The Pope Gets Social
May 28th, 2009Posted by: Hannah Del Porto Posted in Social Media for Business, Web 2.0
Believe it or not, the 2k+ year old Vatican doesn’t shy away from new trends in technology. The Holy See’s website was developed 14 years ago and impresses both for its meticulous organization and for its incorporation of multimedia elements.
But this year the Vatican has lapped even some major corporations in its implementation of new technologies, especially social media, to communicate with its constituents.
Pope2You
Last week, the Vatican launched a new site called Pope2You which serves as a communications portal – featuring links to the Pope’s Facebook and iPhone apps, the Vatican on YouTube and Wikicath, a small quasi-wiki outlining the key points of the Pope’s message on World Communications Day. The site received almost half a million visits in the first day.
Sadly, you won’t be friending the Pontiff anytime soon – the Vatican eschewed the classic Facebook profile and fanpage in favor of a custom application on what the Vatican calls ” the most important social network of the world.”
“The Pope meets you on Facebook” allows you to send the text of Pope Benedict’s Message for the 43rd World Day of Communications and a selection of 21 electronic postcards to your Facebook friends.
Although limited in features, the application garnered 10k uses in first day.
YouTube
Vatican Radio was launched in 1931 and the Vatican Television Center in 1983 (though they had been televising events for nearly 50 years). A few months ago, the video clips from these services were used to create a YouTube channel.
With 208 videos currently available, the Vatican aims to present the Church’s position on major issues through providing coverage of the Pope’s news conferences, speeches and other Vatican-related events.
Fr. Lombardi, the director of Vatican media, said in a press conference that the channel will offer a number of interactivity options: the possibility of sharing videos with friends, receiving new videos via i-google and a chance to send comments to the Vatican press office.
iPhone App
H2Onews, in collaboration with the Vatican Television Center and Vatican Radio, is offering a Papal video news service for iPhone and iPod Touch.
The application offers updates on the travels and speeches of Benedict XVI, as well as on key international ecclesiastical events by optimizing videos from the Vatican’s YouTube channel.
Each video is accompanied by a transcript and the application offers feeds in eight languages: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, and Chinese.
Reasons to Reach Out
Rev. Claudio Celli, president of the pontifical council for social communications, told the press conference that it had been suggested that the Pope was “lowering” himself by appearing on YouTube. Celli’s response: “The Pope doesn’t lower himself by going on Google. It’s a question of having a strategic vision. This is a first small step towards becoming a church that enters into dialogue with today’s world.”
Even an institution as rooted in tradition as the Vatican can see the opportunity to use social media to:
-Increase and engage its audience
-Disseminate information and control brand identity
-Keep up with new communications and technology developments
But so far, the Holy See is using these outlets as broadcast-only. While an understandable start, considering not only the volume of information that such a large fan base could generate but also the controversy that surrounds some of the Church’s positions, there is a definite opportunity for the Vatican to use social media as a conversational tool.
What else do you think the Vatican could do to engage people online? Should they allow user feedback through commenting? Forums? Twitter?
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Tags: Facebook, Holy See, iPhone, Pope, Pope2You, Vatican, WikiCath, YouTube
