Is Your Church Ready To Build A Social Media Ministry or Team? 4 Ways To Build An Effective Team

Is Your Church Ready To Build A Social Media Ministry or Team? 3 Ways To Build An Effective Team

If your church wasn’t using social media to its full capacity prior to COVID-19, I am sure that you are using the features and tools now to expand your ministry efforts. 

The beauty of social media is that it is designed to build community. We’ve seen people rally behind ideas, concepts, and thoughts online. The same can be true for your church, its mission, and ministry. However, building a community online requires the right technology and equipment to create the desired infrastructure. Let’s focus on the word infrastructure for a moment because I’ve used it before in The Digital Church Series. 

I believe that a church’s digital infrastructure should include several components: 

1. An Effective Church Website
2. A Members-Only Login Section (on the church website)
3. Carefully Selected Social Media Platforms
4. Text Message Marketing or Push Notifications
5. Email Marketing and Newsletters
6. High-quality Video and Graphics 
7. Social Media Strategy and Advertising 

How does a church get to the point of having this type of digital infrastructure? It requires a social media ministry or team!

The great thing about social media is that some of these features are already built-in including members-only content through a Facebook Group, group events, instant messaging and notifications, and some privacy settings. 

Here Are 4 Ways To Build An Effective Team: 

1. The first step to building an effective team is to start with volunteers. These are people that you have access to within your church who have the skills necessary to operate the tools and systems your church needs to be successful online. Contrary to popular belief, or of what I’ve heard throughout the years of helping ministries don’t “leave it up to the young people in the church” to carry out these large tasks. The piece here is that you have at least ONE person who can serve as your social media coordinator to lead the volunteers and grow your ministry online correctly.
     
2. Create paid staff positions within your church for social media and outreach. This is a conversation that I’ve had with many leaders during this time. The reality is the thought of paid staff around this context is something completely new for most churches, however, it is the most effective way to reach your online ministry goals. It also allows you to create an internal culture within your church to embrace social media and technology. Start with one staff member who is multi-talented and can manage the large workload that comes with social media. Over time, as your ministry continues to grow, you can add on the right team roles needed to further your online presence. The key here, in the growing phase, is that you don’t burn out the one staffer - so it is important to properly plan to grow a full staff team.
   
   
3. Hire a digital marketing consultant or a social media agency to carry this task for your church. Even when creating an internal hire/staffer, I recommend onboarding a consultant or an agency to provide an effective online strategy. Yes, a strategy is extremely important online! A digital marketing consultant can train your staff, set-up the right tools, put systems in place, and create a plan (strategy) for an efficient and successful social media ministry. A social media agency can free you up to focus on your ministry while they operate your social media platforms. The good thing here is that an agency will have experienced people on their team to grow your ministry online.
    
4. Join Digital Church University to get all of the previously mentioned options in one platform! Inside of DCU, our digital marketing consultants, church staffers, and leaders are ready to train and teach you or your volunteers how to create a social media team/ministry and how to develop effective online ministry efforts to reach the churched, unchurched and the dechurched. Our graphic design suite is open for you to create your church graphics and more. Use coupon code Take50 at checkout digitalchurchuniversity.com. 

If you have any questions about building an effective social media ministry or team, let us know in the comment section below!