Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I’ve been a Facebook lurker.

I promised in Monday’s blog to show some examples of good Episcopal Facebook pages, so I spent a few hours surfing.

The good news is I found a lot of Episcopal churches across the country on Facebook. The bad news is that most haven’t found a lot of traction yet. By that, I mean there aren’t a lot of conversations happening – it’s mostly information pushed out by the administrator (or Facebook account holder) – and there aren’t many people following the account.   

In this inexact science of gauging Facebook effectiveness, I settled on three key components: variety of people posting comments; the types and frequency of posts; and the number of people engaged.

Here are three places that illustrate these different components. 

All Saints, Chicago: If you scroll through the first page of posts, you’ll see several different users. This is significant because it means that people are beginning to see the Facebook page as a gathering place. The posts include upcoming events, links to interesting articles, shout outs for jobs well done. Instead of simply having notes from the administrator, other people see this as a resource and are creating an engaged, online community. One way to be intentional about this is to ask 5-6 people in the church to post twice a week (or more). Eventually, hopefully, this will provide the spark for the page to grow more organically into a place of conversation and community. Sidenote: This church also has several people who have “checked in” – meaning they have noted on their personal Facebook pages that they’ve arrived at church. Here’s evangelism that’s not in your face.

Church of the Redeemer, Cincinnati: I'm a little biased because this is in my diocese, but I’ve been impressed over the past few weeks with how they have incorporated mission into their Facebook presence. Using Hootsuite (a “social media dashboard” that allows multiple users to post), the Redeemer site features an array of quick posts from different mission trips. Even though only a small group traveled to New Orleans for a mission trip, the short posts and pictures helped others get a taste of what the trip was like, perhaps planting a seed for people to consider going on the next trip. The site also has reports from EYE and other youth trips. It’s a great way to witness to the world that mission and ministry go beyond the church doors. 

Unapologetically Episcopalian: No list of successful Facebook church pages would be complete without mentioning this site. With more than 16,000 followers, the page is a go-to place for checking the pulse of the church. It offers people a spot to celebrate what’s good and exciting about their faith. It has a joy that’s obviously contagious – enough so that that thousands of people want to see the posts in their daily Facebook stream. The page’s founder, the Rev. Ron Pogue, tapped into this desire to share good news about the Good News. And as you can see in the left column of the page, it has spawned other groups as well, including Unapologetically Episcopalian Writers, Musicians, Theologians and even Unapologetically Episcopalian Dogs (and Cats).

So I'm anxious to hear what you think about these three measures of success. What else should we consider? What other pages offer great examples for us? How can we in The Episcopal Church be more engaged in the social media movement?