For 50-64 year olds, use of social networking sites has increased by 88 percent since last year. And for those older than 65, it has doubled. (Pew Internet)

From the same report, one in five online adults ages 50-64 use social networking sites to update statuses on a typical day. This is up 10% from last year.

Twitter use has also increased. In 2009 only  5% of internet users ages 50-64 updated their status on Twitter. Currently  11% of the same age group use Twitter as part of their daily routine.

What does this mean for churches with older congregation members? It means that older generations are adapting to newer ways of communicating. A year ago, we talked about reaching your congregation through multiple forms of communication. With older generations now using social networks to communicate on a daily routine, it is more acceptable to use these forms to communicate with your congregation. Did your life just get easier? I don’t know…but it is converging and will hopefully continue to do so.  It opens the door to more conversations throughout the week to engage your congregation. Experiment with it and see what happens…you might be surprised!

Of course, a good old phone call or hand written letter never hurts once in awhile.

Photo By: webtreats

Kids are back in school…the weather is cooling off (well, not in Austin), leaves are changing, fall programs are kicking off and the fall/winter routine is settling in.

Here are some of our favorite blog posts from August…in case you missed them.

We hope you enjoy and would love to hear feedback from you on things you would like to see on the blog.

• Communication Tools to Make or Break you
• What if We Let Our Churches Fail
• Blog Review: 40 Ways You Can Invite People to Church
• What You Need to Know About Facebook’s New “Places” Feature
• The Tremendous Power of Social Media
• Simplicity
• Confessions of a News Junkie
• Made to Be You
• Real Faces of Facebook

Photo By: peasap

In his post, Brian Gaffney, talks about the messages your church marketing materials are sending. He relates it to a sports team and how the coveted position is not the bench warmer….it’s to be out in the field playing, when our name is called.

Is your marketing material Smart? Creative? Fun? Jesus was all of those things. Culture tells us that marketing should be fun, yet when it comes to the church, somehow people expect it to be different. Why?

He asks a couple of thought provoking questions that I think you would benefit from:

“What does your church’s communications and marketing material say?”

“Does it invite the audience to ride the benches or get into the trenches?”

Read the whole post and leave your thoughts.

Photo By: ArunMarsh

But…one thing I learned right from the start was that you could wear whatever “face” you wanted on Facebook. You could create who you wanted to be…call it your “virtual self,” if you will.

Over the last few years the idea of building a personal brand and even a commercial brand has been a huge discussion. We ask ourselves, “How do we want others to perceive us?”  Once we answer that question, we make adjustments to our “virtual selves” hoping that people will perceive us the way we want….whether or not that’s really who we are.

I recently watched the movie, Inception, with Leonardo DiCaprio, and I won’t spoil the movie for you because I think it was fantastic and it kept my attention the entire 2 hours and 45 minutes….which is really maybe a record for me. I have a very short attention span when it comes to movies. Not the point…The whole movie is based on perceptions and trying to get people to think/dream what you want them to.

This started my thinking process on reality vs. virtual…who we really are vs. how we want people to perceive us. Hopefully you’re still following me.

As a church, it’s easy to put on our “face” of who we should be so that visitors perceive us how we want to be perceived…but often it’s not really who we are.  In regards to a church’s online presence, be vulnerable and let people see the real “you.”  Vulnerability builds trust. If the church is the body of Christ (you/me) then the church’s online presence is represented by each one of us.

Let your church’s Facebook page/ Twitter feed/ website represent the real church. Don’t put on a mask…be real.

Photo By: Ethan Bloch

Other applications comparable to this feature include Gowalla and Foursquare.

The feature also allows users to tag their friends in their location and allows users to see which of their friends are nearby.

Here’s what Facebook says about the new application.

There are several privacy settings you can choose for this application. Under your privacy settings in your Facebook account, you can choose:

1. Who you want to allow to see the places you’ve checked into- if anyone.
2. If you want to allow others to tag you in places they have checked into.

The places feature works with the newest version of the iPhone Facebook application or if your smartphone supports HTML 5 and geolocation.

If you’re been using this feature, what do you think about it?

If you haven’t been using this feature, why not?

What are your overall thoughts/concerns about this feature?

Photo By: Spencer E Holtaway

Click on the link above to read the whole list.

Some of my favorite ones were:

Dress up like a Star Wars character wherever there are people and take pictures with kids and families.  Give them a special invite card with the location they can download the picture.  You will have a blast and invite a bunch of people to church.

Volunteer at community runs and bike races

Have a free garage sale…give away things and invite people to church

Put out road signs on the weekend (did you know about 15% of people who attend our church for the first time do so because they saw a road sign?)

Take food to fire stations.  Let them know you appreciate them and that they are always welcome at your church.

What else could you add? What was your favorite?

Photo By: indywriter

The lesson I learned yesterday was that people really are made for different jobs. Everyone has their gifting. I quickly realized that mine is not sitting still and quiet for 12 hours.

When you’re looking for volunteers for your church, try to place people where they can use their gifts and talents. They will flourish and will enjoy the work…mostly because it won’t seem like work to them.

My church does something pretty cool…when a new member completes the membership class, they are asked to take a little spiritual gifting test that helps determine their strength and weaknesses in serving in the church. This is put in their online profile and helps church staff members figure out where they can serve best.

Let’s be honest…We all have different gifts whether it be organizational, fun loving, encouraging, sympathetic, friendly, administrative…the list goes on.  Try to maximize your gifts by volunteering for positions where you can use them!

After all…you were made to be you.

Photo By: ZapTheDingbat

All that to say…I’ve kind of enjoyed the break from constant information stimulation.  (try to say that 5 times fast!) When I go home, I’m forced to:

1. Talk to my roommate more. (Jennifer, you’re a blessing!)
2. Read something- Thankfully I get The Economist and Time Magazines, so I can satisfy my news addiction.  News Junkie? Yep.

However, it’s kind of freeing to not be connected at home. It has made me realize how much time I spend (or waste?) on the Internet. – Whether it’s on social networks, working, writing, emailing, researching…etc.

It’s also been good for me spiritually. I don’t have noise distractions. I don’t have connection distractions. It’s quiet in the morning when I eat breakfast. I’ve been reading my Bible during this time, praying as the Lord brings things to mind and just resting.

Challenge: Think about challenging your family, congregation, or yourself to a fast from technology at home for a week or two. It’s refreshing and you might be surprised to find you actually like it.

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1. Five Ways to Ruin Your Website- Well, self explanatory, really.
2. Ways Social Media has been used for the Good of Others- a positive look into some different ways social media has had a positive effect.
3. First Impressions- Site that needs graphic work receives a B- a rating of one church’s website and some tips on what works and what doesn’t.
4. Lessons from the Apple iPhone 4- Asking the question of “Why do we focus on the minute details of things and allow it to ruin the entire experience?”
5. Fall Events- Some tips on planning fall events for your church
6. Blog Review: Green Stop Signs in Church Marketing- a review from a post from Church Marketing Sucks and some points on keeping your marketing material content clean and correct.
7. 10 Tips for Leaving Comments on Blog Posts- A few things we think everyone should know when leaving comments.
8. Nothing New Under the Sun- Nothing is new- but how can we take the old and think about it in a new way?
9. Blog Review: The Gathered and Scattered Church Online – Some points to help “scatter” your church online.
10. My 100th Blog Post- Laura shares her favorite posts since she started writing for MediaOutreach.

Photo By: Beverly & Pack