Why does anybody need a blog when they have a Facebook page? Why does any company need a website when they have a Facebook page? Same answers would apply, I think.
For starters, because most churches have quite a bit more content than would fit neatly onto a Facebook page, much less be prominent and accessible.
Also, a web site gives more control over appearance and function--such as access control, branding, and integration with other services which Facebook does not support.
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and all the other social media platforms serve a purpose, but the website is still the "place of record" for church communication. Just as a church can't rely solely on email because younger people usually text and some older people don't use either, they can't rely solely on only a website or Facebook.
There needs to be a coordinated approach to church communication, but the website should still be at the center.
And... having a 'place of record' is very important; with Facebook, you don't really 'own' the data you post there, and at any time, your page could be blocked, changed, or deleted without warning. I always advise people to treat the website as the hub of their content. Facebook is simply a good front-end for getting news and stories out to people quickly.
And this is the primary reason I advocate personal and organizational websites being the primary place of information. Interaction can happen on Facebook and Twitter and Identi.ca and Diaspora and Google+ and all those other fancy-schmancy social media sites, but the website and the domain of a place is the best place to put your most important assets.
/end rant.
Given that both FaceBook and a traditional website both serve a purpose, I've found it helpful that the two can be integrated pretty easily ... We're using the FaceBook "RSS Graffiti" app to pick up content from our Drupal site and post it to the church's FaceBook group page. Nodes are tagged in Drupal with a taxonomy term for 'News'; this generates an RSS feed that RSS Graffiti reads and posts to FaceBook. So a person generating content in Drupal can flag it as news; it then shows up on the Drupal site's home and news pages, but it also appears on the FB page as a wall post. It's working out very well for us. I believe there are also Drupal modules that can basically do the same thing, but in reverse - reading FB posts and converting them to nodes. Haven't tried that method myself but I'm sure there are a lot of possibilities.
Posted by drupalninja99 on April 18, 2012 at 11:53pm
I really like the idea of RSS Graffiti. I am thinking I should add an 'activity stream' RSS feed to openchurch by default that just lists out content like events, blogs, podcasts, etc. in an RSS feed. Something like '/activity-stream.rss' that is turned on by default and just let people who want to use RSS graffiti point it to the activity stream rss if they want to push content out to social sites.
I was just going to create a view that people can modify unless there is a better way. Any thoughts?
Comments
Why does anybody need a blog
Why does anybody need a blog when they have a Facebook page? Why does any company need a website when they have a Facebook page? Same answers would apply, I think.
For starters, because most churches have quite a bit more content than would fit neatly onto a Facebook page, much less be prominent and accessible.
-Joseph
Good points
I hadn't thought of accessibility.
Also, a web site gives more control over appearance and function--such as access control, branding, and integration with other services which Facebook does not support.
Nic
Facebook does not replace a website
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and all the other social media platforms serve a purpose, but the website is still the "place of record" for church communication. Just as a church can't rely solely on email because younger people usually text and some older people don't use either, they can't rely solely on only a website or Facebook.
There needs to be a coordinated approach to church communication, but the website should still be at the center.
And... having a 'place of
And... having a 'place of record' is very important; with Facebook, you don't really 'own' the data you post there, and at any time, your page could be blocked, changed, or deleted without warning. I always advise people to treat the website as the hub of their content. Facebook is simply a good front-end for getting news and stories out to people quickly.
I completely agree
And this is the primary reason I advocate personal and organizational websites being the primary place of information. Interaction can happen on Facebook and Twitter and Identi.ca and Diaspora and Google+ and all those other fancy-schmancy social media sites, but the website and the domain of a place is the best place to put your most important assets.
/end rant.
Best of both worlds
Given that both FaceBook and a traditional website both serve a purpose, I've found it helpful that the two can be integrated pretty easily ... We're using the FaceBook "RSS Graffiti" app to pick up content from our Drupal site and post it to the church's FaceBook group page. Nodes are tagged in Drupal with a taxonomy term for 'News'; this generates an RSS feed that RSS Graffiti reads and posts to FaceBook. So a person generating content in Drupal can flag it as news; it then shows up on the Drupal site's home and news pages, but it also appears on the FB page as a wall post. It's working out very well for us. I believe there are also Drupal modules that can basically do the same thing, but in reverse - reading FB posts and converting them to nodes. Haven't tried that method myself but I'm sure there are a lot of possibilities.
Thank you! Thank you!
I have been looking for a way to get stuff onto the Facebook Page automatically. Awesome! No need to use access tokens.
Twitterfeed worked for me.
Bonus: It can post to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. No cost.
We are actually using Facebook's Twitter service so content authored on the Facebook Page also goes to Twitter.
I really like the idea of RSS
I really like the idea of RSS Graffiti. I am thinking I should add an 'activity stream' RSS feed to openchurch by default that just lists out content like events, blogs, podcasts, etc. in an RSS feed. Something like '/activity-stream.rss' that is turned on by default and just let people who want to use RSS graffiti point it to the activity stream rss if they want to push content out to social sites.
I was just going to create a view that people can modify unless there is a better way. Any thoughts?
Follow me on twitter: @drupalninja