Web Presence: Social Media

Social media is what makes up what most technologists would call Web 2.0.  The reason is that this is not a static website.  This site has dynamic content that is used to feed the existence of a community online, usually.  What makes this content especially powerful is the ability for you to associate yourselves with your friends.  This will give you increased "context", if you will, to the rest of the community.  This increases your visibility to the Christian community as a whole and gives the ministry a platform to distribute information such as updates, news, events and the likes as well as the ability to organize efforts.  The possibility of social media for a ministry is endless.  I'll go over some of the more popular social media sites and what it can do for you, if any.  I know this will not be an exhaustive list but I will list only the most popular in this first post.

Social media sites that will not directly help a ministry (exception mentioned):

Myspace.com

Myspace used to be a site that is real useful for most ministries... and it still may... but it has become more of a platform for bands to expose themselves... and basically a media portal.  If this doesn't appeal to your ministry, which most ministry are not based on, then Myspace.com is likely not your ministry.

Linkedin

Linked in is for professional networking, kind of like a virtual job fair.  This is primarily useless for spending time on for your ministry.  It may be a good idea to maybe put up a simple profile in case ministry workers leave the field and need Linkedin as a form of reference and request your recommendation through the site.  Most people I know don't use that, though it does help some.

Facebook.com

Facebook has become the biggest social networking site out there.  It distinguishes itself from the other social media in that it is a way for friends and acquaintances to connect in a not so formal way. Most people can spend many hours of their lives every week on Facebook and get a majority of their social news, if not ALL there news, from Facebook.  Facebook is really popular due to the fact that it doesn't announce to users who has viewed them... only when another user request to be known does a user get notified about the visit. This attractiveness is in turn exhibited in all aspects of the social networking site that makes it such a great tool for ministry.

Facebook Pages

The most useful tool in Facebook for most ministries is the Pages application in Facebook.  The idea of a Page in Facebook is like a free website for ministries in that it is a page in Facebook that allows users to view the page, even if they are not a member of the site, and allows members to "Like" your page so that others will know that ... well, they like your page.  This association can spell to a lot of things for you.  Once an user likes a page they will receive posts on your page "wall" when you post them as well as the ability to invite others to like it.  This public "like" of your page allows you to see who they are and gives you the advantage of been able to profile your following on Facebook.

The advantages of Facebook pages is that it gives you a website for free right away.  It gives you the ability to very quickly post information on your page about what's going on in your ministry and all your followers will see those things in real time.

The beauty of Facebook pages is that due to the public nature of the page in that even non-members can view the page it becomes a cheap website for you.  You can use this as your only website, for ministries that are either umbrellaed under other ministries or has seldom access to the internet.  You can also use Facebook pages as a mirror website to your existing website to promote your ministry among your current fan base in an environment that they are in already, meeting them where they are to make it easier for your presence to spread.

For a little taste of a Facebook page, here's my own Facebook page for this ministry: https://www.facebook.com/FleetOfTarshishMinistry.  The terms and conditions of a Facebook pages is slightly different from a regular account and you can find the conditions here: https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php.

Twitter.com

Twitter is a fairly new phenomena that allows user to basically become a new source for anyone.  This site is different from Facebook in that it's simpler and only focused on distributing news... not so much as staying in touch with others like Facebook.  This site has the anonymous nature like Facebook but it also introduces the concept of quick distribution of news that links other accounts and concepts to your feed.  It doesn't have as many users as Facebook due to the amount of information coming from the site... but it is still very popular for broadcasting news.  Most news agencies and other government entities currently use Twitter to broadcast their news among the millions of other users representing individuals like you and me.

I currently don't have a Twitter account due to my personal lack of need for a Twitter account.  But this site is mostly useful for ministries that are primarily involved in communication and public relations.  Besides those, I really don't see how Twitter can add to a ministry.  The time commitment required to maintain a Twitter site is immense, it usually requires at least a few posts a week, if not multiple posts in a day.  Twitter is very much out of question for ministries that are primarily out in the back country... but if you are expected to broadcast a lot of information on a day to day basis, this site is a tool that you can't ignore.