Do's and Don'ts of Church Social Media

By V. Michelle Bernard

Churches and schools need an active ministry on social media too! Here are the Dos and Don'ts for buiding your social media presence.

Do:

• Create Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts for your church, school and organizations
• Regularly post pictures, quotes, event info and news on your social media platforms.
• Share moments others will want to share—baptisms, dedications, anniversaries, celebrations, accomplishments, etc. Post about holidays/local events/popular topics of interest, but put your organization’s spin on it.
• Remind people to follow you on social media via the church bulletin, website, announcement slides and during the announcement period.
• Follow local news and media personalities and share your news with them on social media.
• Follow other social media users and engage with your followers.
• Tag organizations and people featured in your posts. They may share your post if they are mentioned.
• Use quality photos, GIFs and videos for more engagement.
• #Hashtag your posts so people searching for that topic will see them. 
• Think about what types of posts you personally interact with most, and then create those same types of posts for your church/school accounts.
• Be timely! You typically post your personal photos right after (or during events). Update your organization’s accounts in the same way—in “real time.”
• Think about what makes your organization special. Share/create content that helps tell that story and inspires others to work toward your ministry goals.
• Respond! If someone messages your organization with a question, answer it in a timely manner!
• Study the best times to post. Use your analytics to see when people respond the most.

Don’t:

• Publish songs and videos without making sure you have the license to do so. (This means livestreams of church services and special music too!)
• Post too much. Make your posts meaningful.
• Just publish material. Engage, engage, engage!
• Publish the exact same information and graphics on all platforms. Consider the platform you’re using. Use beautiful graphics on Instagram, share news/fast information on Twitter and use Facebook to go deeper in engagement.
• Publish on your personal accounts first. Building your personal brand is important at events (people are doing this anyway), but your organization should be the “source” of news. Share the organization’s posts to your personal accounts and encourage your leaders to do the same.