December 8, 2011

A Clever Social Media Tool

I lie awake at night trying to dream up a way to “Groupon” church marketing and evangelism.

Many of you are familiar with Groupon, the Internet company that uses the customer and social media to market their advertisers and to sell coupons. It’s a brilliant use of social media, in my opinion, and I desperately want to find – or dream up – a way to use those principles to spread the Gospel.

I spotted a clever new twist on social media and church invites yesterday. Basically this congregation developed a picture that works perfectly with a Facebook post on your wall. I captured a snapshot of her page so you could see how the picture works in conjunction with her name. 

The photo was vibrant enough to catch people’s attention and start a conversation that didn’t feel pushy or awkward. Instead, it made me feel like I was missing something important, something fun and dynamic. What a wonderful impression of this church.

Of course, they provided a link to their website, where they can continue to build the relationship. The site is seeker-friendly, with lots of answers to basic questions as well as pictures of their community, happy and joy-filled. 

I think every Episcopal congregation in the country can do something like this. Creating the picture takes a little design work in Photoshop, but I think you could even great something pretty cool in Microsoft Word with up-to-date clip art and some (but limited) play with fonts. 

Then send it out to your e-mail distribution list and post it on Facebook. Encourage members to post on their pages and you’ve begun to tap into the exponential power of social media. 

It’s not quite the caliber of Groupon but it’s a quick, engaging way to have current members extend a warm invitation to church to their friends via Facebook.