The Social Media Gospel - 2nd Edition by Meredith Gould (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

If you are responsible for managing digital communications in your parish, staying current with trends in the rapidly changing world of social media can seem like an overwhelming task. Which social medium platforms make sense for your church community? How can you make them an effective tool for ministry?

As a veteran social media expert, author, and sociologist, Meredith Gould has helped answer these questions and more in her best-selling book The Social Media Gospel. In this second edition, Gould provides an easy-to-understand, step-by-step guide to digital ministry for those wishing to embrace new technologies to build community and deepen faith. In this expanded edition, Gould delivers new content with humor, helpful tips, and counsel anchored in practical experience. She focuses on key topics for effective church communication, including:

- Building and ministering to online communities
- Privacy and self-disclosure in the digital age
- Integrating communications across digital platforms
- Managing and monitoring social media
- Faith storytelling with visual social media
- Hashtag development and live-tweeting

Review Quotes

"In the first edition of The Social Media Gospel, author Meredith Gould offered the basics to take the fear away from tackling social media, especially in ministry settings. Rather than replacing face-to-face connections, we learn the best ways to use online communication and social media to enhance our ministry. In her second edition, Gould adds even more detailed guidance for our individual needs. Both editions are gems for those wishing to properly navigate the ever-changing waters of social media."
Elizabeth Caywood, Living Lutheran

Meredith Gould's The Social Media Gospel is a go-to text for my course on digital media and ministry, and it has been very well received by students. Pastoral ministry students value its practicality, its keen awareness of digital culture, and its warm, accessible and authentic tone. Part of the challenge of ministry formation in our digital culture is that it can seem like an overwhelming context. Gould's book makes the overwhelming not only accessible but enjoyable as she readily brings herself and her valuable practical experiences to this text. I am #grateful for the second edition, which acknowledges the changing shape of our digital culture, even in two short years since the first book. Hope there is a third, fourth and more down the line."
Daniella Zsupan-Jerome
Assistant Professor of Liturgy, Catechesis and Evangelization
Loyola University New Orleans

This book's themes are pretty straightforward: church is more than a building, online life mirrors offline life, strategic thinking guides wise decisions. The gift of The Social Media Gospel lies in Meredith's frank and accessible advice for putting those principles to work in a ministry landscape we can all find overwhelming. I can't wait to share this expanded edition with new cohorts of seminarians and practicing ministers.
Kyle Matthew Oliver, digital missioner in the Center for the Ministry of Teaching at Virginia Theological Seminary