As one who has great respect for those who serve in Youth Ministry (I only lasted a year myself), hear us out on our thoughts on your social media management.
We don’t think you should just hand over your social media accounts to your Youth Pastor – anyone else for that matter – just because they are young, young at heart, or have all of the accounts. Before putting them in charge of your social media, there are things to consider. And if you’ve read our other content, you can probably guess it begins with “stra” and ends with “tegy”.
Now you may find after reading this that your Youth Pastor is exactly the right person. What you are looking for is someone who 1) has an understanding and buy-in to the overarching ministry goals as well as 2) an understanding how to use various platforms your church decides to have a presence on, and who uses them. What’s missing is 3) a social media strategy that ties in with your church’s big picture goals.
Social media marketing is more than just posting videos and funny pictures to get shares and likes.
The marketing part comes in when it’s used to move your organization closer to a goal. Keeping the goal in mind and how is this point going to encourage people to show up to your event or click on the link to learn more, that’s where you go from just posting to marketing.
A great way to manage social media presence is to have a planned calendar so you can strategically work towards those goals.
A strong presence on social media is built up over time by posting frequently (2-3x per week), consistently (every week), and methodically (plan ahead) for each platform you use.. Ideally done once a month, a social media calendar allows you to plan ahead, see where you can use the same content multiple times, and tweak if needed. We also encourage you to include your email newsletters in this list if you have them and plan those out as well. If you have holes in your calendar then you still have time to find relevant content.
This doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.
People expect a bit of a personality to shine through. By all means, show the funny cat video if you have a hole in your planning calendar or it’s a viral post and it ties in perfectly with what you’ve been posting about. If you have multiple people using the same platform, just make sure you are in agreement about your organization “talks” so that the voice is consistent that of the church’s page and not Shaun one day and Lindsay the next.
Regardless of who is managing your social media, it should tie back into the overall strategy – and have it’s own goals and strategies.
It’s great fun to post the videos of the youth group at their annual “Fuzzy Bunny” competition (do the kids still do that?). It’s that much better to promote the event ahead of time and invite followers to come and experience it for themselves.
Need help developing a social media strategy that will get you closer to your goals?
Contact us today to learn more about our consulting and training options.