Entry 8 Hope Went Viral: Social Media's Power for Good

So much is happening, it is difficult to write everything I see and hear the same day. I fear I will miss an important detail or forget someone’s name. As an unintentional result, I find myself narrating everything I do in my head. "It is Day 14. Girl sips her coffee while watching the morning fog lift off the creek. Girl gets into van and sits down”. I just want to turn the internal audio off, but I can’t. When I pulled into my normal parking spot at work, I decided I would write keywords in the note app on my phone. I write 32 keywords representing short moments and stories in the correct order while my mind eases.

I emailed someone in archives and a faculty member in computer science about my urgent need for help archiving these social media groups. They now total 64,000 members with posts, comments, photos and videos in the millions. No one at Asbury is an admin in these groups. Facebook is so secure, it is impossible to scrape the content without help. There is so much data to use in these groups. As I have been watching, the patterns of dialogue have changed. Around Day 5, one private group was created and I joined on Day 6. Around Day 8 and 9, other public groups were formed. They were all gaining approximately 5,000 members a day total. When they were first formed, it was primarily for logistical information. At the time, the University had little information to share. People were joining to learn what was happening, how to get to Wilmore, KY, where to stay, where to park, what the lines were like, what to wear, what to bring, etc. The first couple of days during the groups’ beginnings, it was the only source of information. When I first joined, I didn’t have any intention of posting, but to be an on-looker to predict how many people were arriving. But as I watched the posts, I saw a lot of misinformation. Those in Communications on staff would normally take care of this but almost every employee in the marketing and communications was in survival mode - talking to the press, answering emails, phone calls, asking those with video cameras to not record, and getting footage. I didn’t see Asbury officially represented online at all, with the exception of a few inactive faculty members. The University's Instagram account grew from a few thousand to now 66,000 followers. Looking at the patterns, I believe people were searching for information and following instagram hoping someone official would post information. I knew if I didn’t share information directly from the President and cabinet's public statements, things would get messy. On Day 6, Asbury launched information on a brand new page: asbury.edu/outpouring which was advertised and linked from the home page. But I could see no one on social media used it as a resource. That day, I began posting the website link everywhere, many times per day to build traction. With any brand or campaign, repetition is key. The campaign was distributed both as posts and as a replies to comments. Everyone had a different story with the same theme - the desperate need for Hope. I responded to a girl driving from New York who replied, “Thank you, I can’t believe I didn’t think to look at the website for info.” From then on, I took on the attitude of a journalist - serving as a University reporter of information. As a result, over 200,000 users were directed from social media to the website during those two weeks.

As I started posting, I remembered I had included my maiden name in my Facebook account. I share the same last name as the city’s name, Wilmore, as I am related to the family the city is named after and possibly the land owners where Asbury's campus is now. I never mentioned to anyone in the group that I worked at Asbury or I was at ground zero, reporting information. I knew that would open up a dialogue which would distract from my campaign. The posts and members were coming in so fast, it was difficult to keep up. I wondered if my name gave me legitimacy? I responded to a comment one afternoon and watched the screen as someone replied to my answer with skepticism. All the sudden, the comment disappeared due to the user deleting it. A few moments later another reply appeared with a thankful tone and an exclamation point. Did he look at my name, click on it and see I was from Wilmore or I worked at Asbury?

The tiny town of Wilmore, KY is no stranger to visitors. During the 90s and early 2000s the town hosted a yearly Christian music festival called Ichthus, which Asbury now owns the rights and brand. It became a large movement of music lovers during a time live music was at its peak. Before pop Christian music, most music with religious lyrics were sung in churches and existed within rural areas gaining popularity with the rise of radio broadcasting - also known as country music. My hometown of Nashville, TN became a hub for country music while Memphis being a hub for jazz. Original, religious, country music sung mostly for common people outside the city quickly transformed into pop, giving way to the Christian music industry housed in the same metro area of Nashville, TN. Wilmore, being only 4 hours away became the Manchester, TN/Woodstock of Christian music with thousands of attendees and Christian celebrities entering the stage. Many running this unplanned event on campus have fond memories of Ichthus and were involved with the production giving them a set of experiences to use during this welcomed invasion of visitors.

On Day 10, Mike Pence, former Vice President of the United States, gave a positive response to the news of this outpouring through a tweet. He mentioned his time in Wilmore, KY with fondness. He didn’t explain in the tweet, but I learned just a couple of years earlier that he had a transformative experience as an attendee at the Ichthus music festival. Many would say he was “saved” in Wilmore, KY. No one at Asbury or Wilmore, KY seemed to claim him while he was in office or after. The environment at Asbury during the last few years has been passive in regards politics. With the exception of a few usual instances, no one on campus has expressed any passion for either party since I arrived 7 years ago. There is a depth in belief our calling to follow Christ is so much greater. As a result, many at Asbury are inactive on social media or avoid it entirely and some are even afraid of it. I have met many who do not even have cell phones. During one volunteer session, a staff member mentioned, "I haven't been on social media since this started. I'm scared to look at what people are saying."

While I was prepping for my next 300 level class, I again felt the urge to involve them in this in real time social media chaos. So again, I ditched my curriculum plan and asked them to help me find a way to scrape the enormous amount of data in the Facebook groups. I was impressed to find many students finding solutions so quickly and some more quickly than staff I had asked advice from. While we were researching AI and Facebook settings, a student asked me a question about the photographs posted in these public groups. She asked what we, as faculty, thought about the images of people’s faces praying at the altar in the photos. I was surprised by her question mostly because the answer seemed obvious. Posting images of something so personal and important was certainly not ok, I said. I appreciated her question and was thankful I could be there to navigate the ethics not only shared with Christians but basics of good journalism/media ethics as well. Although my students are media majors, some didn’t even have Facebook accounts. I reassured them, I didn’t expect them to sign up just for this one-time, in-class activity but some were so eager to help, they did anyway. While they were scanning, most had the same reactions I had, looking at the odd photographs posted and non-sense comments. As the Facebook group aged, the posts became more ridiculous to the point of entertainment. We laughed a lot during class and I was happy to see them all taking it all in with concern but also joy.

I stopped by the production room where Dave and Wes had been working around the clock to secure the simulcasting and livestream. I asked what number we were at with the total views. They said 68,000 but let me know some of those could be the same people. There could be more that one person watching as well, so the numbers couldn’t be completely relied on. The first night (Day 12) we had 50,000 so I was surprised there weren’t more. The pattern made me think the first 50,000 people had something to do with the unbelievable reach my first announcement posts received, but it is hard to know without extensive research. I started to think, “What if I could prove social media could be used for good in a movement like this?” “What if my campaign kept tens of thousands of people away from Wilmore, KY making it more than over capacity?” This campaign is bigger than I am. Thanks be to God, He is with us online.

Analytics for Asbury.edu February 8-25, 2023. Peak represents Feb 19 6-10pm during first official livestream.