Facebook, location-based services, and opportunities for local churches

During an interview at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Facebook is working on adding location-based services to the popular social network. Soon users will be able to add a location to their status updates, communicating not only what they are doing but where they are doing it.

This is just another move in Facebook’s strategy to become the information currency system of the web – aggregating all the  information about you by connecting to your Facebook profile and then selling access to that information to marketers.

In addition to the demographic, social, opinion, and digital behavior data that Facebook gathers, adding information about a user’s location allows businesses to identify and tailor their marketing messages to the people that are most likely to purchase their products.

Geo-targeting (determining the physical location of a website visitor and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her location) is the newest trend in internet marketing and is fueling the development of geo-location services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Integrating geo-location into the world’s number 1 website creates the potential to identify the physical location of Facebook’s 540 million users.

The opportunity for local churches

Setting aside concerns about privacy and consumerism, this move by Facebook has the potential to significantly enhance the efforts of local churches in:

• growing the local body;
• serving the local community.

Using social media to grow your church

Church leaders should be interested in the growth of their church. Not because growth means they are successful, but because growth means the Christ is successful. That His ministry is succeeding in its ultimate purpose: to glorify God.

Geo-targeting on Facebook means that local pastors have a direct means of reaching people in their community and inviting those people into relationship with the church. The targeting functionality that Facebook offers to advertisers could be used to engage people when they are in your neighborhood and let them know that you’re there. It’s same strategy that led to the wide-spread adoption of church signs, only adapted for the digital age. There is the potential for many additional creative and effective ways that your church can attract new people through Facebook using geo-location.

Using social media to do ministry online

Geo-targeting also enhances the ability for churches to do ministry online that I’ve discussed before. Now there is the potential to not only identify people who are hurting (who are in need of a Savior) but to minister to them in person because you know where those people are.

I’m not advocating stalking. I can just imagine some well-intentioned Christian walking up to someone and saying “Excuse me, I saw your latest Facebook status update about how your dad is a jerk. I just wanted to let you know that our Father in Heaven loves you and would never take away your X-Box 360 for a week.”

But what I am saying is that this system could create opportunities for us to identify those in need, know more about their circumstances, and engage them in a way that is appropriate – wouldn’t that make your ministry more effective?

Beyond profit, beyond the web

Facebook is aggressively pushing to grow it’s system and to add features that will increase the value it offers to advertisers. Their profit motive is clear and should not be mistaken to be benevolent.

But the motives of churches are more pure (not entirely pure, but much more noble in my opinion than that of Zuckerberg and his team). How can we take advantage of what Facebook is and the opportunities that it is creating to advance the Kingdom?