Most of us will be announcing our Christmas services for 2022 on popular social media channels. And while sending mailers, space advertising in local newspapers, and even television and radio spots have been traditional tools to boost attendance, social media has proven that it can reach vast numbers of people, plus it is essentially free to get started. But are you getting the most out of your social media? Should you be paying to increase or target potential followers? While it may be simple to get started, there’s a lot hidden under the hood on social media channels. Knowing how social media promotion works, where to look for guidance, and having a plan can spell the difference between a social media campaign that’s a simple hit-or-miss message and creating a trend that can truly set your church apart.
“Many people mistakenly treat social media as a wall rather than a window where you can present what your church has to offer."
—Rohn Starling, Transformation Church
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Rohn Starling, content director to the lead pastor Michael Todd at Transformation Church, gets the word out for his church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he coaches others on how social media can be the most effective way to increase their reach. Rather than an approach that treats social media as a traditional advertising medium, Starling believes that part of the power of social media is that it provides “a window” on his church where he can invite people in. “Many people mistakenly treat social media as a wall,” he says, “rather than a window where you can present what your church has to offer. The goal, of course, is to invite people in. The bigger the window you can create, the more people can see and share in the experience, and the more likely they are to come to church.”
Creating effective posts
An important tenet that Starling offers to churches delving into social media is that understanding how each social media channel is unique is key to being successful there. That includes how your expectations and submissions to each should be carefully considered. An analogy he offers is that posting to various social media platforms can be like talking to children. “Each child is different,” he says, “and like talking to children, you have to address each social media channel differently to be most effective there.”
Examples he offers include that Facebook’s largely mature demographic makes it more suitable for longer content that might be several minutes or longer, whereas one-liners and sound bites work best on the faster moving Twitter. That same sound bite with a graphic might be ideal for Instagram. Reuse of the material tailored to the platform can be very effective, he notes.
Starling works closely with the church’s media coordinator, Nima Kibula, and his pastor to be sure posts to each social media channel, including hashtags, graphics, and content, are all on-target for the church’s mission and formatted optimally for the platform. He describes his team's efforts to tailor content for specific social media platforms as syndicating the content. “You do this for a while,” he says, “and your messaging gets stronger as you learn what content and channels work best for you.” He also pays close attention to trends on each channel so he can incorporate them into the church’s message. “If you can make the connection,” he says, “it can make a dramatic improvement in the response. It puts you in front of all the people who have expressed an interest in that trend–that could mean getting your message before thousands or even millions of viewers.”
Paid social media
With 2.6 million followers, Starling’s continued work and focused efforts on social media are putting Transformation Church and his pastor in front of a lot of people. As a result, he doesn’t see an immediate need for the church to invest in paid efforts on social media. However, he recognizes that these are also powerful tools and available to churches of all sizes. “If I was working with a church that was just starting out,” he says, “or perhaps had a specific event or music to put in front of people, that’s where paid social media can help.”
As CEO of January Spring, a Colorado-based digital marketing and advertising agency that partners with clients who are trying to dramatically improve their reach, Charity Huff offers that churches are uniquely positioned for success with social media advertising. “In many instances, churches are already recognized as a trusted member of the community,” she says, “and have an active, engaged group of people that are seeking information about their church.”
When developing paid ads for Facebook and Instagram, Huff suggests that churches focus on the things that make their congregation unique, using regular social media posts to feature the programs that the church offers for worshippers and community using images and presenting stories. “This helps people with common interests to see themselves as potential members of the church and makes them more likely to connect,” she says.
Beyond regular posts to social media, Huff and her marketing team regularly recommend houses of worship take advantage of paid social media to reach greater audiences via Facebook and Instagram. “On those platforms,” she says, “we use a variety of advertising practices that allow us to reach custom audiences while also expanding reporting. That would include video, dynamic, and carousel ads, along with advertising with static images.”
“We can use a variety of other marketing channels in addition to paid social media in order to increase the public’s awareness of church services or a particular event."
—Charity Huff, CEO of January Spring
Handling complexity
“Today’s digital communication via social media is anyone’s best friend when it comes to advertising,” notes Huff, “but it can get complex.” She and her team help by providing clients with training and experience to successfully employ and combine social media strategies. That can include geo-fencing, a technique that sets up virtual boundaries around a geographic area to track whenever someone with a trackable mobile device crosses them. When this happens, it causes a notification–that could be a message about your church or an invitation to worship–to that person's mobile device. Additionally, search retargeting (targeting users based on keyword searches that they've recently used on search engines) and site retargeting (using cookies to display your ads to people who have already visited your site) are among the more advanced techniques that Huff’s company has found to be effective in increasing click-through rates (CTR), a measure of the effectiveness of digital advertising.
One of the benefits offered by advertising professionals is the ability to combine advertising techniques to increase response. “We can use a variety of other marketing channels in addition to paid social media in order to increase the public’s awareness of church services or a particular event. Especially for religious organizations, events are among the best ways to reach out to a new audience and get them in the door.”
When you include programmatic ad buys and retargeting strategies and paid advertising possibilities on other platforms like Google, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora, and others, campaigns can get sophisticated. That’s where it can pay to have a team with experience in your corner. “While churches may not know all about advertising and the proper means to go about it,” says Huff, “that’s OK. They don’t need to.”
Social media experts for-hire and advertising agencies, like Huff’s who bring with them proven social media teams and strategies, are there to help guide churches to get a positive result and avoid wasted time with hit-and-miss efforts.
Digital advertising, and social media in particular, affords churches the same tools as other businesses regularly employ to reach consumers, including targeting an audience based on demographics, online behaviors, buying behaviors, and interests. “When churches reach a certain size,” says Starling, “they are a business and we should treat them accordingly. Churches once had to rely on word of mouth, but now with so many ways to reach out, churches don’t need to operate in obscurity. Through social media, we have the means to tell the world what church is about and show people its value in their lives. God gives us value, and through social media we can share that light with the world. There’s no reason not to take that as far as we can.”
