Sometimes it’s hard to make social media a priority in your church when you’re already pulled in so many different directions.
However, it has to be a priority. It’s one of the best ways to market your church, engage members, reach new people and create a thriving community that expands outside your church walls.
If you rarely update your social platforms, you could face some serious negative consequences. As bad as that may sound, neglecting social media does have the power to work against your church.
Your Church May Seem Nonexistent
Social media is one of the top five ways people find your church. Whether it’s from a targeted ad or just searching for churches in the area, social media has become just as important as search engines for finding churches and other businesses.
If your social media page hasn’t been updated in ages or is missing vital details, such as a website link or physical address, your church might seem nonexistent to someone who discovers you for the first time. In fact, your church may not even come up high enough in social media search results for anyone to notice.
Church Members Have Nothing To Share
People loving sharing things online. If you’re not making social media a priority, your members don’t have anything to share. If you’re targeting millennials or that’s the majority of your church family, this is even more important. This age group loves finding and sharing posts and content that moves or excites them in some way.
If your church is regularly sharing great content and posts, more people are seeing it because it’s being shared. The longer you go without sharing anything, the less anyone will even visit your pages.
Your Members Find New Churches
Social media is supposed to be a way to grow your church, but it could actually cause your members to look for a new church. Instead of interacting with your church via Facebook, they might find other churches with thriving online communities. Instead of sharing your content, which is rarely updated, they start sharing content from other churches.
Eventually, they find a local church that speaks to them and engages them more on their terms, such as social media. If they like the online content that much, it may be enough for them to change their membership.
Your Church Seems Outdated
You may already know that an outdated website is enough to make potential new visitors shy away. But, did you realize the same is true for social media? Unless you’re making social media a priority, your pages quickly look dated. After all, why would anyone follow your Facebook page when you’ve only updated it four times in the last six months?
If you’re not taking social media seriously, are you taking your church seriously? That may sound harsh, but that’s the impression you give.
You Make A Poor First Impression
Along those same lines, your social media platforms could be the first impression your church makes on someone. A post from several months ago is just going to show them that your church isn’t serious about engaging with people outside of church.
All it takes is a single post a day to keep things fresh and show people you care. Scripture, a link to your blog or another church’s blog, an inspirational video or even a happy meme is all you need to make a great first impression and get people to follow you and check out your church’s website.
You’re Missing An Opportunity To Fully Connect
The most important thing you miss by not making social media a priority is the ability to fully connect with your members and complete strangers. According to Pew Research Center, 69% of all Americans use social media and that includes all demographics. As of January 2018, 37% of people 65 and older use social media. That number jumps to 88% for those 18 to 29.
Those percentages are too large not to take seriously. While you may not reach everybody on social media, you reach a large number. Taking a few minutes a day to post something new and respond to comments could make a major difference in someone’s life. It could be what drives someone to try your church in person the first time. It could be what inspires someone to go from uncertain to truly faithful.
Are you having a hard time driving growth to your Facebook page and groups? Let us help you reach more people than ever.
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