How Churches Can Use Social Media

Let's face it: you want to be "Liked". You want your church to have an engaging presence on the most popular social media site in the world. One out of every four page views on the internet is Facebook, so you can't afford to miss out. The first step your church should take with social media is to create a custom Facebook page. Whoever at your church plans on managing your social media should log in to Facebook and find the "Create a Page" link. From there, you'll want to enter in as much information about your church as you can in the spaces provided. Try to think of creative ways to talk about what makes your church special and unique in the "description" section. Also, definitely upload a quality photo of your church for your page's "profile pic."

Then, "recommend" your page to Facebook friends that attend your church. Anyone who "likes" your page will automatically receive timely and relevant news updates about your church as you post status updates, photos, videos and more. As people "like" your page, be sure to post updates about upcoming events at your church, and report on past events, including photos and video whenever possible. Be creative about engaging with the people who like your page and strike up conversations that engage people in the life and mission of your church. Be sure to put a link to your Facebook page on your church's website as well.

Twitter is the next most popular social media site that your church should join. First, you should decide how your church wants to manage its Twitter presence. Some find it easiest to only have a general church Twitter account, and some just have their pastor(s) tweeting. Some have both. It's up to you and the goals of your church communication, but you'll probably want to at least have a main Twitter account for continuity's sake in case your pastor should go to another church. When you're ready, head over to Twitter's site and create an account, Your username should very simply represent your church, but if there are multiple churches with your same name, it's best to distinguish it by putting your location in the username, like "firstpres_yourcityabbreviatedhere". Next, you'll want to upload a profile picture of your church, and look into making or purchasing a custom Twitter background to make your account stand out.

Now you're ready to start tweeting! Share an update or two about what's going on at your church, and then start looking for other Twitter users to "follow". You want to target people in your congregation who use Twitter first, so they can follow you back and start receiving updates. Then look for other churches and organizations in your community you'd like to publicly follow. Next, find other churches in your domination from other parts of the country, and also the higher levels in your denomination, because they will all have relevant tweets you might want to "retweet" to your followers. Retweeting is basically posting someone else's tweet on your account, to your followers. Don't worry, the original Twitterer will receive credit for the tweet still.

From there you're pretty much on your way! Connect your Twitter account to your Facebook page so that those who "like" your Facebook page but don't use Twitter will still receive your Twitter updates. You'll also want to be careful about those who follow you. Some people use Twitter for less than churchly purposes, shall we say, so it's a good idea to check out the Twitter account of new followers, because everyone can see who's following you. In the case of a bad apple account you don't want publicly associated with you, you have the option to "block" that user, so they can no longer follow you.

Other than that, tweet to your heart's content! Need ideas about what to tweet? Stick to content that is in some way relevant to your church and that you think your followers would be interested in receiving. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, if the roles were reversed, whether you would like to receive the tweet you're about to send, or whether it wouldn't really be interesting to you. Promote upcoming events, sermon series, mission trip news, anything you want people to know about your church! Remember, everything you tweet is public, so double check the tweet you want to send before you click. People in your congregation will also have the ability to send your tweets to their mobile phone as a text message, so it's also good for communicating last minute changes in events, or anything else you want people to know right away. Happy Tweeting!

Blogging is a great way for your church to share more in-depth information about its life and ministry than is often possible with Facebook and Twitter. It really can be thought of as a highly interactive, digitized form of your Church Newsletter (expert tip - you can copy and paste your blog posts into your printed church newsletter to save time and reach those who don't use the internet much). There's a couple ways to get started with a blog: integrating it into your website or starting a separate blog on a free service like Wordpress or Blogger. It really just depends on how easily you can integrate blogging into your church website -- it's often difficult, but I think it's worth it. Ideally you want to keep people on your site instead of referring them elsewhere, but other blogging platforms like the ones mentioned above make it much easier to publish blog posts.

In terms of content, the sky is the limit! Here's some ideas for what you can blog about to get you started: doing a series of posts profiling each person on your church staff in turn, highlighting an important new program or ministry, "live" blogging a mission trip for those who could not attend, and much much more! Remember that it's always great to integrate pictures and even video into your blog posts whenever possible. Another great benefit of blogging is that you have substantial content to share with your followers on Twitter and those who like your Facebook page. You'd be surprised how certain articles you post there can cause a lot of buzz and get people talking and thinking about your church in a new way. And don't stress too much about posting every day, or even every other day: people in your congregation and followers elsewhere will understand that you're busy doing all the other tasks of ministry, and shouldn't expect you to churn out a new post every day. If they do, invite them to write a guest post for your blog - that means less work for you and you will have involved someone in the life of your church in a new way! That's pretty much all there is to it, folks--share the Good News with your blog today!

Though still in its infancy, it's good to be aware of the possibilities of using Google+ as part of your social media strategy at your church. People have asked me what Google+ is and what it's like, and it can be difficult to explain--it's much easier to experience it for yourself. Perhaps the best way to describe it is a blend of Facebook, Twitter, and Google's preexisting services (Picasa, Gmail, etc.) all rolled into one, which is a pretty amazing prospect.

Here's a few suggestions to get your church started:

Create a page - when Google+ opens this feature to organizations, which hasn't happened yet. Depending on how many users end up adopting it, Google+ may become the new "place to be" for online community, so you'll definitely want to have a Page there just as you would on Facebook. Whether or not it's a "Facebook Killer" as some have suggested remains to be seen, so for right now you'll definitely want to maintain pages on both services. The same rules apply: you'll want to post timely and relevant updates so that people who add your page to their "circles" are in the know about you and your organization.

Hangout. No, I don't mean just sit around and play on the internet all day (wait, that's what you do for a living? My bad:). I'm referring to a really exciting aspect of Google+. Hangouts is a feature that allows you to video chat very easily with one or many people who choose to Hangout with you. The applications of this for ministry are practically endless. Need to organize a staff meeting or a meeting of your church's governing board quickly even when people are in different places? Start a hangout (and restrict it to one or more of your "circles") and you'll have everyone together in one video chat room discussing whatever business you need to take care of. Want to easily broadcast your worship service online? Start a hangout (which sounds a little informal for worship, I know) and no matter where people are, they can view your service. The list of possible applications is long - play with it and see how you can use it!

Huddle. Luckily, you don't have to join a football team to be a part of this great feature. Huddle is basically group chat (text based) on the go - simplified. Right now it's limited to Android Smartphone users with the Google+ App, but hopefully iPhone and other smartphone users will be added as the service expands. This could be great for organizing youth outings and on mission trips, where people may be spread out at different sites across a city. This could also be great for keeping church staff in contact with each other easier than just texting or email, because everyone can quickly and easily see the conversation and be a part of it.

This section will be revised as the service develops, so check back for updates!