With all of the capabilities of social media, it isn’t just businesses and individuals that are enjoying its benefits. Yes, even your church can benefit from it, too!
Growing Social Media Marketing for Churches
Have you seen the social media pages of Gateway Church in Southlake, or Mars Hill in Seattle? This is how huge social media profiles of churches can grow. With regular postings of inspiring messages and announcements of ongoing church activities, it is suddenly easier to reach a larger audience than ever before.
Church growth can also be in terms of the existing members of your church, and not just the new ones you are planning to reach out to. It could be in terms of building relationships and creating stronger bonds among them. It could also be in terms of growing your ministries.
Take note that although social media could help you increase numbers, it is not the solution for bigger problems. A lot of broken churches make the mistake of running to social media to try to fix things, but they do not end up fixing the problem. Instead, they only end up inviting people to an already broken church, something which will definitely not help in people’s search for spiritual growth. Be ready to acknowledge what the issues really are before taking it to social media. If it’s numbers and interaction that you need however, then you have come to the right place.
So how can you use social media marketing for churches? Here are a few tips:
- Have your sermons recorded and posted on your pages.
- Have online Bible study groups.
- Give regular updates on church ministries.
- Give updates on ongoing church projects such as fundraisers, building construction and renovation, etc.
- Focus on what your message is and post content relevant to it. Keep everything aligned.
- Create online opportunities where church members can interact with each other and get to know each other better.
- Discuss something relevant online and get people to speak up about the topic. Be open to all kinds of opinions, whether they are the same as yours or not.
- Let people know what your needs are. You may need more donations for a cause that you’ve been working on, or could be looking for volunteers for an upcoming outreach project.
With these simple steps on social media marketing for churches, you should be able to improve some of your numbers and build a following that would help your numbers improve.
All good ideas, Reade. I do think it’s important for churches in turmoil to avoid – even suspend – online activity while they sort things out in-house. As wonderful as social media can be, it’s also a place where people are apt to turn to publicize their dissatisfaction, to gossip, to slander those with whom they disagree, etc., which ultimately hurts not only your church and its people, but the faith in the eyes of every other viewer.
Absolutely. I like to define marketing as “spreading the word about good stuff”.
It doesn’t matter how good your marketing is, if the product is broken, no amount of marketing can fix it.
Thanks for reading, Erik.
This is an interesting post as I have seen an assortment of posts from people within churches the past couple of weeks speaking on the current happenings in this world. Some were loving, some were not so loving, and some misrepresented the churches they are part of. The reason that we get to see immediate response from individuals is that there is social media, whereas 10 years ago there was not near the following that it has today. I think it’s important to recognize that personal social media accounts are more of a face for the church they are a part of than the church social media account itself. This being said, I believe it’s time for people to get on the same page as the beliefs of their church. I don’t know if this means that churches need to hold social media classes, but I am pondering what this means for the future of the church on social media. With something controversial like religious beliefs, they can be uplifting but they can also be hurtful. There needs to be more thought before words are spoken or tweeted. Great post, Reade!
Totally agree, especially about giving more thought to one’s words before posting. That’s why I do think that a church needs to at least monitor their social presence, if only to address those misrepresentations head-on.
Thanks again for reading, Adam!
Reade,
Great topic here on social media and the Church expanding its reach through technology. I’m fortunate to attend a Church that does much of this. Something I’d like to see incorporated is your 2nd example. Bible studies online. Sometimes it can be difficult to get people together and seen various forms of this done successfully. Video, telephone and online chat can be leverage in ways by any organization or group. I participate in a late night fathers call via the telephone. Then I also do webinars with another organization that stretches across three states. Its a realistic way to still connect face to face.
Kirby