For many, the season of Lent is about giving up something, usually something more symbolic of sacrifice than actual sacrifice. However, a recent movement for many is to take something up, instead of giving something up. For example, preparing yourself not through denial but through pushing yourself to do something that brings you closer to God. I have tried to follow that path over the last few Lenten seasons, and I will say that doing something daily is actually even harder than not doing something daily, and I’ve had as much success with one as the other. God understands that discipline is one of my weak points and that I am working on it.
One thing that has become common for people to give up at Lent is social media. For some, it is one of the harder sacrifices, and if it is indeed something that separates you from God, then by all means, learn that sacrificing it to some degree may be good for you.
On the other hand, for some of us, social media represents a way for us to connect even more with God and God’s world. Social media connects us with God’s people, educates us about the good and the ugly of God’s world and even gives us ways to do our part in changing God’s world.
For this Lent, I have decided that I personally will dedicate myself to the 2014 Lenten Meditations provided by Episcopal Relief and Development. These are daily Scripture selections followed by a brief meditation on that message. That’s just for me.
However, as the social media director at my church (okay — I kind of made up that title; I’m just the one who mostly updates the Facebook page), I thought I would then do my best to tie those scriptures and meditations to something going on in our world. I’ve always been focused on making the words of Scripture be living words, words that continue to speak about the world we live in today. I am hoping that this effort to find God’s words still alive in our world today will help not only me, but anyone I might be reaching through our church’s Facebook page.
There are a few resources available online for those doing social media for their small church during this Lenten services, and as always, you may find rich resources from faiths other than your own.
I’ve gathered just a few but please feel free to share resources you’ve found in the comments area below.
So, whether you are giving up something for Lent or taking something up, may your journey be peaceful and fulfilling.
Online resources for Lent:
Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl mobile app
http://crs.org/ricebowl-app/
Rice Bowl has been the official Lenten program of Catholic Relief Services since 1977 and now is available in convenient app form.
westminsterakron.com — “40 Quotes for 40 Days”
Look for “40 Quotes for 40 Days” to be posted on Facebook and Twitter each day during Lent, simple thoughts to keep your Lenten journey on track. Follow them at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Westminster-Presbyterian-Church/115717198457750) and @WestPresAkron on Twitter.
(Thanks to the Akron Beacon Journal Online for those two ideas: http://www.ohio.com/news/using-social-media-to-connect-to-god-during-lent-1.470077)
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Lent Devotional 2014
http://www.pts.edu/Lent_2014
Episcopal Relief and Development Lenten Meditations (free pdf download)
http://www.episcopalrelief.org/church-in-action/church-campaigns/lent
UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) Book of Lenten Devotions
http://www.wnccumc.org/news/umcor-offers-one-great-hour-sharing-book-lenten-devotions
World Relief Lent Resources
http://worldrelief.org/lent/resources
Episcopal Share: an unofficial Book of Common Prayer for Social Media
Prayers edited to fit in a variety of social media
http://episcopalshare.org/Home.html
Finally, Pinterest is always a great place for ideas as well. A simple search for the word “lent” turns up quite a few: http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=Lent
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Make a plan for blogging
"Failure to plan is a plan for failure." We've all heard that bit of wisdom a thousand times in our lives, and we shake our heads, 'yes, yes, I know.' And then we go back to our day, which normally begins with a nice goal or two and ends with us saying, 'wow - what happened?' Yep, we feel like we spend the whole day putting out fires and yet still have nothing to show for it. Like a blog post.
Ask anyone in social media and they'll mention blogging as a great way for a priest with a personality to reach out to his congregation. I mean, what does a priest do better than talk, right? And blogging is simply talking, but with written words.
But what do I say?
A great way to get started with a blog for your church is simply sharing the weekly sermon. True, many priests or pastors just have an outline of what they want to say, but if asked, they could flesh out that outline for at least one weekly post. And what a nice share for those who perhaps had to miss church that Sunday, or who were touched by one particular point and want to revisit it.
Another big word in social media right now is transparency, and this leads to another possible topic for your blog. Why not just share with the folks in your church what it is you do on a regular basis. From meetings with the bishop to serving on the ministerial alliance to that great book you're in the middle of reading right now. All those little things you do add up to a very interesting person.
In my news writing classes, to get students thinking about possible topics for a news feature, I would ask them: "What really made you mad this week?" Most of the time it was something that was common to many people (Trouble finding a parking place on campus? How about a story on the number of permits sold versus the number of parking spots available?)
Making a blog calendar
Okay, okay, those are great ideas. But, then, why can I think of nothing to write when I'm staring at this blank screen on a Saturday night. First, find a day that works best for you. Find that day now and be consistent. That is what I am doing in an effort to be a bit more consistent and productive with this blog. And, unfortunately, Saturday night seems to be the best night for me.
Then, I'm putting that plan into print. Well, coming from the newsroom, I'm calling it an Editorial Calendar. It's simply a list of every Saturday coming up over the next four months (hey, if you want to plan the whole year, go for it. Me? I find that a bit overwhelming). And, I keep it on my desktop so that I can see it on a regular basis. (Keeping daily notes on your desktop also forces you to keep that desktop organized.)
Now, I'm not good enough to have a topic for every single Saturday coming up, but I have a start. And now, when an idea strikes me, I have a place to store that idea until the next time I need a blog post.
This blog post was the first idea I had on my new calendar. So, see? It works.
Ask anyone in social media and they'll mention blogging as a great way for a priest with a personality to reach out to his congregation. I mean, what does a priest do better than talk, right? And blogging is simply talking, but with written words.
But what do I say?
A great way to get started with a blog for your church is simply sharing the weekly sermon. True, many priests or pastors just have an outline of what they want to say, but if asked, they could flesh out that outline for at least one weekly post. And what a nice share for those who perhaps had to miss church that Sunday, or who were touched by one particular point and want to revisit it.
Another big word in social media right now is transparency, and this leads to another possible topic for your blog. Why not just share with the folks in your church what it is you do on a regular basis. From meetings with the bishop to serving on the ministerial alliance to that great book you're in the middle of reading right now. All those little things you do add up to a very interesting person.
In my news writing classes, to get students thinking about possible topics for a news feature, I would ask them: "What really made you mad this week?" Most of the time it was something that was common to many people (Trouble finding a parking place on campus? How about a story on the number of permits sold versus the number of parking spots available?)
Making a blog calendar
Okay, okay, those are great ideas. But, then, why can I think of nothing to write when I'm staring at this blank screen on a Saturday night. First, find a day that works best for you. Find that day now and be consistent. That is what I am doing in an effort to be a bit more consistent and productive with this blog. And, unfortunately, Saturday night seems to be the best night for me.
Then, I'm putting that plan into print. Well, coming from the newsroom, I'm calling it an Editorial Calendar. It's simply a list of every Saturday coming up over the next four months (hey, if you want to plan the whole year, go for it. Me? I find that a bit overwhelming). And, I keep it on my desktop so that I can see it on a regular basis. (Keeping daily notes on your desktop also forces you to keep that desktop organized.)
Now, I'm not good enough to have a topic for every single Saturday coming up, but I have a start. And now, when an idea strikes me, I have a place to store that idea until the next time I need a blog post.
This blog post was the first idea I had on my new calendar. So, see? It works.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Finding time to blog
10 Tips for Finding Time to Blog
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Pinning down your ministry
During a recent social media workshop, my brief description about the possibilities of Pinterest as a social media outlet was met with a few giggles. The medium has quite the reputation as the site where women go to disappear for a few minutes...which turn into hours.
In that same workshop, though, I shared a quote that stated: "Stop trying to DO social and just BE social." And many of the ways that we as a church are now social -- church suppers, craft fair fundraisers, our services, our formation activities -- all lend themselves very well to the most visual of social media.
And a quick search of Pinterest for 'Episcopal Church' shows that many churches have a good sense of the possibilities this medium has. Here are just a few examples:
Children/Adult Formation:
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church Stuart, Florida
Crafty Ideas for Sunday School
Trinity Episcopal - Tulsa, Oklahoma
VBS
Church of the Redeemer - Sarasota, Florida
Activities for Formation
Good Shepherd - Dallas
Godly Play
Church Suppers/Craft Fairs
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church Stuart, Florida
Church Supper Ideas
St. Paul’s Mt. Lebanon, PA
St.P Canterbury Fair Crafts
Resources: Books, Formation Resources, Music
St. Cuthbert Episcopal Church (no location given)
Resources
St. Mark’s Episcopal - Waterville, Maine
Books
Good Samaritan Episcopal Church - Knoxville, TN
Music
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church & School
Books & Authors
Grace Saint Paul’s - Tucson, AZ
Lenten Meditations
Your church and community
St. Francis Episcopal, Great Falls, Virginia
Our Church Home
St. Mark’s Episcopal - Waterville, Maine
Parish Life
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church & School
Houston
St. Anthony on the Desert
Tour of St. Anthony
Mission
St. Cuthbert Episcopal Church (no location given)
Companies that Love
St. Mary the Virgin - San Francisco
Helping Others
St. Mark’s Episcopal - Waterville, Maine
Acting on our Faith
Episcopal things/misc.
St. Mark’s Episcopal - Waterville, Maine
Episcopal Connections
Good Samaritan Episcopal Church - Knoxville, TN
Stained Glass
Church of the Good Shepherd
Red Doors
Want to see more? Here you go, but be aware...Pinterest is very addictive. Happy Pinning.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Connecting Google Analytics to Hootsuite
As we briefly covered both Hootsuite and Google Analytics at the workshop today, it seems fortuitous that I should stumble upon this article tonight -- "How to connect Google Analytics to your HootSuite Account" -- for those at that level of readiness.
I stumbled across this gem by following Daniel Sharkov on Twitter. You might give him a follow.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Social Media, Via Media
Sorry to go all "denominational" on you but I have
a workshop tomorrow for church communicators in the Episcopal Diocese of West
Missouri. So, in addition to a couple of Powerpoints, I want them to be able to
download later, I wanted to add some resources specifically targeted at the
Episcopal Church. Of course, being 'via media,' we welcome all to the table.
Enjoy.
We actually have "Episcopalshare: Tips for Church Social Media" to thank for the first batch
of resources. A great site to like, follow and subscribe to. And she's from the
other side of Missouri, St. Louis.
A few others:
And if you're really
serious
Here's a whitepaper titled "Social Media and the Episcopal Church," published in 2011 by the Office of Communication of the
Episcopal Church Center.
From the workshop
And here are the Introduction and the Strategy Powerpoints I
will be sharing at the workshop tomorrow.
Making a plan
(The following information is from an Etsy workshop I did in Kansas City, in April 2010)
Introduction: Building a social media strategy
A valuable tool for treating social media as a strategic tool is the Expansion Plus 'Social Media Marketing Strategy.'
Listen
Before you start talking, you need to listen
Examine the various free tools available to see what's out there
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
LinkedIn
Mashable Guides:
Build Your Brand on Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
Take Me to Your Leader
TrendsMap
GeoChirp
Share of Voice
What is already being said about your company/products?
What is already being said about your competitors?
Listening Tools
Exercise:
Using the tools given in class, we will do a search for your company's presence in the social media sphere as well as your clients. We'll try various keyword searches in different social media. We'll also learn how to identify positive, negative and neutral comments as well as identify trends that may help with product ideas and development
Set Goals/Benchmarks
What are some usual goals for small businesses in social media?
How do those goals match with your goals for your business?
Common Social Media Goals
Finding Communities and Influencers
We want to talk to the right people and have the right people talking about us
The Poor Man's Guide to Finding Influencers
Exercise:
Using the tools from before, we will learn how to identify niche communities and identify influencers (people who are already doing a lot of talking about our area of interest)
Develop a Strategy
Now that we know what's there and what we hope to gain (goals), we'll get down to developing a strategic approach with specific goals and action plans
Pick the Right Tools
Avoiding 'GMOOT'
What social media platform(s) is best for what you want to do; you don't have to be everywhere
Exercise:
Develop a one-year goal of where you want your business to be (a vision, a message); identify which tools are best for that message. Outline how we can make time to make it all happen.
Create and Deliver the Content
We'll look at the rules and limitations of each platform and work on developing messages that focus on our goals and fit the expectations of the social media platforms we want to use
10 foolproof steps to writing hot social media content
How to write tweets that get clicks
Exercise:
Write at least one message that can be adapted for the various platforms, and/or write a variety messages based on the platforms.
Engage and Facilitate Conversations
We've built it and they will come. Now what do we do? We'll look at maintaining an active conversation online.
HootSuite
Measure Results
Did all of our hard work pay off? What can of results do you want (set goals) and how do we know if we got those results?
How to Measure Social Media ROI
Google Analytics
Take-home exercise:
Create a one-year plan that includes 'events' from your business year. Match these events with messages in various platforms as appropriate; set up time each week where you can spend an hour working on your social media strategy.
Introduction: Building a social media strategy
A valuable tool for treating social media as a strategic tool is the Expansion Plus 'Social Media Marketing Strategy.'
Listen
Before you start talking, you need to listen
Examine the various free tools available to see what's out there
YouTube
Mashable Guides:
Build Your Brand on Facebook
YouTube
Take Me to Your Leader
TrendsMap
GeoChirp
Share of Voice
What is already being said about your company/products?
What is already being said about your competitors?
Listening Tools
Exercise:
Using the tools given in class, we will do a search for your company's presence in the social media sphere as well as your clients. We'll try various keyword searches in different social media. We'll also learn how to identify positive, negative and neutral comments as well as identify trends that may help with product ideas and development
Set Goals/Benchmarks
What are some usual goals for small businesses in social media?
How do those goals match with your goals for your business?
Common Social Media Goals
Finding Communities and Influencers
We want to talk to the right people and have the right people talking about us
The Poor Man's Guide to Finding Influencers
Exercise:
Using the tools from before, we will learn how to identify niche communities and identify influencers (people who are already doing a lot of talking about our area of interest)
Develop a Strategy
Now that we know what's there and what we hope to gain (goals), we'll get down to developing a strategic approach with specific goals and action plans
Pick the Right Tools
Avoiding 'GMOOT'
What social media platform(s) is best for what you want to do; you don't have to be everywhere
Exercise:
Develop a one-year goal of where you want your business to be (a vision, a message); identify which tools are best for that message. Outline how we can make time to make it all happen.
Create and Deliver the Content
We'll look at the rules and limitations of each platform and work on developing messages that focus on our goals and fit the expectations of the social media platforms we want to use
10 foolproof steps to writing hot social media content
How to write tweets that get clicks
Exercise:
Write at least one message that can be adapted for the various platforms, and/or write a variety messages based on the platforms.
Engage and Facilitate Conversations
We've built it and they will come. Now what do we do? We'll look at maintaining an active conversation online.
HootSuite
Measure Results
Did all of our hard work pay off? What can of results do you want (set goals) and how do we know if we got those results?
How to Measure Social Media ROI
Google Analytics
Take-home exercise:
Create a one-year plan that includes 'events' from your business year. Match these events with messages in various platforms as appropriate; set up time each week where you can spend an hour working on your social media strategy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)