How can you reach many vocation candidates in a short amount of time? How about using a vocation video of one of your novices?
The video that I talk about below is a recent one of the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. They have a video of a few minutes posted on the Mercedarians’ Facebook page.
It’s the buoyant testimony of second-year novice. She simply explains her journey into religious life. She talks about the Sacrament of Confession, and living out one’s baptismal vows. Her joy, devotion, and composure comes out so so well in this vocation video.
As I show you in the video above, it’s been viewed by more than two thousand people in its first four days. And after the video there are many comments of people who responded to the video.
And it’s in the comment area under the video where you can communicate individually with the fans of your Facebook page. No doubt that some of these fans are candidates for religious life. If you have a mailing list of such candidates and you’ve been watching which ones have been opening your newsletters you might recognize a name or two among those who are commenting on the video.
A vocation video leads the way to individual contact
Our method of attracting good candidates is called the Come & See Vocation Promotion Program. We send newsletters on a regular basis to the candidates that we find through social media advertising. The newsletters talk about religious life and the charism of that particular community. Yes, newsletters are essential.
However, Facebook goes a step further in that it allows you to interact with individual people right under the post. Just saying, “Thanks for the kind words, Shirley Jackson,” goes a long way.
Another feature of Facebook is called the messenger and that’s a little box that pops up in the lower right-hand part of screen. It’s a conversation with the individual. You first find the person’s profile and you click on the message button. They answer it when they get back on Facebook.
You can see from the Sisters’ Facebook page that they are putting up a new post for every day of the week for National Vocation Awareness Week. This event, which this year is held Nov. 5-11, is held each November. This is a key time of the year to talk about religious life and use it as a springboard for discussion and vocation promotion. Look up future dates for the National Vocation Awareness Week.
A vocation video of one of your members is a great way to attract vocation candidates.
