Church social media can be difficult to get right as it is easy to see as something for just the “tech team” to do. It’s actually an outreach to people – not just locally, but around the world. Consider it to be more of a pastoral work and you won’t go far wrong.
Here are 5 things to avoid when posting content on your church social media accounts.
1. Using Social Media as a Noticeboard
It’s good to let people know about upcoming events, but when all you do is say what’s happening next, you aren’t using social media to its full potential. Social media can have a great impact on the lives of people who are reading your content, so encouraging messages are often welcome. Noting what is happening in your community, building people up, and offering support can help you reach more and more people who might otherwise have no interest in church.
2. Ignoring Interactions
When someone takes the time to comment or reply to your posts, it can be easy to ignore the interaction and move on. If it is an encouragement, thank them. When they have a question, answer it as best you can.
However, if it is an unwelcome or trolling message, you may do better by not responding. If the post is not detrimental, you can leave it as it is, but if it is offensive you are within your rights to remove it. This is not to whitewash or to ignore criticism, but your mission is to encourage people. If needs be, PM the person involved and have a discussion with them outside of a public arena. Discussions of this nature can be distracting and detrimental to getting the important message out there.
3. Posting Too Often
If you post 4 or 5 times a day and you may be posting too often. Give posts time to breathe and let people see them. If you’re responding to current events, also take your time, as a single reasoned post is better than 20 the see your thought process forming.
4. Not Posting Often Enough
If you only post once a week, that’s probably not enough. Finding the balance between overwhelming people with content and letting them feel like they have been forgotten is vital, and only you will know your congregation well enough to make this decision.
5. Posting the Same Content Over and Over Again
Every Saturday, “don’t forget church tomorrow”, every Monday, “wasn’t church great?”, and so on. You can say the same things but say them in a relevant way. Consider what’s happened during the week, the weather, how people may feel. Look at the content of the preach from Sunday, link in with it, help people to understand the message.
Getting the information out there is fine, but you’ll only achieve engagement with the widest range of people if you can make the post relevant to them.