So you have a Facebook page for you church, but how often should you post content and what should that content be? Here we share five great ideas that you can try out this week!
Our experience of growing, vibrant church Facebook pages, shows that it is important to post regularly so that people seeing your page know that this is an up-to-date source of information about your church. It’s also preferable to have new, original content, rather than relying on sharing Facebook posts that have come from the Diocese or other sources. Whilst a limited number of these reposts are good because they establish the connection in the minds of your readers between you and the wider Church, you don’t want to simply be an echo chamber. People are looking at your page because they want to hear from you!
So here are three fresh ideas for your Church Facebook page that you can try out this week!
- A photo tour of your church. Get someone from your church to take a few photos of your church and churchyard, and maybe write something short explaining why they chose these photos. It can be highly personalised — the things that a parishioner who has worshiped there for 40 years might want to talk about may look different to the photographs taken by a 10-year-old!
2. Tell people about your service this Sunday! We know… it seems obvious, but it’s surprising how few churches actually use their Facebook page to build some excitement about this coming Sunday. It’s easy to get into a pattern of thinking that everyone in your congregation knows when the services are taking place — 10.30 am on Sunday, Messy Church at 4 pm etc. But how easy is it for newcomers to find that information? Imagine the positive impression of looking at your church’s Facebook page and seeing a welcome specifically for this coming Sunday…. It’s great to get excited about Church! If you have a particular theme in mind for this Sunday, then a Facebook post is also a great way of communicating this, helping to spark interest and anticipation.
3. Or perhaps you might choose a passage of Scripture or lines from a psalm from the Daily Office, or how about looking forward with a passage from the Scripture readings for this Sunday? It’s great to share the Scripture, and you know your congregation and community well, so you can highlight passages that might particularly resonate with them this week.
You can of course just straightforwardly post the passage itself, or you can use Facebook’s ability to add background colour and visual effects to text. Alternatively, you could add a visual image, either a photograph, or something specifically designed around the passage you’ve selected, such as the one we put together here using lines from Psalm 124.
4. Get a member of your congregation to offer a testimony about their faith, or something from the Bible that inspires them, or a story about your church community. It’s both an opportunity to celebrate the members of your congregation, and it gives an insight into your church community for anyone who hasn’t been before.
5. Do a short “behind the scenes” post, describing something which takes places in the church for services or during the week. For example, get the people running your toddler group to describe what they do to set up each week. Or talk about the things you did to prepare for a special service such as Ash Wednesday. These kinds of posts are a great reminder to people that the life of the church is multifaceted and continues between Sundays.
These have been a few ideas to get you inspired to add new content to your Facebook page. Adding new, interesting content regularly shows visitors that your Facebook page is a good source of information about your church, it helps people understand how your church works, and it helps to build community by reminding your congregation of all the contributions and perspectives that work together to make up your church.
Facebook has an amazing capacity to reach your church and wider community. We love this story about a church in Pennington that used Facebook really creatively to reach well beyond their congregation to present the positive message of their wonderful church!
ChurchZen 