Community, Social Media & Networking
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The ‘Pastor’ Effect in Social Media

Posted by John Saddington on May 11, 2009

oprahPretty much everyone is aware by now of what happens when an already-established celebrity jumps on to a new social networking service, like Twitter.

When @Oprah joined Twitter she apparently took the service down because of the amount of traffic that she brought with her entrance, and one estimate suggests that he presence alone brought 1.2 million new users into the space.

That’s some phenomenal display of power, right?

The “Ashton Kutcher Effect” is another such example of celebs bringing services into the mainstream as well.

But what about our “industry?” What about Pastors and the “heads” of large church and non-profit organizations? Is the affect the same?

I think so.

Does this mean that technologists in their respective congregations should do everything they can to “win over” their Pastor so mass-adoption can occur? Not necessarily, but I think the push can be fruitful, if social networking is a part of the larger stategy.

What have you seen happen as a Pastor or figurehead has adopted a new social tool?

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John Saddington

John is the Chief Editor @ The 8BIT Network and Senior Blog Junkie here at ChurchCrunch.He enjoys Triple-Tall Americanos, developing Wordpress Themes, and a few other Random Things.

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19 Responses to “The ‘Pastor’ Effect in Social Media”

  1. Jay
    Monday, May 11, 2009 at 3:02 pm

    Since moving my Pastor over to Wordpress which has made leaving a comment that much easier, the response has been awesome. He's finding that the blog isn't just a place for info, but for people to engage and he has encouraged that engagement, asking the 'lurkers' to leave comments.

    My next step is to get him up and running on Twitter. I am going to relate to him last night the power of Twitter with regard to the online prayer session that Los had going on where God was just working it.

    BTW, this is kind of off topic, but what tool do you use to measure traffic? I've used the Wordpress 'stats' plug-in, but it's not all that accurate with referrals. I'd like to see where people are coming from.

    Reply
    • human3rror
      Monday, May 11, 2009 at 3:18 pm

      Jay,

      I use google analytics almost exclusively now. also quantcast.

      john

      Reply
    • Bill Bolte
      Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 1:37 pm

      My host has AW Stats included and it does a pretty good job of showing traffic.

      Reply
      • human3rror
        Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 1:42 pm

        i'd recommend checking out a 3rd party service as well…!

        Reply
  2. stephenbateman
    Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 12:39 am

    Think of the impact Groeschel has had by embracing media at Life Church. I doubt he's ever touched any code but simply standing behind youversion or oneprayer made a big difference. Same story with Driscoll and text message questions.

    But really it just makes sense: why wouldn't a pastor want to stand behind a technology that works toward the mission and vision of the church? If the tech team is on board with that, "winning over" should be really easy. Though…not always.

    Reply
  3. Bill Bolte
    Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 1:21 am

    In all honesty, I didn't join Twitter until my pastor asked us to. I still haven't seen a big join from our church, but a few have.

    Reply
    • human3rror
      Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 1:46 am

      thanks for sharing that. very interesting the persuasiveness of the pulpit… sotospeak.

      Reply
  4. Paul Steinbrueck
    Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 3:39 pm

    When I first saw the title, I thought the post was going to be about the potential for people to "clean up their act" when their pastor enters the social space. Interesting question.

    Reply
  5. human3rror
    Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 5:33 pm

    ah. that's another good perspective… wanna guest post?

    Reply
  6. Bill Bolte
    Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 7:26 pm

    hey John, how come your comments don't always show?

    Reply
    • human3rror
      Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 7:35 pm

      takes a sec to refresh since it's a 3rd party app… stinks.

      Reply
  7. Bill Bolte
    Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 7:43 pm

    there are some I just don't see. Like your reply to my first comment – still not there. But I see this one. Weird. I see it on other sites also (where Intense Debate is being used).

    Reply
    • human3rror
      Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 8:57 pm

      yeah. it's also that i have cacheing on my site… so, refresh takes a sec.

      Reply
  8. Aaron
    Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 5:19 pm

    I think it's similar. Sorta.

    However, I don't recall Andy asking everyone to go eat KFC, either. :P

    Reply
  9. Graham Brenna
    Friday, May 15, 2009 at 11:36 am

    Just look how many followers @andystanley got in the first couple days! Currently one of my 4 pastors Twitters. (He's actually been doing it longer than I have… but I've updated more now) haha… we're moving there. It's slow… patience.

    Reply

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