Long before FamilySearch live social media events began in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were already successful in Brazil.
“Brazil was actually the pioneer of it,” said Jim Greene, FamilySearch international marketing manager in Salt Lake City, Utah. “And others have benefited from it.”
In fact, FamilySearch Brazil has held live social media events since 2015, said Adriano Almeida, a FamilySearch community manager for the Brazil Area who lives in Sumaré, São Paulo. Almeida runs FamilySearch Brazil pages on several social media platforms and organizes and moderates the live social media events.
With an invitation from the Brazil Area presidency, Adriano and his team have held weekly live events during the COVID-19 outbreak. In April and May, a live event was held every Sunday evening on indexing. An event every other Wednesday focused on family history tips and resources. The schedule for June is still pending.
“The idea is to provide good content for Church members and also for the general public, using FamilySearch as a missionary tool,” Almeida said.
The live events are typically an interactive question-and-answer format, with the audience submitting questions using the chat features. Almeida uses a tool for multi-streaming on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube — allowing streams to reach multiple audiences on the different platforms at the same time.
The events have reached tens of thousands. “We had an increase in people accessing FamilySearch, and it has helped a lot to achieve the area goals, specifically indexing goals, but also the goals for helping people complete their first four generations,” Almeida said.
According to FamilySearch managers, Brazil’s pioneering role in live social media events can be credited to support from local Church leaders and members, a unique demographic with a rising interest in family history, and a localized marketing strategy.
Read the rest of the articles on the Church News
FamilySearch Brazil’s next live social media event will be Sunday, June 21, and will be streamed on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Previous live social media events can be found on FamilySearch Brazil’s YouTube channel.
