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The Upstate New York Synod, Social Media and YOU!
It isn’t really a secret that the world is rapidly becoming more connected each day. Leading this revolution is the expansion of internet accessibility and the use of social media. Services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are expanding how we interact, obtain knowledge and most importantly share what we have learned.
How much has the process of obtaining knowledge and sharing it changed? Reflect on the devastating earthquake in Haiti. The very first acknowledgment of the crisis and cries for help were shared on Twitter and Facebook status updates. The Red Cross raised millions by posting an appeal to Twitter first, and later on television, that they were accepting donations by text message. The very first videos of the earthquake were posted on YouTube. This lead to traditional news organizations all over the world enhancing their coverage with additional footage and information from trusted sources on social media outlets.
The Upstate New York Synod is adding to our communications and evangelism infrastructure through the use of social media. We hope these tools will enhance member engagement with the synod, create member-to-member sharing of meaningful stories, and ultimately lead members to share God’s boundless love with the world.
We encourage you to visit the Synod’s website. If your church’s website has the ability to add RSS feeds (rich site summary) please consider adding our website feed. We hope you will “like” us on Facebook, “follow” us on Twitter, and “subscribe” on YouTube.
No computer or want to stay updated while you are away from your computer? Have a cell phone? Get updates on your cell phone by texting “follow @upstatenysynod” to 40404 to follow our “tweets” (standard text messaging rates apply.) We will continue to provide paper copies of Upstate Update to those who prefer to receive information in paper format. As we increase our use of media, however, there may be times when content will not be available in this form.
Synod Educational Opportunities
In an ongoing effort to improve the effectiveness of our communications, and thanks to some helpful feedback, we are shifting how we distribute information about educational opportunities. Over the last year we released Enlighten, an education newsletter, via Adobe Acrobat “pdf” files through email. The outlet was well received but had some limitations. Most importantly, timeliness.
In order to get information in everyone’s hands earlier, and to expand the audience size, we are moving this information to a blog on the synod website called Growing in Faith. The benefits of this format will be that these opportunities will be posted earlier, giving more notice for planning purposes, and the information will be searchable through the website.