Contextual Impact - Draft

#LDSConf

While I usually find my eyes (and mind) wandering away from the TV screen during General Conference, this time I found my eyes glued to the screen—particularly the bottom left corner.

#LDSConf stood out on the screen in small white letters.

As LDS Living called it, "this funny little word" on the screen caught more attention than perhaps the conference speakers themselves.

Though some used the paper-and-pen approach to jot down notes, others took advantage of Twitter’s 140-characters to share their notes with others—as last weekend’s #LDSconf attests.

Physical 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held its 184th General Conference last weekend, with more than 21,000 members viewing the session in person. However, the messages delivered weren't heard by just the ears in the room—social media provided a "global gathering" for members and non-members alike, as Church leaders hoped and LDS Living reiterated. 

Religion Dispatches journalist Joanna Brooks stated: "When I was a kid, Conference was broadcast global by satellite. Now, we get it on-line, simulcast in dozens of languages...and thousands worldwide follow and run their own live commentaries", a couple of which are pictured below, courtesy of Utah Valley 360:

Temporal & Social

"This year, the Church officially released recommended hashtags for each member of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other major Church leaders," LDS Living stated. They actually published an entire page of Mormon Hashtag Recommendations. And, to stay in the know of these hashtags, LDS Living compiled 19 Must-follow LDSConf Social Accounts & Trends—a "#LDSConf Cheat Sheet with accounts and hashtags you've simply got to follow..."

Among the 19 must-follow social media sites were Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. 

By Sunday's afternoon session, "the number of tweets on Twitter using the hastag #ldsconf was in the thousands", Daily Herald stated. "Those listening to conference spent time during each session posting tweets on their favorite quotes from the speakers at a pace of approximately 30 tweets every few seconds."

But last weekend wasn't the first time Church leaders encouraged the use of social media during Conference. "Last October, 155,000 tweets related to general conference were posted," Meridian Magazine stated.

According to Religion Dispatches, in 2011 "...LDS First Presidency member Dieter F. Uchtdorf openly advocated digital media use in the service of Mormon messaging. LDS Media Talk encouraged members to remember Uchtdorf's words, part of which are quoted below:

"With so many social media resources and a multitude of more or less useful gadgets at our disposal, sharing the good news of the gospel is easier and the effects more far-reaching than ever before. My dear young friends, perhaps the Lord’s encouragement to 'open [your] mouths' might today include 'use your hands' to blog and text message the gospel to all the world!"

Cultural & Psychological

Two years before that, a group of Twitter users referred to themselves as a "Twitter Stake" and used (and continue to use today) the hashtag #twitterstake as an indexing tool and way to connect "people of all ages and backgrounds [who] have embraced this technology", stated David Politis of Politis Communications.

Although my initial reaction to Twitter Stake was laughter, I quickly realized it wasn't funny but rather brilliant instead. The publicity efforts of the LDS Church to use and encourage members to also use social media is a world-reaching campaign. As stated above, 155,000 tweets related to General Conference were posted last October—but that number is small compared to the number of people the Church potentially reached on social media, including members and non-members.

Even though it was the "funny little word" on the bottom left of the TV screen that initially caught my attention, it was the Instagram users I follow that retained my attention:

Left: A Utah-based donut shop reached at least 403 people within 51 minutes.

Right: Deseret Book reached at least 274 people by 9 that evening.

Left:

A handmade clothing shop reached at least 321 people within 2 hours.

Right: A graphic designer, who created the Rhonna Designs App, reached at least 396 people with her own post within 27 minutes and at least 72 people who used her app to create their own memes about Conference. 

With just four Instagram posts within a 3-hour period, at least 1,394 people were reached.

And as Sunday's afternoon session began, there were already 32,670 #ldsconf hashtags.

As stated by Brooks, "With a legion of volunteer-developed LDS apps blazing the AppStore, a YouTube channel that draws four times more traffic than the Vatican's, and a web 2.0 savvy institutional site, Mormon.org, driven by individually uploaded member-profiles, the LDS Church and its US membership is probably the most digitally networked religious group in the world."