Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

You’ve probably heard that a church needs a social media strategy, but the thought might be overwhelming. Some of us (myself included) spend time, maybe too much time, reading various blogs. I have a Twitter account and use it often, and check Facebook more than I’d like to admit. But what about those who work at small churches and have no real interest in spending their time Tweeting? Where do they start? And why?

It doesn’t have to be that difficult, says Donna Presnell, who has been in charge of social media at Trinity Wall Street for a several years, significantly increasing the reach of Trinity’s social media and creating an engaged online community. She recently started her own social media consulting company called Do Good Social.

“Social networking has been around as long as two people have enjoyed the same thing and had a conversation about it,” she says. Social media is just another way to have that conversation. Presnell has some helpful advice for a church that’s venturing into social media.

Small churches should have a presence on “the big four,” Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, especially Facebook and Twitter. “Anyone who can set up an email account can have a presence on the big four,” says Presnell. And the accounts can easily be linked. You can post on Twitter, for example, and it will automatically update your Facebook page (you can find more information here or just ask a teenager if you need help).

If you aren’t a big church like Trinity Wall Street that creates its own content, says Presnell, you can find other churches and organizations that support your mission and have content to share. Just take an hour or so a day, or every other day, to surf a few websites and share stories that will be of interest to your community. “It just takes a lot of looking and listening.”

Sources for good content range from the Episcopal News Service to the Book of Common Prayer (see below for a list of other sources of content from Presnell). She explained that one of the most popular things that she shares on Trinity’s Facebook page are simple prayers with a picture. Users share that with their network, enlarging Trinity’s reach. In this way, social media acts as a ministry as well as an outreach to the online community. If you only use social media to share other people’s content and your own service schedule, you’ll have plenty of content and contact without having to spend too much time and energy.

When developing your social media strategy, “you have to decide what success means to you,” says Presnell. Don’t think solely in terms of gaining Twitter followers or Facebook friends. Think in terms of engagement rather than numbers. Maybe your goal is to have ten people read or comment on your Facebook page, or five people respond to your tweets. There are easy to use tools built into Facebook and Twitter to track how people are interacting with your website.

Finally, Presnell says it helps to have someone at the church promoting the social media network. Ask the priest or another church leader to mention the Facebook page occasionally. Make sure people who are there every Sunday know about the Facebook page or Twitter account. They are probably on Facebook, with their own social networks. If they occasionally visit the page and share content with their networks, they are suddenly part of the communications team, enlarging your network by hundreds simply by sharing it with their friends.

With a few hours a week, a small church can engage with its members in a whole new way. “Its not as overwhelming as people fear,” says Presnell. It’s simply a matter of deciding what you are trying to accomplish and sharing content that will interest your community.

List of content sources: 

• Episcopal Café - http://www.episcopalcafe.com/
• Episcopal Church social media section http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/social-media
• ECF Vital Practices: http://www.ecfvp.org
• The Daily Office - http://dailyoffice.org/
• This Day in History - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/this-day-in-history.html
• Prayers & Thanksgivings from BCP - http://www.bcponline.org/Misc/Prayers.htm 
• The Virtual Abbey - http://www.thevirtualabbey.com/
• Mother Jones Mag - http://motherjones.com/
• Massachusetts Bible Society - http://www.massbible.org/
• Christianity Today - http://www.christianitytoday.com/
• The Guardian - http://www.guardiannews.com/
• Anglican Communion - http://anglicancommunion.org/
• USPG - http://www.uspg.org.uk/
• Without Wax – Spiritual Growth archive - http://withoutwax.tv/?cat=1137
• Via Media - http://everyvoice.net/index.htm
• The Geranium Farm - http://www.geraniumfarm.org/home.cfm
• NCC - http://www.ncccusa.org/
• Sojourners - http://sojo.net/
• Rows of Sharon - http://rowsofsharon.com/
• Religion Dispatches - http://www.religiondispatches.org/
• Yes Magazine - http://www.yesmagazine.org/
• On Being - http://being.publicradio.org/
• BeliefNet - http://www.beliefnet.com/