About

Winner of the 2010 Ohio Interactive Awards for best Social Marketing Application on Facebook

“Our responsibility is to preach the Good News wherever people are gathered…Kids are now gathering out on cyberspace, making it the new town square. We need to be in that town square interacting.” - Fr. Jeff Coning, Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Columbus.

What is Face Forward?

Face Forward is an application that has been developed by the Vocations Office of the Catholic Diocese of Columbus for the social media platform Facebook. The goal of the application is to connect Catholic youth in the Columbus, Ohio area and surrounding geo-cities. There are an estimated 30,000 young men and women that are practicing the Catholic faith in and around our community.

Since the initial launch of Face Forward, the application has had tremendous success in a very short period of time.  The Face Forward Columbus blog and its stories are insightful views into our local Catholic events, housing interesting information about our seminarians, and providing consistent updates about important topics from our area clergy and laymen.

Since Face Forward launched in early 2010, the application has received tremendous success, high traffic patterns, and major accolades:

- The United Stated Council of Bishops (USCCB) announced the Face Forward Blog site as “Top Ten Vocations websites” in the country.

- Our rapid growth in numbers to over 2,000 fans in such a short period is demonstrating that our young community wants and needs information all in one place. Face Forward is that place.

- Face Forward has effectively recruited and interacted with over 3,600 fans (October 2011).  These numbers are growing steadily. Face Forward wants members of our faith-based community to chat, listen, learn and interact out on the Face Forward Wall daily.  The time to invite your friends to our new “town square”, or Catholic coffee shop is NOW. (And there are cool prizes, too!)

Fan the page here: www.facebook.com/FaceForwardColumbus.

Join in as we learn more about the schools, vocations, our reverent seminarians, our youth ministries, and generally, everything Catholic!

Why use Facebook?

Facebook has become the social platform of choice for our target demographic of users. Half of all active users log on to Facebook in any given day. Here are some interesting facebook statistics.

Other Points of Interest:

The US Council of Catholic Bishops is on facebook!

Most of our youth ministry groups have information out on facebook.  Here are a few areas of interest:

St. John Neumann (Sunbury)

Our Sisters are getting into the act!

Holy Family Church (Columbus, Ohio)

The Vocations Office, in coordination with their marketing partner MJ2 Marketing, has taken steps to monitor and review how the Face Forward application is being used on Facebook. The Facebook platform is an open platform in which anyone can participate. Because Face Forward is a programmed front-end to the typical Facebook set-up, extra security features are in place to monitor prior to post.

Why should I allow my child to use the Face Forward application on Facebook?

The Face Forward application has been developed to foster communication with and between Catholic youth in the Columbus, Ohio area. You can have your child use Face Forward to obtain information on service projects, share his/her Catholic faith through our Jam Sessions, take a quiz about the weekly readings at Mass, Jump on the wall every Tuesday for “Chat Tuesday Trivia”….and source many interesting facts about other Catholic youth. It is the platform of choice for all young millennials to communicate.

When can I access?

Facebook can be accessed at any time, but your child must be 13 years or older to participate.

Are there other resources available to me within the Columbus vocations?

Please visit www.seekholiness.com to find out up-to-date information about the Vocations office and their many projects within the Catholic diocese.

Who can I contact for further information?

Questions can be directed to Father Paul Noble at the Vocations office: 614-221-5565 or by visiting www.seekholiness.com.
Any questions about the specifics of the Facebook application and the formulated strategy around Face Forward can be directed to MJ2 Marketing at 614-581-3590.