Why I Mothballed My Facebook Profile
If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen that I recently mothballed my personal Facebook profile. Specifically, I set my profile to hidden, de-friended all but family and a few close friends, and put up a note that I would no longer be posting to the site any more. To be clear I didn’t deactivate my account; I’m still responsible for some of our diocese’s social media activities and I’m still maintaining my Jonathan F. Sullivan page, so I need access to Facebook. I’m simply no longer using it as a personal social networking outlet. This may seem an odd move...
Read MoreHow To Survive a Social Media Attack With Your Soul Intact
The past weekend our diocesan Facebook page came under attack after our bishop wrote about the spiritual implications of voting for intrinsic evil. Some of the posters engaged the substance of the arguments; some, while disrespectful, were at least not vulgar or obscene; and the rest made for the most soul-damaging work of my life. I won’t describe the types of things I had to delete from our page. Suffice to say that the language, while course, was nothing compared to the brutality of the photoshopped pictures that people posted. I was sick to my stomach and sick in my heart. So how...
Read MoreNotes and Resources: Using New Media for Professional Development
Thank to everyone who participated in my webinar today on using new media for professional development in catechesis! Here are my notes, a link to the opening prayer from the USCCB, and some of the resources I mentioned during the webinar: Facebook NCPD Group NCCL page Jonathan’s Catholic Catechesis List LinkedIn Video: How to Use LinkedIn Groups Adult Faith Formation Professionals Twitter Twitter: How To Use HashTags #CathMedia Jonathan’s Catechesis List Reading Blogs Video: RSS in Plain English Google Reader Catechist’s Journey Creating...
Read MoreSocial Media Policy Training Video
Last week our diocesan webmaster and I completed the last of our training sessions on our diocese’s new social media policy. The resources from the training sessions can be accessed at www.dio.org/it/resources; the recording of one of our webinar sessions is below.
Read More4 Tips for Choosing a Parish Social Media Coordinator
In our diocese’s new social media policy we recommend that pastors delegate the day-to-day management of institutional social media accounts. This is both because a) pastors’ time is best spent on other aspects of their ministry, and b) most pastors are not interested in the day-to-day management of institutional social media accounts. But how should they choose who to coordinate social media on their behalf? What characteristics make a person a suitable social media manager for a parish? Choose someone who uses social media. This should be self-evident, but I’ve learned...
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