Facebook Marketing to Faith Based Organizations?

Let me immediately state that I do not consider this a faith or religious post and hope that you will agree by the time you read it.

In a fascinating Oxford Press article, the writer suggested that fear and demise – 9/11, militant fundamentalism and economic collapse – were amongst factors that improved adherence to faith in the period 1981-2007. Thereafter, 2008 till now, with increasing prosperity, the rise of choice, greater independence of women, increased life expectancy, leadership scandals, and politics that the ranks of the faithful have decreased significantly in number.

The Pandemic as it has done with businesses has further whittled followers. Fatih-based organizations have had to find new methods to reach their believers many trying to bridge the gap by engaging in virtual prayers and streaming. So how in the midst of a pandemic can a place of worship survive and even grow?

It might not come to mind straight off but when you think about it, Facebook could be well-positioned to take up the challenge. Interestingly the number of active Facebook followers stands at 3B while Christian followers number 2.3B with Islam at 1.8B worshipers. All at their core promote building relationships and creating connections.

Since 2018 Facebook has been courting partnerships with churches, synagogues, mosques and temples in their bid to become the virtual home of the religious community.

Facebook would not just video stream but develop tailored made social engagement tools to improve sharing and fellowship. There would also be ways to fundraise, reach much broader audiences eventually moving into virtual reality and augmented reality. The intent is to provide much deeper connections between the message and experience and of course increase membership.

Take for instance the already recently developed prayer feature that can be used to request prayer for someone going through an ordeal, like surgery or recovering from a natural disaster.

The biggest concern of course that would exist is privacy concerns and the protection of intimate data, which in a faith context would be considered highly confidential. Not to mention the risk of unapproved mining of your data which could be inappropriately used to further sway opinion, predict consumer behaviour and much more

A cross-section of the very many granular concerns that could arise are:

• How should, if at all, advertisements be handled during online service?
• Should 'pay for' tools be pursued that would promote special access to prayers from the top Imam, Archbishop, or Rabbi?
• Should there be concern around Facebook be in the centre of helping to build community? Or will the tools promote divisiveness and more segregation as people move more from the physical into the virtual space?
• How aggressively should marketing be done for real-time donations?
• Should retargeting and pop-ups approaches for donations be pursued?
• Is there any concern around the virtual church and whether its promotion could lead to the replacement of the physical church?
• Does virtual undermine the physical touch (e.g. greetings) and celebration of things only available within holy spaces?

It seems that Facebook will continue to work closely with a number of faith-based groups to determine the design and application of all these strategies and products. The jury of comment would still be out until these are further crystalized.

What’s your opinion about big tech like Facebook marketing to faith-based organizations? Do you think it helps or hurts?

Hugh
Let me know if you liked the article and please share your thoughts