Global Dominance of Social Media

Posted by David Drinnon on Aug 16, 2009 | 5550 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.equipthem.info%2F2009%2F08%2F16%2Fglobal-dominance-of-social-media%2FGlobal+Dominance+of+Social+Media2009-08-17+01%3A59%3A24David+Drinnonhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.equipthem.info%2F%3Fp%3D555

Have you ever stopped to consider the global presence and use of online social networks? Most of us have heard of the large number of users on Facebook and MySpace, but the map below will tell a bigger story. Social networks are not mere fads, but a new era in communication and community. It’s the new email. In fact, I agree with Jeremiah Owyang that email is is the first and largest social network. While email will remain, social networks will continue to grow and evolve.

[Note: Sometimes map will take a moment to load, if at all. Map Source: http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com]

The question now is how will the church leverage social networks to further its mission of changed lives for Jesus Christ? For certain, I am not the first to ask this question, but I am amazed at the number of church leaders who are still hesitant and skeptical of embracing these technologies for ministry purposes. Perhaps there remains a shortage of good examples of how social networks contribute to the bottom line. Sure, we can certainly talk about fan pages, groups, etc, but I would argue that much of what can be gained by their use in not in their native features, but what can be developed or extended using their APIs. So this leaves me to wonder who is doing it? Who (whether churches or ChMS providers) are using these social networks ‘strategically’?