Digital Evangelism: Creating Community With Social Media  🔗 **Source:** [Digital Evangelism: Creating Community With Social Media](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM) > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: [digital-evangelism, online-community, social-media-strategy, church-communications, community-building, accessibility] > author: Brooke Canada > source: United Church of Christ > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM > date created: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}} {{time:HH:mm}} > > # 🏷️ Title: Digital Evangelism: Creating Community with Social Media > <!-- deep-read:sections start --> ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 🔗 References - [United Church of Christ](https://www.ucc.org) - [Pew Research Center — Social Media Use in 2024](https://www.pewresearch.org) - [Sprout Social](https://sproutsocial.com) - [Meta Business Suite Planner](https://business.facebook.com) - [Canva](https://www.canva.com) ## 📝 Summary - What happened: Brooke Canada, the UCC's social media specialist, runs a pre-recorded webinar teaching churches how to build online community and practice "digital evangelism" through social media, then takes live Q&A. - Why it matters: Smaller churches with one-person (often the pastor's) social teams need a low-burnout, community-first playbook that meets people where they already are instead of chasing virality. - Key stakeholders: Local UCC churches, pastors and lay communications volunteers, the UCC national marketing team, and the wider public the churches want to welcome. - Risks and tradeoffs: Copyright exposure, accessibility gaps, account-security single points of failure, and staff burnout if you try to be everywhere at once. - Bottom line: Pick one or two platforms where your people are, post consistently in a "we" community voice, make content accessible, and engage with others — community beats follower counts. ## 📖 Main Content - The opening case study reframes the whole talk: Canada's bilateral club-foot Facebook community (2010) grew from a local idea to 5,000+ parents and ultimately pressured the medical field toward a standard of care (the Ponseti method). Her thesis is that digital spaces can produce real movements, the same as physical ones. - Platform choice is a capacity decision, not a trend decision. "Go where the people are" — Pew data shows YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram lead across all age ranges. The common belief that reaching young people requires TikTok is challenged; pick one or two platforms and grow from there. - Content strategy: roughly 70% original / 30% curated, but "don't be a museum." Video is the gold standard; short vertical phone clips edited in Canva, church tours, staff intros, quote graphics from sermons, website links, and the underused Facebook events tool all count. - Voice and identity: speak as the church ("we baptized Johnny," not "I baptized Johnny"), avoid insider jargon, use storytelling, and keep a consistent brand (one or two colors, a consistent font). - Accessibility is framed as hospitality: alt text, readable captions placed clear of engagement overlays, spelled-out words instead of symbols/acronyms, one-click destinations, and listening to feedback from people who rely on assistive tech. - Copyright: "when in doubt, don't share it." Credit artists, license music, share directly rather than re-uploading. - Algorithms: your inactions matter as much as your actions; the Pride-content complaint example shows engagement trains the feed. The cited trend is a shift "from high volume algorithm-driven content production to intentional engagement." - Management: brain-dump ideas, batch-create in Canva, schedule in the free Meta Planner, reserve weekly time purely for engagement, and recruit volunteers as admins. - Community growth: post 3–5x/week, post at busy scroll times, use collaboration tools and tagging, and connect with other creators. A mended-Pride-flag post gained a church 130 followers in 24 hours. - Contested/uncertain: she's explicit she's "not an expert in social media algorithms," and several Q&A answers (monetization, ad spam, music licensing) are flagged as outside her expertise or referred elsewhere. ### 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=0) Welcome and speaker intro - Brooke Canada, UCC social media specialist, remote in Massachusetts; masters in digital marketing and data analytics; 15+ years using social media for churches, nonprofits, and advocacy. - Chat icebreaker: name, church, location, favorite platform, favorite summer sweet treat. Pre-recorded, so she joins live in the chat. #### ⏱️ [00:03:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=180) The club-foot community origin story - 2010 ultrasound diagnosis; no information, no standardized treatment, no one to talk to. - She built a Facebook profile (pre-groups/pages), shared it with hospital staff, and it grew nationally and globally to 5,000+ friends. - Active moms built nonprofits, safe-doctor lists, Angel Flight info, equipment exchanges, even children's books; collective pressure helped establish the Ponseti standard of care. - Takeaway: "there's a collective strength in communities and we can make movements" in digital spaces. #### ⏱️ [00:08:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=480) Choosing platforms - Decide by: where the people are, content features you can sustain, and your own capacity. - "You can't be everything to everyone everywhere all the time." Pick one or two. - Pew (sample ~5,000): YouTube, Facebook, Instagram top across all ages; TikTok/Snapchat close among younger users. UCC focuses on Facebook + Instagram for highest engagement. #### ⏱️ [00:14:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=840) Content creation vs curation - ~70% original / 30% curated; curated content must still align with mission, vision, values. - Think from the audience's perspective, not the congregation's — this is outward-facing. - Video first: church tours, member profiles, meet-the-staff, ministry clips, GIFs, sermon quote graphics, website links, community-partner shares, Facebook events. - Brook's best practice: photo carousels and reels beat static photos on Instagram. #### ⏱️ [00:22:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=1320) Voice, identity, and brand - Use a community "we" voice even when one person posts. Baptism example: "today we baptized Johnny." - Speak as if to a first-time visitor; avoid insider acronyms; tell stories. - Brand = consistent look: one or two colors and a consistent font; Westfield UCC in Killingly, CT cited as doing this well. #### ⏱️ [00:30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=1800) Accessibility as welcome - Alt text, readable captions (watch overlay placement), words over symbols, spelled-out acronyms, one-click destinations. - "Listen to feedback from people who rely on these tools" — the most usable feedback comes from actual users. - UCC Disabilities Ministries flagged as a good follow. #### ⏱️ [00:35:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=2100) Copyright basics - "When in doubt, don't share it." Credit artists, link to them, license music, share directly. - Example: a church reused a photographer's image twice with no credit = two violations. - Resource: Heather Kimmel's "Copyright Compliance Basics for Churches." #### ⏱️ [00:40:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=2400) Algorithms - "I'm not an expert in social media algorithms." The platform owners set and change the formulas. - Your inactions matter as much as your actions; engagement trains the feed (Pride complaint example). - Sprout Social: a shift "from high volume algorithm-driven content production to intentional engagement." You don't need to go viral. #### ⏱️ [00:48:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=2880) Engagement, evangelism, and growth tips - Treat digital evangelism like knocking on doors: comment in town groups where people ask about local churches. - Post 3–5x/week; post at busy scroll times (6am, noon, 6–10pm); share directly; social proof (likes pull more likes). - Mended Pride-flag post → 130 new followers in 24 hours. #### ⏱️ [00:55:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=3300) Scheduling and management - Brain-dump ideas, batch-create in Canva, schedule in the free Meta Planner, reserve weekly engagement time, recruit volunteer admins. - Build a content calendar with recognition days, holidays, liturgical observances, a weekly scripture post, and church history dates. #### ⏱️ [01:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbrkU0It8cM?t=3600) Partners, affiliates, and Q&A - Use Facebook/Instagram collaboration invites and tagging to share audiences; use @everyone sparingly. - Q&A: pastor vs church accounts (personal preference; "we" voice favored for church pages), video length sweet spot 30–90 seconds, multi-admin accounts for security and DM safety, freelancing comms (prefer someone with UCC experience), live streams, and collaboration across churches ("collaborate. So, collaborate."). ## 📚 References - [United Church of Christ](https://www.ucc.org) - [Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org) - [Sprout Social — content and engagement trends](https://sproutsocial.com) - [Meta Business Suite / Planner](https://business.facebook.com) - [Canva](https://www.canva.com) - *The Hype Machine* by Sinan Aral — cited as a read on algorithms ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - A personal crisis with no available information pushed Canada to build her own Facebook community, which scaled globally and helped move an entire medical field toward standardized care — proof that digital communities create real-world movements. - The practical core: choose a couple of platforms where your audience already is, post original content in a warm collective voice, make everything accessible and properly licensed, and spend real time engaging rather than chasing follower counts. ## 📰 Newsletter - Building community online doesn't mean going viral — it means showing up consistently and talking like a community, not a megaphone. The UCC's Brooke Canada walks churches through a one-person-team-friendly playbook: pick one or two platforms, post short phone-shot video, and swap "I" for "we." - Helpful threads for any small content team: the free Meta Planner for batch scheduling, Canva for quick vertical clips, and a hard rule on copyright ("when in doubt, don't share it"). The accessibility section alone — readable captions, alt text, spelled-out acronyms — is worth the watch. - The standout stat: a single authentic post (a church visibly mending a vandalized Pride flag) earned 130 new followers in 24 hours. Intentional engagement beats volume. ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Developer advocacy: adapt the "go where the people are" rule to dev audiences — pick the two channels (e.g., a forum + one social) where your developers actually gather rather than spreading thin. Crossover: this mirrors Courtney's DevRel community-building thread directly. - Education: build a short "community voice" workshop for maintainers — the "we baptized Johnny" reframe maps cleanly to project-voice vs personal-voice in OSS comms. - Developer experience: ship a content-calendar template (recognition days, release cadence, weekly recurring slot) as a reusable asset. - Developer marketing: test the 70/30 original-vs-curated ratio and the "social proof" insight in a campaign with attribution tracking. - Community management: adopt the multi-admin / DM-safety practice as a code-of-conduct ops baseline. - Internal/external/cross-project: stand up the monthly "creators meet to compare calendars and platform changes" ritual across project comms leads. #### OSPO - Policy & Governance: codify a content-ownership policy so accounts survive a maintainer's departure (the lost-Facebook-page failure mode). - License Compliance: turn "when in doubt, don't share it" into an asset-licensing checklist for marketing/media. - Security Management: require multiple full-access admins on every org social account; treat single-owner accounts as a risk. - Software Inventory: not applicable to this source — no software inventory content. Reason: the talk covers social media practice, not code provenance. - Developer Support: offer copyright/licensing office hours, mirroring Heather Kimmel's "Copyright Compliance Basics." - Community Engagement: fund or formalize cross-org collaboration (the collab-tag audience-sharing pattern). - Strategic Alignment: report community-health metrics (engagement, relationships) alongside follower counts. #### Community - Maintainers: schedule recurring "engagement-only" time so community tending doesn't get crowded out by production. - Contributors: recruit volunteers for a single clear role (engagement/moderation) rather than vague "help with socials." - Sponsors: report impact via stories and relationship outcomes, not vanity metrics. - Ecosystem: run cross-church/cross-project collaboration drills using shared content and tagging. #### WordPress - Core: not applicable to this source. Reason: no WordPress core development content. - Core Performance: not applicable to this source. Reason: no performance content. - Core AI: not applicable to this source. Reason: no AI guardrail content. - **Core Program Team:** not applicable to this source. Reason: no cross-team coordination content. - Mobile: not applicable to this source. Reason: no app content. - Playground: not applicable to this source. Reason: no Playground content. - Community: apply the meetup/event-tool insight — Facebook events are underused; the same "remind and re-share at intervals" cadence fits WordCamp/meetup promotion. - Training: turn the webinar into a Learn lesson on church/nonprofit social presence (accessibility + voice modules). - Marketing: adopt the consistent-brand (one or two colors, one font) and storytelling framing for social editorial. - Support: not applicable to this source. Reason: no support-SLA content. - Design: reuse the accessibility checklist (alt text, captions, contrast) in design reviews. - Documentation: document an examples-first social style guide. - Photos: copyright/credit practice maps to Photos directory licensing hygiene. - TV: caption-quality guidance (readable, clear of overlays) applies directly to WordPress.tv. - Polyglots: not applicable to this source. Reason: no translation content beyond "spell out acronyms." - Accessibility: adopt the "listen to people who use assistive tech" feedback loop as standard practice. - Meta: not applicable to this source. Reason: no .org infrastructure content. - CLI: not applicable to this source. Reason: no CLI content. - Hosting: not applicable to this source. Reason: no hosting content. - Tide: not applicable to this source. Reason: no scoring content. - Openverse: copyright/credit and reverse-image-search practice ties to openly-licensed media sourcing. - Themes: not applicable to this source. Reason: no theme review content. - Plugins: not applicable to this source. Reason: no plugin review content. #### The WPCC - Programs: not applicable to this source. Reason: no fellowship/microgrant content. - Projects: not applicable to this source. Reason: no governance-clinic content. - Funding experiments: a Q&A attendee asked about grants for social media ministries — the open gap suggests microgrants for small-org comms capacity are worth piloting. ### FAIR - Technical independence: not applicable to this source. Reason: no metadata/provenance content. - Policies and covenants: the account-ownership/anti-loss practice loosely echoes anti-capture governance — keep control distributed. - Productized governance artifacts: the content-ownership and multi-admin practices could become a reusable "org social account charter." ## 🧪 Hypotheses - Churches that concentrate on one or two platforms report less burnout and higher engagement than those spread across many. - Switching from a singular "I" voice to a collective "we" voice increases shares and comments on church posts. - Posting 3–5x/week keeps a page above the platform's "active" threshold and sustains baseline reach better than sporadic posting. - Accessibility improvements (alt text, readable captions) measurably increase reach and time-on-post. - Direct sharing of an already-performing post preserves more reach than re-uploading the same content. - Posts framed as authentic stories (mended Pride flag) outperform announcement-style posts on follower acquisition. ## 📊 Methodology - A/B test "we" vs "I" voice on matched baptism/event posts across several churches; measure shares, comments, saves. - Cohort study: churches tracked over 6 months by number of active platforms vs self-reported burnout and engagement rate. - Pre/post accessibility audit: add alt text + captions to a content batch and compare reach against a control batch. - Repost experiment: direct-share vs re-upload of identical content, comparing reach decay. - Time-series on posting frequency vs reach using Meta Business Suite insights. ### ❓ Questions - What's the actual engagement lift from accessibility features, separated from content quality? - Does church-voice vs personal-voice change conversion to in-person attendance, not just online engagement? - How transferable is the club-foot-community playbook to faith communities specifically? - What's the right capacity model so a one-person team stays sustainable? - How do you measure "community" rather than "followers" in a way leaders accept? ### 🔮 Future Research - A platform-by-platform optimal-content study tailored to faith/nonprofit orgs. - The relationship between intentional-engagement strategies and real-world attendance or volunteering. - Funding models (microgrants) for small-org communications capacity. - A standardized accessibility-feedback loop with assistive-tech users for nonprofit social teams. ### 💡 Implications - Practice: small teams should optimize for sustainability and relationships, not reach. - Policy: orgs need explicit social-account ownership and multi-admin policies to avoid losing pages. - Security: single-owner accounts are an operational risk; distribute access. - Education: voice, accessibility, and copyright are teachable modules with clear before/after examples. - Funding: a real gap exists for supporting volunteer/one-person comms roles. ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment - Reading level estimate: transcript reads conversationally; Flesch-Kincaid roughly grade 8–9 (short sentences, common vocabulary, frequent direct address). #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: slides with Pew graphics, a content-calendar example, and a Meta Planner screenshot are described. - Improve: publish the slide deck, add before/after post visuals, and a one-page platform-choice flowchart. #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: it's a recorded webinar with narration. - Improve: release a 3–5 minute audio recap and a transcript-linked audio version. #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: strong analogies ("don't be a museum," "knock on their doors") and the "we vs I" baptism example. - Improve: add a short glossary (shadow ban, collab, alt text) and plain-language callouts. #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: concrete step-by-steps (brain-dump → batch in Canva → schedule in Meta Planner). - Improve: ship a downloadable checklist and a "post your first reel" lab. #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: the 70/30 ratio, 3–5x/week cadence, and posting-time windows give clear rules. - Improve: add a decision tree for platform choice and a simple metrics dashboard template. #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: live chat, Q&A, and the monthly creators meetup model. - Improve: a cohort guide and a peer accountability group for church comms volunteers. #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: self-paced recorded format with a resource PDF. - Improve: reflection prompts ("is this really us?") and a self-audit worksheet. #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: the organic "grow from there as you gain capacity" framing. - Improve: a content-lifecycle/ecosystem map showing how posts feed community over time. ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: she explicitly recommends alt text and spelling out symbols/acronyms for screen readers. - Improve: ensure the webinar's own slides and PDF use real headings and landmarks. #### Keyboard navigation - Not applicable to this source as a media artifact, but: improve the linked resource PDF/site for visible focus and logical tab order. #### Contrast and readability - Present: brand advice (consistent colors) touches readability. - Improve: state a 4.5:1 minimum for text-on-graphic and check caption contrast against video. #### Text resizing and reflow - Not applicable to the talk itself. Reason: it's a video, not a responsive layout. Improve: the resource page should reflow at 200% zoom. #### Media and captions - Present: she stresses captions on videos and placing them clear of engagement overlays. - Improve: provide a downloadable transcript and audio descriptions; avoid autoplay. #### Forms and interactions - Not applicable to this source. Reason: no forms in the talk. Improve: registration/resource forms should have labels and inline validation. #### Standards reference - Map gaps to WCAG 2.2 AA: 1.1.1 (alt text), 1.2.2 (captions), 1.4.3 (contrast), 2.4.4 (link purpose / one-click destinations). ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: examples span national and local churches; advocacy story has global reach. - Improve: add multilingual content guidance and non-US examples. #### Inclusive language - Present: explicit push to avoid insider jargon and acronyms; welcoming "first-time visitor" framing. - Improve: add a plain-language glossary and avoid idioms for ESL audiences. #### Neurodiversity support - Present: chunked, consistent structure with clear "best practice" callouts. - Improve: icon+text labels and predictable section patterns in the slides. #### Representation - Present: Pride content and inclusive-welcome themes are central; the mended-flag story models psychological safety. - Improve: feature varied church sizes, regions, and roles in case studies. #### Psychological safety - Present: respectful, encouraging framing; explicit support for burnout-prone solo staff. - Improve: community guidelines for moderated Q&A and DM-safety practices (already noted). ### ✅ Logical Validity #### Strong reasoning - Inductive: the club-foot case generalizes to "digital communities create movements" — strong, vivid, but a single anecdote (acknowledged as illustration). - Causal: "your inactions are just as important as your actions" with the Pride-complaint example is a sound, well-illustrated causal claim about feed personalization. - Analogical: "knock on their doors" maps door-to-door evangelism to commenting in local groups — clear and actionable. #### Fallacies - Hasty generalization (mild): generalizing platform strategy from one advocacy success and a 130-follower anecdote. Fix: pair anecdotes with the cited Pew/Sprout data and note variance ("sometimes it's going great and other times it doesn't gain as much engagement"). - Appeal to authority (light): "experts suggest" the 70/30 ratio without citation. Fix: link the source and frame as a heuristic, which she partly does ("don't stress about that"). #### Tone of voice - Warm, encouraging, self-deprecating, and practical. Examples: "Ask me how I know," "shameless plug," and explicit humility ("I'm not an expert in social media algorithms"). ### 🛡️ DARVO Analysis - Not applicable to this source. Reason: this is an instructional webinar with no accusation, defense, or victim/offender dynamic. The closest moment — fielding complaints about Pride content — is handled by explaining feed mechanics, not by denying, attacking, or reversing victimhood. ## 🎯 Conclusion - Bottom line: community beats virality. Meet people where they are, speak as a living "we," make content accessible and properly licensed, and protect your team from burnout by focusing and sharing the load. - Practical next steps for readers: pick one or two platforms, set a 3–5x/week cadence, batch-create in Canva and schedule in the free Meta Planner, add alt text and readable captions to everything, set up multiple full-access admins, and reserve weekly time purely for engagement and collaboration. ## 🔄 Refactor Appendix — Digital Evangelism: Creating Community with Social Media > Density: 2–5 Literature atoms (H3), 0–3 Permanent candidates (H4). ### 📚 Literature Atoms (H3) #### [H1] Digital communities can drive real-world movements > [!quote] ID:rw_transcript > there's a collective strength in communities and we can make movements and these types of things can happen in digital spaces **Context & use**: - ~[00:07:00], closing the club-foot origin story. - Anchors the talk's whole premise: online organizing produced a medical standard of care. **Tags**: #xref **Highlight**: [view highlight](readwise://) <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [H2] Choose platforms by where your audience already is > [!quote] ID:rw_transcript > So, just pick one or two platforms to focus your energy on and then build from there **Context & use**: - ~[00:09:00], platform-selection section. - Capacity-first rule that prevents one-person-team burnout. **Tags**: #xref #aphorisms **Highlight**: [view highlight](readwise://) <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [H3] Post as the church, not as one person > [!quote] ID:rw_transcript > use we even if there's only one person running the social media **Context & use**: - ~[00:23:00], voice and identity section; the "we baptized Johnny" reframe. - Collective voice signals a living community and reads as more welcoming. **Tags**: #xref #share **Highlight**: [view highlight](readwise://) <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [H4] Engagement, not virality, builds digital community > [!quote] ID:rw_transcript > social media is shifting from high volume algorithm-driven content production to intentional engagement **Context & use**: - ~[00:44:00], algorithms section (Sprout Social quote). - Reframes success away from reach toward relationships — a fit for faith and DevRel community work. **Tags**: #xref #addendum **Highlight**: [view highlight](readwise://) <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [H5] Accessibility is the key to being inviting > [!quote] ID:rw_transcript > Accessibility is welcoming and it's the key to being inviting **Context & use**: - ~[00:30:00], accessibility section. - Frames a11y as hospitality, not compliance — alt text, readable captions, plain words. **Tags**: #xref #aphorisms **Highlight**: [view highlight](readwise://) <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ### 🧠 Permanent Candidates (H4) #### [P1] Community voice outperforms personal voice for shared spaces **Claim** (one sentence, Courtney's voice): A shared account speaks as a collective "we" so the audience feels a whole community welcoming them, not one individual broadcasting. **Evidence pointer**: [[#H3]] **Scope & conditions**: Holds for org/church/project accounts; breaks for intentionally personal accounts where the individual *is* the brand. **Links**: - [[DevRel community-building]] — because applies-in project-voice vs maintainer-voice comms - [[Discipleship and belonging]] — because extends the welcome/hospitality thread in the faith vault <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> #### [P2] Intentional engagement beats reach for durable community **Claim** (one sentence, Courtney's voice): Sustainable community comes from consistent two-way engagement rather than chasing viral reach. **Evidence pointer**: [[#H4]] **Scope & conditions**: Holds for relationship-driven goals (faith, DevRel, advocacy); weaker when the goal is pure top-of-funnel awareness. **Links**: - [[Developer relations metrics]] — because contrasts on vanity metrics vs relationship health - [[Community building over follower counts]] — because evidence-for <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ### ✏️ Fleeting Queue - [F1] Find UCC Disabilities Ministries' "digital best practices" resource (Canada couldn't locate it for the webinar) — #fleeting #inbox - [F2] Track down Heather Kimmel's "Copyright Compliance Basics for Churches" for the copyright thread — #fleeting #inbox ### → Things 3 (max 2 actions) - [ ] Draft a "community voice" one-pager mapping the church "we/I" reframe to DevRel project comms — #things - [ ] Build a reusable accessibility checklist (alt text, readable captions, spelled-out acronyms, one-click links) for social posts — #things <!-- deep-read:sections end --> 📄 **Full text:** [[Full Document Contents/Articles/Digital Evangelism Creating Community With Social Media.md|Digital Evangelism: Creating Community With Social Media by United Church of Christ]] ## Highlights - It's a non-surgical method created by Dr. Ponetti about four 40 years ago. And I share all of this with you to amplify the message that we all already understand and that is there's a collective strength in communities and we can make movements and these types of things can happen in digital spaces just as much and just as often as in-person spaces. So, how do we create community in the everchanging social media machine? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw1zehdq2drrrb0x88en8590)) - Note: The thesis, anchored in the Ponseti-method origin story: collective community strength makes movements, and that happens in digital spaces as much as physical ones. - Tags: online-community, atom/literature/h1 - You can't be everything to everyone everywhere all the time. So, just pick one or two platforms to focus your energy on and then build from there as you gain more capacity or more comfort. So, where are the people? Many people say they want to attract young people to the church and their spaces and therefore they need to get on Tik Tok, but that's not exactly true. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw1zem5wvmvh5rwdyf2j3tgy)) - Note: Capacity-first platform rule: pick one or two platforms and build from there — prevents the one-person-team burnout. - Tags: atom/literature/h2, social-media-strategy - Your you are the church speaking, not a person speaking. Your church community is a living, breathing community, and your social media voice should reflect that. use we even if there's only one person running the social media. If you're posting from the church page, you're representing the entire church and therefore the content should reflect the wider we and us of the church community. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw1zeq66gfd4wj8qg599gw6q)) - Note: Voice reframe: use "we" even if one person runs the account — collective voice reads as more welcoming. - Tags: church-communications, atom/literature/h3 - And we've also added the UCCC brand guidelines that can help offer some more detailed suggestions for creating a quote unquote brand or at least a consistent look for your content. Accessibility is important. Accessibility is welcoming and it's the key to being inviting. If someone can't navigate your website or get the information they want or need from your social media, they may search for a church that's living into that welcome. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw1zews1swmr97f2g1d2q79r)) - Note: Accessibility as hospitality, not compliance: "accessibility is welcoming… the key to being inviting" — directly aligned with your a11y work. - Tags: atom/literature/h5, accessibility - There's an increasing trend in people looking for more meaningful ways to engage online. And this Sprout social quote that I put at the top of this um slide, social media is shifting from high volume algorithm-driven content production to intentional engagement. And I think that's a really nice trend that churches are kind of set up to um follow through with naturally. It's kind of something we do already. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw1zet7d9x1cmr6m7dp62qx0)) - Note: The reach→relationships reframe (Sprout Social): success is shifting from volume to intentional engagement — crosses over to DevRel community work. - Tags: community-building, atom/literature/h4 ## Links - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Being Anticipated Beats Being Tolerated - Visible Inclusion Shifts the Burden]] — applies the existing anticipation claim to accessible church websites and social posts that welcome people before they must ask for accommodation.