Paul Allen has just predicted that Facebook will become the largest social network in the world. It has just launched a new business model that encourages people to develop and distribute applications on its platform. Great entreprenurial opportunites.
Now, how can members use Facebook to share the gospel?
Read more about Facebook’s plans:
- Facebook Welcomes Outside Services
- Facebook’s app feeding frenzy – 40,000 developers engaged already
I think Facebook and other social-networking sites (MySpace, iGoogle, etc.) all provide increased awareness of our online activities, including those related to the Church. As members join church-themed groups and participate in discussions, post church-related content (messages, photos, videos, applications, etc.) it provides another opportunity for all of their “friends” to be notified and to find out more about the Church.
As this technology matures, I think we will be able to identify more ways to share both the gospel in action as well as the counsel of ancient and modern prophets with our network of friends.
I think there’s also an opportunity here to mobilize large groups of members to perform service online that can reflect positively on the Church. Something like an online version of “Mormon Helping Hands” / EFY service projects in which large numbers of members and friends can swarm around service projects and either coordinate offline service or create digital artifacts (e.g. genealogical indexes) that can benefit others.
Has the Church considered creating a “network” on such networking sites as Facebook and LinkedIn for those members who participate to link together more formally? As a member of both sites above, I’d like a way to link to a “portal” LDS Church network page on which the Church could provide links to official sites and other pertinent information.