Social media is a relatively recent phenomenon.
According to an ONS report the number of adults accessing the Internet every day in Great Britain more than doubled between 2006 and 2012, largely driven by social media.1 Mention the phrase ‘social media’ and I suspect most people fit into one of three broad categories: willing participants, uneasy users, or steadfast refusers!
The phrase however simply refers to any media platform that allows users to share social content with a network of other users – the best known examples being Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
However familiar (or not) any of us may be with each platform, the social media revolution of the last decade is opening doors to reach university students in ways that simply were not possible before the technology existed. UCCF’s aim is to give every student in Great Britain the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That aim is what motivates many of our staff to use social media to reach the current technology driven generation.
90% aware
Wales Team Leader Owen Brown said: ‘When used well, social media genuinely allows the Christian Union to reach the entire university campus, and gives the realistic expectation of making contact with every single student.’
The science behind this claim is very straightforward – through social media, every student is only two contacts away from every other undergraduate at their university, such is the overlap created through courses, societies and friendship groups. At the last city-wide mission in Cardiff, the CU estimated that through Facebook alone they were able to reach 90% of the student body to make them aware of events going on across the week. CU members are able to ‘tag’ friends in news updates, to photographs, pictures and videos, in fact to any media related to the mission week, all of which raises awareness not just to their friends but to their peer group as well. Speaking of the evangelistic potential of social media, Owen shared: ‘As a means of cold contact evangelism, it is exceptional for attracting students to events who wouldn’t otherwise have a Christian contact.’
Instahunt
Social media also plays an important role for building community, both between CU members, and in making the CU a part of university life. James Watts, a UCCF staff worker in London, explained some of the ways that University College London CU used social media to encourage the CU team and connect with their university. ‘The CU organised an ‘Instahunt’ – where teams were formed to do a picture scavenger hunt across London and posted responses to Instagram answering the challenges. In a city like London where many students commute from home and community is harder to develop, this is a great way to build a mis-sional community. They also use the #MyUCLYear on their posts which is university-wide Instagram hashtag, so they’re to some extent visible in the wider social media context of their university.’
Rather in the same way that Paul went into the marketplaces so that he might win some for Christ, CUs are responding to the fact that many students communicate endlessly online through social media. The best social media content ultimately brings students to the point where they hear the gospel and have the chance to respond to it. Whether this is simply making a student aware that there is a Christian Union at their university, or a specific awareness of events or opportunities to meet Christian students, social media can help CUs in their aim to reach the whole university.
Daniel Stafford is Head of Logistics for UCCF. To get a flavour of some of the content CUs are producing visit UCCF’s twitter page, www.twitter.com/UCCF.
