I’ve just been asked for some advice on setting up a Facebook presence for a group of Uniting Church congregations.
“…Surely there is a simplier way for luddites like me… Facebook? A Blog? Both. Since I have been on facebook I have become much more cyber aware and am gaining a lot from blogs and the various posts and comments. If our congregations are to communicate appropriately in the living spaces of modern homes we need to do something (and reasonably quickly). I suspect if I persist with setting up a web site it will take weeks if not months but a Facebook page is almost immediate and a blog maybe only days…”
Facebook provides two key approaches for organisations that want an online social networking presence, Facebook Group and Facebook Fan Page. Please don’t set up your congregation as a “person” that can make friends – it’s just confusing. I ignore such requests and I know many others do as well. A Facebook “Fan” page provides you with the capacity to be classified as a “religious centre” and to have a level of public access to the wider community. The administrators can post and send messages to members on behalf of the organisation. You can have discussion boards, events, photographs, links, notes and videos. A Facebook “Group” provides people who are signed up with Facebook and registered with your group the capacity to interact with one another, with the option of making discussion private. Administrators can post as themselves.
Here’s a few Uniting Church related Facebook pages to check out. I’ve chosen pages that have been updated this month, starting with the one I started in the last hour for Ashmore Uniting.
Ashmore Uniting Church, Gold Coast, Queensland
Wesley Kangaroo Point Uniting Church, Brisbane, Queensland
St John’s Uniting Church, Neutral Bay, NSW
Melbourne Fijian Uniting Church Youth, Victoria
The Gap Uniting Church, Brisbane, Queensland
Blacktown Uniting Tongan Church, Sydney, NSW
Aspley Uniting Church, Brisbane, Queensland