This is a guest post by Shelby Pilger. Click to read more about how you can guest post on Christian Web Trends.
We know social media can be a powerful tool – but are we using its full capabilities? Social media can seem like a daunting time consuming task but it doesn’t have to be.
Facebook’s Meta Business Suite has some helpful features that can help us to effectively run our church’s social media, while also protecting our time, so we can focus on what is most important. The planner feature can allow us to strategically think ahead and schedule posts and stories ahead of time using automation. If you have a facebook page, you are able to use these services through Facebook! You can reach the Planner by navigating to managing your page through Meta Business Suite
Tip # 1 – Plan, plan and plan again!
The first step to reaching a place where your social media posts are automated, is to first decide what and when you want to post! This can be a unique plan to your church, but here is an easy to follow template.
Template Example:
Monday – Recap Services
Wednesday – Share about any upcoming events
Friday – Encouragement
Saturday – Invite to join us at church
You can post as much or as little as you want, but a good template would be to recap what is going on in the life of your church, notify your church and community about any upcoming events, as well as encouraging them throughout the week and inviting them to join you on Sunday or whenever you may be having services! Finding a structure that works best for you, your church and your community is step one.
Tip #2 – Batch work
Now that you have a plan, it becomes easy to input your photo/graphic along with a caption. I recommend working in batches, so that your work goes further! Planner allows you to schedule posts for either Facebook or Instagram, or you can do both at the same time! I recommend choosing the “both” option so you can reach as many people as possible. My next recommendation would be to schedule a whole week at a time. Pick a day of the week that works best for you and schedule all of the social media posts that will need to go live in the next week. Then, you can sit back and relax, knowing that your posts will automatically release when it’s time – leaving you worry-free!
Tip # 3 – Schedule your posts for “Active Times”
Meta Business Suite makes this part easy for us! It collects data on when your followers or people who view your page are most active. For example, maybe most people log on to Facebook and Instagram after they get home from a busy work day – say around 6pm. Meta Business Suite’s Planner collects that information and will recommend to you when is a good time to post for each day. It does the work for you! Select an “active time” and schedule that post.
Meta Business Suite’s Planner is easy to learn and use – you can do this! Plan ahead, work in batches, and use the tools you have been given. Once you have a system of social media up and running – it will feel great to not have to worry about it every single day, knowing that you are still using it to reach people for the Kingdom! At Ministry Assistant Services, we have helped many pastors and churches manage their social media, and these are just a few small tips we know will help you too!
Feel free to comment with any questions you may have, or drop recommendations for using social media below!
2 Comments
Hi Shelby, thanks for writing this article. It’s very insightful!
Very informative