Postkiwi Duncan Macleod

Phil Smith, one of my Uniting Church colleagues, is preparing an article on churches and social networking, with a focus on the use of Twitter. He’s looking for examples of effective use of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace in Church. Here’s my angle on the Twitter topic.

Social networking media needs to be seen as “social”, distinct from broadcast media. Sure, you can use Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to send one way messages, as in updates from the NCYC conference planning team. But these media were developed to encourage interaction. While we may have official Twitter channels and Facebook groups, I suggest that our focus should be on building the community of networkers.

Most church members using the internet for social networking experience a series of learning curves. Early adapters who are used to picking up new technologies find it easier to experiment. With that in mind, online social networking needs to be seen alongside more conventional communication channels.

Twitter is designed to be used on the run, from mobile phones as much as from laptops and desktop computers. The 140 character limit can lead to shallow meaningless comments or incredibly pithy inspirational comments. With some encouragement from leaders Twitterers can be encouraged to use their phones to provide “postcards from the edge”, providing an alternative to the messages that centre on the culture of the church building, events and staff. Put together a twitter hash tag for your church so people can follow what everyone else is tweeting too.

Here’s a few examples of Uniting Church congregations and agencies using Twitter: New Life Uniting Robina and their YouthStreet stream, Pine Rivers, the UCA Assembly in July 2009, NCYC2011

One Way Use

Prayer prompts
Scriptures quotes
Event reminders
Podcast alerts
Blog update alerts
New Twitter User Introductions

Interactive Use

Retweeting Prayers
Asking questions as research for learning experiences
Sharing insights as they arrive, including during sermons and home groups
Links to online content, on the church web site, and other places.
New Twitter User Introductions
A stream of members’ Twitter status updates on the Church Facebook site or blog
Sharing volunteer opportunities

One useful resource to look at is Twitter for Churches, an ebook and blog by Anthony Coppedge.

Here’s a humorous video which is high on the YouTube charts at the moment. Just where do you draw the line on using Twitter during church services? Dana Hanna and Tracy Page updated their Facebook profiles and Twitter stream to adjust relationship status, during their wedding at Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, MD.

Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)