Description: Joel Osteen presented a message of hope and God's unfailing love from the heart of America, Chicago, Illinois to over 115,000 people live online, ranking as one of the highest viewed online live faith-based social media events in the history of the web. Media Connect Partners partnered with the Joel Osteen Ministries social media team to produce the live online event and manage social media.

Contact: Andrea Davis, Sr. Director Media Relations, Joel Osteen Ministries, 713-491-1339, andrea@joelosteen.com; Matt Gregory, Engagement Manager, Media Connect Partners LLC, 800-627-1265 ext 510, matt@mediaconnectpartners.com

HOUSTON, Sept. 13, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- On August 6th, Joel Osteen presented a message of hope and God's unfailing love from the heart of America, Chicago, Illinois. Millions of people around the world joined together to experience "America's Night of Hope" at U.S. Cellular Field. Tens of thousands filled the stadium, and millions more watched on television and online. Over 115,000 people interacted online, making it one of the highest viewed faith-based live events in the history of the Internet.

Joel Osteen Ministries partnered with Media Connect Partners to produce the online live event and manage the social media interactions. People were able to log onto a web page (www.americasnightofhope.com) that displayed the event happening live at the stadium and interact via a chat module.  The page also drew people in via Facebook and Twitter.

"We're excited about our partnership with Joel Osteen Ministries to produce this event for Joel," says Brian Boyd, CEO of Media Connect Partners. "Social media is the perfect medium to express Joel's message and reach today's audience. The event was shared over 24,000 times on social networks."

"Joel has the ability to appeal to a very diverse audience so our goal was to reach as many people as possible online using a multimedia approach. We are grateful to Kit Digital Streaming Solutions and Media Connect Partners for offering professional solutions to help bring it all together. The results were hugely successful," says Jason Madding, Director of Marketing for Joel Osteen Ministries.

Key facts about the "America's Night of Hope" live online event:

• Over 115,000 online streams of the event.
   
• The pages leading up to the event had over 250,000 page views.
   
• The pages were shared over 24,000 times into various social networks.
   
• The event was viewed by 146 countries. The top 10 were: USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Trinidad, Mexico, Philippines, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Bahamas.
   
• The top 10 states were: Illinois, Texas, Florida, California, New York, Georgia, N Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia.

"America's Night of Hope" is the annual large stadium event for Joel Osteen Ministries; a 2 ½ hour experience which draws people together of all different backgrounds from hundreds of miles for an evening of praise and celebration and a message of hope from Joel and Victoria Osteen. Chicago was the third such event, with Yankee Stadium in 2009, and LA's Dodger Stadium in 2010. 

"This event is perfect for our LiveConnect product," says Boyd. "The combination of live video streaming, chat, and social media produces great results." LiveConnect (liveconnect.tv) is a solution to market, produce, and broadcast high quality, interactive live events. "Joel Osteen Ministries saw an awesome return on investment for this event. The social media interactions, conversations, and click-thrus to the ministry's site made a tremendous impact."

About Joel Osteen Ministries
Joel and Victoria Osteen are the pastors of America's largest church and one of the most diverse - the 40,000 strong Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas.  Joel Osteen's television program reaches more than 10 million households each week -- one of the largest audiences in the U.S.  Millions more watch in more than 200 nations across the globe.  Millions of people worldwide are also inspired through his New York Times bestselling books, worship events, and his top-ten iTunes weekly podcast.  Joel has been cited by numerous publications as the most influential spiritual figure in America and was named as one of Barbara Walter's most fascinating people.  Recently, the New York Times cited Joel as one of Twitter’s most influential personalities.

About Media Connect Partners
Media Connect Partners is a full service social media firm creating and executing effective social media strategies for clients in publishing, entertainment, non-profit, and other key industries.  MCP is headquartered in Charlotte NC, with satellite offices in New York, NY, Atlanta, GA, and Los Angeles, CA.