News Release

A Celebration of Social Media

Around 200 youth from the eleven congregations of the Church in Nairobi, Kenya, gathered in Upper Hill, Nairobi, to hear their leaders talk to them about how to use the social media to share the gospel. This fun event was presided over by Elder T. Jackson Mkhabela, an Area Seventy.

Elder and Sister Murdock, the Area Assistant Directors for Public Affairs in the Africa Southeast Area, gave a one hour presentation on how the Church has integrated its websites with social medias, enabling those who visit the sites to share the content with others on their social network platforms. One of the main Church websites is www.lds.org, which is more targeted to the members of the Church and has doctrinal content. The other website is mormon.org, which is targeted to those interested in learning more about the Church. In the last few years the Church has also created country Mormon Newsrooms which are the official resource for the Church, targeted to provide information to news media, opinion leaders and the public. Kenya’s Mormon Newsroom address is www.mormonnewsroom.co.ke. The Church also has other video content exclusive websites including Mormon Channel and several YouTube Channels.

 

All these websites have leading social media ‘share buttons’ and plug-ins. For example when someone reads an article on mormonnewsroom.co.ke, they can click on a ‘like’ or ‘share’ button at the bottom of the story and instantly the story appears as a post on their timeline as is the case with facebook or a tweet as is the case with twitter.  This way, all followers and friends associated with the person reading the article will be able to see the article on their timelines and if they read and ‘share’ the article as well, their friends and followers also can be able to see and read the article.  One of the success stories of this concept is when the Church announced the reduction of the missionary entry age for young male missionaries from 19 to 18 and for young females from 21 to 19. The subsequent story became a trend item on Twitter.   

At the conclusion of the fireside, the youth were encouraged to use social media to do good, share the gospel, and make friendships that may open up new conversations about the Church.

Leaders of the Church have often counseled, “The Church encourages the use of social media so long as it supports the mission of the Church, improves relationships and facilitates revelation among children of our Heavenly Father. Church members are encouraged to be examples of their faith at all times and in all places, including when participating in the global conversations available through social media.”

Church leaders, including the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, also have social media accounts. 

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