Church Social Media and Marketing

I recently got together with Matthew West, my business partner, and CJ Burroughs, a youth minister from First Baptist of Alachua, to watch M2Live’s webinar on social media strategy. For me, the central relevant point relates to starting a social media strategy from the perspective of relating to the church members. Simplified, avoid using social media just because it’s available.

Write up a plan, identify the audience, who will benefit, responsible person(s) for updating, types of social media to use, etc. Involve senior pastors and church leadership, but don’t require regular input from the leadership. In my experience, church leaders usually have full schedules already. Don’t let the technology available dictate your plan. If 1% of your congregation uses Twitter, focus your efforts on Facebook or Buzz. If your congregation rarely uses any of the relevant social media formats, perhaps efforts towards email newsletters, podcasting, or web development would better utilize church resources.

Churchcrunch.com posts a great article on the expansion of the method talked about in the M2Live webinar.