Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

 

The Church on Social Media

Monday, January 14th, 2013

Felt board? Now there’s an app for that. For real.

1,000 pages of noisy onion-skin-like pages? Download this instead.

Stone tables meet your match: an iPad.

When it comes to organized religion, many churches and church leaders have chosen to stay in the dust of the past, while others move forward into the present and the future. With the advent of social media and other technological breakthroughs in communicaiton, churches have more avenues to spread their message than ever before. 

Current leaders in the Catholic church are hopping into the social media sphere, albeit a few years behind.

In December of 2012, Pope Benedict XVI launched a Twitter account, offering tweets in eight languages. He has over 1.4 million followers on his english languange account alone, Twitter handle @Pontifex. 

Following the Pope’s lead, Franciscan Friars launched a platform to allow followers to text them a prayer intention. Yup, you can text a prayer.

Father David Convertino, executive director of development for the Fransiscan Friars of Holy Name Province: “With technology changing the way we communicate, we needed to offer people an updated way to ask for prayers for special intentions and needs either for themselves or others.”

Regardless of one’s thoughts on religion, it’s powerful to see one of the oldest organized religions in the world seeing to connect in new ways.

At the dawn of social media, only the so-called ‘early adopters’ jumped in full force. Until recently, many organized religions seemed to lightly stick a toe into the social media waters, refusing to get immersed in the ever-changing waters.

Now they’re jumping in full force. Apparently the thinking is changing for churches and organizations who are willing to change.

At its core, social media is about making existing connections stronger and foster new connections that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

And though we don’t represent one ideology, religion or creed, we do tip our hat to those church leaders fearless enough to reach out with a handshake…and a tweet.

 

 

 

How to Use Social Media Lists

Monday, January 7th, 2013

Social media news feeds need to be organized. One way to do this is to make lists in some of your favorite social media sites or applications.

In essence, a list is a folder which provides a tailored stream of information, helping limit unnecessary content and highlighting information that is most important to you.

Social Media Lists on Twitter

If you follow more than a few hundred people on Twitter, you should probably be using a few lists.

Twitter’s lists are simple and effective. From Twitter’s help site:

“A list is a curated group of Twitter users. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of Tweets from only the users on that list.”

We’ve noticed many Twitter users divide their lists into categories of interests or location.

+Make a list for all people living locally. Then view that list to see what’s happening in your area.

+Make a list of some of your favorite Tweeters. This ensures you won’t miss any of their tweets among the thousands of others in your Twitter feed.

+Make a list for inspiration. If you ever need a quote or inspirational saying, just go to that list and you’re bound to find exactly what you need in almost no time.

 Social Media Lists on Facebook

Facebook’s customizations continue to evolve on an almost daily basis.

On your personal account, we suggest making list for groups of friends in at least three categories: family, friends and acquaintances. Facebook often has some of these setting already, you may just need to group your friends accordingly.

When sharing a post on Facebook, select which list or lists you’d like to share with before posting, allowing you more control over your content.

Social Media Lists on Other Sites

Social media lists aren’t resticted to just Facebook and Twitter. Check out StumbledUpon’s list features as well as Reddit’s list of lists. A veritable list-o-rama!

***

 Question: How do you use social media lists?