28 Ideas For Your Church's Social Media
As social media engagement is ever-evolving, the demand to produce good and relevant content is more important than ever. At times, it can be challenging to create/find consistent content to share that fits with your ministry's voice (brand) and vision. Create a list or idea board that can serve as a repository for things to share. Here's some inspiration to get you started.
Informational
FAQs post: Share a frequently asked question, ex. how can I volunteer, how can I share my faith? Be sure that these are also posted to your website's frequently asked questions section so people can refer back to them.
Bible study tools: Show your congregation free tools like blb.org or bible.com.
Outside, but related, resources: Share a resource (ex. book, website, article) that can enhance a subject your church is currently studying.
Data and analytics: Talk about the number of baptisms, salvations, and other needle-moving decisions and progress happening in your church. Infographics work great for this!
Share a worship playlist: Share a Spotify or YouTube playlist of the music from your worship service or prayer time.
Re-share past content: Don’t let great content go forgotten. Re-share some of your best-performing content. You may even have an opportunity to put a new twist on it.
Experiential
Behind the scenes of day-to-day operations: staff meetings and the like may seem boring to share at first thought, but it might not be to your followers. Church members love to see their staff in action.
Behind the scenes of worship service preparation: have your worship leader, pastor, and others talk about how they construct a worship service and what goes into it.
Give a virtual tour: show a live video tour of backstage, the new youth department, etc.
Encourage others to share: ask your followers to share some of your ministry’s best-performing posts by showing them how well it's been received. They’ll be more likely to share it if others have done the same.
Just For Fun
Group challenge: A bible reading plan, pray for a stranger, health goal, giving goal, etc.
Fill in the blank posts: Have some fun and invite your followers to share back with posts like 'the best Christmas present I have ever got was _______.'
Followers help write captions: Post a photo and ask your followers what caption they would put with it.
Group challenge: A bible reading plan, pray for a stranger, health goal, giving goal, etc.
Storytelling
Give shout-outs to volunteers: Show them some love and thanks on Instagram.
Highlight accomplishments: Showcase what your ministry is doing in the community, efforts towards ministry goals, etc.
Discuss a hot topic: Find out what’s trending and look for topics that your ministry can speak to. Respectful dialogue about current events in light of a Christian worldview can be invaluable and fun.
Throwback Thursday and some: Throwback photos and videos are fun moments to reminisce on. Beyond just the usual throwback Thursday post, you can share anniversary or milestone moments from the ministry, choir, youth, pastor, former locations, programs, and so on.
Staff highlights: Profile and highlight a staff member, who they are, what role they serve in, perhaps a memorable quote, and how to connect with them. Give your staff five questions to answer and let the post dual as a blog post that lives on your website.
Highlight a member and/or testimony: Share a testimony and/or profile a member talking about what God is doing in their life. Tell their story.
Engagement Centered
Tease/preview the next message or sermon: Share a graphic, quote, or video that will help build anticipation for the next message. If it's a series, perhaps you can do a live video or chat Q&A on the topic that will not only gauge where people weigh in on the subject but will also engage interest; you may even be able to use the responses in the delivery of the message. You can also have your pastor join in on the effort and share from their account as well.
Open Q&A: Ask your followers and/or members for questions they might have about their faith or the ministry specifically. It's best not to assume that your church members are always in the know.
Call for photos: Ask your members to submit their favorite photos for regular highlights or throwback posts.
Followers help write captions: Post a photo and ask your followers what caption they would put with it.
Online polls: Ask your followers and congregation what they think about a specific subject. You can use a free tool like Google Forms or pollmaker to gather feedback.
Gather feedback: Launching a new campaign, building project, fundraising goal, ministry activity? Include them. Invite your followers and members to participate and share ideas.
Contests: Promote your next event or conference with a give-a-way.
Give calls to action: It’s okay and occasionally fun to ask for likes and retweets of your content or those whom you support.
Remember, all social media followers may or may not be members of your church. Consider this when posting and adjust the message for the audience. Likewise, all social networks are not equal. Some are more geared towards a feature set than others (ex. Instagram, photos) which means that it's perfectly fine to use some of these ideas on just one network rather than all.
This article has been revised from the original article by Darrel Girardier, 25 Quick Ideas For Your Church's Social Media.