Why Your Church should invest in Social media marketing

Have you ever thought “Is social media important for my ministry? Should I invest my ministry’s time, effort and resources on social media right now?”

You know that technology is important and social media is growing. You are able to see its potential. You hear about all the amazing things social media has done for other ministries. You see people tweeting, posting and ‘snapping around you. But you are really not sure if social media is the thing your ministry needs to focus on at this moment. Especially when there are a dozen other things you could do, which you are already familiar with.

Reasons your Church should Focus on Social Media Ministry.

1. Social media can help you be where your audience are

As a church, your job is to help & serve others. The question is, how can you serve someone if you do not go to or be where they are? Today, statistics shows that out of the 7 billion people in the world, 2.5 billion are on social media channels. That is 35% of the world’s population. If you and me, as ministers are not present in this platform, how can we serve and minister to the billions of people who congregate on social media?

2. Social media can help you influence

As custodians of God’s word, we are called to influence the world. We are the salt and light of the world. We are the yeast that is destined to influence the dough. We are the vessels that carry solutions to the world’s biggest problems. And social media is where people are asking the questions, looking for answers and spending time researching. Studies show that an average person spends close to 2 hours a day (118 minutes) on social media. If your ministry or church is not present on social media, how can you influence the people who are crowding around this space for hours?

3. Social media can help you educate

If you are in teaching ministry you should be on social media. Period. Social media is well suited for education from a technical and design perspective. Social media can specifically help your teaching ministry.

4. Social media can help you disciple

Discipline takes time. And time is a big challenge for people today. Even the ones who are keen to go through a discipleship program may have the heart, but not the time. If you structure your discipleship program around social media (where people spend time anyways) you have a higher chance of being effective.

Church Marketing Ideas to Retain and Attract Members

 

     

Think that marketing is just a polite way of describing pushy advertising? Think again! Marketing is for far more than selling shoes and snickers. In fact, it can be the difference between dwindling attendances and a thriving church community. We outline some strategies to use in growing your church.

1. Start with Facebook, and go from there

You can’t get away with not having a social media presence these days, whether you set up accounts for a community organization, a business, or just for yourself. This applies to churches too. Communicating with church members and keeping people updated with the latest news are both easier than ever with social media.

 Facebook is a great place to start. You can invite people to events, and talk one to one or through group chats. And there simply isn’t an easier way to get your message in front of as many people as possible as with a Facebook post. Tapping into this potential is probably the best first step you can take, and once you’re comfortable with social media, you can always expand to other platforms like Twitter and Instagram.

2. Don’t stop at Sunday service

 There’s no use thinking of marketing strategies if you’ve nothing to market. That’s why it’s always a great idea to run small events outside of regular Sunday service. And if you have the room, to run big events as well. Of course, this could be anything that your local community has an interest in. The point is to really attract people outside of those hours to build a community around your church.

 

Running events, both regularly each week and on a one-off basis, gives you the opportunity to put your church in front of an audience. If all you have to advertise are regular services, that’s just not eye-catching enough to hook and reel in potential new members. But even with just basic events like car boot sales and games clubs, you can keep people’s interest- it’s a simple case of keeping things interesting!