Overview
Social media is fundamentally changing how people form relationships, consume information and make important life decisions. This has significant implications for congregations, especially with regard to how we share our news and announcements, and how we invite people into membership.

For our congregations to thrive in the 21stCentury, we must understand these changes and learn to use the communication tools of our time with purpose, skill and integrity.

Join us for this day-long social media training for congregational leaders with church growth, outreach and media consultant (and television producer), Peter Bowden.

Interfaith Participants
Just an update to answer the question that YES, participants from other denominations besides host congregations (UU) are welcome at this event.

Program Outline
Scroll to end of page for program outline...

Who Should Attend
This event is for clergy, staff, and volunteer leaders who have a role in communicating with members and friends of their congregation.

Testimonials

“Peter provided our team with an opportunity to learn together about social media giving us a common understanding of the benefits and costs of utilizing it. His enthusiasm for social media is infectious, making us feel not only that implementing it is possible and perhaps inevitable as our world continues to evolve.” -- Sara Deshler, Church Administrator, Cedar Lane U U Church.

“Peter’s passion for social media communications and Unitarian Universalism is contagious. His vision for our future is something we need to learn and embrace.” – Don Southworth, UUMA Executive Director

Peter’s training on Social Media was clear, instructive, and interactive. He is dynamic, engaging and brings an enthusiasm to his sessions that is contagious. I recommend him highly.” -- Mark Bernstein, Regional Growth Development Consultant, Central East Region of the UUA

About Peter Bowden

A lifelong Unitarian Universalist, Peter is an independent consultant helping organizations -- especially UUA member congregations -- adapt to changing culture and technology.

Known for his work with growth, outreach and media, Peter has led trainings across the United States including for the Mass Bay District, Florida District, Southeast District, for chapters of the UUMA, LREDA, UU Administrators, at the Ferry Beach and the Star Island conference centers, UUA General Assembly conferences, and the UUA Membership Professionals Association.

In addition to his work as a speaker and workshop leader, Peter is known nationally for his work on a growing number of exciting Unitarian Universalist projects including:

• Co-Founding the UU Small Group Ministry Network
  
• Producing one of the first and most popular UU videos on Youtube, “You’re a Uni-What?” and creating the closest thing we have to a UU TV channel, the UnitarianUniversalism.TV website
  
• Helping to launch collaborative Unitarian Universalist social media projects such as the UU Growth Lab and the UU Media Collaborative on Facebook.

When not working with congregation’s, Peter produces educational media for nationally syndicated childrens programs airing on PBS, as well as newer web based projects.

Peter lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife, the Rev. Amy Freedman, and their daughter.

Read more about Peter's work with congregations on his websites uuplanet.org and leadingcongregations.com.

Program Outline
The following is an overview of our program. Please note the final schedule may have slighty different times and will be refined after I study the social media channels of registered congregations (my holiday homework). ~ Peter

9:00 Opening Worship & Welcome

9:30 Changing Technology, Culture and Impact on Congregations

We’ll examine how changing technology is driving changes in our culture with significant implications for how we communicate, connect and engage with people. Of particular focus, how these changes impact our membership timeline & process.

10:15 Social Media Showcase

We’ll briefly look at and explain the major social media sites being used today, enough so that we can reference them throughout the day and talk strategically about their use.

10:30 Break

10:40 Telling our Stories and Crafting Posts for Engagement

We’ll go deep into strategy of how to communicate via social media channels to tell the story of who we are, and the many stories related to what’s happening in our congregations and various ministries. This will include not only what and when to share, but how to use social media to actively move people into relationship with the congregation with goal of getting them to visit, connect quickly, full participation in congregational life, and of course, membership.

11:30 Choosing Social Media Tools
We’ll talk about how to choose where to focus your energy, the merits of the different tools we looked at earlier. I’ll also share why I presently recommend focusing on Facebook, Twitter, periodic video, and having a website with “blogging” capabilities.

12:00 Lunch

We'll take a nice full hour lunch to let our brains cool down.

1:00 Lunch Report Back

Following lunch we'll take a few minutes to report back on insights, ideas and questions that surfaced during lunch.

1:15 Case Studies and Strategic Use of Primary Tools

We’ll look at some specific examples of how congregations are successfully implementing strategies discussed earlier in the day. This will include looking at examples from Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and both clergy and congregational blogging.

3:00pm Final Presentation

While we will have many questions answered throughout the day, I’ll take some time at the end to wrap up and answer as many lingering questions as possible.

3:20 Closing