This article asks. I think you need both. You can't just hide on a website, you also need a Facebook page (not Facebook group, I reckon).
Social media will do a better job than a badly designed, and badly used website. But if your church thinks and plans how to use and incorporate its website into church life and communication it is still a valuable place. It's the church's internet home turf. That's a valuable thing, I think.
Social media killing church websites
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Mikey. Here's a serious question that I'm thinking through at the moment.
Do you think that social media which is being embraced by some churches is age-ist? I've got a friend doing research into media uses of churches and she's hoping to answer that very question.
My parents, for example, don't know the first thing about Facebook. My grandparents don't know the first thing about computers.
Are we assuming young members too often?
Great question, Al, it's very possible. Social media can also rule out the under-25s, too, who don't use Social Media in quite the same way churches do.
I think you can equip and encourage older (and younger) people to use Social Media if it's an important part of your church's communication setup. You just need to be up-front.
So @ Xrds, we just say: 'we don't print paper newsletters, so you will have to at least check your email weekly'.
Thanks Mikey. Sounds sensible to me.
I like the idea of not printing newsletters. It seems madness to me that some Churches have an employee spending at least 1 full day on a newsletter.
I think social media is critical to churches as a means of connecting with their community. But, the major shift for churches is the USE of their website. For most churches, they utilize their sites as another expression of information. In fact, the most successful churches now are seeing their site as the single point of information flow.
This is more difficult that it sounds, as it is sending the info that the most accurate, up to date information for the church is actually found on the web. If a church can accomplish this, they legitimize their site, legitimize using social media to drive people to their site, and (if done well), enable the congregation to actually participate in digital ministry by segmenting activities that were previously relegated to a "webmaster". A great example is McCarthy Baptist Church (http://www.mccarthybaptist.org).
We love social media in the place that it serves best. That place is not the same as the function of an organizations site. One of our clients, the International House of Prayer (http://www.ihop.org) does a great job at using the tools appropriately.
Thoughts?
Thanks Brett. I think you're right. The reason for the drift into Facebook, googledocs and other warty applications is that it is hard to centralise information flow.
But the rewards when a website does it well are great.
I think if you have a website you should be involved in social media too. Use this to inter act to your audience through this you can communicate with them.
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