Social Media: It's the Why, Not the How

Please tell me you know WHY you're using social media.

Last week I attended a local leadership meeting and was honored to make a mini-presentation to the members on social media. I didn’t realize that the hardest part would be explaining why they should get involved. They wanted to know about the mechanics of the how. That’s the wrong approach.

The Right Approach is the Why

1) Social Media is, well, social. Social is good! Don’t you attend local meetings? Reach out and touch people with your ministries? Create lasting relationships? Improve visitation? Increase donations? Why should you be engaging in social media? For the same reasons!

2) It’s one-to-one, but your reach is one-to-many. Where else can you get your message out to hundreds or thousands in an instant? For free? It bears repeating here that your posts, your Tweets, your church updates, etc. should still smell like a personal conversation. You’ve heard me (plus a million other people) talk about authenticity. Your conversations need to feel real and be targeted to the person – not your 600 followers.

3) The conversation is happening – either you’re in or you’re out. I’m amazed at the number of churches, nonprofits, ministries, faith-based orgs, small businesses, etc. who still think social media is folly. Folly, I say! That’s just crazy talk. It’s only folly if you don’t plan, don’t create a strategy and a policy, and walk into it blindly. Hear me: Prospects are talking about you and determining where to visit and where to donate/volunteer without you if you’re not in the game. How is that smart?

4) Social media is not going away, so live with it. Remember back in the day when your mom announced that email would never be the primary method of communication? No one thought instant messaging and texting would be around for long? Hello! They are now ingrained into our social communication consciousness. Social media is not going anywhere, but maybe your church is if you don’t move now.

Ok, we're passionate about this for lots of reasons. If you’ve read some of our blog posts (OutreachMojo.wordpress.com), you know that we feel strongly that this is the now and the future of outreach.

But, you have to embrace, internalize and believe in the why before you jump on the how.
—Lee

Mojo's August Etiquette Lesson 
"Twit-i-quette" or Twitter Etiquette

Using Twitter is a fabulous way to communicate on a very personal level. Here are a few suggestions for making the most of your microblogging experience.

• Use an photo (although some businesses perfer a logo). It lets us know you actually breathe.
• Don't protect your tweets. What's the point?
• Limit your posts to 120 characters so others can re-tweet (RT) your messages.
• If you don’t have much to say, it’s okay not to say it.
• It’s okay to advertise yourself, but it's better to create an even mix and promote other folks, too.
• You do not have to friend everyone back. People use Twitter differently.
• Removing someone as a Twitter friend doesn’t show up on their side. It’s fine.