vrijdag 27 januari 2012

How to use social media for religious, spiritual and other forms of meaningful causes?

A number of things have changed since the advent of social media. A large part of this article explores the different 'cultures' of different social media and how to put these cultures to work in your favour. I follow with an attempt to show you why you, as a a religious person or a representative of a religious institution, should embrace social media and put their power to use. Before concluding, I give some handy tips in getting started and some links.

By: Gauwain van Kooten Niekerk


Introduction, the power of digital text

Social media changed the world. In July 2011 a friend reposted a message from someone else on the micro-blogging site Twitter.com saying that before the advent of Twitter 'one had to call 300 people after dinner to tell them what one ate.'

This says it all and raises a few questions at the same time. First and foremost it tells something about communication on Twitter. We never bothered to call a lot of people about what we ate, unless it was very special. With Twitter, it doesn't need to be special to tell the world. One grabs a phone, types in a phrase and it's sent to the world. Everyone with an Internet connection can see what you ate. Everyone. That's massive!

Naturally only a minute fraction of those people will actually read your update, and an even smaller number will care. Something changed. Internet and social media allows us to communicate with great numbers of people with incredible ease. The barriers to communication are down, the possibilities of our communication are sheer endless. 

What one cannot forget is that the barriers are down and the possibilities increased for everyone. Meaning we are drowned in information at any given second. The video website YouTube.com just hit the milestone that every second, one hour of video is uploaded. To celebrate this milestone the website onehourpersecond.com was built to show what that means. Filtering this information is pivotal. 

It is tempting to say something about the depth of the conversation on Twitter. The service allows a maximum of 140 characters per message. One can say a lot less in 140 characters than in a book. Or can one? @VeryShortStory writes prose in under 140 characters on Twitter. Besides that, text on Twitter is digital, which opens a range of possibilities. Michael Wesch shows in his video exactly what these are:


Michael Wesch (2007): The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version).

Wesch (2007) shows us what is possible with digital text. I started writing this article in a number of different formats, all not really suiting my needs. I want to use digital text to it's fullest extent, include hyperlinks, embed images and video, give people the opportunity to react. How does that work with a book? 

Wesch shows us that when text becomes digital, form and content are separated; he shows us the great increase of possibilities we currently have at our disposal. He doesn't show the option of embedding a picture of a video in text, two options I rely heavily upon in this article.

His ending is strong. 'We'll need to rethink a few things...' indeed. One thing we need to rethink is how to use the possibilities in showing what we want to show and connecting with the people we want to connect with. That's where this article comes in. How can religious persons and institutions use digital text on social media to get across their message to the fullest extent?


The current field of social media
Facebook

Facebook (no date): facebook.com


This beautifully shows both the power and limitations of Facebook: it connects you with people you already know. This makes it an ideal possibility to put your personal network to use for your mission.

rapidlearninglife.com is an organisation that promotes so called 'e-learning'. They made an excellent video explaining Facebook:

Rapid Learning Life (2010a): Facebook - In Simple English.

The video speaks about four different networks that one can use on Facebook to find friends they already know. Regions, colleges, workplaces and schools. Another option is to allow Facebook to access your e-mail contacts and compare that list to its members.[1] The video goes on to say how big Facebook really is; that vastness is, however, not directly what you want to put to use.

Facebook has two parts. The most important part, its beating heart, are personal the profiles. This is what it is about; behind each and every profile is a person with a story, beliefs and a life. Facebook allows you to connect with the people behind their profile. Friendship on Facebook is symmetrical. You send out a request to that the other person can either accept of deny.

The other part of Facebook are Facebook pages. Pages are for businesses, organisations, brands, artists, entertainment and 'causes & communities'. This creates a page which is in many ways like a Facebook Profile, but all connections are asymmetrical. Pages give users the opportunity to 'like' them. Like means:

Facebook Frequently Asked Questions (no date - a): facebook.com/help/?faq=110920455663362


Liking a Facebook Page means something else entirely:

Facebook Frequently Asked Questions (no date - b): facebook.com/help/?faq=131263873618748



Facebook uses the same terminology for two vastly different things. Liking content on your timeline means: thumbs up. Liking a page means making a connection to that page. Maybe you've seen a website where it says "John Smith and 104 others like this." When you're logged into Facebook and visit a website with a Like-button or badge, the information around the badge tell how many other people Like this, and, because we're logged into Facebook, this badge had access to which of your Facebook-friends clicked Like. If you see that John Smith liked something, aren't you more included to trust an advertisement? That's powerful marketing, and you will use it too. Soon.
The connection spoken of in the FAQ is what we will be looking for when we make a Facebook Page for our cause. The number of Likes states the amount of connections this page makes, and how many people hear what they say. 

Twitter

Twitter (no date): twitter.com
Short and fast are the words of choice when describing Twitter. The service is intended to allow you to be updated with very short messages. A message cannot have more than 140 characters.  This was chosen to be compatible with SMS service for the mobile phone; you could send an SMS to twitter and is would be posted on you profile; anyone following your profile would be able to see the message. With the advent of smartphones, the possibilities are much broader; but Twitter decided the 140 character limit was charming and kept it.

Rapid Learning Life (2010b): Twitter - In Simple English.

Rapid Learning Life connects Twitter with the word micro blogging, as stated before, it's limitation of 140 characters that is Twitter's greatest unique selling point. "[..]not everyone wants to spend an hour crafting a beautiful post about the vibrant colours on a butterfly spotted out front'', with a limit of 140 characters you don't have to. According to the video, Twitter has grown into social messaging.

The connecting on Twitter, called following, allows one to read the post someone else makes. This connection is asymmetrical, but you can chose to follow someone back.

The name Twitter, and the name of a post, a tweet, relates to the sound birds make. Twitter has the tendency to become rather noisy if the people you follow (sometimes referred to as tweeps) post a lot of updates.

After some great marketing successes many people and brands use Twitter only to broadcast and not interact.  The social interactions on Twitter aren't as prominent as they once were. To find or build a base for interaction on Twitter takes a lot of effort. Mainly because the connections on Twitter are fragile.


If you manage to stand out, many people will follow you. Google for Twitter Success Stories and see how it helped people and branches in ways they never imagined.

One feature of Twitter needs special attention: the hashtag (#):

2MinuteExpert (2010, May 4th): Twitter: How To Use Hashtags.

Maybe you've come across something in the media that said "Twitter with us on #EOJD". This particular hashtag is for the annual youth day of the evangelical broadcast company in the Netherlands. Throughout most of the year it's rather quiet, but as the event draws nearer it gets really noisy. A hashtag is made by typing '#' in front of a word. The work then becomes a clickable search. When someone clicks a hashtag on Twitter, they are redirected to a search of all the current posts that use that hashtag. This is a very powerful search tool; and a good way to find and be found.

A success story of the hashtag is that of the Dutch initiative Durf the Vragen (Dare to Ask). They invented it as part of a project to combat social overvalue. In the project they asked people to dare to ask to be able to use social overvalue: unused meeting rooms, unused transportation spots, etc. At some point the hashtag #durftevragen and it's derivative #dtv were coined. They work in English too: #daretoask and #dta. These hashtags are pretty active at any given time.[2]


Google+
Google+ (no date): plus.google.com/
Google wants to show with this picture how easy it is to join Google+. If you already have a Gmail-adress it's only two clicks away! That argument is also pivotal in the following tutorial-video:

Epipheo (2011, July 21st): What is Google+ (Google Plus) and do I need it?

Google+ is my favorite social network. It is the up and coming new addition to the social media landscape. Google+ unique selling point is that friendships are asymmetrical and one can categorize friends. You can add anyone you like to your circles, and they will then decide what they want to share with you. Just like in real life, you can tailor who sees the different item that you post. In a tutorial video Google explains this:


Google (2011a, June 27th): Google+: Explore Circles.

When you want to read someone's updates, put them in a circle; you then see everything this person decides to share. When you are notified someone put you in a circle, you can, if you want, add them to a circle of your own. When you make a post, you decide with whom you want to share that post: an individual, a circle, a number of circles or the world.

Google pages is a recent addition to Google+. It is the place to be for companies, institutions and religious association. It works the same as a Google+ profile with a few minor differences. On on Google+ Pages you can collaborate with different people to maintain a page.

Google (2011b, November 4th): Google+: Pages.

Maybe the most important part of Google+ are hangouts:

Google (2011c, June 27th): Google+: Explore Hangouts.

Basically it is free video conferencing integrated into Google+ and adds a very lively option to connect people. In addition to the ease of adding people you do not yet know on Google+, this is a great place to get to know new and interesting people. Also you can interact publicly and privately with anyone on Google+, anywhere. Read the last sentence again and think for a while about the enormous potential that has.

YouTube

Michael Wesch has done extensive research on YouTube as a social medium and written an ethnography on the YouTube user. Below is a 55-minute long presentation about it:

Wesch (2008): An anthropological introduction to YouTube.

A significant problem with YouTube's is that people upload videos and comment anonymously. The reactions on videos are notorious. When someone cloaks themselves in anonymity we get to see a dark side of humanity.[3]

YouTube is great for storing the video's, open to the world. But don't forget that YouTube is also the second largest search engine in the U.S., after Google which owns it  (Robertson, 2010). So your videos will also be found outside the context you post (embed) them in. They will be copied, remixed, and spread.

In the above video Wesch shows us that there is a social side to YouTube as well. Evans (2009) gives 34 ways a business can use YouTube as a business tool. Most of these tools will serve for our purpose here as well. Browse this list and see which tools you might be able to use: gigaom.com/collaboration/34-ways-to-use-youtube-for-business/

Other Social Media

In addition Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube, there are other social media around that can also be useful to you. a lot more, depending on your definition. rapidlearninglife.com (2011) made a video about what they are. LeFever (2007/2011) made a video about what happens on social media, social networking.


RapidLearningLife (2010, July 31st): What is Social Media? In Simple English.

LeFever (2007/2011): Social Networking in Plain English.

In any case: should you find a social medium that you like and fits your purpose: find out how it works, what the rules of conduct are and put it to use!


How to make social media work for you

The one rule of social networks is that you have to be social. A new motto for Google's Chrome (webbrowser) new motto is: 'The web is what you make of it.' This counts especially in social media. Connect! Interact!

Facebook vs Google+
People use Facebook and Google+ in a different way. Facebook is more light hearted and leisury than Google+. People come to Google+ because they are looking for people whom they share an interest. That is one of the main differences with Facebook where everyone is because everyone is there.
Another difference between Facebook and Google+ is that the latter is owned by a search engine company. One Google+ it's a lot easier to be found; on Facebook the only option is social sharing. Unless you have a huge number of Likers (and even when you do), you need to put the network of your network to use by creating content they they share with their network. Facebook isn't all too serious; it's laid back and light hearted. If you don't catch that vibe, you will not flourish on it.

Google+
The value of Google+ Hangouts give you the opportunity to videoconference with up to ten people at them same time, as publicly or privately as you want. Free. The value of Google+ Hangouts cannot be overstated.  If you host a weekly Hangout, post the times on your website and across different social media. You have the opportunity to connect to like you could never had before. It is also possible to hold online services and do pastoral work with people at the other side of the globe. Space has lost its significance completely.

Google+ has a lot of people that will enrich you, whatever your field is. Reach out. Follow and share updates with your audience; interact with them. Google+'s most valuable asset for you will be getting to know new people. This is somewhat inappropriate on Facebook (except maybe in groups) and on Twitter is is hard to break through the noise. It is, however, what Google+ is built for, because you control what you show others, every time you post.

Twitter
Twitter takes a lot of effort because of its fast and noisy nature. Find your place on Twitter and use the possibilities of the 140 characters to their fullest extent. Remind yourself about the fast and short keywords. Tweet something that draws people's attention and add a link to a video, a picture or an article that says it all.

Follow and reply to people and make a connection. It's a pitfall to use Twitter to only broadcast. Look around for interesting people; follow them and interact with them. Connections on Twitter are fleeting and therefore require continuous attention, which can be time consuming. If you can manage the time this takes, it's well worth your effort.

Facebook
Facebook is used by a lot of local businesses. Here too you need to interact. But more importantly here you need to put your personal network to use.

YouTube
You will want to use YouTube for more than just hosting your videos. Some videos make an impact; they go viral.[4] This means that people will share a popular piece of content with other people, who like it and share it; you see where that brings you? Virility exists on all social networks but going viral on YouTube is strongest, because of its public nature and ease to reach. Imagine how far a genuine filmed miracle will bring you! But also sermons, processions and seances get you attention on YouTube.

Website
Lastly, your cause cannot be without a website. How this website should look and what should be on it is beyond the scope of this article. One thing I do wish to say about your website is that you need to make a connection between your website and social media you employ.

Put on the different badges of the social media that you use [Google+, Twitter, Facebook]; let your website link to your social media account and your social media to your website.

Going social
Facebook and Twitter are social companies. They are companies that exist around a social network. Google has been primarily a search company.  That is, however, changing. I say this here because it touches at the core of something big. O'Dell (2011) reports that Google staked 25% of the complete company bonuses on whether or not their Google+ would succeed.
"Even Googlers not involved in building +1 [GAvKN: Google+] and other social products are asked by Page [GAvKN: CEO at Google] to test products, give feedback and spread the word about these products to their families and friends. And if this word-spreading and feedback-giving pays off for Google as a whole, each employee’s bonus gets increased by 25%." (O'Dell, 2011).
I refer to this as the 'social turn'. Link-building, now the crucial factor in how high your site shows up in searches, will be replaced by the power of your network.  Your network will make all the difference. This is an enormous change in the way the web works, but outside the scope of this article. What can be said here, in brief, is that this is built assumption that a recommendation from someone in your network means more that many pages linking to one.

The fact that Google staked an incredible amount of money to build Google+ says how urgent the company perceives this 'social turn' to be. Ultimately, it comes back to searching. In the end, Google is still a  search company now utilising a social strategy.

The 'social turn' in businesses 
In a world where we are drowned in information and advertisements a business needs a personality; a face. Religious institutions even more so. In a social medium you have the opportunity to write something or share content. If people take the time to read it and leave a reply, take this as a blessing: this is an opportunity for a real connection.

To take a broader view, businesses, also outside the virtual sphere become more social. My personal feeling is that the hard business strategy that we saw a decade ago is making way for a more humane, more social way of doing business. If this is true, Google's social turn would fit right in.

Yarow (2011) writes that in 2011 all Google employee's did indeed get the promised 25% bonus because Google+ is a success. A huge success, according to Allen (2011) who predicts Google+ to hit 400 million users by the end of 2012. Going social will soon change to staying social.

A (internal) memo I wrote about social media for nieuwwij.nl, was named: If social media aren't social, they're just media (Internal communication, Van Kooten Niekerk, 2012).

Why should you use social media?

I have talked a great deal about the how of social media, and not about the why of it. The why is related to the change I wrote about in the opening of this article: people connect in a radically different way. Something profound changed recently in the way people connect to each other. Twitter shows it best: short  and fast. Museums make the texts at their exhibitions no longer than 100 words, or no one will read them. With an increased monetary wealth in the West we are increasingly time poor (Vickery, 1977). Although the term time poor may may no have the same meaning it originally did, nonetheless, we don't have and/or take time for many things.

Computers promise us more speed so we are done faster, but we end up being expected of more of in the same time, my professor Chris Hermans once said (personal communication, 2011). The world is speeding up and is searchable. At the same time, the content of the Internet is growing so fast (as seen on the onehourperminute.com website) that we increasingly rely on information finding us.

This gives an added responsibility to the content provider, which in this case will be you, to deliver it to the audience you already have, and make it available to the audience you still need to reach.  What has  changed is that we we rely on the Internet more every day and that we are convinced that everything we need to find will be there. If you need to be found, why aren't you there?

Many are not content with how technological advancements influence the world or at least ask moral questions about these advancements. However, with the new social media we have an advancement that deeply changed how we communicate. Here's how:


Kutsko & Qualman (2011, June 8th): Social Media Revolution 2011

This video is at least the third version made. These changes in communication come extraordinarily fast; social media digs into our world deeper and deeper every day. The above video refers to this phenomena is the 'biggest change since the industrial revolution'. And this revolution is about people.

The above video brilliantly shows the paradigm shift that is currently taking place. On Mashable.com, a social media news and web tips site, Gordhammer (2009) craftily listed five ways how we are changed by social media: http://mashable.com/2009/10/16/social-media-changing-lives/. This article was also written in 2009, which is before Google+ and is thus deemed 'outdated'.

Religion is also about people. It gives people meaning, guidance, purpose, ethics and so on. But for all this, you need to reach those people first. Social media's sole purpose is linking people. Making a connection. Ask any social media guru and he will tell you that since social media marketing is about people more than ever. "Successful companies in social media [are...] listening first, selling second."(Metzinger, 2010) That ought to make one hopeful for the future of this medium? That shows how this is a brilliant niche for religious people and institutions to take.

Changes in media aren't new. According to Eisenlohr (2010) we start to look for new forms of media when we're in a crisis. We look for a faster and more direct way to communicate and by-pass old power structures. 

David Harvey (as cited in Eisenlohr, 2010) analyses Marx' claim of 'time-space-compression'. This is a power in a capitalistic society where transportation and communication technologies aim at a vanishing point of true simultaneity. For communication we've reached that. The next step seems to be to broaden the scope of this instant-communication, in which social media plays a pivotal role.

Eisenlohr (2010) also points to a very interesting aspect of media. The media is able to become invisible in the contact between people. If we look at the social media discussed in this article, we see that Twitter is least able to withdraw itself from perception. One is constantly reminded about the 140 character limit. Facebook doesn't have that limit, but we're still communicating in text and pictures. YouTube gives us full, immersive contact. We see the person speaking to us. This is, however, one-way. We cannot reply or interrupt. Lastly, Google+ Hangouts, gives us a live video connection with up to ten people, with the option to broadcast it to YouTube live. Here, space truly becomes meaningless.

Religion was once the moral guardian of the world. With increasing segregation and individualisation in the West, that role falls to the media, according to Susie Donnelly and Tom Inglis (2010) in their article: "The Media and the Catholic Church in Ireland: Reporting Clerical Child Sex Abuse" (Donnelly & Ingliss, 2010). 

Does that duty fall to social media now? Is that the epitome of democratization and individualization? I don't have the answers. What I do know is that the current field of social media is a great chance for religious people and institutions to (re)reconnect with people.


And so ... to Work!

It's time to start. No, don't click away this page and think, I'll do it later. Do it now.

Let's start with Google+. You have a Gmail address, right? If not, find out why by clicking here. If this doesn't convince you. Google Why Should I Use Gmail?  and let others convince you, or ask around. If someone bothers you with spooky stories about privacy, read Google's Privacy Policy and judge for yourself.
  • Setup a Gmail address, which will give you access to Google's email function and also allow you to use Google+. 
  • When that's finished go to plus.google.com and fill in the form on the right. 
  • When you are on the Google+ page, at the right side of the screen there's a link Create a Google+ Page. Follow the steps, and you're done.
To see a working Google+ profile, here is my own: +Gauwain. And here are Google+ Pages that I host: +DigitalDeeDee, +Respectful Religious Discussion - English Language. The first is about film, and rather quiet, lately. The second is used mainly for hangouts. Browse around, look at other profiles and ask people how they started. This ives you something to start a conversation over right away!

I also have two Twitter accounts which you might want to look at, one for myself: @Gauwain and one for the movie blog: @DigiDD. And lastly one Facebook account: www.facebook.com/Gauwain and a Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/DigitalDeeDee.

Notice the different way I use these three media - how they interact and link to each other.

Conclusion

If we follow Eisenlohr (2010) that in times of crisis people look to new media, then it is time for established religion to look to new media. Established religion needs a new vehicle to convey its message to new people. The powers of social media will not be a total miracle, but they certainly might help.

Using these social media, you will need to be more socially assertive than ever before. At the same time you cannot lose touch with your intended audience or the 'culture' of the medium you are using.

On the bright side, you already know how to deal with people but you need to keep in mind that it's people you're dealing with. The people you need to deal with, are already using these social media, and you need to know how to use them too. Make it worthwhile for you audience to interact with you and you are half way there. Interacting with them is the other half of the journey.

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Roberta Laidman for her tireless help with spelling and grammar. Her great proof reading skills helped me greatly, even though I'm stubborn and didn't listen to all her advice. 

About the author
Gauwain van Kooten Niekerk studied philosophy and religious studies. He is Social Media Manager at Nieuw W!J and is currently working on his master thesis on the role of film-narrative in the lives of young people. 


References:


End notes


Referenced articles

    Embedded Video
    • 2MinuteExpert. (2010, May 4th). Twitter: How To Use Hashtags: Retrieved from youtu.be/19BKS_hHKYY on May 6th 2012.
    • Epipheo. (2011, July 21st): What is Google+ (Google Plus) and do I need it?: Retrieved from youtu.be/hC_M6PzXS9g on May 6th 2012.
    • Google. (2011a, june 27th): Google+: Explore Circles. Retrieved from youtu.be/ocPeAdpe_A8 on May 6th 2012.
    • Google. (2011b, November 4th). Google+: Pages. Retrieved from youtu.be/ozxfUtgySlo on May 6th 2012.
    • Google. (2011c, June 27th). Google+: Explore Hangouts. Retrieved from youtu.be/QN38vHZjWXw on May 6th 2012.
    • Kutsko & Qualman. (2011, June 8th). Social Media Revolution 2011. Retrieved from youtu.be/3SuNx0UrnEo on May 12th 2012.
    • LeFever, L,. (2007 / 2011). Social Networking in Plain English. Retrieved from youtu.be/fgqJi9JTEes on May 6th 2012.
    • RapidLearningLife. (2010a, August 1st). Facebook - In Simple English. Retrieved from youtu.be/GJJNM2KWYtc on May 6th 2012
    • RapidLearningLife. (2010b, August 8th). Twitter - In Simple English. Retrieved from youtu.be/3o9FmlgfZXU on May 6th 2012.
    • RapidLearningLife. (2010c, July 31st). What is Social Media? In Simple English. Retrieved from: youtu.be/jQ8J3IHhn8A on May 12th 2012.
    • Wesch, Michael. (2007, March 8). The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version). Retrieved from: youtu.be/NLlGopyXT_g, on May 6th 2012.
    • Wesch, Michael. (2008, July 26th). An anthropological introduction to YouTube. Retrieved from: youtu.be/TPAO-lZ4_hU on May 6th 2012.


    Embedded images
    • Facebook (no date). Screenshot of Facebook homepage. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/ on May 6th, 2012.
    • Facebook, Frequently Asked Questions. (no date - a). What does it mean to 'Like' a piece of content that's been posted? Retrieved form facebook.com/help/?faq=110920455663362 on May 6th, 2012.
    • Facebook, Frequently Asked Questions. (no date - b). What does is mean to like a Page or content off of Facebook? Retrieved from http://facebook.com/help/?faq=110920455663362 on May 6th, 2012.
    • Google+. (no date). Screenshot of Google+ homepage. Retrieved from plus.google.com on January 27th, 2012.
    • Twitter. (no date). Screenshot of Twitter homepage. Retrieved from twitter.com on January 27th, 2012.

    Referenced websites


    Referenced profiles


    Gepost door op 16:41

    2 opmerkingen:

    1. Sabreking28 mei 2012 om 11:42

      Awesome and well researched post,, love it

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    2. Unknown28 mei 2012 om 13:05

      Thanks Shahryar!
      Your comment is much appreciated.
      There are some interesting leads in this article, that demand further study. I'll revisit this post later, and expand on it. I'll let you know when I do.
      Kind regards,
      Gauwain

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