Creating Valuable Church Social Media Posts Users Actually Want To Share

Church social media posts don’t always get the attention they deserve. This is often because they’re overlooked or the content isn’t that engaging.

Basic text posts, posting infrequently, and not encouraging engagement are all to blame. The good news is it’s easy to step up your church’s social media game.

Whether you’re a mega-church or a small church with less than 100 members, the right posting strategy has the power to transform engagement both online and within your church.

This is your ultimate guide to creating church social media posts people actually want to share. Let’s jump in.

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Creating Engaging Social Media Posts

Creating engaging social media posts isn’t easy, but in this section, we’ll cover a few ideas to help you out. These can be effective regardless of the social media platform you are using or if you are using other social media accounts.

Create A Social Media Strategy

Getting your church’s posts shared means you’ll need to post regularly. Otherwise, people may never see your posts to begin with. Having a solid social media strategy will increase sharing overall. Plus, it’ll be easier for you to know what to post and when.

We’ve created a great guide to creating your own social media strategy. CoSchedule also has great resources on creating a social media posting calendar. Use both of these resources to master social media and create more shareable posts.

See What Others Are Doing

Having a hard time figuring out what content gets shared most? If you’re just getting started, it will take time to boost shares. However, you can check out other churches that already have this whole social media thing down. Whether it’s an uber-famous church or another local church, it’s valuable to see what’s working.

Church Marketing Sucks put together a list of churches’ most popular posts to give you an idea of what works. Capterra has a can’t-miss post of churches who own social media.

Test What Works And What Doesn’t

One thing to remember is what works for one church may not work for your church. For best results, try different types of posts to see what gets shared most. Adam McLaughlin lists 31 types of posts for you to try. The Creative Pastor lists 20 types to try.

Social Media Post Tips and Tricks

So we’ve covered the essentials of creating awesome church social media posts. Now let’s dive into all the tips and tricks that will help you out as you go. Let’s jump in.

Ask Members What They Share Most

If you want your members to share your church’s posts, then you need to post the types of things they like to share. Ask your members to write down the types of posts they’ve shared over the last month. Also, ask them what made them want to share them.

For instance, if they tend to share posts with images, what was it about those images that made them want to share? Maybe they thought it was cute or inspiring.

Whatever their answers may be, you get valuable insight into what your members enjoy and want to share.

Get Visual

According to HubSpot, visuals are your best friend when it comes to shareable church social media posts. Imagine being able to increase your social media reach just by adding relevant or eye-catching images. A few stats to prove this fact include:

• Increase retweets by 150% on Twitter
• Boost engagement on Facebook by 2.3 times
• Double how often blog content is shared by adding images throughout (this means your blog posts are reaching a wider social media audience)

While you don’t have to have an image for every single social media post, it’s a good idea to do this with many of your posts. Add background images with text on top to make your posts stand out. It’s quick and easy to create your own custom images to use on social media.

If you’re not sure where to find images to use, you can always take pictures yourself in and around your church and community. Of course, we’ve also created a list of free and premium sources of church graphics. You also don’t have to spend anything but time editing images and adding text with these free graphic editing platforms.

Share Inspiring Quotes

People love sharing quotes, especially if they are inspirational, motivational, meaningful, or funny. Use quotes from recent sermons or from your church leaders. Naturally, you can use scripture as well. However, don’t limit yourself to just scripture.

Pinterest is a great place to find ideas for quotes. Plus, you can even create boards of different types of quotes on Pinterest and share them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as well.

An uplifting morning quote is a great way for members to start their days. Schedule a week’s worth of quote posts in a single day so you don’t have to remember to post one each day.

Pass Along Posts From Others

The biggest mistake churches make with church social media posts is trying to create everything themselves. This entire post is about creating shareable posts. So, why not share posts from others?

Take the time to check out Christian leaders, pastors, churches, and inspirational groups on your favorite social media platforms. Follow them and share content that you think your church’s members and followers would enjoy too.

Of course, if you read blog posts from other sites that you believe would benefit your social media audience, share them. Many blog posts have one-click buttons for you to share content and even include an image to make it stand out and make it shareable.

Believe it or not, your members will appreciate being able to find not just their church’s content on your social media page, but all types of relevant content from other sources too. This increases overall engagement and sharing. Plus, it’s less overall work for your church once you’ve created a list of sources to share from. Just don’t forget to mix in some of your own content too.

One other important benefit is sharing content from others helps you build relationships with other Christian social media accounts. They’ll take notice and start sharing some of your content too.

Use Pictures Of Your Church

Stock images are great. They’re usually free or low-cost and incredibly easy to obtain. Anything that makes managing social media easier is a good thing, right?

The answer is both yes and no. Using stock images or just colorful backgrounds is great for quote images. However, if you’re posting things about your church, use actually pictures of your church, members, volunteers, events, etc.

For example, if you’re inviting people to attend upcoming community events, use an image from a previous event to show how everyone is engaging together. People love to see an actual group versus just a posed stock photo. It’s more personable and more shareable.

Use Scripture With Images

Quotes are wonderful, but your members will expect to see scripture too. A great way to do this is to share a scripture that relates back to the previous week’s sermon. You could also tease the upcoming sermon with relevant scripture too.

Using landscape images works well for scripture. These images make a beautiful backdrop without obscuring the words.

Increase engagement on these posts by asking people to comment on what those words mean to them. You’ll find that commenters often tag friends and family to get them to participate. While it’s not being necessarily shared, those who interact with it are helping bring more eyes to your church’s page.

Share Colorful Invitations

One very important thing to remember when it comes to church social media posts is to make sure at least some of your posts are for everyone and not just members and locals. This increases sharing and your overall reach.

However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk about your church. If you have events coming up or just want to invite people to your services, share colorful invitations.

A bright image with your event name, date, time, and location is easy to notice and share. These are great reminders for your members and simple invitations for them to share with all of their friends and family.

For events that you’ve held before, you may want to use an image from the previous event to show people what to expect. Don’t be afraid to post several times during a week for an upcoming event. Since Facebook won’t show all your posts to those who follow you, posting multiple times helps increase visibility.

Offer Weekly Bible Study Lists

Guide people on their faith-based journeys by sharing Bible study lists. A list of suggested reading for the week is a great idea to post on Mondays. You could use topics related to Sunday’s sermon or even about the upcoming theme.

Bible study lists get shared because they offer actionable content designed to help and engage people. They’re also fairly quick to create. If you do them on a regular schedule, people will come back to your page to check them out each week. While they’re there, they’ll see additional posts they may want to share.

Have A Sense Of Humor

Sadly, many churches feel like they need to be serious all the time. Yes, faith is serious, but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t laugh. There are numerous Christian memes, jokes, comics, videos, and more that your church can share.

Think about it like this. Social media is often seen as a negative place and even gets a reputation for making people sad or depressed. Inspirational quotes and scripture help to brighten that darkness. Finish it off by erasing social media negativity with funny posts that get people laughing, talking, and forgetting about their troubles for a few minutes.

Share Upcoming Events Lists

Do you have a dozen events coming up next month? Give people a heads-up with a highly shareable events list. If you’ve ever seen musicians share images with a list of their upcoming tour dates, you’ll already know exactly how these types of posts look.

While you should promote individual events as they draw near, posting a list of the month’s upcoming events makes it easier for members to have a quick reference in case they miss an individual event post. You could even have this as a sticky post on your Facebook page.

Using an image of your church for the background works well and increases shareability. Try to share these the last week of the month before the events start or the very first day of the month.

Promote Upcoming Speakers/Singers

Share images or videos of upcoming speakers and singers. Using text-only promotional posts may get a few shares if you’re lucky. Give your social media audience a face to go with the name and they’re much more likely to not only notice, but remember.

Plus, they’re more likely to share the information with friends and family. If you can post a short video, it’s even better. Give people an idea of what they’d get to experience if they attend.

If you plan to livestream or show the event later, post this as well. This will bring people back who can’t attend in person. They’ll also share details with others who might want to join in.

Ask Questions

Many of the most popular social media accounts, including churches, engage their audiences by asking them questions. Increase shares on your church’s social media posts by doing the same thing.

Post one or two questions a week or even just poll with several options. You can post questions that are geared more towards members or for anyone who visits your social media page.

Ask about your biggest concerns, favorite music, TV show recommendations, favorite Christian blogs and so on. You’ll get to learn more about your audience and encourage more engagement and sharing.

Share Music Your Church Is Listening To

What type of worship music do you use in your church? What type of Christian music does your staff listen to?

People love music. So, share what your church is currently listening to in shareable posts. Share music videos from YouTube or album covers. As part of your post, ask what others are listening to or what they think about that particular song, artist, or album.

Recognize Volunteers

Friends and family of volunteers are always happy to share church social media posts that recognize a particular volunteer. Every week or month honor a volunteer that has done something special.

Not only do these posts get shared, but it show that your church cares about those who volunteer. This also helps boost volunteering in your church.

Church Social Media Posts

In conclusion, creating church social media posts that people want to share is about authenticity, engagement, and consistency. By sharing real stories of faith, using compelling visuals, and actively interacting with your audience, you can build a strong online community.

Remember to maintain a consistent posting schedule and encourage participation through clear calls to action. Collaborating with other church accounts and using relevant hashtags can also help extend your reach.

By following these simple steps, you can create meaningful connections and spread the message of faith effectively on social media platforms. We wish you luck as you dive into church social media. God bless!

More Resources on Church Social Media

• 10 Best Practices and Resources for Sermon Quotes
• 13 Reasons Church Members Aren’t Sharing Your Social Media Posts
• 18 Things Your Church Should Never Share On Social Media
• The Complete Guide To Church Facebook Images
• Improve Church Fundraising With These 12 Social Media Tips

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