Media Outreach

Change. What does that word bring to mind? For me, it definitely used to mean something different. Until 2008. As Obama’s campaign theme resonated around the country, it became the most popular word in 2008.

I found an interesting Mashable article, proclaiming this year’s most used words.  According to the Global Language Monitor, the top words this year are a little scattered.

“GLM’s list of top words and phrases for 2009 isn’t surprising, once you factor out words like ‘the’ out of the equation” (Mashable). This year’s list looks like this:

1. …
2. Obama
3. H1N1
4. Stimulus
5. Vampire

So what is the phrase that knocks the president into second place?  Twitter.  How could this be? Twitter isn’t nearly as popular as Facebook. With 25 million users, Twitter falls about 300 million users shy of Facebook (Mojofiti).

Twitter may not be the most widely used social network, but it has set the bar for micro-blogging and mobile status updates.  The buzz for this medium doesn’t lie.

“With Twitter declared English’s most popular word and ‘unfriend’ taking the title of Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year, what else does social media have to conquer” (Mashable)?

If we are going to be relevant to our communities in 2010, we should continue utilizing relevant methods to do so.  Looking at the top used words in 2009, how does the Church fall into place?

Were we pioneering the way for Swine Flu vaccine clinics?  Were we providing food, provisions and care alongside, nay, in front of, the government?  Were we connecting, engaging and communicating through the most popular social networks to give the church one more opportunity to reach people?

I’m excited to see what new ways we have to tell people the Ultimate Story next year.  Do you have any idea what buzz words will take over in 2010?  Please share!  The Church can always use a head start.

Photo by PeteSimon