Boost your church engagement when you learn to use social media effectively.
Almost everyone on this planet either knows about social media platforms or uses them. And a great many churches run at least one social media account, although often only used sporadically. If this sounds like your church, it may be time to consider utilizing social media effectively and through doing this, boost your church engagement.
Social media is not only for publicizing your church service times and big announcements. It can be used to provide support for your people throughout the week.
They say that people need to see or hear a message about seven or eight times before taking action. If we interpret this within a church context, this means that your people will be far more engaged in the core message of your sermon if they hear or see points from it throughout the week.
Use social media to give church attendees even more opportunities to engage with your Sunday message, whether it’s by seeing a couple points, hearing a clip, or watching the replay. Click To TweetFrom another angle, consider upcoming events that sometimes receive poor attendance. If you use social media to highlight the event and what it's all about in the weeks or days leading up to it, your attendance will be greater than if you were to only announce it in your Sunday service or on your website.
Let’s face it, our people are bombarded with hundreds of visuals and messages daily, through various digital platforms. And by utilizing social media effectively, your church can provide reminders and support for your congregation every day of the week.
Often, beginning your social media journey is the hardest part. So, here are a few ideas for how to best use social media to boost your church engagement.
Hire an expert: 5 Reasons Why Your Church Needs a Social Media Coordinator
3 Brilliant Tips for Using Social Media to Boost Your Church Engagement
1. Consistency is crucial
Social media algorithms are often ignored but will never disappear. It's best to try to work with them rather than fight against them. This means that you should post on social media regularly and consistently. In doing this, you will gain traction in social media algorithms (how Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter determine what goes in people’s feeds).
Consistency also means that your church members will look forward to seeing your regular content and subconsciously look for it when they scroll each day.
Additionally, potential visitors will see your posts in their timelines and will be more likely to remember your church when they’re looking for somewhere to worship.
A regularly active social media account shows that you are committed to claiming your slice of digital space; a space many of your people engage in daily and want to see you be a part of.
Save time: 4 ‘Done for You’ Church Social Media Solutions
2. Content that supports and informs
Many organizations must overcome the challenge of finding valuable content to share across social media platforms. Churches should not have this problem, ever.
Consider the vast amount of information generated each week, like:
- Sermon video and audio
- Pastor quotes
- Notes or questions based on the sermon
- Songs used in worship or during the sermon
- Bible passages that the sermons are based on
- Upcoming event information
All you need to do is hire or ask someone to take the information that already exists and create social media posts. What's more, you can schedule your posts in bulk. You can have a whole two weeks, or month of content lined up in a scheduler.
Inherently, church content is supportive and informative and you should keep it this way. Try to avoid sending posts that are ‘fluffy’, i.e. content that holds very little value to your people. Your aim should be to nourish and support your people through the week and help them keep Kingdom-focused in an online world that so easily draws attention away from Christ.
Your church’s social media strategy should be to nourish and support your people through the week and help them keep Kingdom-focused in an online world that so easily draws attention away from Christ. Click To Tweet3. Advertising on social media can boost your church engagement
This could make your skin crawl as you jump to the conclusion that using social media to advertise is a bit too … commercial.
But it doesn’t have to be. Simply put, you can pay to advertise your church on social media so that more people see your account/s and the content you produce. You can adjust your advert settings to target people in your area so that people who are physically able to attend your church will know that you exist close to them. Alternatively, you can make your targeted area more expansive and let people know that your services are broadcast online every Sunday.
Top Tip:
It is recommended that you include your address and service times in your ad so that people have all the necessary information, without having to ask for it.
Many organizations must overcome the challenge of finding valuable content to share on socials. Not churches! They inherently produce supportive and informative content that can be used on social media platforms. Click To TweetBOOST YOUR CHURCH ENGAGEMENT BUT KEEP THE GOAL IN FOCUS
The more you get ‘into’ social media, the easier it is to lose track of producing good-quality content over content that gains you a lot of likes or comments. Always keep your goal in focus. You want to support and nourish your people throughout the week, and the offshoot of this should be that you boost your church engagement. The more that people see your content and are reminded of the Sunday sermon or an event that is coming up, the more they will engage in what your church has to offer.
