Going Social is exactly what the subtitle of the book says: “a practical guide on social media for church leaders”. In short chapters, the most important social media are explained (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs being the prominent ones – I was surprised to see Tumblr and Pinterest missing considering the rapidly growing popularity of these two) and opportunities are explored on how churches can use these.

The guide is aimed at newbies, beginners. Terrace does a great job explaining the basics, like how to set up a Facebook group or how to start posting videos on YouTube. What I really like is that he manages to stay away from the ‘marketing focus’ so many social media books have and stress the ‘social’ of it. “Don’t drop the ‘social’ from social media”, is a quote from the book that really speaks to me.

Experienced social media users may still find the applications interesting, including the great chapter with 20 examples of effective social media use by churches and Christian organizations. But for the most part, this will all be familiar stuff for social media fans.

That means it’s a great book to give to key leaders in the church who are not social media savvy, like for instance church boards, elders and/or pastors. They may not want to become active on social media themselves, but you stand a good chance of at least getting them to become more positive about the idea of using social media as a church effectively.

That being said, I did have some issues when I read the book. There are a few minor errors, like the description of the Tentblogger site in the glossary that really doesn’t match what this site is really about.

Also, Terrace states that ‘basic information about SEO’ can be found on his site, but a quick search didn’t give any hits and as a matter of fact, the site connected to the book doesn’t have any info at all. This site is really missing a great blog that supplements the message of the book!

But despite these minor issues, it’s a great resource for people who want to learn more about social media and how they can use this for their church, ministry or Christian organization.