Social Media

I’m often viewed as the disruptive one in the room. Maybe it’s how I’m wired or how I’m bent—I’m sure my friends could give you opinions on that either way. I love ideas, and I love ones that disrupt the status quo. If it has always worked and it’s not broken—I ask why we haven’t tried enough new methods to find a better one.

Over the past two years we have seen the status quo disrupted whether we wanted it or not. I’ve heard many describe a new level of ministry, connecting with people in entirely new ways.

Adventist Review Ministries has taken a very intentional approach to engaging with people in more ways and on more channels than ever in the past few years. As we say: content is king! And today more people than ever engage with the content of our ministry on social media— specifically on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter—rather than in print. That’s quite the change from decades in the past.

There’s a variety of reasons for that. The big- gest is that no matter what channel or medium or preference, members today can find content that is still inspiring and thought-provoking from the Adventist Review Ministries team.

The Key

You may be wondering what kind of content garners the most attention and engagement. With hundreds of stories and commentaries and features and videos and podcasts over the past year, what rises to the top? The sweet spot seems to be current events and prophecy: where do current events fit in the time line or journey as our movement awaits the second coming of Jesus? Anytime a piece of content gets close to that intersection, there’s a significant rise in engagement across all platforms. A piece that spurs the question “Does this event taking place in the world have significance in the stream of prophecy?” is going to get read and shared across many channels.

Some content isn’t just engaged with only one time, either. At times a piece may be seen on social media, and, given that you have only a minute or two, you see the headline and subhead and think, That’s an article I think I would like. So you save it or email it to yourself, and read it at home when you have more time. There are still myriad new ways to engage with content.