Churches join the social atmosphere

Forget about high-schoolers wanting to vent about parents, school and rules. Or adults wanting to reconnect with old friends. The social marketplace is getting religion. Several new social networks have opened with the goal of connecting churches and their congregants.

by Kristina Knight

MyChurch has had roughly 5,300 churches sign on for membership within their social circle since going live. According to the organization, they receive 3 million pageviews and 150,000 unique visitors each month.

Another faith-based social network, Xianz, is a social network for Christian teens. According to the company there are 35,000 registered members. Meanwhile, Shmooze, a Jewish social network is showing even greater numbers with a reported 200,000 members. Finally, Naseeb, a social network for the Muslim faith reports more than 300,000 members.

The social atmosphere of these sites is slightly different from traditional social networks. Most have rules and regulations for language, many members share problems and ask for support or prayers from other members. Ministers may post sermon information and many churches actually release digital bulletins from the social networks.

"Conversations we've never had time for are coming together online. The profiles and pictures are revealing things about us that might take years to come out," says Pastor Dan Beasley (via ChristianNewsWire). His Calvary Community Church in Maryland has 100 members in its MyChurch.org community.

For online marketers, this is a new market and one that bears attention. Between only these four networks, there are a potential half-million users online, a good sized audience for any advertiser or organization.