5 Questions your church social media profile needs to answer

Your church social media profile is a valuable tool for connecting with potential members and sharing your message. But if your profile isn't up to par, you're missing out on a great opportunity.

Here are five questions your church social media profile needs to answer:

What is the church all about? 

Visitors may want to know about the church's mission and values, and what makes it unique from other churches in the area. This can be communicated through the church's bio, as well as through its content.

Your church will probably reach a wide range of people who may click over to your profile, or search you online.

How many people move to your area and are looking for a church just like the one they moved from?

How many are going through something that is pushing them to look for a church when they haven’t been to one in years, and they don’t know what to look for?

Every Christian church should be working together, but we know that many churches have different nuances that make them unique. Whether you’re intentional or not, what you post online is going to communicate what your church cares about, so let’s be intentional about it.

What are the church's service times and locations? 

Visitors may want to know when and where the church holds its services, so they can plan to attend. This information should be easily accessible on the church's profile, either in the bio or through posts.

Even more, with the increased use of reels and shorts to push videos from a church to a more national area, your church bio and/or name should include your location. It’s great that you got the first handle for Journey Church, but it does no good if no one can tell if you’re the Journey church down the road or 10 states away.

What types of events and activities does the church offer? 

Visitors may be interested in knowing what events and activities the church offers, such as Bible studies, youth groups, or community service opportunities. This can be communicated through posts, highlights, and links in the bio.

Even more, especially for active churches, your members want to know whats going on. Updating social media is typically a lot easier than updating a website with news and events. If you’re doing something special on a Sunday Morning that you don’t want people to miss out on, put it on social media. This doesn’t mean you make a post or a reel about it, you can just publish it to your instagram story or your facebook group, but put it online ahead of time.

As much as we’d like for every church member to just want to show up to every service, the reality is that there are people who may be 50/50 on if they are coming this week, and an invite to that special activity might get them there.

What is the experience like at the church? 

Visitors may want to get a sense of the church's atmosphere and culture, and whether it is a welcoming and inclusive community. This can be communicated through the tone of the church's posts and captions, as well as through user-generated content like photos and testimonials.

This is where sermon clips can serve a dual purpose. Not only is it great to share short clips of practical, relevant teaching online, but it also helps show what your pastor is like, what your Sunday mornings are like.

How can visitors get involved? 

Visitors may want to know how they can get involved with the church and become part of the community. This information can be communicated through calls-to-action in posts and the bio, as well as through links to the church's website or a contact page.

With all that, let’s make it more practical. Here are 5 action steps you can do today to make an impact on your church social media.

1. Update your church bio to include your city, state, and service time.

2. Find a few specific posts that give a good glimpse into what your church values and what it feels like on a Sunday morning, and pin those to the top of your instagram profile.

3. Create a graphic template for “This weekend at ________ church” that you can  post each week and add in your weekend plans. Bonus tips if you create a video story of a person talking through these plans and use the graphic at the end of the video. Use the countdown sticker in the instagram story editor to add the time of service for people to set a reminder.

4. Plan a process for getting photos of Sunday Morning services for your social media profile. 10 good photos can be used multiple times for posts, you don’t need to take photos every Sunday if you don't have the capacity or team to do it.

5. Write out 10 ways someone can get connected with serving in your church, and with each opportunity write “why serving here is important, how it makes a difference.” Make a post once a week highlighting one of those 10 positions, and point your audience to how to get involved. Is that a person to connect with? Is there a form they can fill out on your website? Push them to that next step. Make an overview post about all the serving positions and you can post that every 6 weeks, giving you 12 posts to cycle through 4x a year.

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