By Jonathan Howe
Social media is here to stay, and some churches have done well as early adopters of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. But many churches are still either hesitant to use social media or are using it poorly and not seeing any positive results.
As the pervasiveness of social media grows, it would be unwise to continue to ignore your church’s social media strategy and presence. And like any other ministry in the church, social media needs planning (a strategy), people (someone in charge), and a purpose (measurable goals) to be effective. These seven keys will help your church engage both members and guests on social media.
- Have a clearly designated point person. If no one is responsible the social media communications of your church, the chances of being effective are low. Someone—whether paid or volunteer—should be responsible to see that schedules are followed, content is posted, and standards are being met. If your goals call for a daily tweet and nothing has been tweeted in two weeks, you need a structure of accountability in place to get back on track. Without a designated point person, church social media can be haphazard and will ultimately hurt the ministry and reputation of the church.
- Understand the differences in the channels. It seems obvious, but Twitter is not Facebook, and neither of them are Instagram. Each social media channel has advantages and disadvantages and is best served with specific content for its audience and format. Twitter and Facebook are the most alike in that links and photos work well on these platforms. Quotes will fall flat on Facebook (but not on Twitter) and Twitter isn’t the best for photo galleries or events (Facebook is). Speaking of photos and links, Instagram photos must be square (unlike Twitter and Facebook) and links aren’t active in the body of a post. When you post content online, remember what works best in each channel.
- Integrate social media into your current communications plan. One big mistake many churches make in social media is separating it from what they are already communicating. Use your church’s weekly newsletter or bulletin to shape the content in your social media channels. And while you match the type of content to the channel, always consider the sharability of the post. Think “if someone sees this, will they want to share it with their friends?” If the answer is no, consider a shift in content or the call to action.
- Monitor channels for feedback and respond. Social media is not a one-way street. The entire purpose is for social media to be social. This requires dialogue, listening, and responding to questions. While not every comment requires a response, if you find yourself getting asked the same questions time and again, consider adding an FAQ page to your church website or integrating those answers into existing content.
- Have a clearly defined goal for each channel. While it’s great to have an ever-growing number of followers online, having increased follower counts as goals isn’t the best way to measure effectiveness. Set measurable and timely goals for engagement and effectiveness rather than simply trying to increase your follower counts.
- Use tools for efficiency and analytics. Once you’ve set your goals, you need to track them. Using tools like Buffer and Hootsuite allows you to monitor, engage, schedule, and analyze your social media accounts. Also, spend some time in the analytics areas of your social media accounts. You’ll be amazed (and possibly frightened) at what they can tell you about your audience.
- Promote the social media channels through traditional means when possible. If you are going to use social media as a church, tell your members and guests about it. Put the logos and usernames for your accounts on bulletins, newsletters, and promotional materials. If you want your members and guests to engage with you online, they need to know where to find you.
What would you add to this list? Where has your church found success in social media?
Ask different people what is popular every few months. Three months is an eternity for a site or an app to stay popular. Kids got off Facebook when their parents and grandparents got on there. Use appropriate social channels to reach various ages and genders. Teenage boys may be using something different than teenage girls. College students may use something totally different. When an app goes unpopular, get off of it. Don’t keep using something that no one is still using. That is a waste of time and not reaching anyone. Don’t let the fear of the old people getting upset keep you from using social media.
Great advice, Mark.
In line with #4 – since social media needs to be a two-way conversation, find members who really like being on the various social media platforms and enlist their help in engaging others by responding to posts as well.
Presenters at a break out session I attended suggested that social media should be used for 3 things: To promote your church, keeping people in the loop; To engage and build community (use more question marks than periods); and to encourage and resource your audience, using sermon notes, scriptures, inspiring quotes.
The third point you listed is huge. Community is essential.
I would add:
Make sure everything posted is glorifying to God and agrees with your statement of faith.
Make sure your settings do not allow anyone to post anything to your channel without going through the administrator and that all comments are moderated for the edification of the body.
Scott, agreed. Hootsuite is a great tool for posting permissions.
Don’t moderate the comments too hard e.g. Blog responses. Let people be heard. I have made some comments on blogs which were deleted because I did not agree with the author, not because I was disrespectful.
That’s a good point. Churches/pastors who whitewash comment sections of respectful disagreement lose credibility in a hurry.
I know this feed is old. But the more and more I have used social media the more I realize that people should be able to speak their mind on social media. After all, it is pretty much a default that sites just let you post whatever save any restrictions on nudity, profanity, etc. I have personally dealt with situations where people felt minimized in the worth of what they perceive is of value only to be told by the ministry that is something that should not be posted. I think we get in the trap of fostering this teacher and student class mentality and when you weigh that against how they might normally operate on social media, it is a B-I-G turnoff for some.
Instead I suggest a conversation should bring brought about by site administrators or contributors about how “burning issue” might be answered by the Word of God. I know gossip is of concern in churches too. But again, it is an opportunity to see how those that lead ministry use God’s Word to help with issues and so I think there are bigger wins for the church because people feel like, wow, I could use this, or wow, I am blessed by this. Real life, real change.
How does one set “measurable and timely” goals for a social media channel? What are some examples?
Often the goals are internal ones. “Post daily/weekly.” Or “Create channel specific campaigns for new sermons series/events.” Another possibility is to “Engage three non-members a week” in each channel. Once you are meeting those goals, you can set more numerically based goals of “# of shares per post” or something like that.
I would add that goals for social media should depend on the platform. For example, if your goal is to post to Twitter once a day, and you post at 9:00 a.m., the likelihood of someone who looks at their feed at lunch seeing your post is essentially 0. To be seen effectively on Twitter it’s helpful to post a couple times a day so your posts have more potential reach. On the other hand, posting the same thing 3 times per day on Facebook will drive people crazy and they’ll unfollow you.
Set goals that are platform specific and use a tool like HootSuite like Jonathan mentioned to schedule posts. A good rule of thumb for Facebook I’ve heard is 4 times per week with only 1 post being an ask. The other 3 should be informational and helpful.
As it relates to goals then, I would suggest something like, “This week I will post 3 articles I found helpful recently, and 1 post about our event coming up next week to Facebook.”
Social media is here to stay for sure. I like the advice and comments so far. As someone who is searching for a new church, I find social media to be very effective in helping me learn about a church’s activities, its outreach, etc. **One word of caution, though, do not post specific prayer requests on public websites – your church’s webpage, facebook, twitter, etc. As someone who is seeking a new church, I have been surprised and saddened to see individuals’ personal information in public media forums – save those for printed church bulletins or private emails for church members.
An excellent point.
This is a great list. The only thing I would add (and others have mentioned it in their comments) is to keep your congregation informed about what’s happening on their church’s social media channels and invite them to get involved by sharing their church’s posts among their networks. In addition to making social media a part of the communication plan, make it part of your church’s ministry.
Hi Jonathan, great article. Would it be possible to reproduce on our website with full attribution? People across the pond would appreciate. Thanks. Blessings.
Sure
Good one Jonathan,
May i also add that doing live broadcast on platform that are suitable is one area we should look into in Church. few churches are now doing so well in this but most have not gotten to know the technical path to achieve it.
i want to also add part or all of this article to my presentation. i hope its permitted. thanks
I find it in any business or church content, that posting to Google Plus makes your SEO stand out and you are almost instantly discovered by search engines (Google included).
Since this is a Google owned service, it is only obvious (although not necessarily fair) they self promote anything posted there 🙂
Great post you have here. I also did similar on why pastors who are hungry to grow should be on social media and how to get started
Why Every Serious Pastor Should Be On Social Media. Follow this link for full article http://bit.ly/2tbV5Ah