It’s Social Media, Not Free Advertising Media

dchapman —  May 16, 2013 — Leave a comment

iStock_000018761288SmallMy friend John Finkelde from Grow a Healthy Church writes here that we need to stop using social media as purely an advertising medium.  I agree!

Social media isn’t purely an advertising tool for businesses to blitz with new promotions, sales and giveaways.  I think most people expect that from businesses they follow because that’s naturally a part of business life but too much will cause people to switch off.

If you treat social media like free advertising essentially you’re treating your followers like someone who’d watch the advertising channel all day.  People don’t follow your church just to know what’s happening.  They want to interact somehow with your content.  “Don’t miss church this Sunday” isn’t exactly interactive.  Posting photos of events has seen the most interaction from any of our posts.  Yes use your church social media accounts to let people know what’s coming up.  But don’t use it just for that!

Here’s what I think we’re trying to do with social media:

  • Make a heart, head, spirit or desire connection through an update, photo, link, question or statement.
  • Engage with the person so they do more than just connect with it in their head… they action it in some way.  They like, comment, share, save, remember, pray and assimilate the content into their life.
  • Draw people into a more immersive relationship with Jesus, a stronger connection with your church and bring life, freedom, maturity, salvation and a greater desire to live God’s way.

A great example of a business doing social media well is Logitech Australia.  While they post regular product updates, sales and promotions about half of their content is entertaining and engages their typical follower well.

 

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The 4 Rs of Good Social Connection

dchapman —  May 9, 2013 — Leave a comment

1368031820_likeI’ve mentioned before that the social media connection key is TLC which stands for Tweet, Like, Comment and covers Twitter, Facebook and Blogging.  But I’m going to go a step further.  Here are the 4 R’s of maintaining good social connection.

Respond to messages

Questions about service times, podcast enquiries, kids ministry queries and people asking about lost property are all possibilities over social media.  Facebook messaging has replaced email for many people so check for new messages on each SM tool you use a couple of times per week and respond.

Reply to comments & tweets

You can now turn on a ‘Reply’ function for your Facebook page.  This is a great way to reply to a single comment instead of the whole comment feed.  Tweet people back when they mention you.  Both of these are good social media etiquette and it keeps things social not just promotional.

Retweet great mentions

Your worship leader absolutely blew it out of the ballpark and people have tweeted about it and Instagrammed photos of the service.  Retweet and re-Instagram when people mention you… even re-Facebook a great testimony or quote.  Make sure you link back to the person who posted it and show the love.

Return the favour

Get involved in your news feed on Facebook (like and comment on people’s stuff), use Twitter and Instagram and like, mention, comment away.  Don’t allow your ‘social’ media to be one-sided and boring.  Get amongst the action and connect!

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How to get started in social media

dchapman —  May 8, 2013 — 2 Comments

The act of launching yourself into the foray of social media is as simple as 4 steps:

Create – sign up to something somewhere. One of the 3 tools I mentioned in my previous post I would recommend but other tools are gaining traction too. Make an account, create a profile for your church, upload your logo, relevant details and you’re in!

Follow – The next step is to find your people and follow or friend them. Then follow other relevant people in your church world (denominational leaders, visiting speakers, other leaders you like, etc). This means people will get a notification that you’ve followed them and hopefully follow back.

Post – To get things started post something! Make it about what’s happening right now in your church or this Sunday, an event, a person’s testimony, a victory, a prayer point, a link to your podcast, anything relevant!

Update – Remember to keep updating it. Social media is not static, it’s dynamic, it’s social and it’s continual. Respond to people’s comments, update regularly and keep it going! See my blog here for more.

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Where do I start?

dchapman —  May 6, 2013 — Leave a comment

Getting started can seem daunting but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re on any social media at all that’s probably a good place to start. If not here’s a brief run-down on the top 3 tools you should pick from.

1367831889_FaceBook_256x256.pngFacebook Page

Global and local with the largest user base, allows you to share news, photos, links and more with simplicity plus it looks good and is easy to use and manage, is a powerful social connecting tool, allows truer social connection than other tools.

Pros – Many people in your church are likely already using it, great analytics to track progress and campaigns, user-friendly, a Page is better than a Group as it’s public and has extra powerful features, free, mutual friendship (not just following), great for churches to start with.

Cons – People can Like your page but Hide it from their News Feed, sometimes your post wont show up in followers news feed because of Facebook’s algorithm (which hides ‘boring stories’).

1367831868_Twitter_256x256.png

Twitter

Has a large userbase worldwide and uniquely offers only 140 characters per tweet. Allows the use of hashtags to search global tweets for common events, references and is a quick flowing media tool (some users tweet many times per day (e.g. News outlets, sports teams, celebrities, etc)).

Pros – Easy to get started, finding people to follow is easy, Twitter will suggest people to follow, acceptable to tweet several times per day, text feed with image links, easy to switch profiles in smartphone apps.

Cons – Not as easy to master, 140 character limit, many people don’t get ‘Mentions’ right (see here for correct use), fewer users than Facebook, text feed with image links.

1367831915_insagram.png

Instagram

A photo sharing application that has become extremely popular very quickly Instagram follows a similar following style to Twitter but is still a slow flowing media like Facebook (not as many posts per day per person). Very visual, allows likes, comments and mentions on photos.

Pros – Visually striking, simple to use, great filters for photos (makes dull photos look impressive), can send Instagram photos to Facebook and Twitter easily, integrated with Foursquare (location based tool), fun and creative.

Cons – Must take a photo to share (no text only updates), often used as an additional social media tool as opposed to one’s only tool, harder to switch profiles in smartphone apps.

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How much time and money should churches spend on social media?

dchapman —  April 30, 2013 — Leave a comment

time-moneyRecently I looked at how context should determine how much you invest.  Now let’s look at how to actually resource this important growth tool.  We’ll keep it to the categories listed above and focus on 3 main areas:  Time, Money and Personnel.

Church Plant

Likely the Church Planter would do social media until a team member can look after it.  Minimal time is needed in all reality unless you opt for a strong social media strategy to find people and build your church.

  • Time is often at a premium. Plan for up to an hour per week for social media updating, responding and promoting/managing.
  • Money is most likely being utilized in other essential areas.

Small church

The Pastor or leader best to look after this – someone who is tech and social media minded.

  • Likely have some time to devote to social media per week
  • Possibly have small budget overall but best to keep any SM $ focused on promoting events on SM.

Medium church

One or 2 people who look after this – keep it events and Sunday based and ensure it’s upbeat.

  • Personnel– a leader or savvy volunteer is best or person on staff (e.g. P.A.).
  • Budget may be able to handle including this in someone’s job description and devoting a couple of hours per week to it.

Large church

Make it a part of a paid person’s role, possibly media, web person, someone with suitable nouse.

  • It’s likely that you have multiple pages (Youth, Young Adults, etc) and multiple people managing.  Primary church social media should come from designated person.
  • Try advertising through Facebook for events and special Sundays.  Trial Facebook, Twitter advertising at different levels to see what impact you can have.
In Context
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It’s all about Relatable Content

dchapman —  April 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

Here’s the third thing I’ve discovered in my Media Pastor role at C3 Victory.

3. It’s all about relatable content

The internet seems to be in this exact place right now. Maybe it’s always been there but the popularity of memes, quotes on photos, clever sayings, inspiring pictures and captions and even just relevant text updates has shown us that people connect with relatable content more than anything else.

People ‘like’ a status (personal, quote or photo/picture) when they feel it connects with them in some way.  Empathy, strangely enough, is driving the internet right now.

Whether it’s funny, motivating, challenging or just connects with who we are people are sharing more online than ever before.  It’s become so easy with the Facebook Share button, the Retweet and the Pinterest Repin too.  Here’s a couple of my favs that have been doing the rounds lately.

New Snickers Advert

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Timing is almost everything

dchapman —  April 15, 2013 — Leave a comment


calendarLast week I posted on my new job as Media Pastor for 1 day per week and some important findings I’m making.  Here’s the 2nd one:

2. Timing isn’t everything but it’s still important

There is some merit in scheduling when you time.  Other sites have done surveys on when is best to tweet and Facebook but I’ve found that for churches, posting after an event seems to work a treat.

We’ll post to our Twitter and Facebook accounts several times per week for different reasons and they are generally viewed by about 120 people and catch around 5-7 likes. We posted some in-service photos post service last weekend, tagged a few people in them and saw a huge spike in the social media response. Exactly 740 people reached and 49 likes. A good policy could be to use photos on social media after events, tag relevant people and see what happens.

Look at your stats.  Find out when you’re getting the most social media activity and milk it.  Do what works for you, in your context and you’ll find influence is increasing.

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Same Page = Clearer Message, Better Results

dchapman —  April 12, 2013 — Leave a comment

same_page This year I took up a 1 day a week role as a Media Pastor in my church and apart from social media I look after all print, web and screen media too. C3 Church Victory in Newcastle, Australia is a large church (1000+) and so far I’ve discovered a few helpful things.  Let’s look at the first one today.

1. Not everyone has the same social media understanding, ethos and vision

I’ve had to reign in a few status updates and photos and other content that didn’t really fit with our culture of excellence and the desire not to spam everyone.

Education is important. We have scheduled a bit of social media training for all the staff. As an organisation it’s important that everyone who is posting social media content is on the same page.

Whatever your vision is to use social media you don’t want people in your team to be cutting against that. Help people understand your specific purpose and how that is going to be outworked in your church including things like frequency, quality, content, purpose and the vibe you want to get across.

When everyone is on the same page the message you’re conveying is clearer and the results will be better.

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Update, Update!

dchapman —  December 6, 2012 — Leave a comment

Social media is not a set and forget medium.  It requires continual updates.  That means:

  • You need it to be part of someone’s job description (or yours)
  • They need to know what you want posted every week (specific or conceptual)
  • It needs to happen regularly.  Once per week is sufficient, 3 times per week is plenty.
  • It needs to be creative, varied, clever, funny, relevant or any combination of these.

    •  

    What about different types of organisations?  What kinds of updates should you be posting?

    Church - Events, what’s happening this Sunday, personal testimonies, announcements, updates on all of the above, milestones, celebrations, successes.

    Business – Services you provide, competitions, deals, sales, promotions, new stock, new suppliers, new catalogues, seasonal deals, clearance stock, special offers, etc

    Non-Profits – Events, donations updates, how to donate, contact details, thanks to other organisations, thanks to big donors, celebrations, milestones

    What would you add?

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    What’s Reasonable for my Size Church?

    dchapman —  December 5, 2012 — Leave a comment

    Social media, if not geared to your context, can become a monster.  There’s no limit to how much time and resources you can invest/waste into it.  It’s best to think about your CONTEXT and tailor what you do to that.  Here’s my previous post on size and context.

    Church Plant

    Kick off with a website and/or a Facebook Page. Manage it yourself or within your team. Update it weekly with what’s happening on Sunday and any special events you’ve got planned. Facebook Groups are too closed, use a Page instead as it makes you easier to find.

    Small Church

    Start with a Facebook Page and make sure you post a few times per week. Create a Facebook Event when you have any event people could invite friends to. Someone who is good at social media should manage it and promote the church page on your website, newsletter and announcement screens.–> My recommendation for small businesses.

    Medium Church

    You could feasibly manage several SM applications such as a Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram all linked seamlessly but this could depend on expertise, time and whether this is a volunteer role or part of a paid position.

    Large Church

    Hire a pro, target 3-4 sites people use in your church, link them together, manage from HootSuite or similar app, develop a strategy to engage people especially with Twitter and use #hashtags for events, services, etc.

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