[Editor’s Note: This is the first quadrant in the Social Media Engagement Matrix]
The Come See Us model may be the most prolific social media strategy on the Internet overall as well as with churches. At it’s core, this is a marketing focused model that is looking to increase attendance of events but is very passive in how you share content. More than likely, we see this as a cold model of trying to increase numbers at church functions, but the heart of it is we want to see more people hear the Gospel and we are trying to maximize our reach to encourage people to attend.
We see this model played out through tweets like “youth group tonight at 8PM, we hope to see you there” as well as Facebook events that are created to show people times and locations, but we do not necessarily want to bother people by inviting everyone. It may take from 30 seconds to five minutes to get a Come See Us post up that can nearly instantly inform people about what is happening at your church. How could you not take advantage of a simple strategy like this to reach hundreds or thousands of people?
Characteristics
This model of social media engagement does take advantage of the amount of followers and likes you have on social media and less on the viral and networking nature of social media. It looks at short-term efficiency in the space of a short amount of time one may have to share online as opposed to maximum impact that a social media account can have. In many ways, this is a low priority marketing effort among several other tactics that are engaged in including mass texting to teenagers, flyers, slide shows on Sunday morning worship, word-of-mouth invites, newspaper articles, blog posts, video commercials on television, and more.
Pros and Cons
In looking at this model, I want to give you a true view of what it means to have the Come See Us mentality of posts.
Benefits
This quadrant of the social media engagement matrix has a lot to offer that can be extremely enticing.
- Short and Sweet This can be done by a secretary in 30 seconds to 5 minutes
- Maximum Effort For the amount of time it takes to create the content and post it in relationship to the amount of people it reaches, this is certainly the most effective of the four quadrants in the short-term
- It Is Not Difficult This content posted does not need to be done by a theologically educated pastor, a staff person that has their ear to the mission of the church, or someone that can create an eloquent paragraph of text.
- Proven Results While simplistic in nature, this type of marketing has proven to increase youth group attendance, help remind people of events, and actually have an impact on long-term attendance.
Drawbacks
Unfortunately, this model fails in many different ways that may outweigh the benefits.
- This is Not Long-Term Thinking As with any passive marketing idea, the idea is for the immediacy of the approach. This method does not grow a fan base online nor does it capitalize on viral posting or networking with the current fans and followers you have. Eventually, this marketing if not integrated with other models will simply become preaching to the choir where you are advertising your activities to those that are already going to your events and involved in your church.
- Branding Is Not Important The other social media engagement quadrants look to not only engage directly, but grow the brand. In fact, this type of engagement, if overdone, can negatively impact your brand and you will find your online community disappear quickly.
- Very Impersonal As we have seen in the previous two points, this will not help your online growth as well as may in fact hurt your follower count. This is because of the lack of relational posts that actually give a personal feel and give value to those you connect with.
How Churches Use This Model Wrong
Because this model of social media engagement is simple, it is ripe for inefficiency. As previously stated, many churches rely solely on this type of social media post. It may prove to be effective at first when people have the initial energy to put into it. But nearly every person that comes to me for consulting work has found that the initial boost quickly diminishes and they are told by their pastor or elder board to fix it or forget it.
This demand for results turns into so many churches that have a social media presence without a post in the last year or two. What do you think that communicates to someone that has just moved to the area and is looking to join a church? “We are not good at maintaining projects so we probably won’t be a great church to attend” and “Even if we did update, we don’t care about you unless you attend our stuff.”
Best Practices
This model of social media engagement can and should be used frequently, but effectively. In the overall strategy, this is a primary focus but only in terms of being peppered within relational posts as well as active marketing posts. They make for great filler updates as well as two-day out reminders for events happening. Yet, your Facebook wall, Pinterest board, or Google+ profile is not filled with “Come See Us” as much as it is a variety of communications that are both enticing and encouraging for viewers.
Some people see a blog article social media post as sharing the title and the link as the only requirement. Why not try to captivate the person with an amazing image or a quotable image with some content from the article that entices them to go see what is being written. Sharing an event of the next service project? Post a great image from the last service project with text of the date and time on it too for when people should show up. Want people to come worship with you? Use a variety of videos and images with quotes from the pastor on the sermon series, the main Bible verse being preached on, or challenging questions for before and after the Sunday service!
We could keep going, but we want to hear from you.
[…] Come See Us […]