Day with 'The Religious' at Catholic Vocations Communications Conference

Communication Conference 2017 for National Office for Vocation

Dr Bex LewisSenior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University

Director, Digital Fingerprint

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http://bit.ly/LondonReligious

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• Session 1 10:30 - 11:30: Communicating in a Digital Age

• Session 2 12:00 – 13:00:Communicating with Images & Words

Lunch 13:00 – 14:00

• Session 3 14:00 – 14:45: Institutional Websites

• Session 4 15:15 – 16:00: Q&A

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SESSION 1 10:30 - 11:30

Communicating in a Digital Age

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Let’s “tweet”

each other…

Tweet @drbexl 613/05/17Image source: Stockfresh

Tweet @drbexl 713/05/17https://laurensmithpages.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/technology-making-us-anti-social.jpg

Tweet @drbexl 813/05/17https://tamaralouisequinn.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/antisocial.jpg

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How can the church be a leading light within our society, if we are seen as irrelevant, refusing to engage with the latest

technology? Can we lead by example, and show that we are not afraid to experiment, not afraid to fail? If we’re not in the digital

spaces, the latest ‘public square’, then we can’t offer an ‘example’ to influence the wider world. We need to be part of

people’s everyday conversations, and not just arriving when we have a message to ‘sell’. Sharing our everyday lives, in which stories of humour and vulnerability are particularly powerful,

allows us to connect – including with journalists, who find spaces such as Twitter a useful hunting ground for stories, and to build up trusted relationships with potential contributors to stories.

Lewis, B. (2017), ‘Social Media Fast for Lent? Not for Me!’, The Medianet, http://themedianet.org/social-media-fast-lent-not/

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"Emails, text messages, social networks and chats can also be fully human forms of communication, … it is not technology which determines whether or not communication is authentic, but rather the human heart and our capacity to use wisely the means at our disposal.”

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http://uk.businessinsider.com/pope-francis-the-internet-social-networks-and-text-messages-are-a-gift-of-god-2016-1

Pope Francis, Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Communications, 2016

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12:1&version=MSG

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13Tweet @drbexl13/05/17Facebook/Patheos Progressive Christian

13/05/17https://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/global-digital-statshot-q2-2017

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Tweet @drbexl 1513/05/17https://www.statista.com/chart/9238/monthly-active-users-social-media-facebook-tencent/

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/12103150/Rembrandt-The-Night-Watch-The-real-story-behind-the-kids-on-phones-photo.html

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H/T @God_Loves_Women

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Tweet @drbexl 1913/05/17https://www.dur.ac.uk/generalelection.2015/news/?itemno=24588

“Young people want to know that they are being listened to, that their voices count, and that they are not being patronised.”

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@drbexl

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Humans Tell Stories

“When we met the women, we realised how this was actually real. This wasn’t reading research on paper any more, they had real stories so we wanted to give them the space they deserved. It was never a box ticking exercise, we just wanted women who embodied the spirit of the campaign. And that’s who’s in it.”

13/05/17http://www.dandad.org/en/thisgirlcan-interview

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13/05/17Image source: Stockfresh

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SESSION 2 12:00 – 13:00

Communicating with Images & Words

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Jesus often encountered people individually. Social media gives us the same personal access to people. This is an every-member ministry, and it’s exciting and inspiring.Rev Pam Smith, author, Online Mission & Ministry; Priest in Charge, iChurch

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https://theconversation.com/how-social-media-is-changing-the-church-57405

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• I can't separate my faith from my actions, including those in public life. If people of faith are in public life faith is there too. @JennRiddlestone

• How can you separate faith from your public life? Is private faith true faith? @loulou_uberkirk

• If being a Christian is loving God and loving others, even if I don't announce why I'm doing something, my faith is unavoidably in *public.* @Hstanley_

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Carl Medearis

Relax, enjoy your friends. Enjoy their company along with the company of Jesus. Point him out, freely, without fear or intimidation. You’re not responsible to sell him to them. You’re simply saying what you’ve seen. You're not the judge. You’re the witness.

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Tweet @drbexl 3013/05/17Images via https://www.facebook.com/anglicanmemes/

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13/05/17https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d5/20/c2/d520c2f7dfea2afa359221fd4c59c1e8.jpg

Posts that include images produce 650 percent higher engagement than text-only posts.

Posts with videos attract 3X more links than text-only posts.

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[If we are…] means by which God communicates and reveals himself through his Spirit, then our blog posts, status updates, tweets, artistic images, and online comments should be products of a life transformed by Christ and indwelled by his Spirit. As restored image bearers, our online presence and activity should image the Triune God.

Byers, A. Theomedia(2013, 196)

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13/05/17http://biblia.com/verseoftheday/image/Ga5.22-23

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Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Joe Pulizzi, Founder, Content Marketing Institute

13/05/17http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/

Bex Lewis@drbexl

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Anything that you post on social media (article links, pictures, videos – everything) is essentially a part of your content… Like any other content, your social media posts absolutely need to be of high quality and provide value to your audience.

Jeff Bullas, 2016

"Content is anything that adds value to the reader's life. It can add value by making them smarter, making them laugh, making them do their job better, rush to their child to share the video, make a contribution to a charity.”

Avinash Kaushik @avinash

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Choosing Words

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13/05/17https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/22842/4-Helpful-Tools-for-Identifying-the-Right-Keywords.aspx#sm.0001wwt07qkc3ew7sb81obzcj2yku

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13/05/17https://youtu.be/jC43QhFxFrY

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What makes people share?

• Social Currency: We share things that make us look good

• Triggers: Things need to be in our consciousness to want to share them“Different locations contain different triggers. Churches are filled with religious imagery, which might remind people of church doctrine…. And once these thoughts are triggered, they might change behaviour.”

• Emotion: We want to share the things we care about (exciting is more shared than sad)

• Public: If something is public, and on show, it's visible to others and enters their consciousness

• Practical Value: People like to share useful bits of information that we think will help people

• Stories: Humans tell stories - and useful information can be embedded in what seems like idle chatter!

13/05/17Berger, J. (2014) Contagious, p.74

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24/7 Values? What do you stand FOR?

• Authentic – be a consistent ‘you’

• Transparent – be honest, where’s the source?

• Self-aware – note your ‘tone of voice’

• Integrity – own your own content

• Self-control – be aware of consequences

• Patience – hold the trigger finger before send

• Non-manipulative – ‘love Jesus’ = send this! No!

• Kindness – encourage others

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13/05/17Image source: Stockfresh

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As we head into lunch:

Father, Creator God,You sent your Word, Jesus Christ, to reveal your love and compassion to the world; you have called us to be his disciples, true images of your beloved Son,proclaiming his Gospel to all creation.His story is now our story.Keep us faithful to what we have received, and generous in our sharing.Holy Father, we thank you also for the gift of the Holy Spiritwhom you sent to sanctify and bless all you have createdand be the bond of love that unites all of us with you and your Son.Send forth your Spirit upon us now.Purify our hearts and make us attentive to your promptingsthat we may be true missionaries in the digital world.Grant us the humility to seek you above and before all other thingsthat all we say and do may be done in your name and for your glory.We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen

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http://www.ibenedictines.org/2012/10/21/a-prayer-for-the-christian-new-media-conference-cnmac12/

SESSION 3 14:00 – 14:45

Institutional Websites

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For many churchgoing is no longer the ‘cultural norm’. People don’t actively ignore the church: they don’t even think about it. Matthew 5:13-16 calls us to be salt and light in the world …With literally billions in the digital spaces, the online social spaces presented by churches need to be appealing, welcoming, and not look like they are just an afterthought: they are now effectively the ‘front door’ to your church for digital users, and you ignore those spaces at your peril.

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http://www.churchgrowthrd.org.uk/blog/churchgrowth/growing_churches_in_the_digital_ageImage: Flickr

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13/05/17https://webdam.com/blog/brand-marketing-infographic

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13/05/17https://www.gov.uk/

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Your audience

• Who are you interested in reaching/listening to?

• What ‘problems’ are you seeking to solve for them?

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Agree ‘a voice’

Real Time Response

Don’t overthink. Running through committees, endless drafts and approval processes to get a response out there can cause far more damage than good. As long as you have taken the time to assess the situation and can take a rational, respectful tone in your response, even an awkward response is OK to start with, and buys you time to continue to respond to the problem.

13/05/17http://twitterforchurches.com/blog/2009/06/29/crisis-communications-for-the-social-media-age/

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Legal Image Sources

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Who does digital media?

13/05/17Check out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/churchcomm/and @chsocm

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Principles of Good

Engagement

• Be interesting

• Be encouraging

• Be active

• Be helpful

• Be authentic

• Represent your organisation well

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Know when to…

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• http://www.ukreligiouslife.org/female-apostolic-orders/

• http://www.ukreligiouslife.org/clerical-orders-and-mixed-orders-of-priests-and-brothers/

• http://www.ukreligiouslife.org/female-enclosed-communities/

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Laudate includes many awesome resources such as an interactive Rosary, Daily Readings, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Roman Missal changes, and the NAB and Douay-Rheims versions of the bible – all in a simple to navigate layout.

I use Universalis for Daily Office and to say Mass when travelling... @PhilipBevan

I pray the Daily Office using @CatholicFeasts app. Has other prayers included, too. @phillipsc. I also have the complete commentaries of the Church Fathers on Scripture in electronic format inside @Logos on my Mac / iPad / iPhone.

@FatherSJMC: I use this for John Henry Newman writing: http://www.newmanreader.org/works/index.html. I also use this site http://www.newadvent.org/fathers often to read the church fathers

@CatholicYMguy “Writer, Speaker, Founder of http://CatholicYouthWork.com . Youth Officer, A&B Diocese @ABYouthMinistry. Husband, Child of God. Follows not endorsements, opinions mine”

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A brief, Catholic, daily prayer experience of simple faith in the Carmelite tradition. The Daily Disconnect is a daily podcast focusing on the exercise of prayer from a Catholic Carmelite perspective.http://www.carmelites.net/tag/daily-disconnect-podcast/

Pray as you go is a daily prayer session, designed to go with you wherever you go, to help you pray whenever you find time, but particularly whilst travelling to and from work, study, etc. (Jesuits) http://pray-as-you-go.org/about

For the kids/teens: • https://www.holyheroes.com/• http://www.catholicicing.com/• http://www.phatmass.com

• http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html• http://www.catholicchurch.org.uk• http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm• http://www.praytellblog.com/• http://www.sacredspace.ie/• https://www.sheldonhub.org/• http://liturgy.slu.edu• http://www.unitape.org• http://www.ancientfaith.com• http://www.ibreviary.org/en/• http://www.portsmouthcatholiccathedral.org.uk/live-

mass.php• http://ascensionpresents.com/• http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/• https://www.americamagazine.org/• http://www.thinkingfaith.org/

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• https://www.facebook.com/Turvey-Benedictine-Nuns-Spirituality-Mindfulness-1481434832072907/

• https://www.facebook.com/SpiritualityHN• https://www.facebook.com/catholicwomenspeak

/• https://www.facebook.com/catholicwomenpreac

h/• https://www.facebook.com/CatholicMemebase/• https://www.facebook.com/FrJamesMartin• https://www.facebook.com/TheCatholicTablet• https://www.facebook.com/CatholicNewsAgency

/

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13/05/17Image source: Stockfresh

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SESSION 4 15:15 – 16:00

Q&A

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Saint Teresa of Avila (adapted by Meredith Gould, 2010)

13/05/17http://churchsocmed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/christ-has-no-online-presence-but-yours.html

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Christ Has No Online Presence but Yours

Christ has no online presence but yours,

No blog, no Facebook page but yours,

Yours are the tweets through which love touches this world,

Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is shared,

Yours are the updates through which hope is revealed.

Christ has no online presence but yours,

No blog, no Facebook page but yours.

13/05/17http://juracare.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/go-in-peace.jpg

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http://bit.ly/LondonReligious