A couple of weeks ago at Innovate, I led a breakout about Social Networks in Ministry. Even though this isn't the newest topic on the book and I'm in no way the expert ... there are still people out there struggling to understand why it matters and how to get started.
Over the past four years, I've evolved from a skeptic to an advocate about this subject. So, I used our hour together to just tell my story and talk about how Twitter & Facebook, in particular, are currently impacting and strengthening our ministry at Granger.
My slides:
SHOUT OUT: I totally copied Mitch from MediaSauce to create my slides. Thanks, Mitch. I watch what you do.
My outline:
About.
- The notion of community, the desire to associate, affiliate, and belong has always appealed to the human condition.
- Because we relate to smaller institutions and subsets of society much better than we relate to large and remote entities such as Big Business, Big Media, Big Government and Big organized religion--technology has revolutionized the definition of community.
- Virtual communities and spontaneous new social structures are popping up in personal and professional spaces.They have the tendency to make inhibitions melt away. This can be good and bad. But, mostly good.
- Contrary to a popular fear we hear about social media, it does not replace face-to-face communication; it enhances it. It it is a tool that helps you (corporately and individually) create RELATIONAL COLLATERAL.
- Nobody explains what it is better than Common Craft: Social Networking in Plain English
Most excellent stories.
- Personal/family: I originally started texting and watching MySpace to stay in relationship with my teenager. Now, my 70 year old mother-in-law is texting and on Facebook in an effort to stay connected to her grandkids (and me). We share photos, stories and fun updates. It compresses time; automatically find out most recent news about everyone you care about without having to come back and check for it. Keeps your inbox clean. Instead of hours on the phone with one or two people. Minutes to keep up with everyone.
- Team/staff: Adds value to others. Develop sense of community in spite of pace, location and different schedules. Bonding. Way to get news out when network or email outage. Helps give a voice to introverts.
- Church/professional: Info posted once, used over and over. Records what’s happening. Puts a face & personality on the ministry. Forced to organize my thoughts and follow-through. People are watching. I’m accountable. Facilitates connectedness and expressiveness. Provides direct access leaders & ministry experts.
- Other: You get: Access to training, tutorials, experts, best practices. Micro-leads to macro information. Instant focus groups. You give: Development of community with peers. Way to give back & share insights.
Get started.
- Get help: I won’t tell you the how, that’s part of the fun of it. Connect with one of your friends who's doing it & have them walk you through first steps.
- One thing at a time: Start slow & don't overload yourself all at once. It’s something you have to experience to understand. Try to make a judgement from someone else's experience and you'll miss it. It's unique and personal to each person.
- Watch for others for awhile: pick up on their cues of the do’s & don’ts. Find what’s comfortable for you before you start interacting. But, your first step should be to at least GO to the party. If you aren't ready to participate in the festivities, it's totally fine to be a wallflower.
- When you are ready, go ahead & participate, mingle and connect; but don't fake it. Remember, it's a party not a show. Avoid too much information: it may be personal…but it's not private.
Really good stuff here, Kem. And good timing. Just started a Facebook Group for our church (Fountain City Wesleyan) a little over a week ago and we are already close to having 10% of our attenders online as "friends".
Several joined Facebook because we started the group and it will be interesting to see how many will. It is one more way, and a good one, to connect with the people in your life, both near and far.
I plan to blog this and share it with the rest of our folks.
Posted by: Barry | Sep 30, 2008 at 02:29 PM