[Find all posts in the Mind the Social Media Gap series here.]
The foundation of your ministry’s social media account is where everything gets built from. Before we get too far, we cannot skip the last step as this defines where we are putting our foundation. So if you have not done the work there, you will not be as effective you could be here.
As we figure out the foundation, we need to recognize that this defines where, when, how, what and to whom we are sending out social media posts. I personally have three philosophies at this point:
- The more specific that we are here, the more powerful each tweet is.
- Trying to do it all will overextend us. We need to have a primary, secondary, and maybe tertiary social media account. Everything else is simply spamming and unrelational.
- Creativity, out-of-the box thinking will serve us well here.
Taking these three points to heart, you may find yourself coming up with a foundation for your social media strategy that helps mind the social media gap, only to realize you were not specific enough, picked the wrong target audience, or your ministry has shifted gears and you need to start this step over again. As we stated at the beginning, this is a cyclical process, so do your best, but you will be back here to refine the process after you see what does and does not work.
Now let’s look at what goes into the foundation of minding the social media gap.
- What Platforms Do You Plan To Focus On?
I say this with the upmost respect, but your church and social media managers probably do not have the knowledge, capacity, and experience to run your church on more than one or two social media accounts. If you are lucky enough to have a dedicated social media staff person at your church, three is most likely the limit. The next question will help you figure this question as well, but you need to whittle down your focus on social media to one or two networks. - Who Is Your Target Audience?
This is going to help you craft not only the previous question on platforms, but also the kind of content you need to figure out in the next question. This answer is going to come from the main mission of your church. Some churches see empowering their church to own their faith and be discipled. Their target audience is their congregation. Others want to serve their community and be the hands and feet of Jesus. Their target audience is the community in general. This target audience does not mean you cannot focus on other populations, but your main focus and content will have a direction. - What Kind Of Posts/Content Do You Go With?
Part of this falls in line with the target population, part of this comes from the capacity of your staff. We are jumping ahead a little into the next step, but who is going to be writing the content, who is going to be editing it, and who is going to be organizing it? If these people have the capacity to edit great videos, use Photoshop well, or create other media, I would highly encourage you to do more than a text status update with a link. Beyond this, what kind of story do you want to tell? Are you focused on telling the story of your pastor’s message, the activities going on in your church, or something else? - What Is Your Strategy To Achieve This?
This is more of an existential question that really will not get defined fully here, but is the purpose of this step and the rest of the steps. We hope that you will be answering these upcoming questions and putting them into specific job descriptions and action plans. From here on out, begin to construct your own social media strategy and mind the gap between simply doing social media to utilizing it to the best of your ability.
Share in the comments what your church is or will be doing to some of these questions.
Then I’d love to ask, how is it going?
[…] Creating the Foundation This stage looks at what platforms would be best for your ministry, what kind of posts would be best, who the target audience would be, putting measured values to our previously defined goals, and a strategy on how we are going to achieve this. […]