Here are the results from our brainstorming session about our usage of social networks.
(And it goes without saying, but we should say it anyway: without communicating with the Lord in prayer, we won’t be able to share him online. Â (Can’t give what you don’t got!))
Social Networks (General)
- A couple of major uses:
- Broadcasting information
- May be effective or not, depending on audience and subscriber size
- Most of us will not have large numbers of followers
- But we can target items for our follower base. Â E.g. a parish account could publish parish announcements
- Social interaction
- I’d argue this is the most effective part of social networking.
- It seems to really get at what Pope Benedict referred to in the 47th World Communication Day message. Â Extends what already happens in real life to the online world, with a greater reach.
- Can be strictly faith-based, which might be appropriate for an official parish account.
- Memes are a way to convey information in a very brief but poignant way.
- However, interaction can increase when we share more of ourselves – our likes/dislikes. Â E.g. I recently had a HUGE response from a tweet that said Star Trek DS9 was the best.
- This can open up to deeper discussions. Â Or at least break down stereotypes concerning church people.
- Broadcasting information
- Important question: What is my primary, target audience for a given social network?
- Is this a personal or corporate account?
- How do I limit what I share (boundary issues)?
- Short messages (140 character limit). Â Called “Tweets”
- Informal – can message anyone, unless they have locked their privacy settings.
- As public people, locking our accounts might be counterproductive. Â This is ESPECIALLY for an official parish account. (I have seen parish accounts that were locked! Very counterproductive. Want to encourage followers.)
- Examples of people using Twitter well?
- Pope Francis! @pontifex
- Sr. Helena Burns:Â @SrHelenaBurns
- Audrey Assad: @audreyassad
- Lino Rulli:Â @linorulli
- MasterChef:Â @MasterChefonFox
- Oreo Cookies: @Oreo (Super Bowl lights out ad)
- World Youth Day: @WYD_en
- What should we share?
- Small snippets of what Jesus means to us
- Retweeting (repeating) what others say – e.g. Pope Francis, Some other Catholic personality, the Saskatchewan Roughriders…
- Other updates from daily life: share who we are, hoping to draw people into a deeper conversation. Â This is very important for authenticity purposes.
- Food
- Important to set your profile picture! (The default egg often implies lack of engagement). Can also create a cover pic and change your background.
- Best times to post?
- One idea (Mashable.com)
- Some messaging tips:
- to send a public message to someone, begin with their “@” handle. Â It’ll be like a postcard – anyone who follows both of you will see it in their feed. Â Anyone who clicks on your profile will also see it.
- To mention someone else in a tweet, DO NOT start with the “@” handle. Â If a tweet starts with an “@” sign, it will only show up in the feed of people who follow both of you.
- Workaround: start with “.@”
- Hashtag: Begins with “#”. Cannot have punctuation. Enables easy search.
- e.g. #RememberJMJ
- #cathmedia is often used for promoting Catholic media
- e.g. #RememberJMJ
- Connect to Facebook through the Twitter App on Facebook.
- Pro
- Easy to send messages to both platforms
- Con
- Messages are not tailored for each platform
- It’s also possible to use cross-posting services such as Hootsuite.
- Pro
- Vine is a cool part of this, now owned by Twitter. Â 6 second repeating video. Â App is available for smartphones. Â Good for short little videos.
- E.g. From @FrTravesty (Fr. Travis Myrheim): “The life of a priest”
- Facebook can be personal accounts and/or public pages.
- Personal accounts:
- By definition, seem more personal.
- You share among “Friends”
- You can enable people to simply follow you (like Twitter) without friending you. Â They usually cannot comment or like anything of yours
- Friend limit of 5000. (Not a problem for me yet!)
- Might be harder to separate boundaries. I’ve seen youth ministers limit their personal Facebook account for just real friends and family. Â Students and others can “like” their public page instead.
- Public pages:
- People simply need to “like” the page in order to be able to interact with it.
- Unlimited number of people can like (vs. 5000 friends on personal account)
- Might be more suitable for a public person like a youth minister or a priest. (Note: I’m thinking about it…. not quite there yet.)
- Can have multiple public pages tied to one account, and multiple administrators of the public page.
- E.g. Hot Cup of Ministry
- What do we share?
- Similar to Twitter, but can be deeper
- Discussions can also be deeper. Â But these can also go out of control quickly on controversial items.
- Can also share something of ourselves (text, photos, etc.), hoping to draw people into a deeper conversation.
- Privacy settings: How much do you want to share?
- One safe assumption: Assume that whatever you share on your personal Facebook account is public. Then you won’t be embarrassed. :-)
- Boundaries: Need to be concerned about sharing photos, especially of minors. Â Depends on the setting. Â Public events generally don’t have expectation of privacy. But we’d want to be careful about this.
- Posters/brochures at an event can be helpful as a disclaimer for people, to let them know that photos are being taken and may be shared. Â Giving the option to opt-out of having photos shared is important as well.
- Profile pic and Cover pic are very important! Consider having a professional-esque photo for a public page.
Instagram/Flickr
- Photo sharing communities
- Instagram is owned by Facebook. Â It now allows 15 second video. Â Has always been known for its many creative photo filters
Pinterest/LinkedIn/Google+/Other
- Google+
- Photographers are starting to use Google+ more. Â Seems like a nice interface. Â Tied more closely to Youtube now. Â Google appears to be trying to unify their multiple communities.
- Cannot create an account that is not a person.
- Pinterest
- People can quickly share a number of things and browse easily.
- LinkedIn
- This is more professional-oriented. Â My guess is it’s not the most common thing for youth to be using.
- Tumblr
- Blogging site with social networking aspects.
- Other