Two days ago, Chris Taylor wrote an intriguing opinion piece on Mashable suggesting that the new Facebook is too complicated. He suggests that feature creep has made the once simple interface increasingly and unnecessarily complex. The following are among the latest changes that he considers as support for his argument: Addition of a ticker Redesign of user profiles via timeline Shift from a like button to gestures that will allow users to [any verb] a [any noun] Read More …
Reflecting on 500 Blog Posts (#0499)
In 2009, I moved from an observer to a participant in the growing world known as social media. In January, I joined Facebook. Within a few months, I was logging in to Facebook several times a day. In May, I secured a domain name. In June, I launched this blog. Initially, I wrote a few posts a week In September, I joined Twitter. Within a few months, I was tweeting several times a day. As I wind down my third year in social media, I recognize that statistics tell a Read More …
Social Media Tools for Churches 101 (#0497)
Alys Drake, communications manager for Howell Marketing Strategies, recently wrote a guest commentary in the Commercial Appeal that provides churches with a "social media primer." She includes six basics: Blogs Twitter Flickr and Tumblr Facebook Geolocation (e.g. Foursquare) Other (YouTube, Ustream, Vimeo, podcasting, QR codes, Google+) So What? In the article, Drake states, "Information is spread at lightning speed via social networks like Facebook and Twitter in a way Read More …
Two Years of Tweeting (#0487)
Today is my (@sowhatfaith) Twitterversary. I have now been tweeting for two years. I took some time to compare my first year on Twitter to my second. That analysis yielded the following data: As my comfort level grew, so did the frequency of my tweeting: average daily tweet count was 2.6 in year one compared to 6.8 in year two (an increase of roughly 150%) As I better understood the role and value of Twitter, I moved away from posting my tweets on my Facebook wall. Read More …
Jesus as Facebook’s Most Liked? (#0486)
Jennifer Preston's recent New York Times article explores how a Facebook page about Jesus became the most popular page of all: For the last three months, more people have “Liked,” commented and shared content on the Jesus Daily than on any other Facebook page, including Justin Bieber’s page, according to a weekly analysis by AllFacebook.com, an industry blog. The Jesus Daily is the creation of the 41 year old medical researcher Dr. Aaron Tabor. Tabor writes most of Read More …
Review of The Church and New Media (#0481)
Meet the Authors Brandon Vogt is a Catholic layperson who blogs about theology, technology, social justice and books at ThinVeil.net. Vogt contributes the text's introduction and conclusion while relying on authors with varied backgrounds and expertise to contribute the chapters: Father Robert Barron, Jennifer Fulwiler, Marcel LeJeune, Mark P. Shea, Taylor Marshall, Father Dwight Longenecker, Scot Landry, Matt Warner, Lisa M. Hendey, Thomas Peters, Shawn Carney. Additionally, Read More …
New Church Growth Via Social Media (#0473)
Out of the Box Worship Center in Hillsville, VA is a non-traditional United Methodist small town church that is gaining attention for its dramatic social media driven growth. Launched in January 2011 as an extension of First United Methodist Church of Hillsville, VA, the new church start has grown enough to need two services in their 180 seat worship center. So What? Out of the Box's pastor, Ronnie G. Collins, stated, "When the church first started, we placed one full-page ad Read More …
Your Church’s Social Media Goals (#0446)
Adam Bowers, owner of Adam Bowers Media, recently blogged about the advice he gives churches about creating social media goals. Since there is no universally accepted standard of success and no simple way for parishes to determine how their results compare to other churches, he presents a solid framework for developing a social media strategy: Do your homework – research pre-existing social media use at your church. Before you can formulate goals, you need to make sure Read More …
The First Rule of Social Media (#0432)
Michael Buckingham is the founder of Holy Cow Creative (a church creativity and design studio) and the creative director for the Center for Church Communication and Church Marketing Sucks. Last week he wrote about the importance and power of the question mark in social media. He writes: The very first rule of social media that I put in place with the churches I work with: There should be more question marks than periods on your page. Now of course this is a rule of Read More …
Facebook Users Are . . . (#0419)
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project recently released Social Networking Sites and our Lives, which is a report based on the findings of a survey on Americans' use of the internet conducted from October 20 to November 28, 2010 with a sample of 2,255 adults, age 18 and older who were contacted via both landline and cellular phones. The research supports the commonly held view that Facebook is currently the dominant social networking option with some Read More …