NEW YORK: A North Carolina diet doctor has come up with a formula to create the most highly engaged audience on Facebook in the world, far surpassing marketing efforts by celebrities and sports teams.
He draws on the words of Jesus and posts them four or five times a day. The doctor, Aaron Tabor, 41, grew up watching his father preach at churches in Alabama and North Carolina, and his Facebook creation is called the Jesus Daily. He started it in April 2009, he said, as a hobby shortly after he began using Facebook to market his diet book and online diet business that includes selling soy shakes, protein bars and supplements.
For the last three months, more people have "Liked," commented and shared content on the Jesus Daily than on any other Facebook page, including Justin Bieber's page, according to a weekly analysis by AllFacebook.com, an industry blog. "I wanted to provide people with encouragement," said Dr Tabor, who keeps his diet business on a separate Facebook page. "And I thought I would give it a news spin by calling it daily." Facebook and other social media tools have changed the way people communicate, work, find each other and fall in love.
While it's too early to say that social media have transformed the way people practice religion, the number of people discussing faith on Facebook has significantly increased in the last year, according to company officials.
Overall, 31% of Facebook users in the United States list a religion in their profile, and 24% of users outside the United States do, Facebook says. More than 43 million people on Facebook are fans of at least one page categorized as religious.
Much of the conversation on social platforms is fostered by religious leaders, churches, synagogues and other religious institutions turning to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to attract followers and strengthen connections with members.
What is new is that millions of people are also turning to Facebook pages, like the Jesus Daily, created by people unaffiliated with a religious leader or a specific house of worship. With 8.2 million fans, the Jesus Daily counted 3.4 million interactions last week, compared with about 630,000 interactions among Justin Bieber's 35 million fans.
He draws on the words of Jesus and posts them four or five times a day. The doctor, Aaron Tabor, 41, grew up watching his father preach at churches in Alabama and North Carolina, and his Facebook creation is called the Jesus Daily. He started it in April 2009, he said, as a hobby shortly after he began using Facebook to market his diet book and online diet business that includes selling soy shakes, protein bars and supplements.
For the last three months, more people have "Liked," commented and shared content on the Jesus Daily than on any other Facebook page, including Justin Bieber's page, according to a weekly analysis by AllFacebook.com, an industry blog. "I wanted to provide people with encouragement," said Dr Tabor, who keeps his diet business on a separate Facebook page. "And I thought I would give it a news spin by calling it daily." Facebook and other social media tools have changed the way people communicate, work, find each other and fall in love.
While it's too early to say that social media have transformed the way people practice religion, the number of people discussing faith on Facebook has significantly increased in the last year, according to company officials.
Overall, 31% of Facebook users in the United States list a religion in their profile, and 24% of users outside the United States do, Facebook says. More than 43 million people on Facebook are fans of at least one page categorized as religious.
Much of the conversation on social platforms is fostered by religious leaders, churches, synagogues and other religious institutions turning to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to attract followers and strengthen connections with members.
What is new is that millions of people are also turning to Facebook pages, like the Jesus Daily, created by people unaffiliated with a religious leader or a specific house of worship. With 8.2 million fans, the Jesus Daily counted 3.4 million interactions last week, compared with about 630,000 interactions among Justin Bieber's 35 million fans.