Increasing Social Media Engagement For Churches
Getting More Mileage From Your Social Media Posts
By Josh Roberie
How Many Likes Should You Get?
A church planter once asked me how many likes should their paid ads get on Facebook. I am glad he was tracking his investment and metrics, but likes alone do not determine effectiveness for church social media accounts. Someone liking a social media post is the first step in a series of interactions that should lead to a visit to your church. For this to happen, winning an online engagement strategy should take you far beyond just likes.
It’s Too Late for a First Impression
Waiting for people to come to church to make a first impression will put you behind in the relationship. Guests to any business or church initiate nearly every potential experience online first. When you go to a restaurant, you first check out their yelp rating, google images of their food, or go to their website to see their menu. You want to know what you are getting into before you get there. It is the same with first-time visitors at your church. They check out your website and social media before they attend to avoid finding themselves in an uncomfortable situation.
The question remains, though, what are you doing to create engagement through your social media with potential guests?
Don’t Just Post Your Announcements
Have you ever had a friend that only likes to talk about themselves? “Enough talking about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you think about me?” No one likes that guy. Maybe they do at first, but eventually, we all get tired of someone only interested in broadcasting facts about themselves.
Many church social media accounts are very similar to this type of infamous friend. They only post announcements for the church. “See you at church this weekend! Services at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.” “Men’s Meeting this Friday. Join us for a Grillin and God’s Word at 7:00 p.m.” If you only post events information about your church, then people will start tuning you out. There is no reason for them to engage when you do this. As a result, your posts will stop appearing in their feed because the algorithm will see their interaction decline with your account as a lack of interest.
How do you solve this problem?
Post Content That Asks Questions
You do not have to adjust your content strategy dramatically to increase interaction. You can add questions to what you are already posting. Are you doing an At the Movies series? Then don’t just promote that weekend’s message and movie. Add a question.
For example: “We are excited about this weekend’s At The Movie’s installment. What is the best movie you have seen so far this year? We’ll see you think weekend at 10:00 a.m. for our first movie and inspiring message. Who knows, we may be showing your favorite movie from this summer!”
In the example of the men’s meeting, you could announce that bar-b-q will be served and then ask, “What’s your favorite thing to put on the grill?” Something like this still communicates the essential information and gives people a reason to comment, see what others post, and respond to them.
You should not stop with asking only questions in your posts, though. Dive on in and join people in the comments. The church account should like people’s comments and follow every commenter. Doing this adds value to them. Instead of the friend who only talks about themself, you become the friend that makes someone feel like they are the only person in the room.
All of this is easy to do. It just takes effort and belief that interacting with people increases engagement, leading to a first-time or repeated in-person experience. Here is a perfect example from @churchestogo!
Digital Ice Breakers
Sometimes, you can make a post that has nothing to do with the church to increase engagement with your social media. Think of these as digital ice breakers with no purpose other than to get people talking about themselves. When people show up for posts like this, it turns those powerful algorithms on in your favor.
An example of this would be to ask an either-or question. “Who do you think will win the Super Bowl this weekend: Team A or Team B?” “Are you a beach or mountains person?” is another example of a “this or that” question. To use the At the Movies example again, during the week, you could post, “What is your go-to candy or snack when you head to the movies?”
You may be surprised by how many people respond to questions like this to share their opinion. The good news for you is that this is the exact kind of engagement that lets the social media platforms know someone LOVES your account and to make sure to keep your content in front of them.
Be Thunder and Lightning
Using your social media content to promote church services and events is perfectly fine. You do not have to ask questions in every post. It just helps to keep interaction and engagement in mind instead of using your social media as your personal coffee shop bulletin board. When was the last time you looked past the sugar and creamer at Starbucks long enough to remember anything that was posted there anyway? You may not even realize your coffee shop has a bulletin board, and there is a reason for that. The Bulletin board offers no questions and, therefore, no way to interact with the content.
Instead of being a bulletin board, you want your posts to be the thunder and lightning in the rainstorm of monotony that people see online. Rain is soothing and enjoyable, for sure, but the thunder and lightning make things exciting. Its breaks up the status quo and gets our attention. Asking questions will help your posts stand out and get people’s attention when everyone is still talking about themselves.
Josh is a ministry leader, communicator, and creative who helps train and coach church planters at the Association of Related Churches (ARC). He has been a contributor to many ministry publications, including Relevant Magazine. You can stay connected to Josh through his blog JoshRoberie.com and on Social Media at @JoshRoberie.
