A simple guide to social media

How to market your brand / book / website on social media:

Set up a Facebook page and/or group where you will post regular news items (from your site and those of other relevant sites). Attract attention to it by posting it in other related Facebook groups (search in Groups for related keywords for your topic). Keep it updated regularly.

Set up a Twitter feed where you will post regular news items (from your site and those of other relevant sites). Attract attention to it by following other similar Twitter accounts (search for related keywords for your topic) and retweet and reply to their tweets. Keep it updated regularly.

Set up a blog where you will post regular blogposts about topical items in your subject area. Attract attention to it by adding other similar blogs to your blogroll (search for related keywords for your topic) and post comments on their blogs. Keep it updated regularly.

If you don't "get" Twitter, there's a remarkably succinct and clear summary of what it is and how it works in today's verdict on the Twitter joke trial. (PDF)

Using HootSuite (a paid service), you can also automatically send your blogposts to Twitter and Facebook.

Introduction to social media

Report by Sue Woolley

Lifespan Religious Education Conference 2011
Star Island, New Hampshire, 16 – 23 July 2011
Report on Social Media Workshop by Sue Woolley

Thanks to the generosity of the Manchester Academy Trust and the Hibbert Trust, I was able to attend this conference. The basic structure of our own Hucklow Summer School is based on this Unitarian Universalist conference, so many elements were familiar to me: the morning devotions, the daily theme talk, the compulsory morning workshops, optional afternoon activities, and lantern-lit procession to evening worship.

The morning workshop that I attended was led by the dynamic Peter Bowden, who is a “church growth consultant and Unitarian Universalist change agent” (to quote himself) who has dedicated his life to helping UU congregations to understand social media and to use them effectively. His blog (which is well worth looking at) is UU growth. I am writing the workshop up without much comment, as the things he was telling us are just as relevant to Unitarian congregations in the UK as to UU congregations in the US, if not more so.

Read the rest of the report →

How to add a favicon to your blog

What's a favicon?
In some browsers, it appears before the web address in the address bar; in others, it appears on the tab where your blog is displayed. It also appears next to the name of your blog if it is listed in someone else's blog-roll.

Making your favicon
You will need a graphics package such as Gimp to do this.

1. Find or create a square image - usually your logo. 
2. Reduce it in size to 16 by 16 pixels.

Adding your favicon

1. Go to the design view in your blog (click on design at the top right)
2. Just underneath the heading "Add and arrange page elements" it says "favicon". 
3. Click on the edit link next to favicon
4. Upload your newly-created square 16 x 16 image

Darling Buds

Darling Buds is the blog of Nelly Hench, from Octagon Unitarian Chapel in Norwich. She blogs about life, spirituality, home education, church services and much more. She is also a fan of Julian of Norwich, it seems.

A questioning blog

Rev Gill from Rochdale has started a blog called Living in the Question. The name comes from a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke:

'I want to beg you, as much as I can . . . to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves. . . . Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.' -- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

I always enjoy reading her pieces in the Rochdale church newsletter, so I am sure that her blog will be equally full of gems!

The title also reminds me of the character George in Room with a View by E M Forster, who paints a question mark on the door of his room. And of the quip about Unitarianism being the religion where all your answers are questioned!

Feed the trainee minister

Rob MacPherson, Unitarian minister-in-training, has started a blog entitled "Will preach for food". There's a wonderful post about religion and humour, which really needed saying. It's also written in a lively and engaging style.

Tomorrow's ministry

A presentation by Zan of Mixtape Communications given to the Unitarian Ministers' Conference.

Tomorrow's Ministry

View more webinars from Mixtape Communications

How to promote your blog

1. Comment on other bloggers' posts - if your comment is interesting and polite, they might drop by to read your blog
2. Add other blogs to your blogroll - they may return the favour (but never ask to be added to someone's blogroll, it's really tacky)
3. Follow other bloggers and add them to your Google Reader
4. Get yourself added to Unitarian Universalist and Unitarian blog aggregators
5. Have a Twitter account, link it to HootSuite and have HootSuite update your Twitter and Facebook accounts automatically whenever you publish a new blog-post

New blogger dreams of the ocean

Danny Crosby, minister of Queen's Road, Urmston and Dunham Road, Altrincham, has started a blog, I Dream of the Ocean. He writes eloquently and with an accessible style, so I am looking forward to reading his blog.

Khasi Hills Unitarians have a blog

The North East Indian Unitarian Church has a blog, maintained by H Helpme Mohrmen. It has some lovely photos of the scenery around Shillong, especially the living roots bridge, and accounts of the church's activities in the area, including pictures of a new school.

One blog: doing something

Sue Woolley has set up a new blog, "Still I am one". The title is from a quote by Edward Everett Hale, a 19th century Unitarian minister and writer.

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do."

It's very exciting to see more UK Unitarian bloggers and twitterers, and I look forward to reading Sue's blog.

Another new blog

Rev Daniel Costley, the minister of Sevenoaks Unitarians, has started a blog, and is also adding MP3 podcasts of his sermons.

So far he has blogged about Ascension Day, Harvest, Living in the Now, and Prayer.

It looks as if this will be a really interesting blog.

New Blog for Chief Officer

The Chief Officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, Derek McAuley, has started a new blog for those who want to know what the Chief Officer has been up to and get an insight into some of the issues facing the Unitarian and Free Christian denomination. Followers might even find out what inspires and occasionally shocks Derek.

How to create a blog-roll

Once you have created your blog, you might like to add a list of blogs that you read. This is called a blog-roll. Here's eHow's useful step-by-step guide to adding a blogroll.

In order to get to the bit where you can add a gadget, you need to click on Design at the top of your blog.

New blog

Rev Bob Pounder, the new minister of Oldham Unitarians, has started a blog, entitled Faileth Never, and his first post is a beautiful prayer for Advent that he has written, which includes lots of Nature imagery and the idea that the Christ child is waiting to be born everywhere and in every heart (so more like a universal avatar than a particular incarnation). I look forward to reading more.

The title of the blog is presumably a quote from the hymn, The King of Love my Shepherd is, by H W Baker.

How to create a blog

Here's a video from Blogger about how to set up a blog.

UK Unitarian Blog Aggregator

I have just created a Yahoo Pipe which pulls together content from UK Unitarian blogs (I can't figure out how to get the blog name and author in there, as they don't appear to be stored in the blogpost bit of the RSS feeds) but it does at least only take an excerpt of the post, and then you click through to the original blogpost). If you go to the Pipe page, you can get a badge for your blog or website which pulls in the latest posts from UK Unitarian blogs. Click on the "Get a Badge" link and follow the steps in the popup.

There is now a page on this blog dedicated to blogposts from UK Unitarian bloggers, as well as links to them on the sidebar on the right.

Two new blogs

Louise, who is secretary of Newcastle-under-Lyme Meeting House, has started two new blogs, Developing Spiritual Community and Governance for Unitarians.

On Developing Spiritual Community, she writes:

This blog has started from my desire to see the development of Unitarian communities in the UK. Many of the approaches that have been suggested recently take a marketing approach where Unitarianism is a product and if we only marketed it differently we would 'sell' more of it. The model adopted in this blog is one which sees local Unitarian communities as just that - communities - which most community members are committed to developing.

On Governance for Unitarians, she writes:

This blog is born out of a desire to make a positive contribution to UK Unitarians' continued discussions (or not) about how good governance works and to offer some hints and wrinkles about how to make it work for Unitarian communities wherever they are, however big or small.

It's blowing in the wind

Another new blog, entitled Any way the wind blows - Thoughts of a Unitarian from Shammy Webster, who is Lay Person in Charge at New Chapel, Denton. Again, the quality of writing is high, and the topics vary from forgiveness to politics to tidying up the spare room. The title of her blog is a quote from Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, so she obviously has excellent taste in music too.

A meeting of minds

Someone just sent me details of another new Unitarian blog, New Meeting Minds. It's a group blog by the members of Kidderminster New Meeting. It has some excellent posts; there's one pondering on the existence of God and the pleasures of heretical viewpoints; another on spirituality and religion; and one on aid workers and the insight they give into human nature. It's very accessibly written, and a good read.

If you have a UK Unitarian blog that isn't listed on the blogroll on the right, please let me know and I will add it.