Welcome to Connected Church News!
This week, we have news about TikTok, WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, Meta.
🗞️ News 1: Facebook Messenger gets a premium Recurring Notifications feature
Source:Facebook
Facebook Messaging platform gets a new feature called Recurring Notifications, which could be important if you are a Church or a Ministry that is using Messenger as a key platform to connect with your audience, either through ads or through small groups, or 1-on-1. Because if you are using Messenger, you know that there are restrictions right now, in terms of how often you can get back to the people messaging you. For example, you remember the 24-hours window? What is happening is, as a company, Meta seems to be shifting that approach and lifting certain restrictions because the announcement says you can now send “…proactive, automated messaging to people who have opted in…” and “…drive re-engagement and keep the conversation going…”. I will link to this article in the show notes. It has multiple details of how you can go about doing this, how you can use this for your Ministry, etc. Please pass this on to your social media team or your messaging team.
🗞️ News 2: TikTok launches Live Subscription monetization program for creators
Source:TikTok
We have been hearing recently about how TikTok is taking multiple efforts to lure more creators onto its platform. This announcement last week is part of that process, where they have announced a new program called Live Subscription. This is a monetization program that helps creators monetize their livestream on TikTok. This will include subscriber badges. It will include custom emotes and also subscriber-only chat. As of now, this feature is going to be invite-only, but they are saying they will eventually roll itout to a wider audience. TikTok wants to compete with YouTube when it comes to monetization. They have been going all out adding new features to their monetization programs
🗞️ News 3: Meta expands Ad Library listing with targeting info on social issues
Source:Meta | Ad Library
Meta has announced that they are adding additional information to their Ad Library listing, which could be helpful for you, as a nonprofit or a ministry, because this includes additional information related to social, political and electoral ads. I know that many nonprofits that are listening to me actually focus on ‘social issues’ in your advertising. So this information that is shared by Meta in their Ad Library could be useful for you. Ad Library is a resource where Meta shares information about how people run ads, how people target ads, etc. So it’s like a research center where you can go look at various ads and how people have targeted, especially in the ‘social issues’ area. That way, when you’re trying to help people, when you’re trying to minister to people, you can create better ads by understanding what others are doing. I will link to both the Ad Library and this news item. Please pass it on to your advertising strategy team.
🗞️ News 4: Twitter Create, a new resource site launched to help creators use platform
Source:Twitter
Twitter has announced a new source center called Twitter Create. It used to be called Twitter Media, but now it is rebranded and redesigned. This is a resource center that helps you learn how to use Twitter to grow your ministry or your organization. I really like the way this resource center is structured because it talks about the type of organization that you are. For example, it has separate sections for creators, a separate section for sportspeople, a separate section for film and TV. They also have a separate section for nonprofits. So if you go into the nonprofit section, it talks about how various people in the nonprofit segment are using Twitter and what are the tools available. For example, Twitter Spaces. How do you use it as a nonprofit? Twitter analytics? Quite a useful resource for nonprofits and ministries. Please have a look.
🗞️ News 5: WhatsApp releases a new cloud-based API & WhatsApp Business features
Source:WhatsApp
Whatsapp made a couple of big announcements last week related to ministries and organizations. The first is about opening up its cloud-based API to all organizations and businesses. This is using the Meta infrastructure so it brings down the amount of time it takes for you to integrate WhatsApp API with your communication infrastructure. So please pass this information on to your communication team if they have been looking for ways to integrate WhatsApp API into your systems. The second announcement is about improving the WhatsApp Business features. A couple of interesting announcements there. First is, they say they will give the ability to manage chats across up to 10 devices. In WhatsApp Business, you can now manage up to 10 devices very soon. They also say that they will provide a “new customizable WhatsApp click-to-chat link” that can help you interact with your audience on WhatsApp. Pretty important announcements related to churches and ministries using WhatsApp
Author of The Connected Church. Social Media and Digital Marketing Consultant for Nonprofits, Faith-based Organisations, Churches, and Ministries.
