1) Know Yourself. Know the values and theology that makes up your faith and perspective. With this, don’t try and convert people into your way of thinking, rather let your faith emerge naturally in your posts.

2) Be Real. After making sure you know what you believe, be honest about it. Hollon explains this one just right – “Being authentic is more important than appearing to be a flawless, model Christian. Most people cannot relate to perfection, and it’s easier to empathize with someone who is genuine about who they are.” Authenticity is the number one when it comes to social media.

2) Don’t Judge. Don’t act holier than thou. Avoid acting judgmental and cut others some slack. When you disagree, give them the benefit of the doubt.

3) No Jargon. Don’t use churchy jargon and use concepts you assume others would know. Try to write at a 5th grade reading level so that your posts are as accessible as possible. Our friends at Synotac have a great tool for checking the readability level of your posts.

4) Be Positive. As Hollon’s tip 9 states: “Don’t bring me down! Post content that contributes to building up (faith) rather than tearing it down.”

5) Multimedia = Yes! Use all kinds of mediums to engage your audience! Here is a great example of a church that uses YouTube.

To learn more tips for social media success check out this past Salty Waffle article.

Kayla Reuter

I am the Social Author for Salty Waffle’s faith based outreach. Please see my blog (http://bit.ly/kSpjXB). If you would like to follow me on Twitter I am @FaithNetworking.

Freshly graduated from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, I am now living around the world as a trailing spouse with my husband, a US Air Force medic. I seek to help others use social media to connect their faith based community. I believe social media will assist you in spreading the gospel and teaching the word of God while sharing testimonies, life lessons, joys, and personal struggles with people in your community.

www.saltywaffle.com/cat/socialforfaith/

The post 5 Tips For Christians Using Social Media appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

1) Videos: Aside from the three videos I shared above there are many more with supportive comments below them. If you enjoyed the video enough want to share it, there is a Facebook like and share button. This is how my grandma shared the video I spoke of from a previous article.

2) Prayer Requests: There is also an area on the site to submit prayer requests for people to pray about. Under each request you can click “Pray for this Person” and the person can see how many people have prayed for them. There is also an area to leave comments for the person who wrote the prayer request. Here is an example:

3) Testimonies: Users of this social media site can also share their testimonies and read other people’s stories to get encouraged. There is a comment section here as well for people to communicate.

4) Online Bible: In addition to being encouraged through other peoples’ stories, the Word of God is accessible on this site to reference any time. You can search by verse, book, or topic to find the passage you are searching for.

5) Christian Answers: There is also a chat forum for Christians to ask and answer questions. This is a nice place to go ask other people what they think about many different things, such as fasting, drinking, marriage, etc. As well as impart any wisdom that you have. These are everyday people that can be referenced for their opinions. In the end, we make decisions based on our own convictions, but asking other people is always helpful.

Kayla Reuter

I am the Social Author for Salty Waffle’s faith based outreach. Please see my blog (http://bit.ly/kSpjXB). If you would like to follow me on Twitter I am @FaithNetworking.

Freshly graduated from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, I am now living around the world as a trailing spouse with my husband, a US Air Force medic. I seek to help others use social media to connect their faith based community. I believe social media will assist you in spreading the gospel and teaching the word of God while sharing testimonies, life lessons, joys, and personal struggles with people in your community.

www.saltywaffle.com/cat/socialforfaith/

The post Inspirational Social Media Sunday: 5 Ways To Share On GodVine appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

1) Written Blogging: is the first form of blogging. People write articles to share information with others. There are many different types of written blogs:

• Personal
• Collaborative
• Corporate
• Topical
• How-to

Most missionaries use personal blogs to tell their story. Blogger is a very popular website for most bloggers. One example of missionaries using Blogger is Dave and Jana Jenkins, a couple writing about their work in Rwanda. Here is another website dedicated to missionary blogs.

2) Photo Blogging (Photoblogs): A personal journal of photos that are available for others to see. One social media site for photoblogging is fotothing. On this site, one user has photos of his/her missionary team. One photo features the team members praying for the kids of the bakerton location. This is a great way to share all the snap shots your team takes while out in the field.

3) Video Blogging (Videocasts): Similar to photo blogging, except instead of photos, members post videos. One example of a missionary that used YouTube to record videos of his experiences is Justin Ashurst. Another great site for video sharing is Vimeo.

4) Audio Blogging (Podcasts): An array of audio files produced by the blogger available for download. Many churches are currently doing podcasts of their Sunday services. The City Church is a great example of integrating their podcasts by using iTunes.

This website goes over the blogging basics and has some great vocabulary!

Kayla Reuter

I am the Social Author for Salty Waffle’s faith based outreach. Please see my blog (http://bit.ly/kSpjXB). If you would like to follow me on Twitter I am @FaithNetworking.

Freshly graduated from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, I am now living around the world as a trailing spouse with my husband, a US Air Force medic. I seek to help others use social media to connect their faith based community. I believe social media will assist you in spreading the gospel and teaching the word of God while sharing testimonies, life lessons, joys, and personal struggles with people in your community.

www.saltywaffle.com/cat/socialforfaith/

The post Social Media Blogging: 4 Types Of Blogs Connecting The World To Our Missionaries appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.