Pope doing well on Twitter. Religion doing really well. Why? People pass positive thoughts on. Brands could learn from that.

I think it's fair to say that the Pope, leader of the 2,000 year old Catholic Church, has been a success on Social Media, notably Twitter (handle is at Pontifex).

Having over 2.5 million followers in only a few months since his first tweet on December 13, that's pretty good going. So much so, they've launched his own YouTube channel (largely to see his speeches), a 'PopeApp', Facebook page and an online news portal.

Still some way to go to catch The Dalai Lama's 9 million followers, but he was one of the first into the digital age. 

Leader of America's largest Church in Lakewood Texas, Joel Osteen is also taking to it and pretty much becoming a star. Although if you've ever heard him talk, you'll understand why - this is the greatest orator of them all. You'll see a young Joel on this blog video talking about the power of positive words (just for interest!).

Apart from the obvious, in that they're using Social Media to communicate, the real strength is that their positive messages are retweeted time and again. In other words, when Osteen says "God is with you in your hour of need", people pass it on and at a minimum of 7,000 retweets. That in turn brings more people in and so it grows, exponentially.

Good news travels fast it seems.

And there's a lesson in that I think. 

Just taking this blog as a super tiny sample, I know if I blog about something "bad" or negative (like the series I did on Tax avoidance), not only do I get criticised but my readers fall away that day. When it's something good or positive, they drive up and it's more likely to be "liked" or shared. 

People want good news, they want to smile in the dreary drudgery of daily lives. And so The Pope and others with generally uplifting words, do well on social.

Brands could learn a bit from that (as indeed, could Bloggers). Tweet well and you'll do well. Nasty, cyber bullying doesn't and is, as we know, pretty destructive which by the way, by passing it on we must take some responsibility.

So that's today's sermon.
Nice, positive words do well on Social Media.

I love you all (!)