Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Abstract
٠ Cf. Kaplan, A.M . هHaenlein, M. “User of ،Ire World, Unite! The Challenges and
Cpportunities of Soeial Media,” Business Horizens, 53,2010, pp. 59-68.
5 Dominick, R.J. ThyDynamics of Mass Communication, Media in Transition (11thEd.),
N Y o * :M c G ra ^ ll,2 0 1 1 ,p .2 5 .
٠ Cf· “Sta،ics ?or،al,” http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-
monthlv-active-facebook-users-worldwide/■Accessed 30/08/2015.
90 ا Africanﺀﺀﺀ/ﺀﺀ،'ه/ Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3&4, 2015
visit me before they can view my latest picmres — they
can do so by registering on Facebook.7
7 Ihiejirika, w. The e-PHest: The Identity of the Catholic Priest in the Digital Age, Owerri:
Edu-Edy Publications, 2011, p. 84.
8 Cf. Lievr^w, L.A . هLivings^ne, s. The Handbook of New Media, آ, ﺗﺴﺴﻪSag€,
2006, p. 23.
وMcquaiL, D. McQuaiVs Mass Communication Theory (5th Ed.), Lond©n: SAGE
?ubli€ati©ns, 2005, p. 138.
Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 191
In McQuail’$ position, new media are products ٠ ؛a continuous
hybridization 01 both existing technologies and innovations in
interconnected technical and institutional networks. The panic of
this paradigm shift is only but a natural reaction to change. As
Marvin observes:
We are not the first generation to wonder at tire rapid and
extraordinary shifts in the dimensions of the world and
human relationships it contains as a result of new forms
of communication.10
. ﻣﻢﺀس
12 Cf Babin, p. هZukowski, A. The Gospelin Cyberspace:NurturingFaith in thelntemet
Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 93 ل
affected the religicu$ fervour of many. With the new media
technology, new form$ of Christianity have also emerged that tend
to compromise the Cospel of Christ in pursuit of economic, political
and socio-cultural agenda. These religious narratives also indicate a
need to revise the Church’s strategies of evangelization. The Church
must, therefore, seek new ways to re-package and deliver the
unchanging message of Cod’s love and plans for humanity within
the contemporary culture.
The mission-based marketing approach helps to communicate
and persuade people on tire importance ofreligious experience within
their daily living engagements. It demonstrates the value of religion
طhuman life and tire beneficial consequences of active involvement
hr the Good News and the Church. The marketing approach begins
by asking questions such as: Who are my audience? Where are they?
What is their spiritual quest? What are their needs? How can the
Good News be packaged in ways that are relevant but rooted in
fradition? What langage, psychological approaches and techniques
can assist in the evangelization efforts?’^By answering these questions
within its evangelization strategies, tire Church representatives and
workers will remain true to the message of Christ as they embrace
new languages, new techniques and new attiftrdes by adapting the
traditional approaches to the marketing strategies of the New Media
technology that cuts across the firll breadth and depth of the new
world. Failure to adjust and reposition evangelization initiatives and
methods will make tire Church guilty for not reaching out to many
who need the Lord.؟؛
?riests can use the social media to get connected with so many
parishioners and friends from across tire globe by simply opening
Facebook or Twitter accounts under tire parish or diocesan name. In
such media avenues short daily reflections, picttrres of holy symbols,
daily readings, catechesis and even online retreats, upcoming events,
bams, Easter/Christmas messages, notices, etc. can be shared. Such
sharing will undoubtedly help to unite the people of God and also
nurture and increase their fitith in God that is borne out of a sense
of fellowship.
Since &e world h ^ e c o n r e b ^ ie r .^ ^ o p le wish to receive
spiritoal nourishment through social media as they engage in their
daily chores. Alluding to this spiritual desire, ?ope Benedict XVI, in
his address to tire Roman Curia hr 2009, says:
Social Media is all about relationships, community and
comem. There is a collective hunger om there that cannot
be satisfied. Too many people are focused on picking up
the crumbs under the table. The Church has a great
'٠ Benedict XVTs, Message ٠٠ World Communication Day ٥٠the New Information
and Communication Technologies with the Theme, “The ?riest am! Pastoral
Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word,” 2010, p. 1,
http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/communications.index.html
Accessed 18/07/2015.
Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 195
opportunity here “to bring a $oui to the fabric of
communication that make$ up the Web” and to whisper
that God is near; that in Christ we ah belong to one another.’’
?riests or parishes can also have their own Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube accounts where they can attend to the needs of individuals
within this e-generation. Moreover, imminent events, spiritual
materials, sermons, homilies, recorded Mass, religious music, concerts
and short rehgious dramatic pieces can be uploaded to tire social media
sites to enable people to share and participate in the word of God.
St e p L M onttor
This stage involves listening, reading and watching of online ئ؛ ﻣﻤﻀﻤﻢ.
It entails gening acquainted with the social media content such as
tweets, Facebook updates, Church blogs among others. At this stage
the use of search engines and Coogle Alerts to monitor comments
on faith related issues provides usefid tips on social media apostolate.
For an in-depth social media monitoring, paid services like Radians
and Scoutlabs can be efficient. Moreover, free monitoring tools like
Topy, Twazzup, HootSuite, / ﺀسﺀﺀ؛, Broardtracker and TweetDeck can
also be used.
^٠Cf. Lillard, K. Social Media and Ministry: Sharing the Gospel in the digital ¿ge,
Portsmouth, VA: CPSfA, 2010, pp. 24-25.
ﻣﺢﺀﻣﻤﻤﻢ'ﺳﻚ، 'هand Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 197
evaluation is done using pre-established performance measures. After
mingling with the online community, the next step is to evaluate
how many users are connected to your social media platform and
measure how foe updates are making a positive impact in their belief
systems. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation is important in
gauging foe effectiveness of a social media evangelization strategy.
Tools such as Google Alerts, Twitter Search or Google Analytics
can be usefal to track foe metrics of specific keywords, topics or
phrases and sentences in measuring foe social media impact on
evangelization. The units of analysis in such an evaluation would
include foe number of page views, unique visitors, new members
after a designated period of time, posts, updates, comments, link
backs/track backs, social media mentions, new groups, networks and
forums established, new users/friends, catechetical, doctrinal and
dogmatic issues resolved among others.* ؛Tor better results, multiple
metrics can be utilized to give a more credible assessment of foe
social media srtategy performance.
S1 Cheong, ?.H., Fischer-Nielsen p., Gelfgren s. ﺀEss, c. Digital Religion, رﺀﻣﻚ ' ه/
Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices and Futures, pp. 198-200.
“ Fontifical Commission for Social Communication, Pastoral Instruction on the
Means of Social Communication Communio etPreogressio, no. 11.
“ Campbell, H. Digital Religan: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds,
New York: Routledge, 2012, p. 81.
202 African Ecclésial Review, Vol. 57, Nos. 3 & 4 ,2015
Campbell observes that the Catholic Church was the first religious
institution to embrace the internet and create a website which
eventoally crashed soon after it was launched because of heavy traffic.
Subsequently the Church needs to develop an official policy regarding
internet use for members of its community
To build and nourish the Cyber-Body-of-Christ, ?opes
Benedict XVI and Francis, in addition to using other new media
devices, began using Twitter. Their tweets encourage and inspire theft
followers concerning the Word of Cod. The use of sacred text apps,
prayer apps and ritual apps is allowed for the expression of one’s
belief However, the nurftjring of the Cyber-Body-of-Christ through
the sacraments via microblogging is prohibited. Vatican recently
cautioned against the use of “Confession: A Roman Catholic App”
approved by Bishop Kevin c. Rhoades of the Catholic Diocese of
Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana United States of America. Federico
Lombardi, the Vatican Spokesperson, emphatically condemned the
use of such apps saying:
The sacrament of penitence requires the personal dialogue
between the penitent and tire confessor and the absolution
by the confessor. . . this cannot in any way be substituted
by a technology application.^
Conclusion
*٠Messia, H. ﺀGilgoff, ه, “Vatican Issues Wanting for New Confession App,”
http://religion.blogs.c11n.com/2011/02/09/vatican-issues-waming-for-new-confession-
app/■ Accessed 01/09/2015.
Social Media and Mission-Based Marketing Approachfor New Evangelization. . . 203
of commercialization, it must be understood that it is never an end
in itself. Rather, it is a tool; and as a tool, it ean he adapted to many
uses. Therefore, mission-based marketing is a process that enables
the Church to come up with concrete strategies to expand its capacity
to better realize its mission of evangelization in the digital age.
Mission-based marketing is thus a philosophy, a manner of thinking,
an orientation or theoretical approach to foe total activities of
evangelization. Still, foe starting point for mission is where foe people
are, and foe alleyway to change is طmaking available what foe people
feel to be their urgent and basic need.
Effective evangelization in the new religious panorama,
therefore, requires a reorientation of Church programmes and
messages with foe people’s status quo in order to elicit positive
response. It calls for a systematic study of the needs, wants,
perceptions, preferences as well as satisfaction of foe needs of foe
people befog targeted for evangelization and spirimal nourishment.
The dynamic nature of foe human foe and foe environment makes
it necessary that foe Church customizes its specific products ٠٢
services to the present trends, thought patterns and needs by
“packaging” foe message in a modem global langage of the digital
media while remaining faithfirl to its doctrine.^ ﺀ
Bibliography
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