#ChSocM Chat Preview: Social Media for Conferences, Workshops, Diocesan Conventions, Synod Assemblies and More!

Prep for #ChSocM chat Tuesday, September 23 at 9PM ET.

My church social media life on Twitter really ramped up a few notches when, from the comfort of my home (and in my pjs) I attended the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church and the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. In 2009.

I watched whatever was livestreamed, followed hashtags, and plunged into conversations with people attending in person as well as people following along online. 

Some of those I met during those Twitter-based conversations have become dear colleagues and friends. 

My appreciation for and commitment to ecumenism was also reinforced by being able to observe and participate. (More about that in this post, Ecumenical Escapades) 

Back then, hashtags had not yet permeated the general culture. Churches were just beginning to experiment with them, not quite realizing how doing so would extend reach and expand conversation. 

It's now 2014 and on any given day and almost every weekend, we can go fishing in the Twitterstream and catch up with an abundance of events. (You just want to soak in that metaphor, right?) 

Resistance to using hashtags for church events doesn't seem to be much of an issue these days, but competency still is...for some. 

This week's we'll focus on using social media to make public events even more public. Come gather online at 9PM ET on September 23 and let's chat!

Note: Since February 2014, this guide to Live Tweeting Church Events has racked up 6000+ views and I find myself in frequent conversation about best practices.

Church Social Media & Personality Type: Alignment or Disconnect?

Today's post is from long-time #ChSocM chat participant, Regina Heater (@reckshow,  Tumblr, Pinterest), podcast producer and prayer leader at A Nun's Life Ministry. She'll be moderating our #ChSocM chat on Tuesday, August 28 at 9:00PM ET. In this post she invites us to think about the intersection of personality type and choice of social media tools.

The other day I happened to catch a tweet from @MeredithGould, who was participating in the #SMTLive tweetchat:

This certainly resonates with my experience. 

As an INFJ (my Meyers-Briggs Personality Type, an Introvert with Intuitive, Feeling, Judging tendencies) and also HSP (Highly Sensitive Person, easily overstimulated by the environment), social media helps me connect with people and gather information in such a way that I do not get overwhelmed. 

I can control my feeds and my exposure to “noise” because I can be highly selective about the not just who I follow but also when I read their timelines. For example, by using lists on both Facebook and Twitter, I can ignore certain feeds and focus specifically on the people and information I need or want.

And when I need to de-stress, I read my Tumblr dashboard, where I follow TV-show fan bases almost exclusively. Honestly, nothing gets me smiling faster than a very clever Doctor Who or Firefly pic. (Also useful for a smile: Humor and Geek categories on Pinterest.)

Pondering this idea of social media working well for introverts, I began to wonder if others are having a similar experience within their personality type. 

• Does social media make it easier or more difficult to interact with people?
• Does social media make it easier or more difficult to get information you want?
• Does social media help you to engage with topics or people you might not otherwise engage? 

Given your personality type, what does social media help you do that you might not otherwise be able to do?

How about within the world of church and faith? On Twitter, I find myself connecting with people across denominational and interfaith boundaries. Does social media help you do that as well?  How does doing so help or hinder your ministry?

I think about these things to offset my day job as a dental office manager. How about you?

Christ Has No Online Presence but Yours

Back in 2010, I created this contemporary take on Saint Teresa of Avila’s well-known prayer, Christ Has No Body. It came to me while I was preparing for a consulting engagement with Loyola Press, where I had the delight of working with staff in marketing and sales for two days.

Since then, my take on this prayer has showed up elsewhere (e.g., DRE Connect, Liturgy, FamVin). Someone even contacted me for permission about setting it to music! This morning, a slightly altered version showed up on the Episcopal Prayer for Young People page on Facebook (H/T Elizabeth Drescher for letting me know!).

I welcome the ecumenical embrace of my work and will have more to say about that in another post. But now, for your contemplative pleasure:

Christ Has No Online Presence but Yours 
Christ has no online presence but yours, 
No blog, no Facebook page but yours,
Yours are the tweets through which love touches this world, 
Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is shared, 
Yours are the updates through which hope is revealed. 
Christ has no online presence but yours, 
No blog, no Facebook page but yours. 


 ─ Meredith Gould

#ChSocM Tweetchat: November 15, 2011

#ChSocM Tweetchat

November 15, 2011

Technology...love it/hate it/love it/hate that CoverItLive didn't, but here are the topics we discussed:

Topic 1: What barriers to working ecumenically does social media help reduce or eliminate?
Topic 1a: Do church communicators tend to focus on info coming from others in their own denomination?


Topic 2: Relative to social media, what are the benefits/liabilities of denomination-specific chats, workshops, conferences?
Topic 2a: How could you use social media to foster trans-denominational conversations?

Topic 3: What will you do this week to join/contribute to a cross-denominational (ecumenical) conversation?