How to Plan a Weekly Content Calendar for Church Social Media for 2024
Consistent and engaging content is pivotal for effective church outreach on social media.
Creating a content calendar not only ensures you will have regular posts, but also aligns the digital ministry with your church's core values and vision, and helps get all the ministries and leadership on the same page. Here are a few things to consider as you prepare to plan a Social Media content calendar for your church, as well as tips on how to do it.
Understand Your Audience
Before diving into content creation, spend time understanding your church community's digital behavior.
Surveying Your Congregation: Consider online surveys to gather insights on preferred content types, platforms, and viewing times.
Age Demographics: Younger members might gravitate toward Instagram stories, while older members could prefer Facebook posts.
Setting Your Objectives
Your content should have a clear purpose.
Outreach: Maybe you're aiming to attract newcomers to your church. Maybe you want to be helping those you may never meet learn more about Jesus. These are both objectives that church social media can accomplish.
Community-building: Some churches view their main priority for social media as a way to engage and foster connections among current members. Totally doable on Social Media, but may affect which channels you prioritize. Facebook Groups are a great way to build community, and you can adjust the privacy filters to enable deeper connections within a private group for your members.
Event Promotion: Social Media can help Increase attendance at church events or services. If your main purpose of using social media for your church is to grow attendance, you can find ways of doing that. We know a lot of potential guests are searching for churches near them, and social media is a leading indicator for what a church looks and feels like on a Sunday Morning, so a great social media presence can help churches attract more visitors.
Once you understand your audience and have set a few objectives, how do we actually build a content calendar for our church?
Content Categories
Content categories help us to diversify our posts to keep your feed dynamic and cater to different interests. Think of these as buckets of posts that you can build and lay out, so that each week you can slot in a post for each category. Some of the more common content categories for churches include:
Sunday Services: Share sermon highlights, reflective questions, or live-streams.
Invitations: Inviting your followers to join you at the coming weekends services. Be it a graphic, a fun video, or a personal invitation video from the preacher giving the upcoming sermon.
Testimonials: Allow members to share their spiritual journeys.
Bible Verses: Provide daily inspiration with graphic-backed scripture.
Event Announcements: Keep your community informed about upcoming church events.
Interactive Content: Engage members with polls or topical discussions.
Behind the Scenes: Showcase the heart of the church: its people and daily operations.
With these categories in mind, let’s create a sample content calendar. Let’s presume your church is in the middle of a sermon series on Parenting, a social media content calendar might look like this:
Sunday
Timeline:
share a carousel of images taken from Sunday Morning - showcase the foyer, the worship from a wide angle in the sanctuary, the worship team up close, a shot of the Pastor preaching, and one for each next gen environment. Caption with a great reminder of the key takeaway from the mornings message and a praise for how great it was to worship together.
Stories:
share your set list in a way that your members can find any of the songs they may want to listen to again this week. Your Pastor made a great point for Parents to make church attendance a priority, so let’s ask a question and answer on our story asking what is the hardest part about attending church each week? Share a few responses as story segments.
Monday
Timeline:
#MondayMotivation: Start the week with an inspirational Bible verse, preferably one that was either used in Sunday’s message or one that supplements it.
Recap video: Highlights from Sunday's service. If you can, make it into a Reel to share
Stories:
Poll: "What's your main goal this week? Prayer | Fasting | Bible Study | Outreach"
Tuesday
Timeline:
Event promotion: Share about an upcoming church event or group meeting. Bonus points - make a video invitation talking about who this event is for and how they can get involved. Think of someone who does attend regularly but may not know about this event, and also someone who may not be connected or have someone to go with and might be too intimidated to join. Speak directly to those two images as you invite your audience to this event.
Question: "What's your favorite worship song? We might add it to our playlist!"
Stories:
Volunteer spotlight: A quick profile of a volunteer and their role.
Trivia: Bible-based question to engage members.
Share events happening this week at church. Even doing these as graphics, you can then feature them as a highlight on your profile, just keep those updated by removing events no longer happening in the future.
Wednesday
Timeline:
Midweek reflection: A thoughtful question for personal reflection.
Shareable graphic: An inspirational quote or scripture that members can easily share.
Stories:
Live prayer session: Short prayer or a moment of encouragement.
Q&A: Answer a commonly asked question about the church or faith.
Reminder and information for Wednesday Evening activities
Thursday
Timeline:
Throwback Thursday: Share an old photo from a past church event or function.
Short interview: Church staff member sharing a spiritual insight or personal journey.
Stories:
Day-in-the-life: Chronicle the daily tasks of someone in the church (e.g., the pastor or a youth leader).
Poll: "Which church event are you looking forward to the most?"
Friday
Timeline:
Friday Fellowship: Showcase a small group or fellowship meeting with photos or a short clip.
Invitation video - Like we talked about earlier, having the preacher for this weeks message give a :45 second invite for Sunday Morning as a selfie style video can go a long way. If there is something special happening this week for any Sunday morning programs, highlight that as well
Stories:
Countdown: "2 days till Sunday Services" with service details.
Fun Fact: Share an interesting fact about the church's history or a biblical tidbit.
Saturday
Timeline:
Weekend inspiration: A short devotional thought or prayer.
Community spotlight: Highlight a community outreach project or charity the church supports.
Stories:
Preparation: Showcase preparation for Sunday's service.
Interactive: "Share a prayer request, and let's support each other."
What else to consider for your church social media content calendar?
Choosing the Right Platforms
Each social media platform has unique offerings. Know where your content will shine brightest.
Instagram: Great for photos, stories, and short videos.
Facebook: Ideal for event announcements, livestreams, and community-building.
Twitter: Share short reflections, quotes, or church updates.
Design and Aesthetics
Branding is crucial. Maintain a consistent visual theme.
Visual Consistency: Use church colors, fonts, and logos.
Design Tools: Explore free tools like Canva or invest in software like Adobe Suite.
Scheduling and Automation
Stay ahead with scheduled posts. Platforms like Hootsuite or Buffer can help.
Benefits: Post during peak engagement times and maintain consistent activity even during busier church periods.
Cons: When you schedule posts, it’s easy to neglect the community engagement. Make it a point to respond to every comment you get (yes, even the negative ones) in a timely manner.
Engaging with the Community
Social media is two-way communication. Engage, don't just broadcast.
Be Responsive: Prioritize responding to comments and private messages.
Encourage Interaction: Use calls-to-action in your posts.
Review and Adjust
Periodically evaluate your strategy.
Analyze Metrics: Utilize platform analytics to discern popular content types or the best posting times.
Stay Adaptable: Social media trends change. Be ready to pivot when necessary.
Next Steps
A well-organized content calendar is instrumental in fortifying your church's digital ministry. Start planning and watch your online community thrive! Download our sample content calendar here or check out our free 30 day Calendar below.
