If you’ve been following our new site for the last few weeks, you’re well aware that we’ve shared some great articles and resources with you (at least we think we have!). But, being in that we’ve all been involved in ministry in some way shape or form, we are all well aware of what you’re first reaction is – It sounds great, but I would rather spend my small budget in a better way.
Well, I’m here to tell you today why New Media needs to be one of the top items in your budget.
It’s Not Just a Fad
The biggest hesitation that I’ve run into both socially and professionally with my own clients’ hesitation to invest time or money is that they see things like Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Youtube, etc. as a fad. In their minds, as soon as they finally spend the money and finally get around to launching, everyone will have moved on to the next greatest thing. If you’re one of these people, I invite you to check out the following video. This video is put together with facts and data from Summer of 2009, but the numbers are astonishing. Simply put, you can probably be safe just doubling each number to find current data.
So Why Invest?
Hopefully, this video will help you realize that some of the social media facts and figures that are presented in here are hard to ignore. But you still might be asking yourself a few questions, especially given the current economic climate. Even though things are looking a little less gloomy, many of you are operating on budgets that are still crunched from the past year.
The folks over at MinistryBestPractices.com have come up with 3 ROI Quality Goals and Objectives for churches and ministries investing in Social Media. They identified three main reasons for you to invest in Social Media which we’ll expand upon.
Communication
One of the two main foundations of Social Media s the fact that it allows people to communicate. It provides simple foundations and tools for you to use to get your message out as well as the message of your ministry.
If you’re one of those people that says, “my church already has communication methods – we communicate via Sunday morning platform, bulletins, mailings, phone calls, emails, face-to-face conversations, television, radio etc…” I would challenge your argument with these few reasons due to the fact that Social Media has some unique benefits all it’s own in effectively communicating:
- It’s Easy and Effortless – it doesn’t take much money or manpower to implement or use it.
- It’s Ubiquitous – since it is so available and pervasive it isn’t hard for people to miss the message.
- It’s Variety – social media takes many different forms, words, audio and image.
- It’s Viral – the beauty of social media is that your message can expand well beyond it’s intended audience – therefore exposing and introducing new people to your cause and community.
Connection
I would venture to say that the biggest reason to use Social Media is connection: connecting with other people, other resources, etc. Social Media is all about sharing and connecting. In the same way you try to create a community-like environment in your own ministry, Social Media is another tool to use in your effort to connect your community.
Unlike some methods of communication, like bulletins, mailings, emails, etc, which most often pushes information in a “one-way” direction, connecting must create a conversation. Will Social Media create conversation within the community? Are people able to talk to you the minister/ministry team leader? Can they talk to one another? I think if you’re involved with ministry, then you will be able to answer yes to every one of these questions. Also, these are other key elements that play a major role in connecting in your ministry via Social Media:
- Contribute – can others contribute in helpful and meaningful ways to the conversation? Are they even able to shape the conversation?
- Collaborate - does your social media allow the benefits from the collective hive of experience, skills and knowledge from your community?
Call to Action
The final goal of Social Media activity must prompt people to do something; it can’t be passive. You have to connect with someone or something, initiate some sort of conversation, and then have some result come out of those efforts Some of these calls to action might include:
- Go - are you asking someone to go and serve others in some way?
- Give - are you asking someone to give either of their time or financially to the cause?
- Pray – are you calling people to act in concerted and persevering prayer?
- Mobilize – are you asking people to spread the message of the cause to their friends and networks?
Conclusion
Hopefully some of you that are sitting on the fence about whether or not to start are helped by this article. If you’re one of those people that say “Hey, I want to start but have no idea where?”, I would recommend getting onto Facebook right now. If you want to get a little ambitious, get on Twitter. Run your ministry efforts there first while following our Where Do I Start? series to learn how to get your ministry website off the ground and up and running. Once we show you how to get a website, we’ll continue that series with a lot of cool other tools to intergrate to help you grow your online ministry.
As always, if you have any questions or hesitations, give us a shout – leave a comment below, contact us individually, send us a message on Facebook or send us a Tweet. We’re here to help you grow your ministry.
