Strategy, part III - Does your church speak social media?

We're in a series of posts about building a social media strategy for your church or ministry.  The last post focused on getting to know more about your target audience.

An internet marketing blog called Hubspot recently posted their "ultimate list" of the top 300 social media statistics.  This post provides some great background information on who is using social media - age ranges, geographic distribution, etc.  You'll want to study information like this carefully: it may be that your congregation is made up of members who, demographically speaking, are less likely to use social media.  If that's the case, don't spend a ton of time or money building a social presence that no one will take advantage of.

You may want to consider a short poll or questionnaire for your congregants.  You may want to determine the age brackets into which your members fall - pre-teens, teenagers, 20-somethings, etc.  You'll also want to know if they use social media currently, and what channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc) they use.

Knowing what people are familiar with and what they use gives you a natural entry point for your strategy.  If, as an example, most of your congregation is on Facebook and uses it regularly, then setting up a church- or ministry-specific Facebook page would be a natural entry point.

The bottom line - don't spend a lot of time initially getting on social media sites that your congregation doesn't use.  You can draw them into other channels as your strategy develops - but in the beginning, meet them where they are.

Next time, we'll dive deeper into finding the "why?" of your social media strategy.

Strategy, part II - target audience

In my last post I provided some questions to consider when building a social media strategy for your church or ministry.  Today I'll dive a bit more into one of the topics - your target audience.

Determining a target audience isn't as easy as answering a single question - rather, it involves building a demographic profile to get a full view of your intended audience.  The three primary questions you should answer are:

• What age range(s) are you trying to reach?  Teens, young adults, families, etc.?
• Is your primary target those who are currently attending your church, those who are interested, those outside the church?
• Do you want to communicate in a different way to men vs women?

Once you decide your target audience, you can determine whether they are users of social media, and what channels can best be used to reach them.  Next time, we'll look at how to determine the social media savvy of your target audience.

What's your strategy?

I'm reminded of an old joke about a couple driving through the western states.  The wife pulls a map out of the glovebox and tries to make sense of where they are. "Honey, I think we're lost," she says.  "Yes, we are," says the husband.  Then, looking at his watch, he says "...but we're making really good time!"

The irony is, without a good strategy - for anything - you won't have any idea whether you're close to your goals or not.  Proverbs 28:19 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish..." (KJV)

Some things to consider as your church or ministry considers its social media strategy.  I'll expand on each of these in future posts:

1. Who is your target audience?  Consider your key demographics - age, level of engagement with the church/ministry, etc.
2. How social-media savvy is your target audience?
3. What are your overall goals for social media ministry?
4. Who within the church/ministry will own this effort?
5. What is your budget?

The list could go on and on.  The point isn't to get lost in the paralysis of analysis.  Rather, it's to encourage you to "...count the cost..." (Luke 14:28) before you jump into it.  You want the church experience to be excellent - the choir, the preaching, the fellowship - why shouldn't you shoot for excellence in your social strategy?

Social Networking in Church?

A tweet from Church Marketing Sucks really stuck with me this week.  It said:

"People use technology all week long & then go to church on Sunday & return to the 14th century."

It's sad, but it's true.  Churches these days seem to be filled with people who know lots more about the Good News than they do about iPads, Facebook, and Twitter.  But hang on a minute - wasn't the church at the forefront of developing and propagating the written word?  Didn't the church help spur on the development of the printing press?

Jesus said: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matt. 28:19-20, emphasis added).

The way I read this, we're commanded to use every tool at our disposal to reach and teach lost souls for the glory of the kingdom.

CNN.com ran a great video about a church that's really doing well in the social media sphere.  The question is...what is your church's goal, and how will you get there?