Churches historically lag behind in utilizing new technology. Social media has been no different. Upon the arrival of Facebook and Twitter, churches spent years debating whether or not they should engage in social media. While the rest of the world jumped in with both feet, the church dipped its toes in like a child gauging the water temperature before deciding to swim. As a result, most churches have fallen behind on the social media curve.
More than almost any other organizations, churches could truly benefit from social media. Churches are about getting the word out and establishing communities of like-minded individuals. Social media shares the exact same goals. It would seem the two should go together like peanut butter and jelly. Yet most churches have failed to effectively integrate social media. While there’s been improvement in recent years, most churches still miss the mark.
Here are three reasons why churches do not effectively engage people in social media and how you can work to solve those problems:
#1 – Lack of education. The majority of churches are not staffed with seasoned social media experts. Pastors are pastors. They attended seminary, not Harvard Business School of Social Media. They simply don’t have the strategic knowledge to effectively engage people on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.
Solution: The good news is the Internet is full of resources and training on social media best practices. Make a concentrated effort to learn what works and put those practices in action. Replace one leadership or devotional book with a book on social media practices.
#2 – Lack of time. Between sermon preparation, counseling sessions, event programming, and all the other day-to-day activities, the schedule of a Pastor is extremely tight. If you try to pry one more meeting or task into the mix, the Pastor could pop. Learning about and participating in social media effectively takes too much time.
Solution: You are busy. You will always be busy. You have to make the time. Social media is that important. Pastors who use social media most effectively block off time on their calendar. They set rules. For example: I will check social media in the morning, at lunch and once before leaving the office. This is also a good area to use volunteers. Find trusted people to help manage your social media efforts.
#3 – Lack of strategy. You cannot simply sign up on Facebook and Twitter and expect people to automatically follow or like you. Effective social media takes strategy. It takes meetings and forethought. Without a strategy, your social media efforts will not yield the benefits and positive results you seek.
Solution: Work together. Bring the right people into the room. Get help from social media experts in your congregation or community if possible. Think of the ideal results you would like to see from your social media efforts and find ways to make that a reality. Develop a strategy that outlines what content you will post, who will post it, when you will post it, and how often you will post it.
While there are hurdles to effective social media use, they can all be overcome with a little time and effort. The most important thing is not to give up. As we move into the future, social media will only become an increasingly important tool for engaging congregation members and reaching new audiences. I’ll leave you with some compelling statistics:
There are more than 800 million users on Facebook.
The average Facebook user has 130 friends and is connected to 80 pages, events and groups.
Is your church connected?
