Get Engaged with Your Online Church Community
Get Engaged with Your Online Church Community
Social media is meant to be conversational. The whole purpose of these platforms is to be social with your audience. It is especially important now that everything is virtual. The transition from meeting in a physical location at least once a week for service to only being able to connect and participate virtually can be frustrating for your members. They might feel disconnected from their community, and it is up to you to curb that feeling. Social media provides you the space to foster that community virtually, but only if you are staying engaged with your members. It is not enough to post a couple of graphics and videos throughout the week and log off immediately after. You want to make sure you are present by listening to responses, liking comments, and even responding.
The first step to enabling conversations and community is to make sure the type of content you are posting starts a conversation. If your church’s social media content only features closed-ended statements, how could you expect your members to feel empowered to engage? Instead of using one-way content, create content that users want to interact with, like post a question of the day, highlight members from your congregation, do a ministry social media “takeover,” or have interactive posts. Also, try adding in questions into your captions like, “What’s your favorite scripture to turn to when faced with a tough situation?” or prompt your members to share what’s on their mind by saying “Let us know what you think in comments.”
The next step is to participate and respond. When your members comment underneath your post, the interaction should not end there. It is your responsibility to take a follow-up action so that person feels like their comment is valued. To progress the conversation, you want to make sure your response is timely. Do not reply to comments that are weeks old; instead, reply within 48 hours because anything after could discourage members from interacting on future posts. Also, make sure you are responding to almost every comment on your posts if it makes sense to do so. If a comment doesn’t warrant a reply, make sure you at least like it so that person knows you acknowledged that they took the time out to write something.
When you are replying to your audience, you want to make sure that you are staying true to your church’s voice and are trying to stimulate a conversation. Your church’s established voice should carry over into everything you put out. Whether your church’s brand is more young and fun or reserved and traditional, the brand voice your congregation is used to must be evident on your social media platforms. You can also make comments and replies more personal by having whoever is replying sign-off their name at the end of the message. Lastly, you want to make sure your comments make members want to respond. Doing this helps drive conversation, and other members might see and join the conversation as well. The easiest way to do this is by adding a question or asking them to give more information or expand on their point. Whichever way you use, make sure your communication is genuine.
The main goal is to generate conversation on your church’s social media platform to help your members feel more connected during this time of virtual experiences. When you set the example by replying and guiding discussions, your members will follow, and it will become a cycle of communication. For help on how to successfully navigate your church through the digital landscape, be sure to sign up to become a part of the Digital Church University family at digitalchurchuniversity.com. You’ll receive access to online education, creative services, workshops, and retreats to help transform your e-church experience.