Having been invested in youth ministry for over 10 years now and also engaged with social media since I was in college, I have long thought about how these two things intersect. One of the first questions I get from people on how they should best use social media is, what social media should I be involved in. Of course, I personally cannot answer that because I do not know where their teens are at on social media for their specific location.
What I can do, is encourage them to figure out what is most used in their location and also show them national averages like the infographic below.
Here are three key points I would show off to youth workers every time, when it comes to teen social media usage:
- Facebook is by far the most engaged social network for teenagers 16-19. They may not be super active with adults, but they are definitely still using it.
- YouTube is a great youth social network, but think about what they are doing there. They want to be entertained. Is a 45 minute video devotional going to get views? No.
- Just because a social network like Twitter is geared towards marketing, does not mean that teens are not on it.
What social networks does your youth ministry heavily invest in?
[via GlobalWebIndex.net]
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