Keeping with our June themeΒ A Game-Changing Mindset for Summer, today weβve got a guest post by Mia Alis. Read more about how you can guest post on Christian Web Trends here.
Ten years ago I was a part of a Christian community with residential communal homes worldwide. I spent 4 years of my life there, and those were the most amazing 4 years of my life which inspired me to join one of the missions for orphaned children in Peru, Argentina, and Africa.
As I was spending a few months in silence and contemplation, preparing to join the missions, certain health issues occurred and I had to return home for therapy treatments.
That was a slap in the face for me!
Along came a period of challenges, failures, and victories.
I finally got my Web Marketing education, and soon enough I was working as a freelancer. Only recently though, God’s amazing plan started to reveal itself to me.
Now, Iβm so grateful for not going to the missions at that time. Iβm grateful for all of the challenges and failures which have taught me so much about faith, love, and about myself too.
Additionally, Iβve learned so much about web marketing and the way the internet has changed the way people communicate and search for information. My final conclusion:
Social Media is THE place to be for missions leaders and members.
Being a part of a mission is an amazing and inspiring task. It can get challenging and tough, but after every battle, you come out a stronger and better person. The help of communities and the entire public can make a huge change in moments of difficulty.
This is where social media comes in. Because social media is the most powerful communication channel on the web. News travels way faster, thus creating a buzz, plus you can talk directly to your followers and hear their opinions. By raising your voice and spreading the word about your mission, youβre not bragging. Youβre sharing inspiration with the world and allowing the public online to provide support for the mission, and to help you overcome the challenges ahead.
Whether you are a part of a church, or community, or an organizational mission; the public needs to know, wants to know about it. The more you share with the world, the more providence youβre letting in, and the more opportunity to spread the Word of God.
1) Post about your challenges and victories on Facebook
Facebook Canvases on Facebook pages are great ways to tell a story. Create an image or a canvas, telling the story of the challenge you have just overcome, the things you and your friends learned, how you felt and so on.
Include images and holy art elements to show the presence of the love of God. Use videos to make the story come to life.
On a canvas, add captions and quotes to emphasize important parts of the story. Let your faith and the gratefulness for being a part of your mission reflect in everything you create.
2) Do Member of the Week or Month Campaigns on Facebook and Instagram
Every week or month, whatever your preferences, decide which member or resident of your mission will be featured in your posts. Post pictures and talk about their personality features, fun facts, life quotes, fave Bible verses and so forth.
Share and comment on what youβre learning from that mission member, and how they are a special and unique child of God.
3) Daily Mission Tweets on Twitter
Post daily about an ongoing difficulty or challenge you and your fellow missionaries are going through. Share updates, special moments, your feelings, inspirations and new discoveries. Tweet about the changes and moments happening during the challenging times. Ask for advice even, get people engaged by asking for their opinion and support.
Make sure you tweet 2 to 4 times a day, short tweets, relevant hashtags and a simple video or image can go a long way!
4) Share Images of Special Moments With Quotes from the Bible on Instagram
Take pictures of the moments in which you saw the living word of God in your daily life at your mission and add the pertaining Bible quote on it. You can use a number of great apps for image editing, even if you donβt have access to a computer.
One great app is Pixlr, you can edit pics in a number of ways and add text to them.
Thereβs also Canva, which is a great alternative to the complicated Photoshop used by pro designers.
5) Β Share the Daily Word of God Youβre Reading at your Mission
Post morning readings and quotes on a Social Media Channel of your choice. Use Instagram to share the Word of God with holy art images and quotes of the day.
Share your reflections of that day and Word in the evenings to get your community engaged with the life and purpose of your mission.
Ask your followers for their own reflections of the Word. People love to share moving and inspirational stories. Plus, you will be serving the purpose of a Holy Messenger encouraging and comforting those in need.
Wow, what an amazing task. Itβs so fulfilling to spread the love of God through inspiring and comforting with words of faith. And social media platforms provide the best opportunities to do that and much more.
Did this inspire you to get your Christian Mission a Social Media Page?
I truly hope this post has inspired you to spread the word about your Mission and the Love of God through social media channels.
Already using the Social Media for your missions? Awesome⦠hop over to the comments below, and share some of your own ideas and experiences, spread the love!
Great post Mia! Thanks for writing it. I couldn’t agree more than social media is a great tool for missions. I’ve used social media quite a bit on short-term missions trips and also seen the way it helps people on long-term missions stay connected with family, friends and supporters.
Thank you Paul! I’m really happy you agree with me, your experience definitely backs it up as well and I hope your audience will find it all helpful too. There are some amazing missions out there, people doing some amazing things and I’d love to see more of them on social media. Just like I said in the post, people want and need to hear about the good being done through missions across the world. I’m so inspired about putting the internet and marketing to use for spreading the love of God!
Thank you so much for this inspiring article,may God bless and continue to educate us missionaries
Thank you for reading Langson, it fills my heart with joy to know that my work can serve as an instrument of the love of God.
Great stuff from Mia, These are the days people gonna take this as to inspire those ideas as well.
Hi Mia, thanks much! I was looking for this kind of article of social media for a long time, thanks for your kind sharing π
It is a great idea IMO and you summed it up very well in the article. Thanks Mia, keep up the good work!
Hi Mia, do you have any suggestions of the pinterest posting? π
Hey Robby, good question. I’d say that Pinterest should only be used if you
have a blog/website for your mission where you publish content regularly.
So, in terms of content ideas, I’d go with original photographs, content from your blog, and even illustrations such as Infographics eg. telling the history of the mission or a particular story which you want to share with the world.
Obviously, every pin you publish should have a link to a certain page on your blog as Pinterest is great for your SEO.
Hi Mia, long time no see π Recent I was very busy sorry for my delayed response, thanks for your great reply. And now I found that social media became more and more important to SEO, doesn’t it? I have another question please, for example, if I have a facebook page which promote my money site, does the amount of the likes or the followers of the facebook page affect the SEO result? Thanks much! π
Hi Mia, are you still there? π
Hey Mia, I like it how now a days I find more and more people on social media who do good.
It`s so good that more and more people have a mind changer and use social media to help others and not to post stuff like “oh my life is so great or just bought a new lamborghini”, because for me most of this posts are totally fake.
But everyday I go throug social media I find new persons who do good and I think that`s a good development. Because social media can be a powerfull weapon if used the right way.