Ministry does not have to be reserved for the sanctuary. Social media can be a vessel for ministry and amplify the message of the church. Widely popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and even TikTok provide you with the voice and the audience you need to grow your church family.

Tags and Hashtags – Learn How to Use Them Effectively

Here’s how. There are many routes you can take to start expanding your church using social media. Right now, in a global pandemic, there is a demand for virtual connections, especially in the church community.

Choosing to stay connected through social media is one of the most important practices of growing your congregation. Tagging your church’s location in-app can make your organization easily clickable making it easy for people to find you and learn more about your ministry. Add in some relevant and popular hashtags, and you can create a post that is prepared for ultimate engagement (likes, shares, retweets, etc).

You can also encourage your current members to tag a location and use a specific set of hashtags like #ChurchName #InviteAFriend when posting about the church on their social media. Having a set of hashtags unique to your church makes you more discoverable outside of your congregation and you can follow the conversation about your church.

Using hashtags effectively also means knowing best practices, missteps, or things to avoid. Use hashtags that are relevant and specific to your church but be mindful because something too specific can be harder to find. Hashtags should be concise, so make sure that you’re not stringing too many words together. Branded hashtags, for example, are a great way to keep your hashtags short and relevant, but also reflective of your church. Sometimes less is more, so also try limiting the number of hashtags you’re using per post.

Engagement is Key

Engagement plays a huge role in brand recognition. Being organized and welcoming on social media allows you to expand your online presence. As you develop and strengthen your brand voice, you will be sure to gain followers and new members of your church family by optimizing your posts for engagement.

Here’s how you can optimize your posts:
1. Make sure your social media accounts are business profiles
2. Track your follower interaction by using analytics tools on your social media platforms
3. Post when your followers are most interactive
4. Use relevant hashtags and follow them to stay connected with your followers
5. Generate genuine content and stick to an overall theme for your posts (colors, graphics, logo, photo style)

Another way you can optimize your presence is to take advantage of your location by following various organizations in your community that your church supports on all social media platforms and by generating comments/likes on their posts. Share their posts on your church’s Instagram and Facebook stories, comment on their posts, and you can even ask if they are comfortable reciprocating those actions.

You can also engage your audience by interacting with conversations being generated on your church’s hashtag church’s comments on your posts. Prospective members like knowing the church they are choosing takes interest in them. By following and engaging in those conversations, you give a personality to your church and optimize the reach on your church’s social media accounts.

Stay Connected

Getting connected and staying connected with your community, especially in a global pandemic, should be part of your church’s routine. If you’re wondering how to stay connected, here are some various services or events you can offer to your community:

1. Host a virtual concert with your worship team or bring in a special guest
2. Conduct live Q&A sessions with your pastoral team
3. Invite guests to meet the pastor/reverend virtually
4. Get testimonials from current church members and share them
5. Stream live Bible Studies with various themes
6. Create and send care packages for families in the community with a note to follow you on social media and participate in virtual events

Invitations Work – Ask People to Follow You!

Being involved in the conversation can be a game-changer for the way people outside of your congregation view you. Staying interactive with the church’s social media accounts every day through posts, stories, live-streaming, and interacting with comments and questions is important. When you encounter comments or questions, try incorporating an invitation by inviting them to visit and follow the church’s social media page.

Investing in your community is needed when expanding your church and using social media to do that can be effective in the long run. Take action now and start implementing some of these tips into your everyday approach to social media. If you would like to explore our social media marketing services, let’s start a conversation. We will be happy to help you achieve your goals!

Onward and Upward!

-TCO Team