In one of its latest tweaks, Facebook now allows organizations to be tagged in photos. And since there have been a lot of jokes about why people would ever want to tag the Coca-Cola that grandma is holding during a family BBQ. But I think there’s some practical reasons why this is a good new feature of churches.
It’s easier for people to share your church. Tagging a picture is an easy, non-confrontational way for someone to integrate their church into their everyday online life. Let’s say someone snapped a picture of their kid at vacation Bible school. They put it on Facebook and tag themselves as well as the church. Now their friends see the kid having fun and know it’s at your church. Then there’s the potential for that parent to have a conversation with other parents on Facebook about the VBS and maybe they’ll even invite someone to come. Sure this is a simplified example, but it shows how easy and non-intrusive sharing your church can be by tagging a picture.
Your Facebook content gets richer. If people are tagging you, it shows up in your church’s Facebook photos section. As the administrator of the page, how much do you love having new content that you didn’t have to post? Beyond the picture itself, there’s now an opportunity for others to have a conversation through commenting on the picture. (Unfortunately when someone tags your church in a picture, it doesn’t show up on your wall. But if you’re having a lot of commenting action on a photo, you could always post something on your wall like, “We’re having a great conversation about VBS in our photos section. Check it out.”)
There are more opportunities for you to interact with your congregation. Once you see your church has been tagged, you can jump into commenting. If folks are having a conversation, you can be a part of it. Or it could be something simpler. Sticking with the VBS example, you could easily comment on the picture of a kid having fun at VBS by saying, “Glad little Timmy enjoyed Pandamania. We had a great time, too.”
Visitors get to see your real church in action. There’s nothing better for a visitor to see than a real church in action. Whether it’s pictures of service projects or a conversation about a picture of kids in VBS, it great for visitors to be able to get a feel for what your church is like.
