Online social media: using it to support your ministry or non-profit organization

If you are a busy community leader for a spiritual or non-profit organization, probably the last thing you have time for is reading a lot of status updates on social media, responding to invitations to events and games. However, if you work with people, you have probably realized how important social media has become, especially for the younger generation. Maybe you’ve even worried about losing connection with social media communities, but you’ve also worried about losing your mind to the hectic and seemingly useless social media environment that doesn’t seem to match your organization’s mission. . You don’t have to go crazy and you can use social media without it taking over your life. That is, if you keep it simple from the beginning.

This is how I used online social media to support my spiritual nonprofit without being overwhelmed by it. With some easy, self-imposed rules, I have been able to benefit from the fast-moving global connectivity of free online services like Facebook.

My first personal rule is not to accept application invitations (games, birthday dates, favorite person, etc.)

Although Facebook is used to communicate with family and friends, it is a growing resource for organizations to promote awareness of their activities, services, and events. If you plan to use Facebook for the latter, it is wise to avoid using the ‘fun’ features that are more appropriate to use with friends and family connections (although, even among your loved ones, you can quickly become unpopular for many of these features.) The fun features can also be a blow to your credibility if you get tangled up in one of those sending twenty friends apps. My advice: stay away from apps. Block them.

My second personal rule is to accept only friend requests and not looking for friends.

Although it may take longer for you to build a network of friends, if you take my advice, over time you will develop a network of people who really want to hear from you and who have chosen to get to know the work of your organization through their connection with you. This way, when you create an event and send an invitation to your friends, you have an excellent chance of being greeted with interest. This is a different strategy than developing business connections where it may make sense to have as many friends as possible. My advice: Instead of soliciting friends, join groups with similar interests and post engaging comments that appeal to those with an affinity for your organization’s mission.

My third personal rule is to limit maintenance and upgrade time

You do not need to continually update your status. Too many updates can even go against your goal of staying in touch with interested people in your organization. I enjoy reading articles on new technologies and devices and have been following some popular magazines online through Twitter. I recently stopped following some due to the volume of updates and messages that started to bother me instead of informing me. I also follow a popular teacher in the human potential movement and her posts are produced once a week. I make sure I don’t miss them.

My fourth personal rule is to use free automation to keep my content up to date and free up my time to do more important things.

There are a number of free and paid services that you can use to write short, relevant updates that will automatically be posted to your Facebook status. You can write them in advance and queue them for delivery later so you can get on with your business. I use one in connection with my blog for new blog posts to be announced on my Facebook status page. They are programmed and ready to go and I am free. (Search for “schedule Facebook updates” to find dozens of articles and recommendations.)

I hope this information helps you get started using Facebook or similar online social networks. I believe that with a little time and effort you can use it to serve your mission.

Edward viljoen