Social Media is often the first way people will encounter you. It’s a contributing factor to your search rankings. It’s a sign that you are alive and participating in today’s world.

Social media is not sexy. It’s not (necessarily) going to drive a lot of traffic to your website. It’s not going to make you the coolest new church or ministry in town.

It is like one of my clients has said, “table stakes.” Like the phone book decades back, it’s part of doing business.

In my day job, I help individuals, businesses and non-profits tell their story with content and social media marketing. I try to apply the same rules to myself, and to our church community, Austin Mustard Seed. Although, as a landscaper too busy to care for his ugly yard, I don’t always represent the ideal I want for others.

Churches have to be on social media. But they need to be there thoughtfully, purposefully and personally. Here are eight
ways that your Church should be using social media

1. Know when to turn off your social media

For Churches, embracing social media does not mean wholesale acceptance and rampant use. It means defining and clearly teaching how to engage with it. Church Leaders should take time to consider some “dos” and “don’ts,” and then speak about them publicly.

A few might include:

• Do post about upcoming events
• Do post quotes from scripture or like minded thinkers
• Do connect with first time visitors ASAP.
• Don’t be online all the time. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
• Don’t get involved in whatever viral argument is happening on Facebook
• Don’t post anything that would take explaining to an outsider

2. Having presence is more important than coolness

What’s more important than having the world’s coolest Facebook page?

1. Having one.
2. Having accurate information (contact, location, website).
3. Updating enough (multiple times a week) to be clearly alive and involved.

Get those things down and then you might try to be cool.

3. Post about people, not just the band

Former worship leader Glen Packiam makes the point that many churches talk about Jesus but post pictures of the band. It’s an easy mistake, especially for churches than come from a strongly “event” focused mentality.

My favorite moments on social media with Austin Mustard Seed is hearing when someone is sick, seeing pictures of new babies or hearing about a cool trip. In other words, our best use of social media as a church is about connecting to each other, not about promoting our “brand.”

4. Start with about content for outsiders

Good Social Media informs people about the content they need.

Always start with content before social.

Specifically, start with content for outsiders. Those who become a part of your Church community might not always be paying attention to your Church’s social media. Those who are trying to learn more about your church community will be.

The key is to make sure you are using your website to answer questions, and then using social media to point people to the answers.

Take a moment to consider “who are the outsiders I’d love to see come to my church?” Then go write a blog post for them. Then post on social media.

5. Schedule

You can be on Social Media without being on Social Media all the time. The key is to plan ahead, and have access to the tools that will help with that. A few include:

• Facebook’s native scheduling tool
• Hootsuite or Buffer to manage and schedule multiple accounts and platforms
• IFTTT to easily post in different places at once

6. Have a plan

You might be asking now “yeah, but what do I post?” This is a really silly question for churches, since they are content machines.

Consider what it would take to publish consistently. Put it on a calendar, then execute. For instance, on Twitter, you might publish three times a day:

Morning: Scripture or thoughtful quote
Afternoon: Link to latest blog post
Evening: Link to a FAQ page

7. Focus on community over statistics

Define what your social media win is. Define it around experiencing community. Don’t just try to get a lot of Facebook likes or Twitter Followers.

Who are those people, anyways?

A win might include:

• Seeing new visitors become Facebook friends with longtime members
• Church members “liking” eachother’s posts

8. Create share worthy moments

People like to post about thoughtful ideas and evocative moments. Are you teaching in a way that’s Tweetable? Are you creating Instagram-worthy environments?

This is not pandering, and it’s nothing new.

Great preachers always have a clear concise point they want to make. They often use pneumonic devices to make their ideas stick. Make a compelling point in 140 characters. Put it up on your screen, and if it’s good, it will get shared.

The easiest way to do this is by having experiences that are, well, FUN. Create opportunities people enjoy and want to talk about, and they’ll talk about it on social media.

This is simply contextualized ministry. Serving in a way that makes sense to the environment of your people.

What do you wish you more churches were doing on social media?

Click to share on Facebook or Twitter.

The post Eight Ways Churches Should Be Using Social Media appeared first on Chris Morton.

At some point, somewhere around 1999, people realized that:

1) You could make big money on the Internet.

2) Anyone could publish on the internet.

Social media over has increased #2 trying to accomplish #1 exponentially.

The problem is that, in order to stand out among the voices, we have to convince people that we are smart and should be listened to.  For some this is easy. Seth Godin was the expert on permission marketing long before there were targeted Facebook sidebars.  Rick Warren was already the king of pithy one liners before he became the king of the retweets.

Most of don’t have the authority of Seth Godin or the communication skills of Rick Warren.  And because of the immediacy of social media publishing, we don’t think about what we are saying or edit our words.

The end result is a lot of voicing clamouring to prove to world that they are an authority on something.  Realistically, most of us aren’t authorities.  Even if we are, the chances are that we will never make a living doing this.

What if, instead of trying to sound smart on the internet, we just talked about stuff we know and stuff we like.  Twitter is the new cocktail party, and no one likes standing next to some guy trying to prove how smart he is.

If you’re going to publish online, just talk about what you love and pick your words carefully.  You may never get thousands of followers or make a lot of money, but at least you will be honest and likable.

The post Why We Have to Stop Trying to Sound Smart on the Internet appeared first on Chris Morton.

1) My blog, www.chrismorton.info, autoposts to Twitter and Facebook.

2) I’ve been able to use the time this has freed up to be more creative, and write more, thereby producing more of said autoposts.

Besides being more creative, spending less time on Facebook has helped with the sense of depression I often experience.  I’m not sure if there’s any scientific studies to back this up, but anecdotally, I can think of three ways social networking darkens my days.

First, there is the constant reminders of relationships you don’t have.  There’s the old friends you’ve lost touch with and the girls that got away.  They are constant reminders of brighter days and deep friendships that are now distant memories.  It makes me fantasize of what life would have been like if I hadn’t moved, had been bold enough to ask someone out or had got the job I wanted.

Second, there is a sense of social isolation.  Reading one’s Newsfeed is much like being in a room full of people, and having no one who will talk to you.  It seems like everyone else is so happy and engaged.  It seems like you are invisible to them.

Thirdly it’s just a waste of time.  Spending hours reading the status updates of people I barely know or looking at pictures of parties I didn’t go to keeps me from eating with friends, writing in my journal, working on my homework or making myself or my world a better place.

This Lenten break from Facebook has been really good thing. I’m trying to figure out how I’ll limit my usage after Resurrection Day.  Social media is a tool, but I’ve been using it like a drug.  Lent has helped me see that this is a dangerous addiction.

The post How Facebook Causes Depression appeared first on Chris Morton.