another worksheet…
Here’s my suggestions for a ‘daily workout’ – anticipated to take around 20 minutes a day… worth the investment – really has to look active to generate interest!
It’s not uncommon for a pastor to live in an entirely different neighborhood or community than the people in their church. So, if there’s little opportunity for face-to-face interaction throughout the week, it’s only natural for pastor(al team) to find ways to immerse themselves in the online communities that their congregation is spending so much time in. Zuckerberg – community
How much can we find out about people – how many people can we reach – not the hugest of numbers, but think compared to average congregation… is a bit of a game of numbers..
3 types of groups .. Open, closed, private…
7 min vid – not planning to show all!
Worksheet – we can work through this at the end if time… but it’s fairly straightforward … and thinking about WHAT you put on a video is more important in many ways…
Create video – and amplify…
3:41!! Probably would have worked better at 30 seconds …
Interesting – viewing numbers – lots re weddings (always a good touchpoint for the church), from Alan Wilson – blogging bishop/celeb … much smaller/more typical numbers for other videos…
If you want to see what people have enjoyed in the past year … what will people watch?! Yes,… cats… no we’re not going to look!!
1:47 – what puts this kind of smile on a child’s face – and would you guess the brand before the end if you didn’t already know?
1:40 – v. clever – tapping into a huge phenomenon … finding the right hooks…You’ll see we’re looking to the secular world for inspiration here … we are in the world (if not of it) – how do we speak to people…
Social Media shouldn’t be an add-on, but should be considered in everything else that you’re doing… put links to the pages/Twitter name, etc. in church notice sheets, and publicity, etc…
If you are working for an organisation – e.g. a church – ensure that people can feel ‘free’ to go ahead and represent you …not having
… and don’t forget the cat.
Remember what we said about importance of person to person … our #digidisciple(s) get far more response from personal shares than organisational shares… but if you can get the original share from an organisational page, etc…