Churches in America are closing their doors at an alarming rate. In fact, one study reports that 3,700 current churches are closing each year. This may come as no surprise to some, but for the evangelicals in the world that hold their faith to be a very important part of their lives, this is not good news.
There seems to be a glimmer of hope. On the flip side, it appears that around 4,000 protestant churches are being started each year according to research conducted with more than 34 denominational statisticians, attracting those that aren’t affiliated with a particular denomination, many of which are millennials.
Social media has millions of people every single day interacting and consuming information from friends, family and brands and organizations. This is why it makes perfect sense for churches to be doing a great job to connect with and invest in their community of people to spread their message.
Here are 10 ways for churches to be successful on social media.
- Use the Social Platforms Where Your Ideal Audience Already Spends a lot of Time - Let’s not make this more difficult than it needs to be. If you are currently interested in targeting millennials at your church, Instagram may very well be a great place for your church.
- Have an Ad Spend Budget - It is safe to say everyone’s target audience is on Facebook, but with the algorithim changes, everyone’s newsfeed is filled with posts by family and friends, and churches need to be ready to invest some advertising dollars for the ‘pay to play’ model on popular social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Facebook has great guidelines, tutotials and recources to help you have better opportunities to get success using Facebook ads.
- Be Inspirational – Let’s face it, if your church isn’t posting scripture, words of encouragement, ways that your church supports those that are less fortunate, why should people look to your church as an authentic place that loves people? Posting the text is great, however if you include the words on a great image, that makes it even more visually appealing and powerful. Which leads me to the next point.
- Make Visual Content Customized for Each Platform – Even for the novice to graphic design, there are great free tools available such as Word Swag, Pic Monkey and Canva that allow you to use your own photos and customize easily the size for your graphic. Whether you need images sized for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter, you can do this easily with these free tools.
- Post Consistently – When fall is approaching and someone sees that your church’s last post was several months ago for your Easter service, this is not at all a compelling reason for them to look any further. It is recommend that churches post at minimum one post everyday. Each organization’s following is unique, but to be more aggressive and increase the likelihood that your posts are being seen, post anywhere from 4-6 times per day.
- Post Photos – When people come to your social media profiles and see people serving the community, enjoying musicals, serving in the nursery and worshipping it gives them a visual of how they too may be able to get plugged into your church. If you are trying to attract teens, make sure you have photos of teens that are already at your church and the activities, programs and opportunities that are available.
- Engage with Your Audience – Doing social media goes far beyond just posting. Social media done with excellence includes answering people’s questions, asking your audience questions to probe a dialogue and just letting people know that their comments have been read. This helps people feel appreciated and gives the impression that the church is being ‘social’. Makes perfect sense, right? Even if a question gets asked and it is answered offline (via email, or a phone call for example) it is still imperative to come back to the social platform and respond there as well. This lets anyone else coming along reading the comments and questions that your church did in fact respond.
- Think Like a First Time Guest - Imagine you are new to a city and you sit down to Google some churches. When you land on their website, and check them out on social media, you want people to feel as if there is content there that resonates with them. Does your church offer a ‘Visitors Orientation’ or ‘Get to Know us Luncheon’? If so, make sure that this is easily found in your social media feeds making it even easier for someone to see themselves as fitting in with your church community.
- Use Live Video – Some of the more popular live video trends include Periscope and Facebook Live. The current trends tell us that Facebook loves it when you do Facebook Live and they show more of your followers that you are live (for free). So this seems like a no-brainer. When you know Facebook is going to show your content to your audience for free when you take a certain action, you do it so you can get the benefit from it. The pastor can do a 2-3 minute overview of his upcoming sermon and inviting people to come worship, or it could be a current member sharing a personal story or heartfelt thought on why they started attending the church. When you use Periscope and Live Video in smart ways, it can have a positive impact on your church social media strategy.
- Have your Contact Information Easily Accessible – When you make sure to include the address, phone, email and point of contact for questions, it makes it easier for people on social media to come find your church for your next worship service or event. Don’t make people look ferociously because more often than not, they won’t. They will just give us and go to the next church that has what they are looking for.
Whether a church has a team of people working on digital media or it is a task for the church secretary, by implementing these tips churches can be better at serving their audience and building the needed ‘like, know and trust’ factor that people need to see as they decide where they are going to attend and ‘check out’ for church.
Of these 10 ways for churches to have success on social media, which ones stand out to you as the most important in order for a church to make progress with their social media? Have any of these personally made an impact on you?
Tell us your comments below.
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