Namaste. Srishna Hrishna. Hrishna Krishna Krishna.
Hi. Thank you everyone for returning for session three of digital dharma. In the first session we talked about the need of being online.
In the second session we talked about our current presence and trying to see our presence through the lens of a completely new person. and perhaps where the gaps and the improvements are. And in this session, we'll be looking more into the practical elements, some of the tools, some of the different uh softwares and techniques and insights that are available.
This could be a very vast session and it will just be an introduction and we encourage you to find individuals who can really engage with this digital toolbox and form a team. I suggest that in our temples we have a department that takes care of the deities. We have a department which deals with finance.
We have a department for maintenance. We have a department for book distribution. And all of these are such central aspects of our movement.
But I would suggest that in every single one of our temples, in every single one of our projects, we also have a digital department, a team of individuals who are looking at the digital platforms and how we can utilize technology because it's become such an important aspect of sharing Krishna consciousness. So before we begin, sometimes the digital space can be overwhelming and sometimes it can be intimidating and we want to share with you that functioning in the digital space doesn't mean you need to be a technical genius. It doesn't mean you need some kind of special equipment that and huge amounts of investment and it doesn't mean you have to be perfect before you start.
This session is about empowering you to find confidence in making those first steps or improving what you're already doing and not to um make the situation unnecessarily complex. So we'll be doing that. And the most important to realize is that digital sharing of information preaching is not only for those who are talented or have a special charisma or a special uh character to be able to do it.
Everybody can do it. And it's just about learning skills and fine-tuning those skills. And the more we do it, the more consistent we are, the more we'll understand this world and we will have incredible results which will support everything else that we're doing in our projects.
So the very first thing is we've been talking about the digital world and one very very important thing is we need to know all the platforms that are available for us to share our messages. Uh here is Tik Tok, here is Instagram, here is WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, podcasts which are perhaps the most fundamental and foundational to our digital presence. And it's important to understand that each one has very special and very unique um features and a unique persona that then helps us to understand how to share information relevantly.
So this is not comprehensive but this is just to give you a bit of idea. YouTube for example is a great medium for long- form content where we want to put classes, seminars, where we want to uh educate and create depth of engagement. So utilize it for that purpose.
Facebook which some people think is gradually fading but is still there is very good for community for continuity to engage with people more regularly. WhatsApp is more direct. It's to the phone.
So we should use that for followup for personal contact for groups for in uh announcements and all of those kind of things. Instagram is a great platform for reach. It's probably the platform which allows for the greatest reach and so many individuals projects have done really well on Instagram branching out and finding uh diverse audiences who otherwise may never connect with Krishna consciousness.
Tik Tok is a great one for newcomers discovery. It's a younger platform and uh it's a platform again which um if you understand it and you create content which is relevant for that platform can have a great reach. And then you have podcasts which many um temples and projects are doing now which are a great way to bring a personal element to Krishna consciousness and really address issues of the day.
So think about all of these platforms and we can ask ourselves how much content are we putting out on each one of these platforms because remember for nearly 7 hours every single day individuals are on these platforms 7 hours a day. So what are we putting out there that they can access? There are different types of content.
So one type of content is what we call short form content. So that is making small reels. It can be about a festival.
It can be about a particular philosophical point. It can be about something happening in the world. It can be a personal story.
Whatever it may be, just something which acts as a hook to initially offer people a taster of what's available in the world of Krishna consciousness. And this is great for grabbing attention. It's great for newcomers and um something that different people in your project could perhaps focus on.
Then there's long form content. Uh our classes, our seminars, our structured education. Girans are wonderful long- form content.
And so this is good for deep listening and to to to give something of substance to individuals who want to understand this spiritual path in a more detailed way and then this type of content which is mainly for the community. So we've been talking a lot about the outfacing Sandra and Lee if you remember from the first session second session but there's also uh community engagement and that's uh how to use digital platforms to stay connected with your current attendees, your current congregation and your current community. And uh and so we need to be posting in each one of these categories.
And the more that we're posting and the more that we're active, the more that we'll actually see um that we are uh we we're doing a great job of trying to reach people. There are some core tools that can help you um to technically do all of these things. I won't go into detail here.
It's something you can research in your own time. But softwares like Canva, Cap Cut, InShot, these make it very very easy to create reels, very easy to create graphics and we can be very systematic. What some individuals do is they spend a few hours each month making concentrated content and then they use that content for the rest of the month.
They schedule it. They consistently post it and it makes it very achievable. So think about some of these softwares and how you can use them to make your life easier in digital sharing of Krishna consciousness digital preaching consistency and sustainability is of paramount importance.
As you know, every single day there's more data, more information, more reals, more graphics, and unless you keep posting, eventually you just get buried under the pile of data that there is out there. So, we need to regularly post fresh content and therefore consistency builds trust. Try to build a brand, a theme, a voice, an identity.
And you can again use tools whereby you can create all the content once a month. You can schedule it using a tool a software and then you don't need to think about it. It will just appear online regularly so that people are engaging and u we try to do it in a sustainable way.
One of the main reasons why digital endeavors and digital services tend to fail in the Krishna consciousness movement is because we don't have dedicated teams. So try to get teams especially young people who live with this technology who have the Gen Z who have uh the millennials who have uh grown up with this they're very very used to it and most of them are on those platforms. So it it doesn't require much extra for them to help in increasing our presence there.
Consistency beats brilliance. This is uh another uh reminder of what I've already shared in the previous slide. Uh better to post once a week than just daily for a month and then not doing for anything for 11 months.
Be regular, be present, be always innovative. And these are some of the innovative things in Krishna consciousness. We have so much to share.
So use the digital platforms to give an inspiring message about festivals. If there's a Sunday feast and a special guest or a special topic, every Sunday feast is special. Make it special by sharing what's happening.
Tap into things that are happening in the world and give a spiritual message. uh Mother's Day or for example Christmas or New Year's Day. We can come with a spiritual message.
This is the time when people are looking for unique perspectives and angles. Think about what's going on in the world and try to say something in a Krishna conscious way. Use quotes.
Show life at the temple. Use the digital platform to build a very human perspective and a human uh identity that people can relate to and then advertise things and invite people to come promote in-person events which we'll talk about in the next session like this. There's so much that we can be sharing online.
And along with the social media, I'd also encourage you to really look at your website because websites may not be the first place people go because social media has taken precedence. But websites are still important because after people have seen a real, a video or done a Google search, they usually come to a website. And again, I invite you to look at your current website through the eyes of Sandra and Lee.
Every website should answer basic questions on the homepage. Who are you? What do you offer people?
and what invitation are you offering to them next? These are key questions which must be answered especially on the homepage of a website and there are quick improvements that can be made. Just look at some good websites out there and then try to emulate see the approach that they have.
look at versatility, that they're mobile friendly and so on and so forth, that they're simple. These are things that can be looked at. And finally, I'll end today's session by talking about AI.
AI is not meant to replace the human intelligence, but it's meant to be a resource for the human intelligence. So, we can use AI also. Um, and it should be done in a smart way so as not to remove the heart from our message.
But if you need help with writing captions, summarizing things, if you need help with content ideas and as you can use chat GPT as a conversation partner, even with translation, AI can be a great tool. So, let's make sure we're taking advantage of all of these things. So key takeaways from today's sessions.
It's not impossible and it's not even difficult. It can be done. Digital skills are learnable.
Use tools, software to make it easier. Remember, consistency is so important. And know that even a small effort can help you to reach individuals who otherwise would be unreachable for us.
There's a lot here to share. I've just said some things about the digital toolbox. Try to establish a department for digital sharing of Krishna consciousness and equip them with the toolbox and go out there and create some wonderful content that will really attract people to the beautiful teachings that we've been given.
Shila praad gay.
