Social Networking Etiquette
There is no doubt that Social Networking has become a huge tool within churches today. Why is it so popular? Because anyone can use it. You do not need to be technical or have any writing skills. This awareness is growing, and there are frequent social media training days springing up in towns and cities. There are many webpages explaining how to use social media, either as individuals or churches. The quote “With great power comes great responsibility”. And there is power with social networking. With Facebook you can not only reach your friends but the friends of your friends.
As a church we need to be careful, as every post and status update we do defines us in one way or another. There are some basic rules that we should adhere to in order to maintain a good image. Our Facebook or Twitter updates will either reflect positively or negatively. The choice is solely ours. Here are some points to help guide us when posting updates.
1. Be positive, affirming, uplifting, earnest (rather than negative, cynical, critical, ironic).
2. If you lead a church/ministry, be especially careful how you communicate on social media. You are representing your church/ministry, whether you want to or not. And for any Christian: you are representing Christ.
3. Use social media to bless others: share Bible verses, affirmative quotes … things that can brighten another’s day and/or spread the gospel. Those types of messages resonate.
4. Don’t include “Please RT!” in your tweets, use bad English, too many WORDS IN ALL CAPS, or too many !!!!
5. Don’t tweet or post something in a highly emotional state or without taking time to consider whether it should be shared or not.
6. Don’t tweet something with big implications without running it by a few people. (e.g. “Farewell Rob Bell.”)
7. Quickly communicate important and timely information (e.g., if you are a church: service times, last minute venue changes, etc).
8. Don’t have awkward fights or edgy back-and-forths in public.
These are just a few examples of how to conduct ourselves on Facebook and Twitter, As our church grows we will endeavor to branch out to new ways of reaching people. We must remember that social media is always changing and updating their platforms and the way it looks, As they do that we will be diligent to keep up with these changes.
