To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

by Yoram Samets, Jvillage Network Co-founder

The social media landscape is getting very crowded with options a synagogue can use to connect to members and prospective members.  

How are you using Instagram — probably one of the hottest social platforms of 2013? Or Google+ (where we are being increasingly forced to participate)?

What about Pinterest and Flickr? And do you have strategies in place for Facebook, Twitter, and your website?

We are only beginning to see the birth of social media options. Many of these options are being driven into the marketplace — whether we like it or not — by the ongoing competition between Google and Facebook to increase their revenue streams. Together, these two companies have acquired over 150 other online companies, with many of these acquisitions competing in the marketplace for revenue. (Motorola, YouTube, Zagat, Friendster, Instagram, and Frommers are just some of companies purchased over the past several years.)

Synagogues need to be very thoughtful about what all this means for their connections planning. More options are not necessarily better. Each option's effectiveness is based on the synagogue's management of content on each channel. Can a synagogue effectively manage a website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et cetera? The answer is obvious — it depends. Synagogues must focus and deepen their content by channel in order to maintain an effective and successful social presence.

Avoid participating in more than you can manage. While it might feel good to think you are connecting with members on all those channels, in all likelihood your connections are only skin deep, which will result in a dead end. Over exerting your social reach just because a new network is enticing and free can also be troublesome. When establishing a new social identity, it is essential to fully commit to using the new channel. Accounts left stagnant and/or void of meaningful content often speak worse than having no presence on the channel.  

The key starting point is already complicated enough because you need two anchors for your basic social media presence — the synagogue website and Facebook. You cannot be without these two. Your website is your online home, and Facebook is your online community. In between these two you are building walkways of connections. Each of these channels need a good deal of content management to keep them vibrant and to ensure people will repeatedly return.

Today, when more and more members and prospective members live further and further away from synagogues, your online community building program is more important than ever. The majority of your congregants are involved with online activities, and you are challenged to meet each segment of your community uniquely with your online presence.  For example, those over 55 are using your website to gather information, while those in their 20s and 30s are using Facebook as their place for a connected community. Each segment of your membership has different needs. How are you connecting with them? Each segment of your community needs to be provided with the value they want, not what you want. This value-based approach requires both a brick and mortar strategy and an online strategy.

So, back to the original question: to tweet or not to tweet? While Twitter can be an important part of your online communications strategy, the real question to ask is whether you have the capacity to use multiple online tools to increase connections with your members, or whether you need to focus on your website and Facebook presence (and get your organization grounded) before taking on additional social options such as Twitter. How much is too much? That’s something only you can decide.