People who are actively seeking a new church no longer turn to the newspapers or an advertisement on a placemat at a diner. The first stop for most people will be the internet – particularly your website and Facebook.
Facebook has over 3 billion users worldwide. If it were a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the world. The fastest growing age group on Facebook is people 55 and older; ages 35-45 represent the largest demographic. There are more women than men using Facebook, but only about 5% more.
I would dare say that Facebook’s demographics probably come close to matching your church’s.
For your Church to have credibility on Facebook, it needs to be 1) followed, 2) updated, and 3) actively engaged.
There are three ways of having a presence on Facebook:
- A Page is the most commonly used and the recommended method for a church. It allows everyone and anyone to follow you, without asking permission. It serves as your “Public Trifold” if you will.
- A Group is a page that allows the moderators to add people. Group pages can be open, which means people can find them on Facebook and ask to join or closed, which means only a moderator can invite and let people know the page exists.
- A Personal Profile is what you have for your own personal Facebook page, where people “friend” you. Having a personal profile for your church actually violates Facebook’s terms of service which require you to be an individual. Personal profiles are great for a priest. It allows the priest to interact with their congregation and to also monitor for any major life happenings. (They say people will announce the death of a family member on Facebook before they call the church.)
For a church looking to establish a Facebook presence, a Page is recommended.
Optionally, you may also wish to create a Group, which allows your congregation to discuss issues within the church without it necessarily appearing to the public.
Your Page should be used to show the world what your church is like. Or to paraphrase Bishop Beckwith, “To allow the public to see inside your stained glass windows”
Instructions on creating a Page are available from the Technology Committee here. If you are having trouble getting started, a member of the Technology Committee would be happy to help get you create your Page and provide coaching.
Important Terms
When getting started here are some important terms you should know:
Post: A post is you adding something to your Facebook Page.
Comment: When a person comments on your post, they are talking about it.
Engagement: Engagement is when a fan “Likes, Comments or Shares” your post. The goal of a good page is to get people to engage it. By doing this your Facebook Page will show up in both your fan’s Facebook feed more often and your fan’s friends will see them engaging you as well.
Like: When a person reads something on Facebook, they are given the chance to click a button that says “Like.” This is positive feedback to the poster that the follower enjoyed your post.
Share: When a person shares your post, they are posting it to their Facebook timeline, for all their friends to see. (For more about "Like" vs. "Share" please see previous "Geeks for God" blog posts Facebook buttons decoded: "Like" is nice, but "Share" is stronger and Facebook evangelism: Don’t just "Like"... "Share"!)
Tag: Is the process of identifying a person in a picture. When you do this, your post is automatically posted to that person’s timeline for their friends to see.
Getting Started
In June 2013, I assumed the role of Communications Chairperson for St. Mary’s Church in Sparta.
At that time our Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/stmarysepiscopalsparta) had just under 100 followers and was updated a few times per year. Since then we have built our fan base to 475 followers, average between 2000 to 3000 views per week with about 600 active engagements (Likes, Shares, Comments) per week.
So how did we do it?
The first step is learning your audience: what will draw them to your Page? What makes them engage your Page?
This will be a trial-and-error process as you begin. Your objective is to post items that will gain engagement (Like, Comment, Share). Not having engagement is like a tree falling in in the woods when no one is around.
Facebook is Social Media, so by definition people use it to be social. My experience has been that people use Facebook for social and entertaining purposes. So while posting verses from the Gospel or a lot of “Church Speak” may feel proper (and should be done from time to time) it may not garner the engagement you seek.
So treating it more like a Church Social vs. a Church Worship Event may play better to your audience.
One of the most popular posts we find is for Birthdays and Anniversaries. I found this worked simply because our prior Rector had posted a picture of an older member of our congregation on Facebook at a birthday lunch and it garnered the best engagement the page had ever seen.
When a member of the Congregation that is a Facebook user has a birthday I will typically take a picture I have on file (or I will “borrow” a picture from their Facebook page) and post it to our site. I will say “Happy Birthday Blessings” and then thank them for whatever particular task they take on for the church. Tag them in on the post so it appears on their timeline. I will then invite people to click “Like” to wish a happy birthday or to offer words.
Voila, you just wished a member of your congregation Happy Birthday, showed their friends that they come to your church (great for word of mouth referrals) and that your church is pretty cool for doing something like this. Trust me, it will stick in people’s minds. Your benefit is you just got your Page in to the feeds of your congregation so their friends see it. This is by far better than any trifold you could imagine printing and it is free!
The same can be done for anniversaries and special achievements.
While being social will get your Page the most attention, you should also be posting pictures of your church. (Only pictures of a full church should be posted, no half-empty pews!) Show people having a good time at an event. Yes, push Christmas and Easter Services.
One caution: At first the tendency is to post a lot because you want to get everyone’s attention: This may quickly cause follower fatigue. If you aren’t getting a lot of engagement per post, you are probably posting too much. Slow down and be selective.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Look at other church’s Facebook Pages to get ideas. Don’t limit yourself to just our diocese. Look at churches outside the diocese and even outside the Episcopal Church. There are some awesome ideas out there.
Lastly, have fun with it! Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook to be a fun place where people get together. Keep it light and a bit entertaining.
If I can be of any help, please email me at ccernek@homebridge.com.
Good Luck!
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