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Other images can be found at images.lds.org, although there are some restrictions on use of some of those images.

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In the September Ensign, the article “Role of Members Important in Sharing the Gospel Online” points out a real problem about the information people find about the Church online.

“Missionaries across the world have encountered a problem in recent years: after only a visit or two, an investigator who had shown real interest cuts off contact. Researchers have found that most of those investigators have one thing in common: they lose interest after finding negative, inaccurate information about the Church online.”

As recent as six years ago, the general information you could find on the Internet about the Church was largely negative, and growing in its negativity. It is now in a reverse trend.

“Six years ago 80 percent of search engine results for the term ‘Mormon’ were negative or inaccurate. Today the situation has improved. In some countries, Internet search results for ‘Mormon’ are now up to 80 percent positive.”

“Why the significant change? In addition to official Church Web sites, unofficial Web sites sharing positive information about the Church are spreading across the Web. Individuals are using blogs to share their values, and gospel messages are making appearances on social networking sites. In short, because of how members are using it, the Internet is also helping bring people to the full-time missionaries.”

Elder Ballard and other Church leaders have encouraged members to participate in the online conversation about the Church and explain in clear, simple terms the message of the Restoration.

The Ensign article suggests some ways to spread the gospel meaningfully, including creating a personal profile and testimony on the new Mormon.org, blogging, using social media sites, and sharing links to gospel videos.

The article also mentions the More Good Foundation, a nonprofit organization created by Church members that has actively engaged and empowered members to provide accurate and positive content about the Church.

Popular search engines usually allow a given Web site to occupy only two spaces on a results page. That means that even if LDS.org and Mormon.org have hundreds of relevant pages, only two will appear as search results. That leaves a lot of open space for negative sites, especially since people often gravitate to sites that are unrelated to the Church as an institution, looking for individual rather than organizational perspectives. That’s one area where members can be very effective, in addition to the great work done by the Church as an institution. The More Good Foundation owns over 1,400 URLs and has enlisted members to create over 320 sites in as many as 12 languages. They have also posted over 1,900 videos on YouTube. Contact the More Good Foundation if you want to get involved.

The magazine article concludes by saying, “The Internet provides a way for Church members to reach people in ways unimaginable a generation ago, and as technologies improve, so will Church members’ ability to share the gospel.”

What have you done recently to share your understanding of the gospel with others? See some ideas here.

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An LDS apostle, Elder Quentin L. Cook, has written a blog post “Partnering With Our Friends of Other Faiths” on the Web site Patheos.com. This may be the first publicly posted blog by an LDS apostle.

Patheos.com is a site dedicated to religious and spiritual dialogue. This summer, they have focused on a different religious tradition each week in a section called the Future of Religion. Last week, the focus was on the Future of Mormonism.

In addition to Elder Cook, many authors contributed, including Michael Otterson, managing director of the Church Public Affairs Department, who wrote “The Church’s Reputation: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunity.”

Since at least 2007, the Church has encouraged members to blog and engage in Internet conversations.

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as “LDS” or “Mormons”) has been running spots on the Internet, radio, and television in key cities across the nation. They highlight average Mormons and promote the updated Mormon.org Web site. This media campaign is receiving a lot of media attention:

• CBS News report from Baton Rouge
• CBS News in Minneapolis
• Fox News 9 In Minneapolis
• ABC 4 News report
• Coverage by 2 News Utah
• News Coverage by Fox13 News
• News Coverage by KSL TV

The media campaign features young, active, and diverse Americans who talk about their jobs, their families, and their passions. Each one ends the same way, by declaring their faith. The purpose of the videos is to bridge the gap between perception and reality, with the hope of dispelling myths about members of the Church.

Learn more background about the new Mormon.org and a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the site.

If you want to help promote the new Mormon.org, you can place a button on your blog or Web site to link to your profile. Get yours at mormon.org/profile. After you sign in and create your own profile to share with the world, click on the left tab titled “Share your Profile,” select your button and then add it to your blog or web site.

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Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the new Mormon.org was built written by the Mormon.org designers. And another glimpse.

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Below is more information about the new version of Mormon.org:

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The new changes we told you about for Mormon.org launched today!

One of the key features of the new Mormon.org site is the personal participation and stories of thousands of Mormons who have completed profiles about themselves in their own words.

2,000 members have completed profiles that explain why they live their faith and why they are a Mormon. 13,000 more are in process, and that number is expected to eventually jump to 100,000 as the Church continues to ask its members to share their faith online. Learn how to create your own profile on Mormon.org to participate in this historic event.

Learn more about this new Mormon.org.

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The More Good Foundation has just updated its Web site. Scroll through the features (using the right and left arrows) to learn more about what the foundation does and their current projects.

When asked why the update, Jonathan Johnson, the president of the More Good Foundation, said, “We felt the old site was limiting and didn’t allow our full story to be told. It was out dated and needed to be integrated with our social media projects.  The colors needed to be refreshed and we even updated the color of our official logo.”

Please let your friends know about the projects that the foundation is working on. You can follow their blog at blog.moregoodfoundation.org and also follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/moregoodfoundation.

Learn more about this updated Web site.

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A new Pew Forum poll indicates that the new social media platforms have once again re-shaped our conversations about what’s hot in the news. The Internet is now the third-highest platform for receiving news coverage. Only national television news and local television news rank higher. This is significant as a sociological trend in general, but also significant to us as Mormons specifically, in light of our desire to be, as Elder Ballard suggested, more “influencers” of our culture than “influenced by” it.

A More Good Foundation blog gives more information about the Pew study, and also gives some great suggestions on how to influence public perceptions, conversations, and media-talk news about the Church online.

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The LDS Church has just published a page on LDS.org titled “Mormon: The People, the Church, the Prophet” at lds.org/topic/mormon.

This is a great page that you can link to from your blogs, Web sites, Facebook pages, and LinkedIn pages to let people learn more about the Church.

The page explains that Mormon is a term commonly applied to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that the term refers to the following:

• The Book of Mormon. The Church is sometimes inaccurately called the “Mormon Church” because its members believe that the Book of Mormon is an additional volume of scripture to the Bible.
• The “Mormons” (The People). Mormons live and work in every state of the United States and throughout the world. They value their family, their communities and the countries where they reside. They actively participate in business and agriculture, education and the sciences, government, the entertainment industry and news media.
• The “Mormon Church.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the fourth-largest religious institution in America, with over 6 million members in the United States and a total of nearly 14 million worldwide. While the term “Mormon Church” has long been publicly applied to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a nickname, it is not an official title, and the Church encourages the use of the full authorized title.
• The Prophet Mormon. Mormon was a military leader and prophet who lived on the American continent from about A.D. 311-385. He also recorded an extensive historical and spiritual record of his people on plates of gold, which were part of the record from which the Prophet Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon in the early 19th century.

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