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<atom:link href="http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/future-pope-learn-social-media/239837/#comments" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /><title><![CDATA[Comments on: What the Catholic Church Can Learn From Social Media]]></title>
<link>http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/future-pope-learn-social-media/239837/#comments</link>
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<description><![CDATA[The Catholic Church is in the sweet spot in this age of branding. It already "sells" spirituality, but has lost its way in terms of movement-building.]]></description>
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<link>http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/future-pope-learn-social-media/239837/#comments-108361</link>
<description><![CDATA[Ty, I think the comments about the Church or the Pope not adopting Social Media does not mean that they have not made any attempts, but that they have not made enough attempts or in the right ways. Pope Benedict XVI&#039;s twitter account shows 36 tweets and dates back only to December. I&#039;m not familiar enough with how the various levels of leadership in the Catholic faith interact in social media, but the Pope&#039;s account at least lacks any of the &quot;social&quot; element with not interactions with others. That is what makes social media the powerful force that it is.]]></description>
<pubDate>Thu, 21 Feb 2013 11:47 EST</pubDate>
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<link>http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/future-pope-learn-social-media/239837/#comments-108358</link>
<description><![CDATA[The now retired Pope had warned his church leaders that &ldquo;social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are not a virtual world they can ignore, but rather a very real world they must engage with if they want to spread the faith to the next generation.&rdquo; 
Doesn&#039;t sound like a man who prefers preferring silence to interactivity.
The Church has a social media policy and guidelines for the Catholic churches and believers across the world who want to use social media for the purpose of evangelization.
While the idea of a virtual pew is good the Church&#039;s position is built on its authenticity and rituals as well as long life.
As described by Lindstrom rituals are part of the package in common between great brands and leading religions, why do away with them for the sake of change?
The social and mass media interest in the next conclave shows you and me and any intelligent person that the Church is a popular topic and relevant in the modern era still. 
About Jeff&#039;s comment about the Church adopting social media I guess he was sleeping over the last 5 years. The launch of the Pope2You site and now the twitter account prove his views as incorrect. Aside from the Pope millions of Catholics and thousands of Church organizations are involved in social media and digital.]]></description>
<pubDate>Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:07 EST</pubDate>
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<link>http://adage.com/article/guest-columnists/future-pope-learn-social-media/239837/#comments-108356</link>
<description><![CDATA[The other challenge that the Catholic Church will face, even if it does adopt social media and the new methods of brand building, is that some of the key qualities a socially-enabled brand must espouse are authenticity and openness. As any of hundreds of social media case studies will tell you, once you engage with the public, you can&#039;t hide and you can&#039;t turn it off. You have to be open to making mistakes and being wrong, and you have to be nearly instantaneous in your willingness to admit to those mistakes. You also have to invite your audience to help you do things right. 

If embraced in the right way, it could be exactly what the church needs and exactly what its followers want.

www.JeffGreenhouse.com | www.201proof.com]]></description>
<pubDate>Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:10 EST</pubDate>
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