Stories to inform, encourage, and inspire: what's not to 'Like'?

By Rob Horsley  |  Editor

Photo by William Hook.

It's been three months since I joined the editorial staff at ChristianWeek. While there are the inevitable challenges involved making things work the way they're supposed to, at the end of the day, I like what I do. I enjoy sharing stories that matter.

One of my day-to-day duties as an editor is to make sure our social media outlets (Facebook and Twitter) are updated every day, with a new story to share with our readers. The media world is changing, and we're still in the midst of figuring out how to change with it.

Right now we have about 550 followers on Twitter. About 1150 people like us on Facebook, and those numbers have been steadily on the rise. That means that every time we post a story on our website, we can reach up to that many people directly. But the really exciting part is, you can help us make that number even higher.

Christians seem to have largely embraced social media. In three years, the "Bible" Facebook page has generated about 8.6 million 'likes' and gets roughly 10,000 responses for each daily Scripture verse—within the first 10 minutes of each post.

Earlier this spring, The New York Times reported that a Twitter post made by Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of The Potter's House church in Dallas, Texas, was "re-tweeted" 2490 times. The post, stating "Your words will tell others what you think. Your actions will tell them what you believe," put up re-circulation numbers nearly identical to a tweet made by pop-star Katy Perry complaining about jet-lag. Though both posts were forwarded roughly 2500 times, there is a notable difference: About 450,000 users currently follow Jakes. Ms. Perry entertains about 21 million.

That means that as a newspaper, we're able to 'punch above our weight class,' which is a pretty encouraging thought. Our stories connect at a deeper level, and have the potential to carry themselves further. And you can help us do it.

Social media gives us an immediate avenue into sharing these important stories with our online friends. You can share our stories with your friends, often with as little effort as a click of the mouse. By clicking on that share button on our website, or hitting the re-tweet icon on our Twitter posts, or choosing to "Like" our links on Facebook, you're helping new people see our stories, many of whom choose to follow us after reading the great stories we share with you. That's the greatest part of social media: it's so easy to keep passing the word along. Sharing our stories, and connecting us with new readers can be just that simple.

There's lots of ways to get connected. Like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and we'll send you links to new stories on a daily basis. Sign up for our eNewsletter and we'll email you a free weekly update on the top stories of the week.

Media is changing, and it's up to us to change with it. We know we have important stories to tell, and so do you. Please help us share the stories that matter, with the people that need to hear it. That's what good news has always been about.

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