HOW TO GROW YOUR MINISTRY USING THE NEW MEDIA
- Tokunbo Beulah Johnson
Social Networks have become a very viable part of the New Media.With over 500 million subscribers worldwide on FaceBook alone,it has become a growing culture; one that promises to be a very long-lasting part of world culture that will not go away in a hurry. So we might as well jump in too!
1. An analysis of our Official Website (www.thecapstoneonline.com) by Google Analytics monitored between July 1 2010 and Feb 20,2011(7 months) showed :
- 1215 visits from 55 countries around the world as against that visited physically
- 3761 page views.
- Average time spent by visitors on the site 3:59 seconds.
This means people are following us online from farther places than we can ever know!
So we must try to:
• Make members grow deeper (by Discipleship)
• Make our church larger (by Attendance)
• Make our church have a wider net to accommodate for Diversities- Racial , Economic ,etc)
• Help people to get more connected by fellowship and network.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA
Using social media is very essential for:
i. Church like ours that has the global vision without limit. We need to be virtual in the people’s face.
ii. Church in a very cosmopolitan and busy city like Lagos requires this tool.
iii. Reaching the youths (75% of Nigeria’s population is youth).
iv. An aggressive Evangelism tool,we should have a phenomenal social media plan (Twitters , FaceBook ,MySpace, etc.).An aggressive and commendable user of this media is Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Christ Embassy.’Pastorchrislive’ on Twitter (as at Feb 2011,had well over 1 million followers.
iv. Great Pastoral Counseling tool.
However, it should be noted that Social media ONLY COMPLEMENTS excellent people ministry (Sermons, Services , Parking ,Children’s Ministry, etc)
MYTHS
1. Social networks are for the teenagers or young demographies.
2. BlackBerry is too expensive. No they aren’t!!! (They cost like N20,000 now with about N1000 /month internet package. All for soul-winning. Really,how much is soul worth ?!
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Tweet about your services and ministry.
This will work better if key leaders in your church actually use them.
Key decision-makers like you need to use it…
2. Small groups (meeting n homes) and Fellowships like Women Prayer Group, Men , Youths ,Worship Team ,etc should have their own FB Groups.
ADVANTAGES
i. People who are new in your church can engage with the other people on FB on a more personal basis.
ii. Everything on FB is Free!
I would like for us to examine two of the famous social media that we have around here:
(A) FACEBOOK : http://www.facebook.com/
-We need to double down on FaceBook . As church leaders,we must be investing on Facebook.75% of the people that learnt about a certain church: the Courageous Church, Atlanta , did so on FaceBook. People will bump unto your church on FB.
Truths:
i. Most of the people who attend our church are already on FB or have someone they know who is on FB. So we only need to tell them how to use it for our church’s advantage.
ii. Even those who do not attend our church, FB is already a part of their life. About 500 million worldwide people presently use FB on their iphone , BB , ipad , Computers. It is going to be a very long-lasting part of world culture that will not go away in a hurry. So we might as well jump in too!
THE DIFFERENT PLATFORMS on FB.
(i) FB ads-( http://www.facebook.com/advertising/)
See this screenshot of a xtian ad ‘WishPray’
It appears on the right side of the Home Page or Profile page
Its cost effective. For instance, ‘Courageous Church, Atlanta’ got 7.6 million FB ads appearances for just $1200 and 13018 people clicked on it within that period of time.
You pay only when the people click on it to view your ad. So it may even cost much less.
It can be used for the followings:
i. Advertising for a new teaching series that we are about to start(e.g Wednesday or Sunday services).
3 Words That Will Make People Click on FB Ads.
i. ‘Free’. e.g Skill Empowerment For Entertainment Wanna-Be. Admission is FREE.
ii. ‘Church’ - ‘Wouldn’t You Rather Be In Church This Sunday?’
iii. ‘Prayer’ – ‘Operation P-U-S-H’ . Pray Until Something Happens!
FaceBook STATISTICS
1. An estimated 8140 people on FB who live in Nigeria and aged 18 years and older like the word ‘Church’.
2. An estimated 2,768,080 people who live in Nigeria and aged 18 yrs and above are on Facebook in Nigeria alone!
3.There are an estimated 2,374,860 people who are aged 18 , and above who live in Nigeria and speak American English (Source: FB campaign ad creator-http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/?campaign_id=368901427978&placement=advf2&extra_1=0).
iii. An estimated 7100 people aged 18 years and above who live in Nigeria have ‘Pray’ or ‘Prayers ‘as an area of interest.
The statistics of all this FB users is collated automatically through mapping of the IP addresses of people’s in Nigeria using personal computers on FB).
LOWEST RATE PER CLICK is (0.33 USD per click)
You can spend as little as 0.33 USD a day for the ads and it gives you the default option of running for 1 whole month daily! Between the hours of your choice.
You can do your ad based on demographics depending on who you are targeting.
2. FB for SMALL GROUPS – Just create a page, get someone to manage it and off you go.
3. EVENT.
(This appears in the right hand corner of the Home page or Profile page on FB.)
You can create a FB event (sermon series, Musical Concert , Outreach ,Xmas ,etc)for every event you are having. Helps you to invite everybody that you know or have as your FB friends.
Simply invite all members on your friends list and tell them to invite all the people on their FB address. This will generate a web-string of people connected to your event.
You can also run an ad for the FB event.
There just might be someone who is looking for a place to belong because people are looking for community and connections. People are looking for churches . People are lonely.
4.USING PEOPLES’ BIRTHDAYS (I still remember a wish on FB at my last year birthday from someone I have never met even till date).
Birthday Links appear in the Top Right-hand corner of the Home page on FB.
Though you don’t know them yet just go on and wish them a hapi bday on their FB wall.You wouldn’t believe the effect of this ! Simply write :
‘Hapi bday … you are great person and this year shall be great for you.God bless You ...’
(B) TWITTER : https://twitter.com/
-Go to twitter.com . Sign in and start tweeting about the aspects of the service that has inspired you or that can inspire other people.(The Message,the Speaker,the Music, the cool atmosphere, etc
-Using the Advanced feature - Twitter.com/advance
Allows you to connect with people in your city/neighbourhood who might need spiritual help. You can do the followings:
i. Search ‘pray’ or ‘looking for a church’
ii. Look for people who have these needs and tweet them. Send a pray to them.
URGENT TASK.
-Create a twitter account for your church.
-Create another separate account called ‘news’ for regular updates on goings-on in the church (e.g coming events, etc)
All of these are free!
-Search for the name of your church ( https://twitter.com) and text all the people who have been in your church and tweeted about you. They are always amazed that you could get back to them.
(C) YouTube : http://www.youtube.com.
-Create your own YouTube account.
-Use your BlackBerry or any other smart phone to record clips of our services and broadcast it on YouTube. Yes, on your own YouTube account that you have created!
(D) BLOGS :
For your articles , thots etc that you can contribute to the development of mankind.
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ):
Q: How Much Time Should i Dedicate To Social Media.
A: May be an hour a week.
RE-ENGINEER YOURSELF.
This will happen only if you recognize the following:
1. That our world is fast changing and at an alarming rate.
2. That unless you re-engineer yourself as leaders in the 21st Century,you will expire and become totally irrelevant!
CONCLUSION
What in the world can you cluster using the New Media (Blogs,Website,Social Media)just to make people crowd up your church till you are running around looking for seats to accommodate them .
I am available to help just reach me on:
www.megaliosit.blogspot.com.
www.beulahtoks.blogspot.com,
www.twitter.com/beulahtoks,
www.thecapstoneonline.com.
For prayer and counselling email:
helpdesk@thecapstoneonline.com ; capstone_c@yahoo.com
Tel: +234 8023182030
