When it came time to find out how Catholics in Florida were responding to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ new Facebook page for a story I was writing for the Living Our Faith page in the current Florida Catholic print editions, I went to the obvious place: Facebook.
I combed through the USCCB page’s list of “fans” - there were fewer than 600 at the time - for people who volunteered the information that they lived in Florida. Then I sent a one-on-one message to my identified prospects asking them to respond to a series of questions if they wanted to be considered as a source for the story.
It worked like a charm. I got a lot of great comments for the story “Welcome to Facebook, U.S. Catholic bishops!” and made a few “friends” on the Facebook page I’ve created to use exclusively in my professional role as managing editor of the Florida Catholic.
It’s too late to be included in the print-edition story, but if you would like to express your thoughts on the U.S. bishops’ online outreach, the Florida Catholic would still love to hear them. (It has more than 1,300 fans now.) Please use the “Leave a Comment” function below. And if you’d like to become my Facebook friend, click here.
If you are not already familiar with Facebook - or you are but you’d like to read a young adult Catholic’s view on the social networking site - you might first want to check out Valerie Bryant’s words of warning in “Dodging dreck to harness the good of online social networks,” which appeared in the FAITHCorner of our print Living Our Faith.
We encourage and welcome your participation in the Living Faith Blog. Before submitting your comment be sure to see Florida Catholic’s Comment Policy.