missio

A newly acquired friend, Greg Atkinson, has recently asked how our little church plant in the middle of nowhere uses the web, specifically how we use social media and what commoners call ‘web 2.0′. Well, thankfully, in addition to being an imperfect pastor, I’m also a complete geek. I do the majority of our design and graphics, and I also execute our web strategy. So here’s how we do it laid out over a series of posts. This post will be all about Facebook.

Facebook
First of all, we’re in a college town. East Carolina University is the third-largest university in the state of NC, and it is the fastest growing in the state. To not use Facebook in a town like ours would be the cultural equivalent of not using the Bible in our spiritual walk. It just doesn’t make sense. So how do we use Facebook? Of course, I have a profile. I keep it up. I make sure it’s up to date. I regularly change it, and interact with people. I use applications (iLike, my Questions, etc.). But secondly, the church has a profile as well. And the same applies: we keep it up to date, use questions, etc.

From there, we plug facebook into our web-strategy hub: our website, harmonygreenville.com. Then we plaster our website on anything we do in the real world. Flyers, hot chocolate cups, postcards, etc. Our website is our front door for tons of people. So Facebook does not stand alone, and neither does any of our other web-strategies. They are all interconnected.

In addition to keeping our website and profiles up to date, we use the events function of facebook extensively. We invite a lot of people. Most of them don’t come, of course, but we invite them. And we message a lot of people. Any time anyone new shows up to Echo Group, we Facebook them. Anytime we meet someone on the street that seems the least bit interested, we Facebook them. We abuse it. Relentless Facebookers, we are.  Will it pay off? Maybe. Only time will tell. Until then, happy Facebooking. And find us on Facebook: search for Harmony Church or Derek Brown. Let me know you read the post.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Tags: facebook, socialmedia, web 2.0, harmony church, ministry, greg atkinson, church 2.0