with the advancement of social media, it is now easier than ever to connect with family, friends, and even the Prophet. The Church has created Facebook pages for members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. The pages will be maintained by the Church on their behalf and will be their official social media presence for each of them. “I just mostly use the church’s digital stuff for scriptures and manuals. It’s just super convenient. And on my blog I have a link to lds.org,” said Christina Larsen a junior studying pre-professional biology. Jared Covington, a senior adviser over social media for the Church, said the Church created these pages to “give people a safe place they could go on Facebook to ‘like’ the pages of the Brethren.” “I’d be friends with President Monson. I think it’d be funny to see what President Monson posts on Facebook,” said Katie Naea, a junior studying social work from American Samoa. Covington said that the goal for these pages is to show people content on LDS.org that they may not have found previously. “It allows us to highlight content that is tied to specific brethren. Our hope is that members will really dive in and feast upon this content.” These social pages boost the spirituality of the members, help missionary efforts, and have improved search engine optimization (SEO) for the Brethren. When people search for the names of the brethren, the top results are more likely to come from official Church content, both in online searches and within social media networks. Aaron Coffey, a senior studying communications from Atlanta, Georgia, said “I think it’s a good thing. It allows us to define ourselves instead of letting others define us.”
Writer: Homer Wolman~Multimedia Journalist
