How to Communicate Effectively through Social Media

Have you noticed the changing nature of the social media realm? Is it just me, or has social media become more volatile than years previous? You only need to read comments on a politicians page on Facebook, or browse through the tweets related to a hot topic and you read the vitriol.

How do you communicate effectively in this social media landscape? How do you promote your business, spark interest in your product or create change in the moral behaviour of your readership?
Here are some themes I see in relation to social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Blogs, etc):

• Popular leaders/artists/musicians, etc, do not have a Facebook Group, they have a Facebook Page. A page allows them to control the posts on the page. A facebook group allows anyone to upload a post, and therefore they shy away from this.
• Any contentious issue is normally ignored by the owner of the Facebook Page. An initial post is created by the leader and then they go silent. Everyone knows they are reading over the comments (or in the case of many comments, quickly browsing over the main theme of the comments), yet they choose to be silent. I do not witness many brave Facebook Page owners with many followers, choosing to engage in discussion on their Facebook Page.
• Using the hashtag effectively on Twitter can help get some momentum going with your brand or community. #social media #effectivecommunication #leadership
• Cutting edge social media experts are great at creating viral ideas and themes. The classic was the social media strategy of Coca-Cola who printed a name of a person onto a Coke Bottle and then encouraged that person to place the photo of the coke can onto their Facebook Profile Pic. What absolute creative genius, to have the consumer, purchasing the product then doing the advertising for you! There were pictures of Coca-cola plastered across social media, and Coke were just sitting back laughing all the way to the bank. 
• Images tell a thousand words and they evoke a response from the viewer, that's why they are spread all over the social media world. Use images as best you can, to engage people with your idea or brand.
• To communicate effectively through social media, you need to prick people's interest. The  articles, posts and YouTube clips that spark the most interest all the ones that have a viral nature about them, e.g. the top ten places no one has ever visited. Most people can sniff at social media and determine what news article they should read and which they should avoid. Attempt to connect the people with interesting, inspiring, viral type social media, that gets people talking.

From a faith perspective, try to find the balance between serious theological truth and entertainment. If you head down too far with the former, you turn people off from even engaging with the theological truth you attempt to communicate. If you head too far the other way, you merely entertain a fast-paced consumerist culture and fail to have them grasp any of the truth of which you are sharing.

Social Media continues to shift and you must continue to wrestle with the challenges of communicating effectively within that social media, if you want to continue to engage people with your business, church, brand or product.

See also:
How to Grow your Blog Traffic by 300%

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Can a Broken Church be Repaired?

Popular author and marketing guru Seth Godin introduced a website called www.thisisbroken.com a few years back. People sent into scores of examples of businesses who had processes and procedures that were broken. The marketing strategy may have been broken or the processes in which the business used were broken.

Seth Godin mentioned an example of a busy airport in the States. There were 75 Cabs in the airport waiting for customers. There were 75 people lined up to catch a Cab. It took over an hour for the line to clear and for everyone to have entered a Cab. Why? The system was broken, and no one had thought long and hard enough as to what to do about it. What if there was no single file line?

Check out the photos below. Can you see the problems here?

 "Observe Warning Signs" - Now, if you are not observing warning signs, how could you possibly observe this warning sign telling you to observe warning signs?


"No Smoking: Pick up your Cigarette Butts" - Has anyone thought this one through? If people are meant to be not smoking, then why are we picking up cigarette butts?

So let me ask you the question. What is broken in the church? No, I don't mean that old whiteboard  and the broken music stand in the storeroom. I mean, what practices, routines, procedures and the like, are broken within the church?

Let me offer some examples of broken things within the church:

- People who care about what seat they sit in more than whether anyone new will be sitting with them
- People who smile and enthusiastically welcome the regulars 'to church' and then barely smile at a new person.
- An offering message that goes longer than a sermon.
- Having to reach a certain limit in the offering before the guest preacher will preach.
- Emerging churches that continually emerge and evolve and never knuckle down what in fact they believe.  
- Not speaking to someone in the church because they have offended you.
- Altar Calls that are empty when you preach about holiness and righeousness.
- Churches that spend more time on administration than justice and evangelism.
- Financial processes and procedures that will outlive Billy Graham
- When the nuances of theology and the debate that these cause, consume more time than needed.
- Disciples who turn away from Christ, because of the actions of fellow believers.

The list could go on. Much is broken in our churches.

Can a Broken Church be Repaired?

Well, I believe yes. As has been mentioned in previous posts, it will either be deep painful change or slow painful death for churches that are broken.

Let me say, when a church is broken, do something! Change the culture! Challenge the pre-exsiting paradigms of church methodology! Keep Jesus at the Centre! Decisively work through the broken things in churches, so that you do not hinder the amazing work of the Spirit of God, to grow and bless your local congregation.

Much more could be said. Though, you must taken each example of brokenness in your local context and work through it. Why are people not very welcoming? Why are people not becoming disciples? Why do people come to events and nothing else? Why do 20% of the people do 80% of the work?

You must think these problems through. Consider the solutions. Do something about the things that are broken.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Though if it is broke, you are responsible TO fix it!

#leadership #change #broken #church

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