Social Media has taken over marketing and promotional avenues and has proven to be the best tool for not just putting your organization in front of people, but engaging with them, too. This is why it’s such a great tool for churches and ministries. Where would your ministry be without the interaction and engagement of people? If we want to truly inspire, motivate, and communicate with people, we have to position ourselves and be where they already are. Social media is definitely the place where people are hanging out and receiving their information.

We’ve put together some quick content for you that breaks down the two most popular and useful social platforms that your ministry can use. We’ve also lined out a few tips for how to get the best use out of each platform.

FACEBOOK VS INSTAGRAM

Both Facebook and Instagram are great tools to engage with people. However, each platform has it’s own niche for communication and serves different purposes.  

Instagram is definitely more of a visual platform, where high quality pictures and videos are shared. People follow their friends for obvious reasons, but they will also follow other accounts that they find interesting (fashion, fitness, funny cats, etc). People Choose to follow Instagram accounts for one reason: they enjoy seeing what that account is posting. 

Facebook, on the other hand, has little to do with enjoying what other people post. For most Facebook users, they are using it to communicate to the people who they actually know. This is where they chat with their friends who they don’t get to see very often, or they can write out and share with their friends what is on their mind and start a conversation about it. Most Facebook users are there for the sole purpose of talking to other people.

Both networks are great tools for engagement. They each have the ability to post comments, likes, and send private messages. Which is why both are great tools for a ministry. For your ministry or organization, your social platform goal should boil down to one thing: engagement.

WHO ARE YOU ENGAGING WITH?

The best way to start engaging with your audience is to know who they are. You might have different audiences for different platforms. Many will agree that the Facebook audience is older than the Instagram audience. If that is the case for your ministry, then makes sure you are posting content in ways that appeal to each audience.

FORM A STRATEGY

Your ministry has goals and strategy on what you are going to do to reach more people—in the same way, you should also have a social media strategy to align with that. We recommend starting with a calendar. Look at your organization calendar and see what events, special series, or offers you will promote, different topics you want to cover at different times, etc. Based on what is going on in your organization, you can form intentional social media posts around those specific items on your calendar. After your calendar is marked with those specific items, you can fill in the blank days with other great content.

CONTENT IS KING

When deciding on the content to post, think about what you are communicating and what purpose it has. Whenever you’re sending out a message, whether it be in a public address in person, or a written document that you send out, or on social media, it is best to follow this guideline:

1)      What do we want our audience to know?

2)      What do we want our audience to feel?

3)      What do we want our audience to do?

Make sure that the content you are posting is answering 1 or more of the questions above. If your post doesn’t answer one of those questions for your audience, then chances are the post content is not communicating the correct purpose or intent.

Here are some tips on making your content great:

·        Mix it up.

Don’t always post the same type of announcement or message. Some posts will be to inform your audience of something they need to know, while other posts can be something to encourage them, or inspire them. Some posts might be just to make them laugh. Mixing up the meat of the content will keep your users engaged, and not bored.

·        Keep the look consistent.

The best and most affective platforms are those whose design is consistent and uniform. For the most part, you want to stick to the same fonts and color schemes in your posts. Every now and then, doing a new font or color that is trendy and eye catching, is helpful. But consistently stick to the same design and feel of your page or feed.

·        Tell Stories

Everyone loves a good story. What qualifies as good? The main character faces hard times and in the end, he or she wins! Share these stories on your platform. These are the testimonies of transformation. The more personal, the better. People seeing those posts can relate to the story and you will engage with them at a higher level.

·        Respond, Respond, Respond

Set a rule for your response time on social media. Respond to your comments, private messages, and when others tag you in their posts. This will boost your engagement, build trust with your followers, and ultimately grow your platform.

Other tips and tricks for social media:

1.      We all can relate to the struggle of not having a skilled photographer in our pocket. When you  need to post a quality picture, but don’t have access to one, visit the website called unsplash.com. This is a free stock photo website where you can search for the kind of picture that you want, download it and post it to your feed, and not pay a penny for it. It’s FREE!

2.      Send your posts to your staff, volunteers and partners to share on their own social media pages. This works particularly well when you have a big event coming up. Make the exact post that you want them to share and then send it to them to copy and paste into their own feed. This will help build an awareness of your account, as well as an awareness of your event.

3.      There are platforms out there that can help you with scheduling your posts. You can type out as many posts as you want and include the graphics and videos that you want, and then set a date and time for it to be posted. This is great for time management! Some platforms we recommend: HootSuite and Sprout Social.

 

Have you tried anything new on your social media platform that has worked? Do you have any questions that we can help answer? Let’s start a conversation. Comment below with your thoughts and questions.