A lot of people equate senior pastors to CEOs.
UberCEO, a blog that “follows, comments, reports, and discusses everying about the CEOs who influence the business world,” surveyed CEOs from Fortune’s 2009 list of the top 100 CEOs to find out how many of them were using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, or were blogging.
The results were a little surprising:
- Only two CEOs have Twitter accounts.
- 13 CEOs have LinkedIn profiles, and of those only three have more than 10 connections.
- 81% of CEOs don’t have a personal Facebook page.
- Three quarters of the CEOs have some kind of Wikipedia entry, but nearly a third of those have limited or outdated information.
- Not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog.
Where does your pastor rank?
This got me thinking. I would have to say that in my un-scientific observations pastors, in general, are not slacking in social media. This isn’t to say they’re using it right, over-using it, under-using it, fully understand it, etc, but I think they are using it.
At first I thought the results were probably similar, CEOs to pastors, but think about the number of pastors who have blogs. Consider the number of pastors who have Twitter accounts. I guarantee it’s higher than the stats above.
UberCEO says these reasons are why CEOs aren’t using social media. Look familiar?
1. Fear 2. Lack of knowledge 3. Time constraints
Does your pastor have a good handle on social media? My pastor is about to make the jump by the end of summer.
Why your pastor needs to be using social media…
Some adapted from UberCEOs article.
- This is the way folks in the community are communicating. It’s a great opportunities to connect and listen to the needs.
- If they don’t utilize social media, they’re giving the impression that they’re disconnected, disengaged, and disinterested.
- An accessible pastor is an asset. When folks feel a personal connection to a pastor, the result is a more committed volunteer and servant to the cause.
- It’s a good practice to examine their online image and reputation.
- The opportunity to positively effect their church’s perception and visibility.
I know these aren’t the only positives. What’s your opinion?
More findings from the survey…
Check it out for yourself:
http://www.uberceo.com/home/2009/6/23/its-official-fortune-100-ceos-are-social-media-slackers.html
Brilliant post. I am reading an advance copy of SimChurch by Doug Estes right now and it talks about the virtual church that is coming very soon to our world. I am so amazed at how many churches and pastors are so far behind the curve when it comes to social media and networking. Makes me mad that churches suck so badly at staying relevant to the world around them at the same time engaging in presenting the timeless message of Jesus.
Great comments, Benji. I’ve heard good reviews of SimChurch. I need to pick up a copy.
Great article. I think in my context (and others) the senior pastor twittering simply isn’t valuable. Other people in our community aren’t twittering.
But if you look at the “Fortune 100″ of churchworld, you’ll see that Andy Stanley has twitter, Driscoll has a blog and facebook, Groeschel has a blog, etc.
The stats are really interesting though.