Alpha Youth Series Early Adopters Guide Aim To capture early adopters for the Alpha Youth Series and identify strategic advocates globally, who will be our biggest champions to old and new churches to run Alpha using the Alpha Youth Series. Alpha Youth Series early adopters and advocates include (but are not limited to) youth pastors, churches, leaders and influencers who are already engaged with the 2013 Alpha Youth Film Series, and where possible are active on social media. They will be the first people to kick-start the new Alpha Youth Series when it launches on 1 October 2017, helping to document and widely share their experiences and stories of using the product. We would love to use that to increase our engagement and inspire and encourage other churches to use it too. Their feedback would also be invaluable in shaping future Alpha products and resources. We will initiate and scale momentum by empowering this network from October 2017 to January 2018 to champion the product within their respective channels.
Engagement Plan Now Work with your Alpha Youth Coordinator(s) to identify key youth pastors and leaders who could be your early adopters/key Alpha Youth Series advocates. Reach out to them, encouraging them to consider becoming Alpha Youth Series early adopters. This would mean that they would be the first to use the new Alpha Youth Series from 1 October 2017 to run their Alphas as each episode comes out each week. As the pioneers of the new Alpha Youth Series, we’d recommend asking churches to run it for the full 10 weeks and also do an Alpha Weekend or Day Away. This is so that we can get a sense of how all 13 sessions work together and encourage other churches across the globe to run the complete set of Alpha Youth Series. Share the behind-the-scene videos, images and teaser video with your early adopters to build buzz and excitement.
2 weeks before launch (mid-September) Invite your early adopters to sign up to the global Thunderclap campaign and to also save the date for Ben and Jason’s live webinar on 2 October 2017, at 7pm BST. Continue building excitement around the release of the first Alpha Youth Series episode in October on social media and engaging with your early adopters.
2 days before launch (29 September) Send your early adopters an exclusive link to the first episode that will be available two days before anyone else sees it. Remind them to join in on Ben and Jason’s live webinar on 2 October, and to send in any questions by sharing them on social media using the hashtag #AlphaYouthSeries.
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Alpha Youth Series Early Adopters Guide Launch month (October) Keep your early adopters informed of the episode delivery schedule and where they are available to download. Encourage them to share images, endorsements and write blogs about their experience of using the new Alpha Youth Series for the first time. This will be very useful for engaging with other churches. We suggest that you encourage your early adopters to do the following:
After every session: •
Share on social media a picture, a thought or quote from a guest about how that session went
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Use the hashtag #AlphaYouthSeries
Make a note of: •
How many guests attended the session
•
The average age of the guests
•
The average age of the leaders
The content of the post could be: •
The context you are using the Alpha Youth Series in e.g. in a church, in a school, at home etc.
•
How you found the Alpha Youth Series episode
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How it compares to the previous Alpha Youth Film Series you have used in the past
•
The experience of your guests •
His/her thoughts about Alpha
•
His/her thoughts about the Alpha Youth Series
We hope you’re as excited as we are about launching the new Alpha Youth Series with your early adopters in October! Ultimately, we long to see it being used as a tool that encourages more young people to come to know Jesus.
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