“Church social media manager” was a title that really didn’t exist a decade ago. But as the way people connect with each other has changed, so has the way churches stay connected with their people. The reality is, most churches don’t have the resources to have a person dedicated fully to church social media. Meaning, as is customary in church staff tradition, the role gets handed to someone who probably already has too much on their plate.
If that’s you, here are three ideas to keep those feeds flowing all week long.
SERMON REFLECTIONS
Whatever message you’re trying to communicate, saying it once really just isn’t enough if you want people to remember it.
Your social platforms give you a chance to circle back to the content presented on Sunday. Ask a follow-up question. Post a quote from the sermon. Share additional resources on the topic. Link to the recording of the sermon. If you have the resources, post an edited clip from a particularly powerful part of the sermon.
@elevationyth grabs bullet points from the sermon every week and puts them on top of an image of the speaker in a series they call Sermon Notes:
Here’s a really simple example of @villagechurchtx grabbing a single idea and marrying it with the branding of the sermon series it came from:
Here’s an option from @southeastchrist that can be as complicated or as simple as you want to make it. They just took a clip (most likely from their streamed or archived sermon video) and added some captions on top. (Captions aren’t totally necessary, but they’re worth adding if you’re able, since most people will watch videos on mute.)
ENGAGEMENT FOR ITS OWN SAKE
A few years ago, you could get away without having much strategy in your social posts. All you really needed to know was when and how frequently to post your content, and your followers would see it in their chronological feeds.
Today, social media strategy is all about engagement. Most social media platforms suppress the reach of your content unless your followers are organically interacting with it (or you’re ponying up some cash to show it to them). Their algorithms have even gotten smart enough to know when you’re “baiting” for engagement, so you can’t just ask for a “like” or a “share” anymore.
Like it or not, posting things purely for the sake of engaging your audience is a good practice, and one that will benefit the visibility of the rest of your posts if you do it well.
While all of our social graphics are “engaging” on some level, we have an entire subcategory of social graphics created to stop the scroll and encourage comments, likes, and shares (without engagement baiting).
RECURRING “SEGMENTS”
The calendar is relentless—and the job of filling it out can be overwhelming, especially when you’re starting with a blank slate every time you create content. “Recurring segments” are one of the best ways to maximize your creative energy expenditure and fill your calendar.
A recurring segment gives you a repeatable starting place in the content creation process. Here are a few examples that can work really well for churches:
Verse of the Day/Week – Bonus points if it’s tied to the sermon and you use sermon branding.
Sermon Notes/Clips (see #1 above)
#tbt (Throwback Thursday) – Find old pictures of your pastor/church or post clips from old sermons.
Ministry Spotlight – Regularly highlight things going on in your church outside of your main weekend service.
Prayer Requests – Give people a place to share prayer requests. Here are some graphics for that.
Invitations – Remind people to show up to church and bring their friends & family.
Sunday Setlist – Post a list of the songs that you sang on Sunday.
These are pretty generic and could apply to any church, but you can get creative with it—find a few things that work well for your people and can be easily repeated. Give it a try for a few repetitions, and then take a look at engagement to see whether it’s worth continuing.
What other things do you think are worth posting every week? Hit us up in the comments below with your ideas!
Light up your feed with social graphics from Igniter! And be sure to check out our Pick One – Social Graphics subscription (or our Premium subscription) to get access to the entire category for an entire year.
