#ChSocM Chat Transcript: Planning, Branding and Audience

We chatted about planning, branding, and audience.

This week's chat moderated by Neal F. Fischer (@nealffischer)

Topics: 
T1: Which social media platforms SHOULD you use? How do you know and why?
T2: If your ministry setting (congregation, judicatory) were a person, what kind of personality would it have?
T3: If your ministry setting were a person, what would be the relationship to your #chsocm audience (teacher/reporter/friend, etc.) Why?
T4: In your #chsocm experience, what types of posts get the most interaction?
T5: Is there room for automation? What are some benefits/pitfalls of using it for #chsocm
T6: What are some monitoring tools that will help you know when you’re being talked about publicly?

Read the transcript on Storify

ChSocM (Church Social Media) Chat Transcript: Sharing What We Love

We chatted about generating and sustaining

a social media presence at/for church events

and using #chsocm to share what we love.

This week's chat moderated by Regina Heater (@reckshow)

The topics:

T1: Name 2 or 3 “signature” events in your church from the last 12 months.
T2: What about these events represents your church “brand”?
T3: Did you have a social media presence at any of these events?
T3a What would be your *dream* social media presence for one of those events?
T4: How could you use #chsocm after an event to share your brand?
T5: What is the one THING/object in your church space that you love & want to tell others about? T6:Tell us how you'd use #chsocm to share that thing you love!
TBonus: how are you participating in #SMSunday on 6/29? #chsocm” Do tell!!

Read the transcript on Storify!

ChSocM (Church Social Media) Chat Transcript: Do Social Media Rules for Business Also Apply to Church?

So, what can we learn from the world of secular social media?

This week's chat moderated by Amy Rork (@azrork)

Topics:

T1: Translate: “Keep the ‘keys’ to the social media account away from the Sales department.” Does that apply to #chsocm?
T2: “Do not try to be all things to all people.” No translation needed. Is it good advice for a church too?
T3: “Your fans own your brand.” How can you make your fans your best #chsocm ambassadors? T4: “Social media management is not a job relegated to weekdays between 8 and 5.” Is your #chsocm guilty of this?
T5: “Clients and followers cannot evangelize if an organization doesn't provide them with the tools to do so.” What are the tools? #chsocm

Find the transcript on Storify

Follow: https://storify.com/chsocmCHAT

Church Social Media Strategy: Use Twitter to be a "Brand Ambassador"

Read any of my stuff about social media and you know I'm a big fan of Twitter. Still, I currently find myself counseling local churches to let their Twitter accounts go dark. (What I think dioceses, synods, or conferences ought to be doing on Twitter is fodder for another post.)

I'm not saying churches should shut down their Twitter accounts entirely. I simply want leadership to stop tweeting from institutional accounts until they can clearly articulate why they want to be on Twitter, who they want to reach, and what message(s) they want to deliver.

No time to engage in this strategy exercise? Then let me do (some of) it for you.

Here's a true fact: third party endorsements are always more credible and valuable than self-promotion, which is why I'm urging church communication ministers to cultivate and support "brand ambassadors."

More powerful than hey-look-at-us tweets from your church's accounts, are ones from happy, grateful, enthusiastic congregants. Tweets about your church and its activities by visitors or observers are equally or perhaps even more powerful.

As grace would have it, I was describing the brand ambassador strategy to Penny Nash (@penelopepiscopl) via DM, when this tweet from Elizabeth Drescher (@edrescherphd)* showed up in my Twitter stream last Friday:

I couldn't have prayed for a better example.

In her tweet, Elizabeth lets us know she thinks highly of Saint Benedict Episcopal Church in Lacey, Washington. She appreciates how they've reinvented the rummage sale.

I noticed her shout-out and clicked on the link she provided. As a result, I have more information about this church. I'm now more inclined to recommend it to someone searching for a church home in that area of Washington state. It's also on my list of churches to visit when I'm traveling.

Indeed, I have a list of Episcopal, ELCA, UMC, UCC, and Presbyterian churches I'd love to visit because people I follow have posted tweets about their church's community -- the quality of worship and the commitment to serving others. These people are brand ambassadors, although in churchy-church speak, we'd probably call them evangelists.

Make sense?



* Author of Tweet if you [Heart] Jesus and co-author with Keith Anderson of Click2Save