At a recent CONVERGE conference with mission workers from a number of countries, I was encouraged to consider the potential of social media as a ministry tool. Several conversations led to articles read and exemplary Facebook, Vimeo, Instagram, and YouTube page visits. As a result, I decided to conduct a short experiment.

We finished a page to promote the Hear A Story site on Facebook. Then we made a simple video to enhance the audio for the first story in our Story Set. We put the story (The Beginning) as a post on that Facebook page. Then we did the least expensive “post boost” for that particular post. Because Facebook can target individual countries and interest groups, we targeted Vietnam, India, and Jordan. What happened next will likely not surprise people who have experience with social media ministry, but it surprised us.

At the end of seven days, just fewer than 20,000 people had been “reached” with the piece (as Facebook defines that term). Of those people, dozens also followed the post to link with and visit the Hear A Story website. But the most impressive result was this. At the end of one week, 5,355 people had clicked on the video and listened to at least a portion of the story. The largest number of listeners was from Vietnam (over 75%). India was second. And 333 people from the country of Jordan saw the post, clicked on the story, and heard at least a portion of how God created the heavens and the earth.

Those familiar with this feature on Facebook will know that one can drill down into those metrics and find out a great deal about the people who engaged with that story. And we are. But, at this point, we are simply thankful that so many people engaged with the story and we pray that God will use it to make an impact.

The next step – to use what we have learned to enhance our outreach – that is what we will be thinking through in the days ahead.