How do we as young adults and church leaders engage with social media sites? While this might seem like an innocent enough question at first, with seemingly easy answers (I use site x not site y, etc.) in actuality it’s much more complex.

I was recently at a local blogging workshop where they were discussing institutional involvement in social media (aka social networking). The presenter was speaking out of his experience working with colleges and universities that are trying to be more active in connecting with prospectives, students, and alumni using current and emerging social media sites. One example that he gave was how the chancellor of our regional campus of Indiana University (IU East) is using Twitter to make a personal connection with people, in addition to several other IU East-related Twitter feeds.

Immediately I started thinking of how different this is from how I use social media on a regular basis. Whereas chancellor Paydar maintains his single social media identity through his role with IU East, that model isn’t remotely appealing to me (and I imagine the same is probably true for others of you in my generation.) For me, such sites are enjoyable and meaningful because of the opportunity they provide for near-instant, authentic, personal connection between me and others who know me. In these spaces (as in the rest of my life) I am not first and foremost Pastor Matt, but rather Matt, who is a pastor. A subtle but important difference.

Obviously, the struggle is that while I maintain a personal presence on several social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,Flickr, etc.) there are times that I do connect with people primarily through my role as a pastor and representative of the “institutional church.” The reason it’s such a struggle is because of the ever-present tensions between authenticity and appropriateness, intimacy and identity. On social media sites these desires get all mashed together in a way that is more difficult to manage than interacting with people in other ways.

I am like many folks who fall into the more post-modern mindset in that I have a deep desire for authentic, intimate connections with others. However, if I am to be truly authentic in such interactions then what happens when my personal thoughts, feelings, and actions are at odds with those of the institution I’m seen to represent? For someone whose primary online identity is institutional (like chancellor Paydar), this decision is easy – the institutional image always wins. But as someone who wants these sites to also be a space where I can truly be myself, the answer isn’t so straightforward.

The two options I’ve come up with both leave me feeling less than satisfied:

1. Maintain separate identities or sites for my different roles, i.e. a persona to use as an institutional representative and another solely for personal use. While this would seem to go with the “clear boundaries” approach to ministry, my lifestyle and self-perception are much more integrated than this would accommodate. I am not two persons, but one complex, multi-faceted person, which is how I would like others to see me and how I hope to represent myself.
2. Maintain my own personal persona and an identity for the institution itself. Instead of trying to be both “Matt” and “Pastor Matt” in two separate accounts, the other option is to give the church itself its own distinct social-media identity. I like this possibility because it takes some of the online institutional representation pressure off me, but at the expense of a somewhat less personal (less authentic?) persona for the church. While the church is an institution, it is also a community made up of real people, and our online presence should somehow reflect that.

Thus far my approach has been along the lines of option 2, with making a Facebook “fan page” for our church. I’m still debating what to do about other sites like Twitter and Flickr.

It’s safe to say that social media sites like this aren’t going anywhere, and that more and more of us will be using them with at least some frequency in the future. I’d love to hear your thoughts and reflections on how you’re navigating this digital dilemma, as well as what suggestions you might have for the rest of us as together we make our way through this brave new (online) world.

I realize that there are probably two types of people who might stumble across this site … those who are interested in the content I’m posting, namely articles about computers, cooking, cars, Christianity, and the occasional personal interest piece, and then there are those who are more interested in me as a person and follow this blog to see what I’m up to and what I’m thinking.

This post is mostly directed to this latter portion of my audience. I want to make sure you know that there are other ways that you can stalk me keep up with what I’m doing besides this blog.

For a long time I didn’t jump onto the bandwagon of friendly internet stalking social networking, however over the past 6 months I have decided to give it a go, and I must say that these days that the easiest way to follow along with my life is through these various mediums.

If you’re wondering about the repeated references to stalking, they are because of my inherent distrust and skepticism of the whole social networking scene. I think it’s really far to easy to simply seek out people you know and watch what they’re doing as they post to these networks and never actually take part in the “social” aspect of things.

But despite my skepticism, I figured that there might actually be some folks out there who are genuine in their intent to make this a social endeavor and that I might as well give it a try. So whether you’re just someone who wants to watch over my shoulder as I live out my life, or if you’re genuinely interested in networking with me, here are the places you can find me online:

Facebook

Just look for Matthew E. McKimmy. I’m part of the Virginia Tech and Dayton, OH networks. I tend to frequent Facebook the most out of all these social networking tools, so this would be a logical place to start if you want to connect.

Twitter

My username is mattmckimmy, and my Twitter home page is here. Twitter is notoriously flaky, though they seem to be getting a little bit better. I’ve never really fully understood how you’re supposed to “network” through Twitter, but I do post what I’m up to fairly regularly.

Plurk

Again my username is mattmckimmy and you can find me here. I think I would actually prefer Plurk over Twitter if I ever used either of them regularly. It’s much more user-friendly and easier to understand. I also like the different verbs they encourage you to use, much more so than Facebook’s standard “is.” However, as of yet I don’t know of anyone else who uses Plurk.

LinkedIn

Honestly I’m not sure how you’re supposed to find people on LinkedIn, but some friends invited me to join so I did. I do have a public profile anyone should be able to see. The idea behind LinkedIn is to leverage your social connections for business and career purposes, though I have yet to figure out how that would benefit me at this point.

Flickr

Honestly I don’t really use Flickr, I only have 2 photos uploaded there at the moment. Even so, there is a possibility I might begin to use it more regularly. I have a number of friends who are on Flickr, and when it comes to social networking peer pressure is a powerful thing. If you want to check in and see if I’ve actually uploaded anything, check out my photostream.

And now for a confession … I cheat at social networking. Let me explain. Many of these social networking tools use little blurbs to let people know what you’re up to, how you’re feeling, etc. It seems silly to have to post the same sentiments or to have different, possibly conflicting messages in all these different places. So I use a great web service called Ping.fm to post to nearly all of them simultaneously. What does this mean for you? Well, it means that if you’re following me on Twitter and Plurk and watching my status updates on Facebook and LinkedIn, that you’re going to see the same message 4 times.

I do occasionally post something to one of them that isn’t duplicated elsewhere, however that’s probably not the norm. If you’re interested more in the networking aspect of social networking and not just the stalking, then Facebook is the primary place I tend to do that. That’s not to say I wouldn’t use these other services more regularly if people I knew also used them, however at this point most everyone I want to connect with seems to be on Facebook.

So how do you use social networks? Are you a silent facebook stalker? An avid twitterer? A flickr junkie? Do you have the same skepticism I have when it comes to using these tools to their fullest? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments …