Obviously…
-Moses wasn’t using TripAdvisor to find a nice, reasonable hotel in the desert
-Martha wasn’t on Pinterest looking up recipes to serve Jesus
-David wasn’t posting his latest psalms to his YouTube Channel
-Jesus wasn’t live tweeting events (although all the Beatitudes are 140 characters or less, making them perfectly suited for Twitter!)
However, our faith has gone viral since the very beginning. Paul might not have had a smartphone, but he used the social media of his time: Epistles, which continue to spread throughout the world today.
We thank you!
#Episcopal Social Media Sunday on June 29, 2014 was a huge success! There were 4,000+ posts on Twitter and Instagram and thousands more on Facebook. With monitoring tools, we estimated that we reached 1million+ on Twitter alone, and image there were millions more on Facebook! At approximately 10am EST we hit the top of the US Trends chart on Twitter.
We even got the attention of Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Revd Justin Welby!
More importantly, for a time on Sunday, I think many of us had the realization that we really are all in church together on Sunday mornings. The posts and images captured a family photo album of our church life together. These posts were faithfully captured by Beth Felice, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Missouri, using a tool called Spundge.
Click on the image to go to the Spundge Notebook for our day.
Storify is another tool that was used to collect the images and posts for the day from the Diocese of Missouri and Episcopal Church on Instagram. It is a great tool to use if you are trying to capture a social media event!
Click on the image to go to the Storify album for DioMo.
Click on the image to go to the Instagram collection on Storify.
Who Started This?
Carolyn Clement is the volunteer web and social media editor for Trinity Tarrifville, CT. Laura Catalano is the volunteer web and social media editor for St. Timothy’s Creve Coeur, MO. The met through Meredith Gould‘s #chsocm (Church Social Media) tweet chats. Last year, Carolyn held a Social Media Sunday for her church. Laura thought is was a great idea, and followed with something similar last fall.
Sometime in winter 2014, they both had an idea that it would be fun to do a Social Media Sunday as a church-wide event, so they started to put some resources together. It is not an official event – just two volunteers who like to spread the word about the Episcopal Church and have some fun using social media.
And the rest is history…..
Click on the image for a full size version.
Check out what the Episcopal Church world is saying today – LIVE – by click on the links below:
Join the conversation! Use the #Episcopal tag on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram anytime.
It’s time for me to take a break, so I’m putting website building, church social media, and blogging on hold for a year. Read more here:
EpiscopalShare 
A Selfie at communion is probably not on the suggested list of activities …. though the processional doing “Happy” would be cool …… like a room without a roof …..
True true! Though, if you scan through Instagram #Episcopal tag on a Sunday you will probably spot a few pre-service acolyte selfies 🙂
Laura, can I cut and paste this into our diocesan calendar as a calendar post for people to get details? I’ve linked it to your site but I’d like to give them a bit more.
Sure, you are free to copy and share it. (I need to remember to put the creative commons codes on these pages).
thanks,
Laura
Thanks a bunch Laura!
Laura, Nurya Parish I should contact you. I have been collecting resources to support Episcopal churches using livebinder. You can see the 4 binders I have on “a shelf” at http://www.livebinders.com/shelf/custom/118403?show=Resources+for+Episcopal+Churches. I am looking for suggestions how to share this resource broadly and then how to let people know when I’ve added new resources. What would you suggest I do?
thank you, Debra Kosche
Do you have a personal, church, or diocesan blog or website? I would put the introductory information there and post updates as you add new things. Share the updates with groups like Episcopal Communicators or Forma on facebook. Wish I could help more, but I’m super busy now. Barely have time to keep up with St. Tim’s stuff right now. Thanks! Laura
We’re fired up in #EpiscopalMI. Can’t wait to see how well this great idea works!
#Episcopal I think this is SUCH an amazing & awesome idea! As a lifelong Christian, but newly confirmed Episcopalian, this is just one more example of how I know I have found a new spiritual home in which to worship & grow in the spirit … both in my personal congregation of St. Paul’s Cathedral, San Diego Diocese, and in the world-wide Episcopal community. Love this idea, Carolyn Clement & Laura Catalano. Thanks for reminding me why I am soooo excited to be a Christian in the Episcopal tradition! 🙂 Blessings +
Thanks for your enthusiastic support! We’d enjoy hearing about how #SMSunday went in your parish.
thanks!!
Have any stats been shared from SMSunday? An approximation of the number of people that took part? Anything along those lines? I would be interested to not only hear of all the success but see some of the numbers as well.
There were thousands of posts on twitter and instagram. One of our tools estimated that 1+ million saw those posts. We know there were many more posts on facebook, but that was difficult to measure and access because of privacy settings.
We also know that the #Episcopal hashtag hit the top of the US trends charts on Twitter at about 10am ET on Sunday and was in the top 50 most of the day.
thanks!
Laura
Thank you!