This is a guest post by Sarah Long. Read more about how you can guest post on Christian Web Trends here.
If you’re trying to put together a social media strategy for your church, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
New platforms are popping up all the time, and it can be confusing just to get started. Your team might be asking, “Do we spread ourselves thin and try to be active on all social platforms, or do we choose just one? And which is the right one?”
The sad reality is that every social media platform is listed as the most important one for your church somewhere on the internet. This means that so many churches are juggling too many platforms poorly instead of really succeeding at one or two.
This post will go through the major social media platforms, their differences, audiences, and unspoken rules. So you can choose the right platforms for your church to focus on.
With more than 1 billion people on Facebook, it’s fair to call it the king of social media for now. People worldwide are logging in to share opinions, news stories, photos, and memories. All this traffic makes it the world’s more robust data marketing engine on earth.
Out of Facebook’s users, there’s an even spread between males and females. It is important to know that users get increasingly active as age increases, especially with the 40+ year old demographic.
The core of Facebook’s “culture” is friendship. You “like” their photos and opinions, and you never start your message with “Dear.”
So, when your church is posting on Facebook, your posts should match that same style. Facebook’s focus on friendship sets an expectation of a light and informal tone from brands. Guests visiting your Facebook page should feel as if they are already your friends.
This platform works a bit differently than Facebook. It’s all about being visual, and you can share photos and videos on your profile! With its young users, Instagram is ideal for reaching audiences under 35 years old.
Instagram is perfect for sharing photos of church events, members, sermons, and more. Think of it as a way of sharing a virtual scrapbook or magazine of your church. People can visit your profile and see your church, congregation, and culture right on their phones.
Twitter is a fast-paced, concise, and easy way to connect with your audience. On Twitter, users communicate in posts called tweets. Tweets are short messages and can include text, images, videos, and links. The catch, however, is that tweets are limited to 280 characters.
As a user, you also can favorite, quote, and retweet other user’s tweets, which will then appear on your personal Twitter feed.
While it doesn’t have as many users as other top social media sites, it does have a highly engaged user base. Twitter users send out at least 500 million tweets per day on average.
Pinterest is another image-based platform. It is worth noting, though, that it is not necessarily a social media platform. Communication isn’t a big part of it. Pinterest sees itself more like a visual search engine. So google, but with pretty pictures!
On Pinterest, you can search for topics you are interested in and get beautiful photos that feature tips, advice, quotes, recipes, and much more. Each photo is called a pin, and it has a link that leads you back to the source. A source is often a webpage, like a product page, an informative blog, or a video.
See now why Pinterest is important?
With over 320 million monthly users, Pinterest boasts one of the most concentrated audiences of women amongst all social media sites. Nearly 80% of their users are female, with a heavy concentration amongst Millennials.
LinkedIn is all about networking. Users create their profiles by including their work experience, career objectives, skills, and certifications. Instead of sending “friend requests,” you “connect” with other users.
It’s basically a platform to display your resume and connect with others who are active in your industry in a broad summary.
Most of the content you’ll find on LinkedIn relates to professional advice, case studies, white papers, and personal accomplishments.
The most popular posts include:
- informative articles
- job updates
- anything else involving career development or industry trends.
Between the content shared on LinkedIn and its focus on networking, the platform is best for B2B companies.
YouTube
YouTube is the largest video-sharing social media site in the world. It lets users upload videos on the platform, view videos from other users, and interact with them. With over 2 billion active users, each one spends an average of 40 minutes watching videos on the platform.
To use YouTube for your church, share your videos! Upload your choir in action. Share your sermons. Host regular study sessions with some of your members and even answer questions from users. While your videos might not always go viral, they will reach people who want and need guidance in their lives.
So which social media platforms should your church be using?
Clearly, each platform has different benefits and best practices when it comes to social media.
To pick which platforms are right for your church, it’s important to consider who your audience is, what goals you want to accomplish through your social media, and how you will measure success.
Once you have your social media goals, you can see which social media platforms will help you reach your goals.
If you need help auditing your current social media performance and developing a strategy for each unique social network, contact Pro MediaFire today to speak with our team about social media marketing services.