A look at the astounding numbers from the Episcopal Church Media Hub, Facebook, Twitter, and Episcopal News Service illustrates not only the high level of interest in the recent General Convention, but also shows that viewers were engaging with the actions of General Convention, whether in Indianapolis or elsewhere.
Media Hub
The Media Hub was developed and produced by the Episcopal Church Office of Communication to bring the 77th General Convention 2012 to all people, wherever they may be. https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/.
The Media Hub offered live streaming of the sessions from the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, as well as a listing of daily events, a live twitter feed, Flickr photo stream, Episcopal News Service headlines, etc.
As of July 16, numbers for the Media Hub show: 44,000 plays; 8700 hours of content delivered; 1100 people on average a day watching; 61,924 page views; 13,331 unique visitors; 36,219 visits.
Church Web Site
Between July 3 and July 13 on www.episcopalchurch.org: 172,800 pages views; 43,698 visitors; 60,072 total site visits.
Take a look at what people were viewing:
1. Homepage including info from the Public Affairs office and the videos and photos within the stained glass
2. General Convention on-demand video page
3. Find-a-church
4. Make Your Mark contest vote page
5. Search
6. The Bible
7. Baptismal Covenant
8. Browse by diocese
9. Statement on same-sex blessings
10. Episcopal Church history
Social Media
Postings on the Episcopal Church Facebook page went through the roof. Over 305,000 people saw the General Convention related posts during the event. For example, the impromptu caption contest garnered 135 entrants!
Among the many Facebook postings were Instagrams, shot throughout General Convention. Mike Collins, Episcopal Church Manager of Multimedia Services, reports there were roughly 4000 "likes" on the Church Facebook, exceeding any previous posting.
As for Twitter, the Episcopal Church following swelled to more than 9000. #GC77 was a great success, it would follow that #GC78 will be the next one in the series.
As noted by Barry Merer, Episcopal Church Manager of Social Media and Web Services, “Episcopalians far and wide, those attending General Convention and not, were provided a front-row seat via Twitter and specifically by following #GC77. In the weeks preceding General Convention and now days later the Twitter community is engaged in conversation by adding #GC77 to their posts. Waves of tweets, at times too many to read, accompanied the discussions and debate prior to every resolution and vote. The feed was dominated by comments from all sides before during and well after GC's passage of the same-sex blessing provisional liturgy, the triennial budget, the future/location of the Church's denominational headquarters, structure and all the way down to the finest parliamentary point. Everything was commented upon, everything.”
He concluded, “Twitter provided the transparency of process so many clamor for and rarely get.”
Episcopal News Service
July 1-16 – right before, during and right after General Convention – Episcopal News Service experienced: 281,820 page views; 228,808 unique page views; 57,115 unique visitors; 118,248 visits.
These figures demonstrate a dramatic rise over the stats for the same time in May, more than doubling – and in some cases almost tripling – views and visitors.
Daily Worship
Among the popular features of the Media Hub were the daily worship services, featuring different preachers and wide ranging music offerings. Approximately 3000 watched live each day.
The video aspects of the daily worship were coordinated and facilitated by a crew from the Diocese of Utah. “The Diocese of Utah is delighted to share our webcasting and video expertise with the wider church,” noted Diocese of Utah Bishop Scott Hayashi. “When asked to furnish the equipment and crew to webcast the daily Eucharist services, we were honored as the Eucharist is the common bond of all people worldwide who are supporting those of us in Indianapolis in prayer. We took various software options and designed a state of the art system to bring the service to people everywhere. We also want all dioceses to know we are most willing to share what we have learned in developing our webcasting ministry, which is part of all our future.”
And….
During General Convention, 18 sermons – nine each in English and Spanish – two opening addresses, six statements and three news releases were issued.
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Twitter: twitter.com/iamepiscopalian