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Chances are you are not making the most out of your social media profiles.
Yes, there are likely posts you know you should be making and additional platforms you know you should be showing up on, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.
Instead, let’s talk about optimizing social media: making the most of the features provided.
First, Fill in All of the Blanks
Sometimes, we can be so eager to start posting on various platforms that we forget to actually fill out our profiles properly.
Don’t miss these important opportunities for connection and quality digital ministry:
Photos
Be sure to add a profile photo so that people will recognize your church. If there is an option for a cover photo of any sort, be sure to add one into this space as well.
Website
Please, please, please be sure to add your website to your profiles.
This is the only opportunity you have to connect your profile visitors with additional information about your community. If people need more information and you do not have a website listed, you’ve probably already lost them.
Location
This is especially important for churches, because this is how your platform will know to suggest you to people who live near your location.
With this set-up properly, anyone who searches “church near me” will likely come across your community.
Bio, Name, Username, Handle
Whatever options are provided for you depending on your preferred social platform, take them!
Be sure to choose your handles extra carefully as you won’t want to be changing them frequently.
Link to Your Website When Possible
Yes, you want to make sure to have your website in your profile whenever possible, but don’t forget to link back to your website in other ways as well.
Each social media platform will have it’s own best ways to do this. You cannot link people back on Instagram like you might on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter.
Sending people to your site when appropriate reminds people your website exists.
The more people combing your website, the more chances there is for someone to learn about your community, its values, and how they can tune into this body of faith.
Post Engaging Content
Yes, making the most of your church social media has to include the content your posting too.
Digital ministry is not just about posting for the sake of posting or inviting people to your off-social events. You need to start learning how to actually practice your ministry on social media.
We wrote an article all about How to Get Started with Digital Ministry. If you’re in need of easy ways to make your online posts more engaging, we recommend you check it out.
Otherwise, at the writing of this article, we are still offering our 2020 Advent + Christmas Pack for purchase full of 50+ Facebook images and 50+ Instagram.
These 100+ images were crafted to spark conversation, encourage faith, and keep your people connected with one another, the Revised Common Lectionary texts of the week, and, of course, God! Purchase your pack here.
Be Consistent
And for once we’re not talking about posting consistently!
Instead, to optimize your church social media, you need to be consistent across multiple platforms.
Having a consistent voice and appearance on your overall social media takes intention.
Without a plan, your social media presence can quickly become disorganized.
Specifically, try to use the same profile photo on all accounts at the same time. This is part of your branding.
Other ways to live out effective church social media branding include:
- Utilizing the same colors on all profiles
- Writing the same type of posts on the same day (Wednesday question posts, Spotlight Saturday posts, etc.)
- Writing similar bios on all profiles or the same mission statement
It’s absolutely wonderful – even recommended – to have multiple people working together on your church social media. But you need to be sure they are all actually working together and not against one another.
If one social media manager is posting their favorite content and another is posting in an entirely different style, your church may not appear to have one consistent voice.
Be intentional with your team and discuss how you will share or not share various management responsibilities ahead of time.
That’s it for today.
If this was helpful for you, be sure to subscribe to our email list for future tips and trends to make sure your church does not miss out on the biggest opportunity to share the love of Jesus yet.
We brought the knowledge, now it’s your turn to put it into action.
Be Church Online, y’all.