I think the biggest stumbling block is simply buying into the myth that engaging in social media is somehow optional for the church today. It’s a requirement. I have friends who I can call repeatedly without response, but when I message them on Facebook I receive a response in less than three minutes. The way people engage in conversations, commit to attend a gathering, and share their lives is changing — and the church must be at the forefront.

The church cannot afford to drop the ball on Social Media. Too many lives, souls, depend on it.

Think about all you can do in the arena of Social Media:

• engage believers and members
• engage unbelievers in the community
• get your message out via video
• get your message out via print
• discover ministry needs
• Share the gospel
• encourage the saints
• organize small groups for effective communication
• communicate with over 80% of your church body instantly
• ask questions
• get opinions

…and that list is so much longer! Any church would have paid such a high price to be able to do that 10, 20, or 30 years ago – and today it costs nearly nothing!! You would have hired a staff member to do what you can do through social media today!

Pastor – church, you can’t afford to drop the ball on this!

Lives depend on it.

Souls depend on it.

To find out how Acts18Media can help you accomplish all these goals and more for less than 1/120th the price of a staff member check these out:

Social Media Outreach and Ministry Lite

Social Media Outreach and Ministry Full

But, where does that leave churches? If a church has a Twitter account how should it be used to communicate with those inside and outside the church? Is it a tool the church can use? YES!!

Here are 4 easy ways to get your church started with Twitter (and there are many more):

1. Hashtag your Sermon

That’s right – break your sermon down into small chunks and tweet it out throughout Sunday with your church’s Twitter handle. It will not only get important parts of your sermon out to those who didn’t hear it, but it will serve as a reminder to those who did! Be sure and leave enough spaces so that people can re-tweet it as well. Take about 6 key statements from your #AMsermon and share them all day on Sunday.

2. Make Announcements

Use Twitter to make timely church announcements just like you would on Facebook. Be sure and include links where applicable and urge your members to re-tweet to their lists.

3. Engage the Community

Use Twitter to engage your community. The great thing about Twitter is that it allows your church to connect with people you might not otherwise have a connection with. Follow and engage as many people as possible. Keep a look out on your timeline for ministry opportunities and ways you can connect.

4. Brag

Yep, brag. Brag on church members and the work they do for the church. Brag on the church missions project, community service, etc. Find ways to appreciate people on Twitter and you will be shocked at how much more engaging your church’s Twitter list becomes.

Twitter can be used effectively from a church account. Sign your church up today and get started.

I would love to hear your comments below. Use Facebook or leave a standard comment.

“Like” this post so you can help churches reach more people!

How?

Simple. Facebook is a community where people share things about themselves. We live in  a day where people will often post needs on Facebook before they call anyone else. They will announce the emergency, accident, doctor news, hospital stay, marriage problem on their Facebook status before they call the church  - if they ever call the church!

Here are 3 ways to do ministry on Facebook:

1. Scan Members

If you put all of your members in a list (and you should) spend 15 minutes a day looking at their status updates. You might discover something you didn’t know. It doesn’t take long – even if you have hundreds. Don’t get caught up reading every status and looking at every picture – just scan and make notes.

2. Scan Unchurched

Keep the unchurched people you are friends with in a list and give them a quick look. You might find an outreach opportunity. It may be a visit you could make – a phone call – or simply a wall post.

3. Search keywords

As a back up feature go to the search bar and search keywords like: pray, prayer, hospital, accident, marriage, etc. You might find something you missed and have the opportunity to do ministry.

Facebook is an awesome tool we have been given to help us do the work of ministry. Don’t miss the opportunity.

Consider this:

• Baby Boomers are the largest generation
• Baby Boomers sit at the top of most corporations
• 70%k of Law Firm partners are Baby Boomers
• Baby Boomers have more wealth than any other generation

So what does that have to do with the Church and Social Media?

Now consider this:

Half (47%) of internet users ages 50-64 and one in four (26%) users age 65 and older now use social networking sites.

Half of online adults ages 50-64 and one in four wired seniors now count themselves among the Facebooking and LinkedIn masses. That’s up from just 25% of online adults ages 50-64 and 13% of those ages 65 and older who reported social networking use one year ago in a survey conducted in April 2009.

Social Media is not just for the young!

If you want your church to reach out to the Boomers – use Social Media! Use Facebook! Use Twitter!

In your church, how many Boomers are on Social Media?

Leave comments below….

While you listen, think of ideas of how your church or ministry could use Social Media to create buzz about your church and the gospel.

Post your ideas below.

sme_bw2010_ramon_deleon_v2 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

Social Media is a great tool to connect with others. The ability to instantly speak to hundreds, and even thousands, of people is amazing.

But, it does bring with it a warning.

Sometimes you don’t need to say it.

If you’ve been on Social Media long enough you’ve seen the meltdowns, rants, and complaints

• The wife letting her husband (who is not on Facebook) “have it”
• The employee telling his boss off
• The teenager griping about their parents
• The young adult chronicling their emotional breakdown – hour by hour
• The middle school kid talking about another middle school kid

All Social Media does is reveal who you really are – so be careful!

Social Media outlets are not the place to:

• Say something negative about your spouse
• Unload on the deacons
• Tell the church how bad they are
• Vaguely (and poorly) leave a “message” to the member who will “know who they are”

You may be tempted – but don’t do it – You will regret it!! Avoid the temptation to put anything negative out – it is not worth it and it could probably be classified as “unchristian”.
Set your phone/computer/device down and walk away.

Sometimes, the best you can do is just leave your status blank.

Twitter is not something just for the techies or the kids anymore. Maybe when it got started it was too complicated to figure out – not anymore. Maybe you think it is just for celebrities – no way.  Consider these statistics:

• In the past year alone, the average number of tweets per day has nearly tripled from 50 million to 140 million.
• Tweets generally spike during a significant cultural event, and recent figures have been staggering. On March 11, the day of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, Twitter users exceeded the average daily tweets by 37 million–that’s 177 million tweets in a single day.
• Also surging is Twitter’s membership. 572,000 new accounts were created on March 12. For the past month, the average daily sign-up rate has been 460,000 new accounts, and Twitter has also marked a 182% increase in the number of users tweeting from mobile devices in the past year.

You don’t have to be on Twitter to do ministry but it sure can help. If you want to join the growing list of people on Twitter here are 3 things that encourage you to be a part of the community.

1. Use Twitter to mentor yourself – Sign up to Twitter and follow people who speak into your life. Listen to what they say; read their blogs; check their links. You’ll be surprised how much spiritual insight you can gain via Twitter.

2. Connect with others – The great thing about Twitter is that you can connect, in some way, to anyone else who is on Twitter. It’s not like Facebook where someone has to accept your friend request. You can basically follow anyone you want. You can reply to their posts. You can re-tweet their Tweets. You can be part of their world all through Twitter. I personally have some amazing stories of people I have connected with via Twitter that I never would have otherwise.

3. Share your thoughts – Ever have a “God thought” that you wanted to share with someone immediately? It might turn into a sermon one day – it might not. Worst of all -you might forget it! How about Tweeting it? Let others be blessed when God speaks into your life.

Those are just a few ways Twitter can help your ministry. Sign up today and get started!

1. Jump in Somewhere

You may be facing decision paralysis. Which Social Media platform do I start with? Facebook? Twitter? Linkedin? YouTube? My suggestion would be Facebook but that’s up to you. I remember when I bought my first laptop computer years ago. I kept going by the store and talking to the salesman. I told him I was afraid to buy because as soon as I did something new would come out. He said, “It will. But you have to get started somewhere!” I bought that day.

2. Watch Others

Whatever platform you chose start watching people you want to emulate and how they enteract on the platform. I used to do this when I was a young preacher. I would listen to someone else preach and pick out some things he did well that I wanted to incorporate into my ministry and notice things he didn’t do well and make a mental note not to copy that aspect. You can do the same in the digital world. Learn from those who have been doing it a while and who are good at it.

3. Google It

There is so much free advice out there if you get hung up on how to do something then use google. You’ll be surprised at the answers you can find when you learn to phrase a question correctly to find an answer.

4. Ask Me

I’d be glad to help. You can Twitter or Facebook message me or email me. All of those buttons are on my home page at the top of my blog.

I look forward to hearing from you when you jump on the Digital Express!

Facebook places is a simple concept – it uses the GPS locater on your mobile device to figure out where you are. When you open your Facebook mobile app you will see the logo and the word “Places”. When you open it you will see your recent check-ins as well as your friends’ check-ins. At the top right there will be a check in button – tap that and you can check in, post a status with it, and tag friends who are with you.

If where you are is not showing up, you can search for places or you can CREATE a place. Here is the ministry point – does your church show up on “places”? It needs to. If it doesn’t create it NOW.

Here’s why: You want your people to “check in” to Facebook on Sundays – it is a witnessing tool!

When people check in it shows up on their profile and in the news feed. That means as people check in to your church they are announcing to all their Facebook friends that they are at church – YOUR church!!

So, this Sunday why not run an encouragement for members to check-in at church? You may attract guests and visitors just because of the number of friends they see that attend.

That is not true – Social Media – in whatever form – is here to stay! There are too many reasons why to discuss in this post so lets just assume it isn’t going anywhere. Fact is, the church doesn’t want it to go away. Why? There are some things Social Media can do for us that have been hard to do in the past.

Here are 2 things Social Media can help the church with:

Communication – Communicating with members has never been as easy as it should be or needs to be. Here’s why. In most churches we only get someone 1 day a week. We can make announcements for 5 minutes and print the announcement in the bulletin. We hope (really hope) that they were a) paying attention, and b) going to read the bulletin. We were normally wrong on both accounts! You had your one shot and if they missed it, well, they missed it! As a pastor you wanted to cast vision with a Megaphone! If they missed a Sunday or two they could miss a months worth of important events and announcements and vision casting!

Social Media changes that. We can now disseminate information via Facebook, email, Youtube, blog, etc. We can have it repeat over and over. We don’t have to ask them to come to us to hear the message – we can take it to them. So now we can communicate with them while they sit in their homes, while they are at work, and anytime they are on their phone! Social Media makes communication so much easier and better.

Community – I know the two words sound almost the same. Here’s why – we build community through communication. Now we don’t have to ask them to just come to us, we can go to them through Social Media. They can feel as if they are a part of something – something bigger than them. Before Social Media you heard phrases like this, “We are going to church this Sunday”. Now you hear phrases like this, “Come look at this and let me show you what my church is doing”! Big difference. Social Media allows the member to take church wherever they are!

As a Pastor, be glad Social Media is here to stay. It helps more than you will ever know with Communication and Community.

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