Social Media Mission Project

Social Media contacting tips for Full Time and Member Missionaries:

Are you looking for 1000 referrals that you can contact today inside your stake?

Sweeping the World

"…technology, including social media, facilitates spreading “the knowledge of a Savior … throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” These technologies include Church websites like LDS.org and Mormon.org; mobile apps such as Gospel Library, Mormon Channel, LDS Tools, and Family Tree; and social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. These modalities have generated hundreds of millions of likes, shares, views, retweets, and pins and have become very effective and efficient in sharing the gospel with family, friends, and associates. (Elder Gary Stevenson -"Spiritual Eclipse" - 2017 G.C.)

• Embracing the Future of Missionary Work - 14 June 2020 - Video by Elder Uchtdorf. Lessons learned from COVID-19 that we can all apply.
• Elder Bednar counsel about Social Media - 2015 Devotional Address - “Beginning at this place on this day, I exhort you to sweep the earth with messages filled with righteousness and truth, messages that are authentic, edifying, and praiseworthy, and literally to sweep the earth as with a flood,”
• No Neutral Ground - How Media Influences Us - "Our responsibility is not to avoid media altogether or to merely reject negative media but to choose wholesome and uplifting media."
• Use Social Media Wisely - Church Viewpoint

Building Community Bridges

A very important part of missionary work is building bridges (networking) with those who are not of our faith.

• Story of Ammon - The story of this Book of Mormon is a most powerful example of building community bridges through service. How many of us are willing to leave a position of great importance to be a humble servant amongst a people highly prejudiced negatively towards you?

Official Church Guidelines

• Sharing the Gospel Online -
• Social Media Guidelines of the Church -
• Use of Online Resources for Church Callings -
• How to Share the Gospel via Social Media - See more examples of others sharing the gospel online.

• Share - Many people seek for good today.
• Be Real - Sharing your own experience is the most powerful
• Listen - Listen to the Spirit, listen to investigator contacts. What are their concerns.
• Talk - Look for people with questions or comments. Strengthen relationships one-to-one.
• Invite - Ask them to do things.

Best Practices

Most communities have dozens of community facebook groups loaded with hundreds of "social" local residents.

"Many many members of the church are facebook shadow users. Meaning they read but rarely ever comment, like or share. That’s just their personality. My own dad was this way for a long time until I explained how that was hurting missionary work on facebook." (Life by Jeff Goff)

You do NOT have to post miracle posts to make contacts. The key in community relations is building relations of friendships.

1. Post Positive comments on other people's posts.
2. Post positive images (jpegs & gifs) on other people's comments. The American Flag image has been proven to boost positivity in social media posts.
3. Share positive uplifting thoughts.
4. Send "Friend" invites.
5. Posts with lots of "comments" will get higher visibility in Facebook. If you see a fellow missionary posting, post a supportive comment. "Thank you for sharing!"
6. Use "Direct Message" to posters / likers / sharers in facebook.
7. You do NOT have to be friends to send message. (Max at 10 per day, but you should have a goal to do no more than a couple per day.)
8. Start Message with simple "Hello" / "How are you". If they respond, you can start building a conversation from there. (If no response, move on to the next door.)

1000 Local Referrals from Social Media

Remember - there is a reason why it is called "Social Media":

• Join one or more local Facebook Groups / Pages
• Send a DM Message to others in the group asking if they would like to hear a spiritual message from the Missionaries of Jesus Christ.

It is that easy! Remember most of these people are very social and likely to have some form of interaction. Social Media contacting has to be many times easier and more effective than going door-to-door like your parents did.

• Join "NextDoor" and repeat.
• Watch all social media platforms for when neighbors begin religious discussions.
• Beware of posting rules for certain forums.

Engagement Projects

• Six Easy Ways Every Mormon can be an Effective Missionary on Facebook - 2018 Podcast by Jeff Goff.
• 4 Things Every Member can do to Increase Local Ward Baptism Rates - 2018 Podcast by Jeff Goff.
• Called to Share - 8 reasons why we need to Share the Book of Mormon.

Stage 1- Personal Missionary FB Page

"Important: If you thought it was good, but did not want to click “like” you’re telling Facebook “don’t share this with a bigger % of his friends, I did not like it!”

• One member of my ward each weeks snaps the cover of the sunday church program from his phone and posts to his personal FB Page. I always try to support this with a like, comment or share. It gets really fun when he travels the world and posts from a program from a different ward.

Working Example List

• Vista California Stake
• Carlsbad California Stake