Best practices for Facebook

[lajackson]

How do you control the advertisements?

[gregwanderson]

I refer all of us to Handbook 2, section 21.1.22 which says:

Stake and ward Web sites may be created only by using the official Church resources. Stakes and wards are not authorized to create other Web sites or blogs or otherwise have a Church-sponsored presence on the Internet.

and

On occasion, official Church Web sites may be approved for other purposes, such as multistake projects, special events, and young single adult activities and organization. To seek approval for such a site, the organization’s priesthood leader submits a request stating the purpose and need to a member of the Presidency of the Seventy or the Area Presidency.

From where I'm sitting, this Ward or Stake Facebook group idea isn't in such a "gray area" after all. Has the Stake President really obtained authorization from a member of the Presidency of the Seventy or the Area Presidency? If not, shut this down until it happens, period.

I've commented on a "Ward App" idea in another forum discussion and my comments are basically the same here. There's nothing significant about what you'd like to do with a Ward or Stake Facebook group that couldn't be done using the tools at LDS.org (primarily with the Newsletter and Calendar tools) except that signing in at LDS.org is less convenient and excludes those who don't have LDS Accounts. And I think the church would really, really like us to get into the habit of using their official tools. What better time to get members into the habit of using the official tools than when they're college students living "on their own" for the first time?

Others here have pointed out the nightmare (and I'll call it a nightmare) of trying to manage a closed Facebook group based on move-ins and move-outs in a BYU Stake. Why not just use the LDS.org tools where this is all done automatically based on what happens in MLS?

I also wonder about the liability of putting people who don't necessarily want to socialize with each other into a common Facebook group. Will "Jason" now be able to access personal information about "Ann" that she doesn't want him to have? Perhaps "Ann" hasn't verified her Facebook privacy settings to anticipate what someone else in her Stake Facebook Group can see. This is avoided when you use the LDS.org tools instead.

So, rather than create all this extra work and headaches for a "Stake Facebook Group Administrator" just make an announcement every Sunday at Sacrament Meetings that all Stake information is available in the official tools at LDS.org. They'll get the idea.

Also, would the developers of the "LDS Tools" mobile app PLEASE incorporate the Newsletter into that app?

[sbradshaw]

How do you control the advertisements?

We don't, any more than we could control advertisements in an email program if we were sending information out via email.

We will still be encouraging people to use all of the LDS.org tools. For example, usually if someone asks for something like a phone number for an interview, we say, "You'll want to contact one of the executive secretaries. Here's the link to the LDS.org Directory." We've also been posting things like home evening group divisions on the LDS.org Newsletter and directing people there as a permanent link. I would say that there certainly are things that can be done on Facebook that can't be done at all on the LDS.org tools: for example, if someone needs to borrow a hammer, they post and within 5 minutes someone responds (this really does happen, all the time, and it's amazing). Or, "I'm watching 17 Miracles in my apartment in an hour – feel free to come!" And, people can have conversations or get feedback when planning activities. We can reach many who don't even attend church.

There is no managing of a stake Facebook group – our stake has a page, not a group. It's the individual wards who have groups, and they are best suited to deal with new move-ins and -outs, just as they deal with moving membership records. And being a member of a group with someone doesn't let you see any more information about them than looking them up outside of the group. No phone numbers, email addresses, etc. are exposed because you're in the same group as someone – it just means you get notified when someone sends a message to the group, and you can have conversations based on those messages.

[gregwanderson]

And being a member of a group with someone doesn't let you see any more information about them than looking them up outside of the group.

...until Facebook unexpectedly changes the default privacy settings and people don't realize what's being newly disclosed... but that never happens. :rolleyes:

I still don't think these Facebook groups stand up against Handbook 2, 21.1.22.

[lajackson]

We don't, any more than we could control advertisements in an email program if we were sending information out via email.

We use email systems that do not send out advertisements.

Our stake policy does not allow Facebook pages for ward and stake organizations because of the prohibition in the Handbook (cited earlier in this topic), and because we cannot control the ads. Many of the advertisements are so totally inappropriate and contrary to the teachings of the Church that our stake president has deemed it unacceptable. (That said, I also have an assignment to monitor all the ones I can find because members continue to use the names of their ward and stake and the Church in pages they establish, contrary to priesthood leader counsel.)

Here is just one example of how Facebook is used in a way that I personally do not believe is contrary to the Handbook.

All of the Young Women know that the Young Women president has a personal Facebook page, and that they will find information about many of their activities and lessons there in addition to what is on the ward calendar and the very limited ward lesson schedule.

Many of our members use their personal Facebook accounts to further their Church work in similar ways, and much unofficial communication takes place via that and other social media. We do not fault that.

We are also blessed to live in a location where approval has been given to host area YSA and SA web sites (not Facebook pages). And this has been a great blessing to us, because they are priesthood approved and priesthood monitored. The information on them is correct and can be relied upon as the basis for travel plans and informed calendars. When a Facebook announcement goes out, our YSA and SA can check the official site to confirm information or report problems, and any conflicts can be quickly resolved.

Media is wonderful, but it comes with a price. My stake president texted me for months and was puzzled that I seemed to be ignoring all but a very few of his texts. He later learned that I was not receiving any text he sent if he sent it to more than one person, which was usually the case. The only ones I received were the ones he sent to me and no one else.

Such is technology.

[russellhltn]

...until Facebook unexpectedly changes the default privacy settings and people don't realize what's being newly disclosed... but that never happens. :rolleyes:

Which raises another question: I've also noticed that the church is quite careful to never advertise who is and is not a member. It's completely up to the member to make that announcement to their friends and associates. Short of becoming a Bishop, or attending that ward in person, no one would find out that information from the church itself.

How does privacy work in a FB setting? Can the member's friends see that they belong to this group? Could some of these posts in the groups be seen by a friend of a member? This may not seem like a big deal for a typical YSA in a Provo, but what if the member is coming from a country where church membership could have repercussions?

And as mrrad noted, how can we be sure of what is fine today will continue to be OK?

My suggestion: rather then trying to add everyone automatically, it should be done only of the member wants to be added. IOW, there needs to be permission. (It could be at the top of the sign-up sheet, so it doesn't have to be a big deal - just as long as the member is clear about what they are doing.)

I think that idea dovetails nicely with my suggestion of getting FB information from a known member rather then attempting to add them based on the ward directory.

[sbradshaw]

A member's friends can see that they belong to the group. (We often have nonmembers in the group, too, who live within our ward boundaries and participate in ward activities.) A person can add themselves to the group, or they can be added by someone who is already their Facebook friend (usually a roommate), and if they are "added" to a group by their friend they have the opportunity to opt out (when they go to the group page the first time after they're added, there's a little bar at the top that gives them the option to leave). There is no way for a clerk to force-add anyone.

What I mean by "email programs having advertisements" is if I send out an email to a ward member, and they log in to, say, Yahoo or something to check their mail, there are likely to be ads on the side of the Yahoo email web site. They will appear next to any email that is received because they are part of Yahoo. That doesn't mean we don't use email to communicate to our ward members.

[lajackson]

What I mean by "email programs having advertisements" is if I send out an email to a ward member, and they log in to, say, Yahoo or something to check their mail, there are likely to be ads on the side of the Yahoo email web site.

Oh, okay. And that is the member's choice, of course.

I was thinking of a case where if you use Juno, for example, to send an email, Juno attaches an advertisement to the bottom of your email that goes with the message. (I think Yahoo does that, also, and I am sure there are others.) Those are the ones that the sender cannot control. So I use an email service that does not do that.

[russellhltn]

I was thinking of a case where if you use Juno, for example, to send an email, Juno attaches an advertisement to the bottom of your email that goes with the message. (I think Yahoo does that, also, and I am sure there are others.) Those are the ones that the sender cannot control. So I use an email service that does not do that.

Not sure about those, but if you use email lists like Yahoo groups, you'll get an ad inserted by the re-mailer. As far as I know, there's no control over what the ad will be.

But getting back to the subject, yes, FB inserts ads of it's own choosing. Assuming the member already has a FB account, then it's of their own choosing. But the ad situation might be a concern if being in the group causes targeted anti advertising or if it encourages members to sign up for FB.

[sbradshaw]

As an update on this topic, for anyone reading, the church's policies about members' internet use in callings in Handbook 2 has been updated!
https://www.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2 ... ng#21.1.22