Facebook Fans or “Likes” to the Face Forward page
Number of fans on November 29, 2010                                     2401 fans
Number of fans on November 21, 2011                                     4004 fans

There has been an increase of fans of 67% over last year’s numbers, and the community continues to grow daily.

2011 Project Highlights
Facebook Fan base Growth- The past year has seen a large, steady growth in “likes” to the Face Forward page on Facebook.  Our targeted demographic is Catholic males, in central Ohio, single status, with a Catholic background.
Our screen shot in Appendix A depicts our current fan base, and demographic data.  We have uncovered through this process there are many young women interested in the face forward content as well.  This could be a key indicator of interest in religious orders. 

Facebook Post Impressions - Face Forward continues to be
a relevant source of catholic information for our target demo-graphic. Daily Facebook content curation with 24/7 monitoring continues to bring “likes” to the page and is being shared among our community creating many impressions within the Facebook News Feed. This means the community is following, listening, and sharing our information and content messaging. The Face Forward impression ratio continues to be excellent, and well above industry averages.  With the growth in your community in 2011, we see impression rates consistently ranking over 25,000 per post.

Facebook postings consist of 2-4 active posts/day during periods of high traffic. These consist of prayers, news, press and local happenings as it relates to our Catholic faith.  We highlight the schools, youth ministries and other organizations that embrace our faith and culture (SPO, CYSC, Josephinum, etc…)

The content (programming) for Face Forward consists of daily timely articles of interest and features that relate back to the custom application.  These include: Weekly Quiz, Monday Musical Spotlight, Chat Tuesday Trivia (5 questions at 8p to win prizes), Wednesday Words of Wisdom, Cyber High Five, Saturday Seminarian Spotlight, Picture of the Week, Friday Funny, Weekly Faith and other related stories that will resonate with our audience which in turn increases Facebook Impressions.

Recruiting List for Vocations. We currently are providing Father Noble with a database of names from Face Forward, and have yielded a list of over 65 additional active recruits for 2011 that we were able to identify from our programming.  Combined numbers for 2010 and 2011 are over 100 in the current database. Names are reviewed with Fr. Noble to highlight potential prospects monthly. The prospects from 2011 were invited to a Summer Picnic with Fr. Noble (see more details below), and 30 of these prospects attended our summer picnic , many with their parents.  We continue to see our recruits on the Facebook wall, asking for more information about Vocations, and inquiring about what the next steps might be in the discernment process.  100% of the recruits that are attending PCJ sponsored events for Vocations, who are on Facebook, are also very relevant followers within our Face Forward community.

Blog Stats: Visits to the Face Forward Columbus blog: www.faceforwardcolumbusblog.com

May 2011                               1,694 (all-time high)
October 2011                      1,101

We have seen consistent visits to our posts on the
blog, and is a great source of information for our Face Forward community.  This mid-tier landing point hosts detailed information about our content, and also provides direct links to www.seekholiness.com.

Brand Ambassador Program: During the spring and summer of 2011, we began a new outreach program for the Office of Vocations with the assistance of Father Noble and seminarian Jeremiah Guappone.  Jeremiah was instrumental in communicating with our young men and women, and identifying key targets from Face Forward that would like to be our brand ambassadors for outreach events.  Our team participated in over 35 diocesan events over the spring/summer months – see Appendix B.  These events included Lenten fish fries, Right to Life and youth rallies, Catholic summer festivals, and informal presentations to the youth group/parishes following Father Noble’s homily on Vocations.  They worked tirelessly with our team over the past several months to spread the Face Forward messaging.  They have found a community in which to “belong”, and will continue to help the project into 2012 as service ambassadors. The following young men, that were identified through Face Forward and our targeted recruiting list, are very instrumental with our community as Brand Ambassadors, and are active targets for the Office of Vocations:  Tyler Carter; Angelo Rivero; Jacob Stinnett; Nick Byorth; Christopher D’Angelo; and Tommy Glace.

Summer Picnic:  In July 2011, our Face Forward team organized and orchestrated a summer picnic at the PCJ for our targeted recruits.  The grounds of the PCJ were open to these young men and their families, and many seminarians, along with Father Wehner and Father Noble gave short, informational speeches about Vocations.  Parents were also invited to attend, and several went on tours of the grounds and had the opportunity to ask questions in a more informal setting.  We had over 60 attend the picnic; 20 that included young men who were not yet identified by the Office of Vocations, yet found through the Face Forward processes.  We are recommending that Vocations continue with these discussions to our targeted list in 2012.

Chat Tuesday:  Every Tuesday evening, from 8-8:30, Face Forward hosts a live chat on the Facebook wall called Chat Tuesday.  For the first 26 weeks of 2011, we hosted live chats with area clergy and important members of our Catholic community.   These were just a few of our featured guests: Father David Sizemore; Father Jeff Coning; Father Paul Noble; Deacon Frank Iannarino, Josephinum Athletic Director Tom Stepfaniuk, Josephinum Vice Rector Fr. Walter Oxley, Youth Group Minister Megan Thompson, Author Elizabeth Ficocelli, and various seminarians.

The last 26 weeks of 2011, we have hosted Chat Tuesday Trivia, which includes five questions to our community to answer, interact and share on their own walls.   Trivia has ranged from light-hearted questions about the bible; to a more in-depth Q&A around the changes in the Roman Missal.

Videos: Face Forward has highlighted a featured seminarian of the month and provided an opportunity to meet a seminarian which depicts the seminarian in their personal favorite settings.

Also this year for September 9/11, Face Forward provided a week-long video series of our various Columbus catholic community remembrance of this day. Participating were Fr. Noble, a St. Brigid mother who was in New York that day, seminarians, office employees of the Diocese and many others.  These are housed and maintained on the Face Forward Youtube channel.

Emarketing Database. Face Forward has collected and organized an email database of over 1352 contacts for Vocations (an increase of over 102% from year end 2010).  These emails are both male, female, and parent emails, from central Ohio practicing Catholics.   We will continue to utilize this platform to expand our reach, and will assist Father Noble with a sound content strategy around monthly messages to
this community.   Currently, we push email messaging once monthly.  A screen shot is provided as an example below.  Monthly hit ratios are presented to Father Noble and are well above industry standards.

Project Accolades:
Selected in 2011 as a Top 10 vocations websites by the USCCB (www.foryourvocation.org) for the second year .

2011 Columbus Ohio Innovation Award: Facebook Marketing –a major accolade in Central
Ohio.Recognition within many online/PR and print secular publications.
Featured in The Catholic Times frequently.

Project Sponsors
MJ2 Marketing has secured the following program sponsors for 2012: Chipotle; Crimson Cup; Graffiti Burger; and Rita’s Italian Ice.  Each vendor has been very generous with donations with gift cards used as giveaways for outreach activities.