Last week I was able to attend a Social Phonics social media boot camp put on by JoPa Productions and hosted at Andover Newton Theological School.
Here is a brief blurb about the training from their website:
“In our one-day Social Media Boot Camp, veteran pastors and social mediaistas, Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones will guide you through the basics of the most popular social media services, including blogging, Facebook,Twitter and free broadcast media. You will learn how, in just three 30-minute periods each week, you can dramatically increase your communication to members of your church or people interested in your organization and, even more importantly, to those who have the potential to visit your church or business. Most importantly, we’ll help you determine your own social media philosophy, so that you’ll know exactly why you’re going online each week.
Imagine getting real-time feedback from your parishioners as you prepare your sermon, spreading the word about a church outreach program without buying a newspaper ad, or posting a YouTube welcome to new neighbors in your community. Imagine hearing what customers are saying about your business or organization.
All of this is possible, and it doesn’t have to be intimidating. In fact, we’ll make it fun!”
Tony Jones instructed and taught this group of pastors, leaders, congregants, and educators.
I highly recommend attending or hosting this training seminar as it applies to everyone ranging for technological novices to those considering themselves social media junkies. Both basic and advanced ideas and training was presented in a way that clearly made sense and was applicable.
Topics and Tech covered included:
The rise of importance, relevance, and influence of social media.
How to increase your reach and message via social media platforms and devices.
Effectively communicating and connecting your congregation and audience.
Getting your name into the community with maximize exposure and minimum cost.
Twitter, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Yelp, U-stream, and Blogging
I consider myself fairly adept with technology. I have a growing blog, Google profile, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube account, etc and I was surprised at how much I still did not know.
Even in the past few weeks, Facebook and Google have added excellent features to help track web traffic and simply makes things more convenient, and none of those features I had previously known or used.
I also learned some great ideas to help improve my blog feeds and reader accessibility.
You can stay current (and even be ahead of the curve) by attending this boot camp.
The day was fun, affordable, learner-centered, and extremely interactive.
We are hoping to have JoPa come to the NY area and host a boot camp for our area.
Church denominations, all pastoral staff members, public and private educators, communicators, and anyone else looking to make an impact in today’s (and tomorrow’s) society must be up to date with technology and the use of social media, and the Social Phonics boot camp is a great way to get started.
Emerging youth's Weblog 
Let me know when you plan to have them come!
I’m totally there!!!