Making social media work for you nm think - brum

Editor's Notes

1. 45 minute session, coming after understanding the digital world, and how to get the website you want & need… to be followed by practical projects and ideas you can use… Role, years online, etc..
2. Prayers appreciated as this is due 9th July (revised deadline!) … covers a lot of digital culture, designed to take the fear out of using it – seen as the biggest sticking point for most… so useful for all, but with particular focus on those aspects that affect kids
3. So, Sean’s been talking about digital culture … we’ve been seeing that the more we can understand the culture, the more that we can engage with it….Far too many times when people talk about social media, they focus on the word ‘media’ (or technology), rather than the word ‘social’ which is surely what we should be focusing on … we are looking to build relationships, which require good communication (don’t default to getting “the IT Guy” doing your social media … you need someone who is good at comms…)….
4. 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….)
5. Can we move towards something more like this – what does this mean for church leaders, especially you as youth leaders…?
6. Be fresh, be honest, be creative, give God the glory.. 3 minutes
7. When we talk about “social media” remember that we are talking about something that is made up of a range of tools … each with a unique way of working – so in this session we want to look in particular at a couple of core social media tools – Twitter and Facebook, with a nod to Pinterest. The other tools to be particularly aware of are YouTube, blogging and mobile apps… .. If you want to know more – download this 6-7 page document I try to keep updated.. , and you’ll see different tools are use for different things!
8. 30 seconds with someone you don’t know – look for something (other than Christian) in common… (Tweet = 140 characters, so get it across quickly, etc.) This is essentially how Twitter works.
9. 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/
10. 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…
11. Straightforward…
12. Thinking through how things have changed – we don’t PUSH the message at people – we seek to be intriguing and draw them in…
13. e.g. creative use…
14. e.g. creative use – how built offline story around it, then went back online
15. Phil… summarised entire Bible in around 9000 characters… makes you think about what it’s really about.
16. More humourous – but makes such a nice change from “dour” impression of Christians
17. 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.
18. ModeratedRetweet (esp to make it shorter), and Hat-Tip … all about collaboration, acknowledging the source, etc…
19. 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…
20. Great tool (others might use Tweetdeck) – allows you to preset tweets, across accounts – free up to 5 accounts!
21. Another worksheet…
22. Here’s some help…
23. Don’t forget that it’s all PUBLIC! Original image sxc.hu
24. POST IT NOTES OR FLIPCHART?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?
25. The core one for me is “authenticity” - come to know yourself, what gifts and passions God has given you, and look to live those out authentically & with integrity online… what I call a ‘digital fingerprint’ – you were made to be unique, so be unique … and look for others to engage with in that area…
26. What about Facebook … incredibly busy site .. Noting that biggest number of new signups in past year have been Grandmother’s wanting to look at grandkid’s photos…
27. 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
28. Networks of networks
29. 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..
30. Many of us are not ‘preachers’ – but we may have those who we think want to listen to us, but also our other friends…
31. .. And this ties into an increasingly ‘visual turn’ online – particularly with the advent of Pinterest which gained popularity at the beginning of 2012 – with people sharing inspiring pictures (and the picture links to the website behind it).
32. 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…
33. 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
34. This was kinda summed up at a recent conference…
35. At all times – remember!
36. … and don’t forget the cat.
37. Really important to be aware of…!!
38. So – what do you think? What does it make you think about engaging online, how we share our faith, how we make Jesus real to people?