Pastors with hundreds of thousands of virtual followers, sermons live-tweeted, a Bible mobile app downloaded by millions and now the Pope on Twitter – Christianity is taking a social media leap of faith.
I believe it could literally change the public’s perception of who the Pope is and what he’s about
Catholics and Protestants are quietly embracing the digital age in a bid to shake off an out-of-touch, stuffy image and gain more followers, culminating with Benedict XVI’s arrival on Twitter – and his much-anticipated first tweet today.
“The real power of Twitter is that it’s intimate and personal,” said Phil Cooke, author of a book that aims to help religious leaders understand the impact of social media.
“If the Pope uses it to share his personal thoughts about issues of the day, open up about his struggles and show followers his personal side, I believe it could literally change the public’s perception of who he is and what he’s about.”
Many religious groups have already embraced social media – the first being Evangelists, Baptists and Mormons – and a recent study shows they wield a lot of influence on Twitter.
“A year ago, we did some data analysis and realised that our religious leaders worldwide really punch above their weight in terms of their engagement levels on Twitter,” said Claire Diaz-Ortiz, Twitter social innovation manager.
The study found that an average religious leader had a rate of around one retweet for every 500 followers, while a musician would get one for every 30,000 followers.
@JoyceMeyer, for instance, is a Protestant author and speaker who has nearly 1.6 million Twitter followers and her posts are regularly retweeted thousands of times.
“Worry increases pressure; prayer releases peace,” she wrote on December 9 – a statement that was retweeted 4,500 times.
By contrast, Lady Gaga – who has 20 times more followers – saw her post on the same day retweeted 5,800 times.
The research also showed that 99 per cent of the largest 77 religious organisations in the US were already on Twitter.
Further afield, @DalaiLama has nearly 5.7 million followers on Twitter, the Pope of the Coptic Christians has also joined the social network and Muslim clerics in Saudi Arabia draw large followings.
In Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury will live-tweet his last Christmas sermon before he is replaced as spiritual leader of the Anglican church.