Churches are an important part of the lives of many people. They consider the church as a spiritual rock for them. Thus, it is important to promote and communicate information about your church. This will inform your community about what is happening at your church so that they can participate. Moreover, church marketing is also a great way to increase your congregation and grow your community.
There are many ways to promote your church, but one of the most effective ways is social media marketing. It can be somewhat intimidating for a church to actually put this into practice. However, you do not have to be a technology expert to implement some effective social media marketing strategies.
Regardless of your church size or demographic, here are some cost-effective social media marketing strategies to help you grow your church organization.
How to grow your church organization with social media marketing strategies?
Use the Right Platforms
There are so many social media platforms, and there are multiple ways to leverage them. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are the three most well-known social media platforms. However, WhatsApp and YouTube have also gained attention in recent years. Here are a few strategies to try out for your church on these social media platforms:
Instagram is an image-sharing app. Thus, it is a great place to share pictures from events happening at your church. It is also popular to use graphics on Instagram to promote future series or events.
Instagram stories are a great way to keep your community connected with your organization. You can use stories to give reminders or countdowns for the upcoming event. You can also utilize stories to post highlights from your congregations or events. The motive is to keep your audience engaged, and there is no better way than Instagram stories to do it.
Facebook is where it all began for social media. It offers groups that are highly effective mediums to extend the online reach of your church. You can create individual groups for the ministries at your church. This way people can easily join and share within their more specific community.
Create groups for men, women, children, and so on. Start by creating engaging content by asking relevant questions and sharing useful information. Encourage your audience to interact with each other and become a much greater and stronger community.
Twitter is well-known for its limited space. You can share the same things as with other platforms. However, you just have to keep it shorter. The longer the post on Twitter, the less likely your followers are to read it.
One key tactic to use on all social media platforms, but especially on Twitter, is hashtags. The platform enables its users to search for things using hashtags. Thus, make sure to include relevant hashtags so that more people can see things related to your church. People can use the same hashtag to tweet about their experience, sharing it with both each other and those outside of your church.
Although WhatsApp is a chatting app, it has changed over the years with a lot of new features. WhatsApp groups are one of the easiest ways to communicate. You can share pictures, videos, documents, and whatnot using WhatsApp.
WhatsApp statuses are also an effective way to convey information to your church community. They are just like stories you post on other social media platforms. They allow you to share updates and reminders and reach everyone who is in your contact list. You can use PosterMyWall to create attractive WhatsApp status images to keep your community up to date about everything happening at your church.
Create a Podcast around your Sunday Message
Podcasts are a great way to engage with your congregation. You can record and share Sunday prayers happening at your church as podcasts. This will make more searchable and shareable content for your followers.
You can also create podcast episodes that dig deeper into the message. This will provide people a chance to expand on the ideas from the previous Sunday’s prayer. They will connect with your church on a deeper and personal level, increasing the impact of your message.
Use creative images and videos
Not only Instagram posts, but Twitter and Facebook posts, also, have a higher rate of liking and sharing. People draw to something they can see or watch and are less likely to look at just words alone.
Even if your post does not need an image, boost interest by including one. You can use a simple graphic from a sermon series or just a text image. Try using PosterMyWall to create graphics for your social media marketing. You can enhance your church marketing and draw more attention to your posts by using all kinds of free templates available here.
Read more: 5 Ways You Can Use Pinterest In Your Daily Life
Post at the Right Time
Agree or not, there are actually ideal times to post and share. You can make the greatest impact if you are aware of those times. For example, a lot of people check their social media for a few minutes right after waking up, so early morning can be a good time to post.
Of course, you will have to track your activity. Once you start with your social media platforms, gauge times for your church to be posting and sharing.
Grow your Church through Social Media
It is not necessary to do everything at once. Just go with the flow and implement what works best for you. The more you use social media, the more you will get familiar with it and learn how to market your church. Soon, you will be able to develop the right social media marketing strategy for your church organization and get the results you have been desiring.