2014-05-00-ensign-eng

Technology and Social MediaExpand Worldwide Reach ofGeneral ConferenceIn addition to the more than100,000 who participated in thefive sessions of the 184th AnnualGeneral Conference at the ConferenceCenter in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA,millions more viewed or listenedto the sessions in 95 languages viatelevision, radio, satellite, and Internetbroadcasts.While the Conference Center inSalt Lake City seats 21,000 people,the audience for general conferenceextends around the globe as millionsof Church members and others tunein. For more than 50 years, the Churchhas interpreted the proceedings innumerous languages. Today, technologymakes live viewing possible inmore than 200 countries around theworld.In addition to broadcasts inlocal chapels, the Church streamsthe conference live on LDS.org,BYUtv, BYUtv International, theMormon Channel, Roku, Facebook,and YouTube. Online viewershipduring the October 2013 generalconference increased approximately30 percent compared to the previousconference.Many also participate in generalconference through social media.A flood of tweets with the #ldsconfhashtag are posted on Twitter duringeach of the five conference sessions,making general conference one ofthe most discussed topics on Twitterat those times. For example, duringOctober 2013, 155,000 tweets relatingto general conference were posted.(Each tweet is an individual commentof 140 characters or less.)Through its official social mediachannels, the Church posts messageslive from the conference in multiplelanguages, and it encourages othersto share those messages. Duringgeneral conference in October 2013,many additional viewers watched orlistened to general conference messagesafter seeing a post on socialmedia. Posts have been shared inEnglish, Spanish, and Portuguese.Conference proceedings arenow available to an ever-wideraudience. ◼Conference proceedings are now available to a wide audience, thanks to technology and social media.May 2014 135