Social media is a great way for missionaries to connect with supporters and loved ones back home. Inspirational stories can be followed and donors can see the difference their money is making first-hand with photos, video blogs, and written stories available online.
1) Written Blogging: is the first form of blogging. People write articles to share information with others. There are many different types of written blogs:
- Personal
- Collaborative
- Corporate
- Topical
- How-to
Most missionaries use personal blogs to tell their story. Blogger is a very popular website for most bloggers. One example of missionaries using Blogger is Dave and Jana Jenkins, a couple writing about their work in Rwanda. Here is another website dedicated to missionary blogs.
2) Photo Blogging (Photoblogs): A personal journal of photos that are available for others to see. One social media site for photoblogging is fotothing. On this site, one user has photos of his/her missionary team. One photo features the team members praying for the kids of the bakerton location. This is a great way to share all the snap shots your team takes while out in the field.
3) Video Blogging (Videocasts): Similar to photo blogging, except instead of photos, members post videos. One example of a missionary that used YouTube to record videos of his experiences is Justin Ashurst. Another great site for video sharing is Vimeo.
4) Audio Blogging (Podcasts): An array of audio files produced by the blogger available for download. Many churches are currently doing podcasts of their Sunday services. The City Church is a great example of integrating their podcasts by using iTunes.
This website goes over the blogging basics and has some great vocabulary! To learn how to integrate these blogging methods into your missionary work, check out Salty Waffle’s classes! Salty Waffle has worked with companies like Shell and Synotac on podcasting and we can help you too!