Ughh — another social media phenomenon. That was my first thought. My wife even made fun of me since I’m a 38-year-old adult with two kids, but here I was downloading the new craze, Pokémon Go, to my phone. My reasoning: I need, as the digital marketing strategist, to know what it’s all about.
During lunch the next day when I finally opened the app, a small character appeared in my map nearby. I clicked on it to see the augmented reality view which brought the character to life via my phone screen. There it was, a Weedle right by the meat at Moe’s. I flicked my Pokeball at it and captured it.
Big deal, right? How could this be used to connect with people? I read up about the PokéStops and Gyms where you gain points and are often associated with local landmarks … a lot of them churches. These require that you physically go there unlike most games.
Going to church
This didn’t go unnoticed as my Twitter feed began to fill up with people saying that Pokémon wants them to go to church apparently. The game was actually getting people to the building.
Churches began to notice the new visitors and some even went as far as to give out food, water and open their doors.
Another option was to set lures to attract the virtual creatures to PokéStops … which also attract people. Churches were then able to greet them and invite them to attend a weekend gathering. One church reported 17 first-time visitors to their campus after setting a lure. One person in conversation said, “I thought you had to be a member to be allowed to attend church.”
So yeah, it’s weird, it’s new — but people are using it. They’re walking around and quite possibly they are at your church for the first time. Sounds like an opportunity to me.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Brian Harris is the web, social media and email strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
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