5 Social Media Trends for Churches
As faith-filled individuals and families continue to support and look to their churches for guidance, inspiration, and hope, it is paramount that church leaders acknowledge and embrace today’s social media trends to continue to reach and remain accessible to potential, new, and established parishioners. Here are 5 social media trends, in particular, that are vastly-popular with all sorts of organizations and individuals and that can be easily (and immediately) implemented by your church as well.
Being Mobile
From school children to great grandparents, most everyone has their own mobile device (or at least access to one). Whether it’s a smartphone, a laptop, or an iPad tablet, individuals are able to both access information and send messages 24/7 from their homes, church parking lots, the office, or even the beach. There are many ways for both congregants and church leaders to implement, welcome, and use mobile devices before, during, and long after the services have ended. These days when the congregation is asked to “pull out their Bibles” many people at tech-savvy churches immediately access their Android smartphones to find the particular passage being discussed. Often times, ministers, rabbis, reverends, and priests are speaking from their iPads. In fact, some church representatives store music, lyrics, and anything else that needs to be shared during the service so that they can easily review it prior to sharing it during the services.
Being Website Friendly
Churches need websites. They need well-maintained, regularly-updated, and blog-laden websites that allow regular parishioners, part-time visitors, out-of-towners, and curious onlookers the ability to read and learn about the latest information, news, sermons, and stories regarding their community church. The best way to attract new visitors-turned-parishioners to a website is to add SEO-keyword-rich, fresh blog content to the website on a regular basis. Keeping the community informed about their parishioners who may need help, meetings, Bible studies, workshops, projects, births, marriages, and other celebrations simply makes the spiritual community even stronger.
Being Photogenic
What better way to attract the youth and next generation of church leaders than to have an active presence on Instagram, Pinterest, and other image-centric sites? Forming youth groups to help orchestrate, launch, and manage these projects will create even more participation from the younger members of the congregation. With the permission of the participants, wonderful pictures can be posted of different celebrations, ceremonies, and events taking place at the church.
Being Video Savvy
These days lots of chapels, churches, and temples are able not only to broadcast live on televisions, across radio airwaves, and through podcasts via computers, but also to share their local messages remotely to shut-ins, hospital patients, and nursing home residents by having cameras set up during their service for the physically challenged to attend and enjoy the services from the privacy of their own particular rooms. In addition, online video services like YouTube make it easy for ministers, reverends, rabbis, and priests to have services videotaped and then made available – at any time of the day or night – to anyone who wants to hear the sermon again (or for the first time). Further, some companies even help churches create effective and creative presentations through the use of slide shows to accompany the particular sermon. This video tool can be used to create special sermons and presentations to specific demographics audiences – whether for toddlers, single adults, or senior citizens.
Being Facebook and Twitter Centric
While websites are typically perused by new parishioners or individuals and families considering joining a particular congregation, sites like Facebook and Twitter are used more by established and active parishioners. A Facebook presence for a church should be set up as a “church” presence and not as an individual, personal account of someone at the church. Like the website, the Facebook page needs to be updated and managed on an ongoing basis. Aesthetically, it needs to be beautiful and engaging. Parishioners should be able to post on it and leave comments. The words, photos, and passages on it ought to be welcoming, inspiring, and uplifting. Twitter is one of the social media trends churches can embrace to keep everyone informed and updated on what is happening, where it’s happening, and why it’s happening. Like the Facebook account, the Twitter account needs to be set up as the church account to be followed and not as a personal individual’s account. Since most people who follow a church’s twitter account don’t necessarily attend the church (but like the messages, verses, and passages being shared), the tweets need to be engaging and relevant.
Since social media trends are not the message but rather the method of delivering the messages of the church, the use of technology no longer has to be feared in churches. By embracing them, more people can be reached, helped, and welcomed into the congregation.
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