Religion Goes Social Media

Facebook and Twitter are so popular that even the Pope will be joining. Next week, The Vatican will launch a Facebook page dedicated to Pope John Paul II, which is to promote the upcoming beatification taking place on May 1. The page aims to create interaction between the Pope and the public. Vatican officials see Facebook as a one stop portal for information and a great way to answer any questions the public has for the Pope.

This is what Vatican social communications representative says about social media marketing:

“A lot of our communications in the past was: I have a message. I broadcast it. TV takes it, radio takes it, newspaper takes it, and people passively receive it,” Tighe said. “With the Internet you have this possibility of getting people’s comments, getting their responses, and also of hearing their questions.”

It’s quite surprising to see even religion is starting to use social media to promote. Vatican seems to be such a Holy and traditional place that would be least expected to use social media. Even the Pope decides to use Facebook, who wouldn’t?

This allows other companies who haven’t thought of using social media for marketing to see the effect of inbound marketing and potentially create more opportunities for inbound marketing companies.

It will be interesting to see who will be joining the Pope next on Facebook. Maybe Dalai Lama?

Source: The Associated Press, Genopro.com