It’s coming. The small group cookouts, vacation Bible schools and conferences at your church. While these may be annual events that your ministry has sponsored for years, they are also great opportunities to connect with new members and reach potential visitors.
A great way to promote these events is through the use of your church’s social media accounts. Here are some tips to get you started with some of the most popular social media networks:
Depending on the event, you can plan ahead in how you are going to advertise this to your followers. Creating prescheduled posts, finding the right images and posting any sign-up links are simple ways to start to get the word out about your event. If you are looking for more ways to gain Facebook followers, try creating social buttons on your church’s website, a pre-service slide showing what your social networks are or sending an email to your church members to let them know where they can follow your ministry on social media. If you are reaching a completely new audience, Facebook ads are a great place to spread the word on your events. Targeting local community members via Facebook ads, or more specific demographics can help to increase engagement and attendance. This is an inexpensive way to advertise!
Here is the channel to use if you want to promote your event frequently, or to give a live play-by-play while it is happening. The best practice here is to make your announcements short and sweet. What. When. Where. Create an image that gives the details of your event, or share a link to the sign-up page. If you want to take this a step further, some Church Management Systems allow you to create custom fields when entering member and visitor information. You can ask what their Twitter handles are, and then start following them and reaching out. Personally invite them to your church’s summer activities via this social media network. It’s fast, simple and effective.
Not every church is active on social media, but one of the easiest networks to manage is Instagram. It’s simple: Upload a photo or short video. You can create an image to upload for your event with basic location and time details, or upload a 15-second video explaining more for your followers. During your cookouts, VBS and conferences, you can quickly upload photos of the fun your church members and visitors are having. This has an impact on existing members and potential visitors.
Enjoy this fun season at your church, and let us know how you are using social media to keep your congregation members engaged this summer.
