Are you the Social Media Manager for your church, organization, or ministry team? We all know social media has changed so much in the past five years. During simpler times, churches used to be able to utilize this incredible free tool to post about the life of their church, like a digital church bulletin board! Then everything changed. Algorithms shifted constantly, paid ads were prioritized, digital marketing became a career of choice, and the world of social media turned into entertainment, memes, and educational reels.

Are you having a tough time convincing your pastor that you only need a 30-second clip of the bottom line of Sunday’s message? It can be so hard to wrap our heads around the shifts. That’s why we need a STRATEGY. Without a clear definition, vision, and purpose, we will show up inconsistently, causing frustration and possible digital burnout.

Creating a social media strategy can be very challenging. These next ten questions can help guide you as you develop a successful social media strategy for your church, organization, or ministry team.

10 Questions To Lead Your Social Media Strategy

1. What is the mission of your church?

What is the mission or vision statement that your pastors and leaders repeat over and over again? Write this at the top of the page. Everything you do on social media should filter from this vision. Stay aligned with the vision of your church as you build, create, design, write, and capture content weekly. For example, if your church’s vision is to “love others,” then your content may incorporate the community as one of its main content pieces through Facebook Groups, Broadcasts on Instagram, user-generated content, and even Instagram Lives of your small group meetings sharing content.

2. What is the purpose of posting content?

Under the vision statement, write PURPOSE! In other words, why are we posting on social media? Is it to post about the events we have coming up? Is it to reach new people in our region? Is it to inspire our church audience’s faith to grow stronger? Defining your purpose on social media will give you a place to start and a clear direction as you continue.

3. Who is your audience?

Research your church’s audience. Who is currently following you? Where do they live? What is the gender ratio? What pieces of content and what platforms do they respond to the most? Once you have this information, you will be able to determine what platforms work best for you. If your church is in a smaller town, Facebook might work great. If you’re in a bigger city or have a larger congregation, then a presence on multiple platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Threads, and Facebook might be essential to reach a diverse audience. 

For example, if you have a kids ministry social presence, the parents will be your audience since the kids are younger and don’t have social media. So, speak to your audience. Speaking to the kids would be pointless and would disregard the follower, causing your engagement to be lower. To increase engagement, think about who you are speaking to on every post. What would they want to hear? Where will they be when you post? Timing is everything to your audience. Are they driving home from work? Are they at lunch? Are they in bed scrolling? 

Pro-Tip: Orange Curriculum includes social media content that aligns with each series and Orange Membership offers social media kits for parents and volunteers!

4. Who will be managing your social platforms?

Now, we have seen an increase in social media managers being added as staff positions in churches. Still, with only one person in that role and possibly a volunteer, the demands of social media can be overwhelming. This is why having a team of contributors can be significant. Who will take photos? Who can capture quality video? Who can edit? Who can write captions and contribute to blogs? Who can design posts? With a team, creativity grows! Make this easy on yourself. Set up a project management system to drop content in, develop and build out weekly posts, and automate to be approved by the Social Media Manager. Then hit publish and relax! The best part is when your team starts contributing and planning ahead, scheduling posts becomes easier, and your strategy now works for you!

5. What are your goals?

Goal setting will set you up for success when it comes to working and adjusting your social strategy. Ensure the social goals solve challenges. For example, if one of your goals is to increase website traffic. We all know how important it is that your congregation sees the events and engages with the message. But how do you combat this challenge? Have your social team focus its goals on creating links that go directly to your website from your social presence. This will ensure more website traffic and more engagement within your church’s mission.

6. What do I do after I post?

The worst thing we can do is post and then ignore it! The first 30 minutes is usually the most engaging time of your post. Be there, ready to engage with your followers through comments, responding to DMs, and sharing to the story. Then, do a quick analysis check monthly to see what did well and what did not. Take this back to your strategy and see where the adjustments need to be made. For example, your church is experiencing high engagement with reels/videos but low engagement on events posts. Think about it like this: How can I create a reel that highlights my event and engages my audience? Measure, adjust, recreate, and repeat!

7. Do you have a content strategy?

Wondering what to post next week? We’ve all been there! Taking that route only leads to burnout and frustration. Instead of wondering what to post next, host a brainstorming session with your team to create content pillars for your church’s social presence.

For example, in the book, MetaChurch, Dave Adamson proposes three categories of content: awareness, loyalty, and advocacy. Write the content pillars under your goals and think through each post before posting. Ask yourself, does it meet our social goals, and does it fit into one of the content pillars for our audience? If not, rethink the how before hitting publish.

Here’s one method we love using to build a content strategy.

8. Where will you organize your content?

Organizing your content is easier than it sounds. Using project management systems like Trello, Monday, or Google Apps, creates a place for every action step to be added as you build each post. Create a place for each post to reside. Write the captions, add the artwork or photography, tag a team member for approval, and then load content into your social media scheduler. Don’t forget to organize a folder in your Instagram account to collaborate in. Now, your team is set up to spark new creative ideas!

9. Have you created an adjustable content calendar?

Once you have all the content organized, your next step is to create a monthly content calendar. These calendars let you know when and what your church will post monthly. Using Google Calendar is a great start, or you can find other resources such as Later, Loomly, and Social Sprout to create a working calendar for your team and staff to collaborate on. Simply add a short description of each post for each day, along with the time of your post. Remember to always think about your audience as you create your monthly content calendar.

10. Do you have buy-in from pastors and staff?

This last one is crucial to the success of your social media strategy for your church! Do your pastors and staff agree with the strategy? Do they understand the why, the goals, and the audience you currently are speaking to? Keeping everyone in the loop will ensure the strategy is set up for success! There is nothing wrong with posting about the message from Sunday or posting about an event your church is hosting, as long as it meets your audience where they are. Keep transparency and openness when working with key players on the ministry team to ensure everyone is working together to see the mission of the church mobilized.

Find Resources to Help You Share The Gospel Message

Remember during the process that your church is sharing the good news of Jesus with your followers, with new followers, and even reaching people you may never meet but can have an impact on. If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you! Let’s take this great message and share it with the world!

If you’re looking for done-for-you social media strategy and resources, Orange curriculum includes social media plans for every week of ministry. See how it can help you with social media and beyond by starting your free trial. If you want to learn more about how to reach more people through social media, check out the book MetaChurch or the Building a Digital Ministry Masterclass today!