Members Use Social Media to Connect During Conference

Social media has become a very evident and ingrained part of most people’s lives. People often use it to connect with friends and family across the globe. Another way to use it, however, is by connecting to other viewers of general conference.

Riikka Voutilainen, from Finland, loves using Facebook to talk about general conference and has been doing it for at least four years.

“I usually post the link one or two times in the two months before conference,” Voutilainen said. “Then on the day of conference [I post] for different sessions.”

Every six months, she joins the general conference event page to announce her attendance, and invites some friends by messaging them and posting a link in the message. She will post talks she liked, adding her own commentary or a quote from the talk.

Marie Huber, from Austria, likes to use Facebook to join a general conference group to show people she’s attending.

“I like to see what talks are worth updates from friends on both Facebook and Twitter,” Huber said. “I comment on those and maybe share some quotes or observations myself.”

She will browse Pinterest and look for quotes and memes, and re-read quotes in tweets or in vintage-styled letters someone pinned. It reminds her of her thoughts she had during the talk and “can draw out the general conference experience to last longer than just a weekend.”

“Through the internet, we tend to watch alone or just with family and forget just how big the congregation of viewers actually is,” Huber said.

Moses Parkinson, from Austria, also uses Facebook to post about General Conference.

“I send out summaries of talks given,” Parkinson said. “I use Twitter as well, but not as much as Facebook.” Parkinson had a personal friend join the church through social media.

On April 4-5, general conference will be broadcast on the internet and in church buildings throughout Europe. Europe has over 1,200 facilities displaying general conference. All are invited to attend.