church social media

Although secular media generally glosses over the spiritual component of Christmas, this holiday is one of the most important religious celebrations for Christians of nearly all denominations. This means that during the holiday season, churches have a lot of activity going on. Winter festivals, Christmas church services, holiday potlucks, and other occasions can bring in a lot of people. During this sacred time of year, it’s important to keep your church connected.

As we head into the busiest season for churches, now is the time to wrap your head around Facebook as your new best friend for church event outreach. It's one of the best (and least expensive) ways to share your event, be it a Fall Festival, Trunk or Treat, Harvest Party, or holiday event, getting your church message seen on Facebook is becoming more challenging every day.

Canva is a wonderful online graphic design tool for church communicators (and everyone else who's ever had to design a flyer or graphic). I've used Canva to design graphics for this site, presentations, social media headers, Facebook images, and much more. It's an incredibly easy tool to use that can help with a plethora of design needs.

In a 2001 journal article (I was 11 years old, for perspective), Mark Prensky, a thought leader in the educational technology world, coined the term “Digital Natives” to describe young people who do not know a world without video games, computers, Internet, and more. You are a Digital Native if you were born after 1980—so that would include all Millennials and every generation that follows.

Churches and church tech companies alike have been surprised by the fast-paced change and consolidation of church technology industry over the past three years. In 2012, private equity-backed Ministry Brands came on the scene with easyTithe, SimpleGive and SiteOrganic and quietly began acquiring additional church technology firms.

Being a pastor today is no easy task. Living, working and existing where you have to have a reasonable grasp of social media alongside copious degrees and ministry certifications, off-the-hook skills with people of every age range, speaking skills, shepherding abilities, and non-stop energy to deal with difficult people and relationships.

I live, eat and breathe social media for a living. While you probably don't, there are for sure valuable lessons to be learned from the social media landscape that can be applied to your church. I’m not a marketer by trade, but I’ve been a relatively active user of various social media platforms since I first heard that AOL Instant Messenger door creak open for the first time when I was in elementary school.

A common calculation in the business world is return on investment, or ROI. Finding the ROI of your social media marketing, however, can be difficult. The normal factors may not be as obvious as in other ROI calculations. For churches, looking at social media ROI can be trickier. Ministry isn't always trackable in the same way sales are.