religious evangelist use social media

religious evangelist use social media:

Quote: 'Recently, Cardinal Sean Brady of Ireland called on Irish Catholics to spread positive prayers via Twitter, texting or email.
It's nothing new to see religious leaders using new media to try to energize their congregations or for religious adherents to use Internet technology to connect with others of similar faith. (Mark Glaser has written previously about Church 2.0 -- the use of web 2.0 concepts to reorganize the traditionally hierarchical way that worship is conducted.) In a world where technology can connect you to friends and relatives on the other side of the planet, it's not much of a stretch to imagine it's also good for connecting communities of faith.
But for many religions, outreach and evangelism are an equally important part of the puzzle -- and it's here that web technology would seem to have less to offer. Social media is built on networks of friends with common interests. It's easier than ever to communicate with more people online, but I wondered how effectively new media could be used to proselytize to people outside the faith.

Online outreach
There are many websites that try to harness Internet connections for missionary work, explaining how churches could use online video and Twitter feeds to catch web surfers' attention. Andrea Useem's Congregational Resources explains and demystifies social networking for religious leaders, while Carlos Whittaker blogs about his faith and social media at Ragamuffinsoul. Sites like these emphasize that one big obstacle to Internet evangelism is that the Internet is, at heart, a pull medium -- meaning it's often more difficult to reach a reluctant audience using the web than it is using older media such as television or radio. So while static webpages might be good for drawing in people already curious about a religion's tenants, actually getting the attention of someone who wasn't... that was a little more tricky without coming across as spam. That is, until the advent of social media, and its accompanying ability to build relationships online.'

source: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/06/religious-evangelists-spread-faith-through-social-media155.html

url: www.digitalevangelism.com

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Social Marketing Versus Generic SEO – What’s The Difference?

There are many different methods of marketing your business website, on-line shop or e-commerce website, but for many business owners there seems to be a bit of confusion between what is considered generic back link building and what is a true social marketing campaign, and more to the point what is the aim of each marketing strategy?

Different SEO and web marketing companies will of course employ different methodologies to promote a site and more often than not you get what you pay for so to speak. Equally there is bound to be a crossover in campaign strategies the debate of which could go on for months, but the purpose of this article is to highlight the key differences and aims of each type of campaign not what any single campaign should contain.

Generic Search Engine Marketing

Typically the aim of a generic search engine marketing campaign (SEM) is to develop relevant and targeted anchor text back links to specific pages on your website to increase your site’s link profile and authority in the eyes
of the search engines.

This of course is all aimed at improving your website ranking and to ensure your website becomes “known” in the search engines for the particular key phrases you are most interested in ranking for.

Low level or cheap link building services often include article marketing, content distribution and directory submissions, although most professional SEO practioners will probably dismiss directory submissions as the quality of these links is generally very poor at best and sometimes dubious also.

Low level or cheap link building services can also take advantage of what have become known as social websites; typically these are in the form of blogs and other Web 2.0 properties and even low level social bookmarking sites. Forum posting just for the sake of links would also fall under this category.

The quality of budget link building services can vary wildly but they are not to be sneezed at though, as in many cases especially in less competitive or tight niches, they can prove to be very effective indeed and are often all that is needed to rank a site well.

Social Marketing Campaigns

Social marketing campaigns are quite different to generic search engine marketing campaigns although there can be a degree of crossover in many cases. A true social marketing campaign is much more focussed to generating leads and brand awareness as well as meeting the targeted marketplace in its own backyard.

A social marketing campaign however is also generally considered to be much further up the evolutionary tree of link building so to speak and while it will still develop and reward you with good quality back links to your site, social marketing campaigns are generally of much higher quality in both their make up and also can require a significant amount of planning and preparation.

Typically social marketing campaigns will take advantage of prime and highly focussed Web 2.0 properties and business networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ecademy and so on, as well as other complementary web sites and social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us to name but a few.

The aim of a good social marketing campaign is not to specifically develop back links per se (although this is bound to happen) but to develop either brand or business awareness in a defined market place where the products or services you or your company supply will or could be in demand.

source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2010/03/16/social-marketing-versus-generic-seo-whats-the-difference/