1. Social Media How Can This New Technology Possibly Help My Congregation?

2. A few Statistics 32% of congregations had a Facebook or MySpace Page for the congregation 60% said it enhanced communication 50% of clergy have a Facebook page or blog 20% of congregations report use of blogs

3. Blogs Online, virtual journal or diary Easy way of communicating with lots of people at one time You can set up a free blog at a site or download free software for your server UUA has lots of information about blogs OMD Staff and CERG Staff have blogs #1 problem - keeping them current!

6. Social Networking is for Young People, Right? 57% of people have this perception average age of Twitter users is 30-49 largest group of Facebook users 35-45 fastest growing Facebook demographic is women over 55

7. Facebook Most popular site Share information, photos, events, videos, links Allows individuals to control privacy Should congregations have a group or a page?

8. Pages Vs. Groups Pages are public Individuals “like” the page (fans) Posts appear on fans’ walls Track visitor traffic Use applications and features Groups can be public or private Individuals join groups Messages appear in Facebook inbox No visitor tracking Only a few features available

15. Check out the UUA resources! “Like” the OMD, CERG and UUA MySpace has reputation issues Other similar networks exist like ning.com, LinkedIn, etc.

16. “mini” blog - 140 character limit Can be done from web or cell phone “Followers” receive “tweets” every time they are updated. OMD and UUA have Twitter Accounts There is a “Wayside Pulpit” tweet line Twitter

17. This is a public venue - anyone can search and read your tweets

19. YouTube Is a video library You can post your own videos up to 15 minutes long. But shorter is better. Be sure to keyword your videos You can embed these videos in your website Comments by viewers can be nasty, you might want to embed videos instead of link to the YouTube site. You can create a channel like the UUA, CERG UU Planet is another posting option.

21. Time You need to create a Facebook page Should have several folks working on this Update Facebook Pages twice a week, Twitter once a day, blogs once a week. Facebook groups are more participant driven but need monitored Be sure to check your page daily

22. Publicity Policy Best to make this a part of your publicity policy along with your website Needs to be owed by the church, not individuals Facebook pages and twitter need the same rules as a website for personal content Closed groups can be more lenient

23. Good Luck!