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June 5, 2012

Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber Beat On Twitter By Evangelical Leaders

(Updated) Twitter ramps up efforts to reach church and faith leaders after realizing the popularity of religious tweets.

Update (April 9): PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly is spotlighting Twitter's faith-outreach efforts. The show notes a recent meeting between top Twitter social innovation strategist Claire Diaz-Ortiz, former White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships executive director Joshua DuBois, and D.C.-based National Community Church pastor Mark Batterson.

CT previously reported on Twitter's effort to reach out to Christian leaders at the Catalyst conference in 2011.
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Research by Twitter into its most-popular messages has revealed that tweets by evangelical celebrities perform up to 30 times better than messages from pop culture celebrities. Inspirational messages by Joyce Meyer, Max Lucado, and Andy Stanley, among other high-profile evangelicals, are forwarded and responded to more frequently than many entertainers, sports figures, and politicians.

In response, Twitter has dispatched a senior executive to Atlanta to encourage more evangelical leaders to join Twitter, according to the New York Times. CT reported on Twitter's effort to recruit more pastors at this year's Catalyst conference, as well as examined how social networking helps Christian better engage the Bible.

CT has also reported on trends in religious self-profiling on social networks.

Comments

This makes me happy! We need more Christian leaders to be on twitter so they can salt and light in this dark world.

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