Social Media & Spiritual Formation

Unless you’ve been living deep in the mountains or have been asleep through the last decade you, no doubt, have been influenced by the cultural wave of social media. Social media is changing the landscape of how and when people interact, think, market, and sell. The blending of technology and social interaction has given us the almighty Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a host of other web 2.0 services.

Online social networking is built on the premise that people want to connect with other people. Of course, many naysayers believe that relationships connected through web technology are somehow less than personal. These are probably the same people who still believe that computers are a passing fad, that humankind has never set foot on the moon, and who have figured out the exact dates of Jesus’ imminent return. Don’t believe them.

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Creating Engaging Social Media Experiences

I recently wrote a short post on creating engaging experiences that I, for the most part, agree with. Not everything I write I totally agree with, but that is another matter altogether. What does matter is that after posting to my blog, I tweeted and facebooked the link so the world would know that I’d actually updated my blog. I couldn’t help but asking myself, “Do the same elements that make real life experiences engaging also make social media experiences engaging?” They’re somewhat related.

Engaging social media experiences form out of three important elements: entertainment, education, and conversation.