Social Media Guidelines for Spiritual Communicators

blueprint to social media for churches 3

Blueprint toSocial Mediafor Churches

turboforchurches.com

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CHAPTER 1THE WAKE UP CALL

One of our social media supervisors named Gabby doubles as a musician in a ministry that travels when she’s not at home doing social media in California. While she was doing an event for a small New Jersey community in 2012, she decided to Tweet about it on Twitter. Feeling as though hardly anyone ever read what she was actually saying on such a populous social media network, she made up her mind that she would post about the event the morning of anyway.

Fast forward to about six hours later, right before the event was to take place: Gabby’s trying to sneak in a quick snack before the event and her band mates interrupt her, shouting that someone is here to see her. Gabby, struck by a wave of anxiety, thinks: “Who could this be? I don’t know anyone in New Jersey.” She walks up the stairs of the basement from where she was eating and comes face-to-face with someone she had no idea would become a transformed, new friend.

Gabby shakes hands with this person and introduces herself to her unexpected vis-itor named Bianca. Shortly after the quick introduction Bianca says that she saw Gabby mention the event on Twitter. She decided to show up “since it was so close to where she lived and she had no plans for the day.” Gabby’s eyes got big. She never, ever expected something like this to happen. After all, she thought she was a nobody in the social media realm.

The story doesn’t stop here; the event still had to take place, and it does. After the event, Bianca confesses that she has Lymphoma, cancer of the lymph nodes, and that she is struggling to believe in God. She’s glad she came because the invitation provided her a chance to have an encounter with God she would have never had elsewhere. She’s excited to believe again.

Gabby’s invitation to the event on a social network blessed Bianca with a new hope. That’s not the end. Bianca wasn’t the only one who walked away blessed. The new friend blessed Gabby and her band mates with amusement park tickets to the lo-cal amusement park she was working at. To this very day Gabby and Bianca stay in touch. Something for both of them shifted that day and their view of social media will never be the same.

It took one response to a tweet for Gabby to have a wake up call. She has now be-come a believer of social media and its impact on others for God’s Kingdom. She no longer questions why she uses social media while in ministry. In fact, she has even gone as far as committing one day per week to updating and promoting her events


on social media. She’s made what we like to call a social media blueprint and is sticking to it. With this blueprint Gabby has no doubt that she is reaching people and changing lives through social media.

Just like Gabby and her bandmates, the goal of every church and ministry is to reach people. Whether your church has a membership of twenty or two thousand, every ministry shares the same goal: to reach a population who does not know or is in the process of getting to know Christ. There is no one way that is best for reaching the world - each ministry has its own niche and calling, which it should. But what if there was a way to extend your reach to those you’re dedicated to reaching - all the time, day and night, every day of the year?

Our aim with this book and our mission as an organization is to educate people like you on how to effectively use social media to extend your influence to the people you are called to reach. We want to help you create a social media blueprint that is right for you. In this book you will find ideas and how-to’s that will help your min-istry or organization grow with social media. In addition to practical usage tips, we will also provide answers to some questions that many Christians often wrestle with when it comes to using social media.


CHAPTER 2WHY?

SOCIAL MEDIA IS…

Before we get into detail regarding why you even need a social media blueprint or plan, it is important to know what social media really is. As defined by Dictionary.com, social media is “websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts.” Therefore, social media is another tool you can add to your toolbelt in order to reach people. Overall, social media is becoming an increasingly popular way for people to spend their time and connect with people and causes important to them.

BUT WHAT DO WE REALLY HAVE TO GAIN FROM SOCIAL MEDIA?

Whether you’re a veteran web-user who knows all the Facebook stats, or that novice just getting your feet wet with the digital world, it is important to know what you are hoping to gain from this venture into social media. Know where you’re starting from, and why you’re interested in making a social media blueprint.

Do you want more people attending your church services? Do you want to raise awareness and support for your charity or cause? Do you want more people sharing your music, downloading your ebook, or promoting your community outreach programs?

Social media provides many different ways to get you to your goals. If you know what your ministry is and what you represent, then knowing what you’re trying to accomplish will help you to choose the best ways of using social media for your needs.

So now here is a question for you: Why? Why are you interested in social media? What are you hoping to achieve or accomplish? Why are you reading this book?

The question of “why” is one that you need to ask yourself.

Social media isanother tool you can add to your toolbelt in order to reach people


HOW CAN SOCIAL MEDIA BENEFIT THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE?

Social media as a general concept - no matter the specific platform - is known for creating communities and facilitating communication. It’s social - community and communication is the whole point. Building communities and communicating with both fellow believers and the rest of the world is something that every Christian organization should be doing already. Social media is just an additional way to do this.

Whether you’re pastoring a church, running a college outreach, or supporting international missionaries, you will likely want to share what you know and help other people. Again, this is a strength of social media. The technology side of sites like Facebook and Twitter make sharing content easy and quick.

Sharing, helping, communicating, and building communities - God created us for all of these things. Social media can simply be the next logical extension of things you are already doing.

HOW CAN SOCIAL MEDIA BENEFIT MY CHURCH OR MINISTRY?

This is the next question that you are probably asking yourself. You might be sold out to the idea of a social media presence, or perhaps you are still wondering if it’s the right thing to do. Goals and mission statements can range across the board - and that’s part of your “why” for determining if you even want to go forward with creating a social media blueprint.

As discussed above, social media has the “social” aspect as its key strength. Raising awareness is a simple thing to do through social media channels. If enough people share your posts, then it reaches every person in their sphere of influence. If those

people share it again, then an exponential spread of information can occur.

Social media makes spreading awareness easy and possible for any ministry. One ministry in particular that we’ve been privileged to help raise awareness with is a women’s crisis home in Fresno, California called Evangel Home. Whenever they have a need that they can’t fill, like surprising toilet paper outages or lack of food on their pantry shelves, they post about it on social media. Within hours they have over a dozen people volunteering their resources and asking how they can help.

The benefits of their online communication doesn’t stop there. They also publicize their annual events on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. To their surprise, doing this enlarges their number of attendees and also brings in more donations than often expected.


The way in which you use social media can be similar to the way Evangel Home uses it. Perhaps your church is hosting a women’s conference; spreading the word on social media can reach women of all ages very quickly. A ministry for inner-city youth can share their events with both individual people and other like-minded organizations through social media.

Fundraising, filling seats with new guests, raising prayer support, selling tickets to an event - all of these things and more can be shared and shared again on any social media platform. Remember the community, communication, sharing, and helping? People engage in social media because they enjoy participating in these activities. If your church or ministry is represented and enough people see your content, spreading the word can happen rapidly with minimal effort on your part, aside from the initial posting.

Social media is an enjoyable experience. So if churches and ministries are participating actively in the social media world, and making themselves enjoyable to interact with, people will participate.

HOW CAN SOCIAL MEDIA BENEFIT ME AS A CHRISTIAN?

Again, think about those four beneficial points we made earlier: community, communication, sharing, helping. You as an individual - no matter your position in a church or organization - can contribute and participate. If you’re a member of a church, or just a strong supporter of a certain ministry, you can help by sharing their mission, contributing to the community, and communicating with the organization and individuals.

You can also be on the receiving end of these points, and that’s another strength of social media. You can get updates on your church’s activities or current news from the ministries you support. Networking and connecting with other Christians - locally and around the world - can strengthen your walk with God and widen your circle of friends. If you need help, prayer, or support, your online network is always available to pray or guide.

CommunityCommunication

SharingHelping


CHAPTER 3BREAKING THE BARRIERS (REFUTES)

A common view of social media can be that it is not beneficial to what a person in ministry may be called to do. The reality of its nature is that social media is a tool that will form to the essence of the hands controlling it. Therefore, if someone uses it to slack off, it will be viewed as a tool that enhances uselessness.

But what if someone actually used it to share their message with an unreached group of people? Is social media still useless in this situation? Absolutely not! Used properly, it now takes on the characteristic of being highly useful and effective.

Jesus himself never shied away from tools. In fact, Jesus was less concerned about the tool itself and more

focused on the heart of the person wielding it. He says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from

thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown

into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them..”(Matthew 7:15-20, NKJV)

This tool of social media is just a means by which we might judge the “fruit” or actions of others. Social media is not inherently bad or a waste of time. It molds itself to the motivations of its user. If we have any concerns at all, they should stand with the person or people behind the tool and as Jesus says, it’s not an impossible feat to be able to tell apart those who have right intentions from those who are out to do wrong. When we begin to see social media from its neutral state of being a tool to build a great blueprint for outreach, the realm of endless possibilities begins to unfold and we now have more power to help us reach our God-given dreams.

Your tweet

Reaches your 300 followers(has the potential to be seen by over 200 million)

God uses it to touchthe heart of one or two

A heart is completely changed

Your thought


The following are common misconceptions about social media that often hold ministries, churches and major influencers back from realizing their calling in the digital realm:

IT’S DANGEROUS

People who believe that social media is dangerous often leave us wondering what criminal justice television show they are subscribed to or how much time out of their day they spend watching the news. It’s important to understand that social media, as with every other tool, has had its fair number of misuses. The unfortunate thing is that while social media has likely had more success stories, the negative ones are what seem to make the five o’clock news.

As with any conversation about a medium or tool, the few negative details seem to carry more weight than the positive ones. We can chalk it up to media brainwashing or just how we’re wired as human beings, but negative attributes to social media seem to be a leading force as to why many ministries are hesitant in using it.

The hesitations of many seem to fade away when we realize the many personal connections that are made in social media. One hardly hears good things like how a ministry reached their fundraising goal because of the conversations they had on the social networking site called Twitter, or how a church stayed in touch with their missionaries via Facebook. The success stories of social media can be endless.

IT’S A DISTRACTION

There can be a stigma in the church world of social media being a distraction at best, or even reviled as another way to easily fall into sin. Like any medium, there’s the bad along with the good. Foul language, inappropriate pictures, and negativity of all sorts is present, to be sure. It’s true that spending time on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the like can be a distraction and a waste of time. But it’s all in how you use social media, and why.

Even milder behavior like chatting with friends on Twitter during a church sermon is often what can lead some Christians to dislike social media as a whole. Look back at the why question posted at the beginning. For you as a Christian individual, why are you using social media? Do you want to connect with other Christians? Share church events? Keep up-to-date with the missionary you help support? As mentioned before, social media can be used for all of these things, and more.

For example, our content manager Grace doubles as a writer and has come to realize that focus has to be a part of her daily social media blueprint. Grace uses her social media to encourage and educate her online followers. Despite the many distractions that the internet provides, she makes sure her posts are always in line with her mission and current goals as a writer. Therefore, you will only see positive news and current events about her industry, humorous but clean pictures and videos, and uplifting personal anecdotes being used on her social media profiles. She is focused while using her social networks and because of this her online presence has begun to grow.


Just like Grace has learned, social media is a distraction only if you let it be one. Your own personal why and your own disciplines come into effect here, as with any other life activity. Social media can empower you as a Christian and connect you with people all around the world.

As Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “...You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (NKJV) Social media has a global reach that can literally put you and your ministry in touch with the ends of the earth.

IT’S TOO HARD

There are many reasons why you could look at social media while trying to create your blueprint and think “this is way too hard.” Maybe you feel as if you’re in the dark when it comes to understanding social media and don’t want to participate because the learning curve seems too high. It could also be that you don’t see yourself as the “social” type and have absolutely no desire to get started. No matter how you may have come to believe that social media is too hard, it is important to realize that social media is made to be something that comes naturally.

Just as God intended for us all to interact naturally with one another through face-to-face conversation, interacting on social media can happen in the same natural manner. The person who sees social media as too hard to learn can overcome this hindrance by asking for help (which is most likely why you’re reading this book) and seeing the essence of social media as what it is intended to be - easy.

IT’S TIME CONSUMING (AND I’M BUSY)

It is fair to say that being social is time consuming. Whether through the internet or not, it takes time to think, talk, listen, respond and discuss. In this day and age we live in, there is a lot to do and it is easy to be that person who has their plate full of activities.

When your schedule is full, it’s important not to just cast off social media and leave it for a time when you’ll be able to get to it. If you’re honest with yourself, “getting to” things rarely happens when we fail to make a plan and weigh the options at hand.

Having a full schedule leaves you with two options to choose from: you can find a way to rearrange your schedule while giving social media a slot in your activities, or you can enlist someone else to help you achieve your vision that God has given you through social media.

You have to decide which choice is better than the other. The important factor is that you actually make a choice and do not let your chance for influence lie dormant.


IT’S NOT RELEVANT TO MY CAUSE

Is your cause relevant to people? If you answered ‘yes’, then social media is relevant to your cause. Instead of thinking that social media is not relevant to what you’re doing, you should instead be thinking of the following question: how can social media help my mission go to the next level?

Social networks have many millions of users and your chance to influence someone beyond the sphere of influence you are currently in is high. When viewing social media, don’t view it as a random, one lane road from your cause that leads to nowhere. One lane roads that lead to nowhere are unneeded and waste a driver’s gas. The proper way to see it is as an added lane or two to an already existing highway road that connects your cause to other causes, making your ability to reach others faster, easier and more worth while.

When needing to reach others quickly and with little gas, who doesn’t prefer a freeway? Freeways promote more traffic and give users an excitement to get to where they’re destined to go, exactly what every person who wants the Kingdom of God to expand would love to achieve with what they’re doing.

IT’S A “YOUNG PERSON’S” THING TO DO

If being young constitutes everyone living on earth, than the title to this section is completely accurate. Though social media can be used and used effectively by everyone, the misconception that social media is only for the younger generation still exists.

Social media may have been appealing to only young people when it first began, but it now appeals to people of all ages. Parents can get updates from their kid’s soccer game by following another parent on Twitter, senior citizens can get advice about their programs from their friends on Facebook, and young people can keep up with their friends’ daily moves on Instagram.

With such a vast array of ages using social media, there is no longer anything holding your ministry back from reaching and staying in fellowship with the people you are called to reach.

18-29 30-49 65+50-64 All

89%82%

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65%72%

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100 Social Media Usage Amoung Adults

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age

PewResearch Internet ProjectStatistics from

http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/


IT’S NOT SPIRITUAL

Spiritual - a belief that something is of or from God - is not something that can be attributed to social media itself. Like we mentioned earlier in this book, it is not the tool that bears spiritual fruit but the person who uses the tool. The tool of social media cannot be spiritual in and of itself. It is only spiritual, of God, when used by a godly person or cause.

It’s important to understand that every tool can be used to help or harm others. If you were to watch a young kid purposely use his baseball bat to hit his friend in the head, you would likely not attribute the bad effects caused by the bat to that bat itself. The same bat can be used to produce great results when used appropriately. Similarly, this is the case with social media.

People have used social media for bad and good, but social media itself is not the author of bad or good. Social media is not capable, in itself, of being spiritual.


CHAPTER 4THE BENEFICIAL BREAKDOWN

Now let’s go into detail about the benefits and challenges of each social media site. If you are launching into social media for the first time, this will help you decide which platform (or platforms) might be of most benefit to you. If you already have a profile on one or more of these sites, this can help you to define which platforms are benefiting you and your blueprint the most.

As always, keep in mind your vision, your “why.” Your reason for wanting to use social media to reach out is the most important factor in helping you discover which platform is right for you.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is one of the oldest social media websites, launched in 2004. It originally began as a way for college students to stay in touch with one another. With over 1 billion active users, it works well for ministries and communities that are already established online and who wish to deepen their sense of community with their current audience. Not only can a business or ministry post content and receive replies, but so can the customer or supporter. The ease of communication and the sharing of everyday life are what make Facebook so appealing to people of all ages.

Benefits to Your Blueprint:

› Large Potential Audience: Because Facebook is one of the oldest and largest social media sites, it has the largest reach. People from all generations, econom-ic levels, and nationalities have Facebook profiles. If your ministry is represented on Facebook, you automatically have over a billion users as your potential audi-ence.

› Multimedia: Facebook is built for multimedia. Text, pictures, videos, external links - Facebook is a platform that supports it all. You can use a variety of media as part of your blueprint.

› Building Community: Fan pages and group pages allow you to reach your spe-cific target audience. Because of Facebook’s longevity and its size, established communities may already exist for people with shared interests or background. This is something that can benefit the newcomer who is looking for a gather-ing place of the specific target audience they are trying to reach. Within these groups, events can be scheduled and promoted - everything from a virtual party to a webinar to a live concert.

› High SEO Rank: Facebook ranks high within Google’s search engine. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a factor that many brands and organizations

http://www.facebook.com


focus on - that is, how easy it is for a user to find their organization by doing a keyword web search. Having a presence on Facebook automatically puts you higher on a Google search than having merely a stand-alone website or blog.

› User-Friendly: Facebook is user-friendly and easy to manage. You don’t need to have experience with building or managing a website in order to set up a Facebook page. Facebook also provides basic insights and analytics, so you can track the views and activity on your page.

Challenges to Your Blueprint:

› Constant Adaptability Required: Facebook is constantly changing. While some of these changes are merely cosmetic, many involve a deeper change of the site’s algorithms. What this means for you and your ministry page is that you may suddenly find your activity or people reach changing - for better or for worse. The changes that Facebook implements may or may not be announced or explained, so constant vigilance and adaptability on your part is needed to main-tain a strong presence.

› Lost in the Shuffle: The strength of Facebook being the largest social network can also present a challenge - because of its size, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. If you are trying to promote a fundraiser or gain the attention of po-tential new members, then there are probably other larger ministries doing the same thing.

TWITTER

Twitter began in 2006 as a “microblogging service.” It is one of the largest social media sites, with over 500 million users. People who use Twitter are primarily Millennial-aged and looking to make connections, as well as develop relationships they may already have. Operating as a newsfeed of sorts that will only allow 140 characters of text per post, Twitter is a great place for new brands and organizations to share content, meet new people and gain influence.


› Easy to Expand: On Twitter, it’s easy to meet new people and quickly establish a following. You can increase your reach before you even have a well-established network by communicating with other users - even if they do not follow you.

› Simple and Quick: Twitter is simple and quick. Twitter’s 140 character limit on posts (called “Tweets”) makes for rapid, succinct communication. Interaction with followers can be near-instantaneous. People like an organization that will respond right away, whether the individual is voicing a complaint or simply say-ing hello.

› Virality Potential: Because of its simplicity, it is easy for a post on Twitter to go rapidly viral, meaning your post could potentially reach thousands or even mil-lions of more users than your typical reach. Twitter users love to share content from other users (the “Retweet” feature), and this contributes to the vast poten-tial of virality and expanded reach.

http://www.twitter.com



› Limited Post Length: The 140 characters of a Tweet can be limiting. Even the greatest master of brevity may be hard pressed to condense every important statement into one short sentence. Longer, in-depth content has to be posted elsewhere.

› Sharing Requires Strategy: Much of the content on Twitter is shared from other websites and social media platforms (see the first “challenge” point about limited posting space). This content-sharing aspect of Twitter can be beneficial for users wanting to gain visibility or followers. However, this can be challenging if your goal is to keep all or most of your social media interaction on Twitter, your strategy may need to involve a minimal amount of link-posting. Sharing links to content on other sites could potentially get your audience thinking about the person whose content you shared rather than your own ministry.

YOUTUBE

YouTube is a video-sharing website founded in 2005. The majority of the site’s content is user-generated rather than professional videos made by corporations. It’s currently ranked as the number two search engine for people researching topics, which is evidence to point towards YouTube’s major audience size. With such a wide variety of content available and no registration necessary for video viewing, this network is a great place for many people to gain influence in their industry through the means of video.


› Reaching Internet Drivers: While YouTube can reach many different demo-graphics based on individual videos, the majority of high users of YouTube are younger. Generation Y, Millennials, and even the younger members of Generation X are the drivers of the social networking and sharing aspects of the internet. Young people like videos on any subject matter; YouTube provides the platform and reach to connect with this audience.

› High SEO Opportunity: YouTube is owned by Google, which automatically places the site’s content high on a Google search. If you have a YouTube channel and videos for your church, this increases your opportunities to be found by new people via a web search.

› Connecting with Users: With the comment feature on videos, YouTube has the ability to be a conversational hub, similar to Facebook and Twitter.

› Virality Potential: With many of YouTube’s users being younger, the sharing rate of videos is very high. With even just a few users sharing your video across platforms, the potential is there for your content to go viral and therefore reach a greatly expanded audience. Videos are often shared to other popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.


› Constant Adaptability Required: YouTube frequently changes its algorithms, especially for the comments feature. This might make a conversation string that you were having with a fan suddenly hard to follow, or hard to find. YouTube

http://www.youtube.com


does not usually announce or explain such changes, leaving users to adapt on their own.

› Negative Encounters: YouTube seems to be a popular site for “trolls” - peo-ple who make it their business to insert negative or inflammatory comments on social media posts. You can remove unpleasant and/or unrelated negative comments, but this requires constant monitoring of all of your videos’ comment fields.

› Third-Party Advertisements: Advertising has greatly increased of late on YouTube. While paid promoted videos have long been a feature, appearing at the top of the page or the top of the related videos list, many videos now have ads tacked on at the beginning which can make it hard to retain a viewer’s attention while they are waiting for your video to play. Also, these ads do not necessarily relate at all to the content of the video, so it’s possible to wind up with an inap-propriate advertisement at the beginning of your sermon video.

PINTEREST

Pinterest began in 2010, and is one of the fastest growing social media sites, with over 70 million users since its launch. The site is based on the pin-board concept, and allows users to collect pictures from all over the internet. Though it is termed a social media site, Pinterest is famous for its powerful search engine-styled setup that lets people search for information with visual images leading the user’s experience. Overall, Pinterest is a catalogue that is a powerful tool for organizations that have a lot of visual content.


› Reaching Decision-Makers: The vast majority of Pinterest users are women. Even if your specific ministry may not be gender-specific, women are more fre-quently the decision-makers in their families when it comes to organizations to join, family purchases, and activities for the children.

› Simple and Intuitive: Pinterest is simple and intuitive. It is nothing more than a digital version of the childhood habit of a cork board covered with magazine pictures.

› Visual: Since one of the strengths of social media in general is the visual aspect, this gives Pinterest an automatic high score amongst its competition. Regardless of content, pictures will attract more attention, and Pinterest provides a place where all of your images can be collected and organized on pin boards.


› Low SEO Possibility: Without abundant keywords, Pins that you upload direct-ly to the site may not be easy to find - either via a Google search, or even on Pinterest itself. Having your images hosted elsewhere (like your website or blog) and pinning them from your website onto your Pinterest boards may do better at increasing your reach.

› Minimal Interaction: Images on boards do have a space for comments, but interactive conversations are few and far between on Pinterest. While your imag-

http://www.pinterest.com


es may get liked and repinned, if you’re looking for direct interaction with your audience, Facebook and Twitter (or even YouTube) are better platforms for con-versation.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform that allows people from many different career paths to come into contact with one another. Launched for public use in 2003, LinkedIn now has over 200 million users. From people who own corporations, to those who are simply holding internships at a mom-and-pop shop, LinkedIn is filled with people from all different professional backgrounds. Being known for nothing but professional contact, LinkedIn is great for brands and organizations who are looking to be an influence among other professionals in their industry, or even hire someone in their industry.


› Networking with Professionals: LinkedIn is a professional networking site. There is little chance of encountering false profiles, “trolls,” and assorted dis-tasteful content that often plagues sites like Facebook and YouTube. Profiles, whether corporate pages or individual profiles, focus on putting their best face forward.

› Potential Increased Credibility: For individuals and entrepreneurs, LinkedIn can serve as a secure online resume. Other users can also endorse you or your ministry for certain skills or jobs, which can increase your credibility and visibil-ity in your sphere of influence. This can be especially powerful for a church or ministry that reaches out to a young urban professional population, or any other sort of marketplace ministry.

› Business Oriented: LinkedIn is a reliable networking site if you are looking to hire employees or contractors, looking to connect with other non-profits and ministries, or even looking for a job yourself. The reason for having a LinkedIn profile is to represent yourself and your brand with the intent of doing business, not merely gaining fans.


› Minimal Interaction: Of all of the social media sites in this book, LinkedIn is perhaps one of the least “social.” There is a direct messaging feature and a newsfeed page that allows for status updates and comments, but the social interaction aspect of LinkedIn is minimal. This is not the place for real-time con-necting with supporters or church members.

› Primarily Text-Based: There is very little multi-media on LinkedIn - it is a very text-heavy site. Profile pictures and brand logos are about the extent of images. If you use a lot of audio, video, or graphics, the bulk of that content will need to be on another site.

› Limited Customization: Since LinkedIn is a professional networking site, there is little personalization offered for profile pages. Many content fields are preset with a minimal amount of customization.

https://www.linkedin.com


INSTAGRAM

New to the social media realm, Instagram is an image and video sharing network that is created solely to be accessed through a mobile device. The sharing of users’ images and 16-second videos are the center of dialogue on this social network. Created and launched in 2010, Instagram has over 100 million active users and is a social network popular among Millennials. This site is great for those who want to reach a younger crowd or who can stimulate a lot of creative imagery to capture the attention of users.


› Reaching Internet Drivers: Instagram has a high number of young users. Younger people - especially Generation Y and Millennials - are the drivers of so-cial media, so having your ministry on a platform frequented by the drivers and influencers increases your reach.

› Mobile Platform: Instagram is mobile. Mobile usage (via smartphones and tab-lets) increases every year, so having your organization easily accessible by mo-bile users increases your potential visibility. Instagram began as a mobile app, rather than as a website which had to later develop an app, so the mobile aspect is built-in from the beginning.

› Interactive and Instantaneous: “Interactive” and “instantaneous” are words that have been used before to describe popular aspects of social media, and Ins-tagram is both of these things. You can capture and upload a picture, and imme-diately connect with other users.

› Simplicity: Instagram is simple because its focus is on being picture-sharing app. Videos can be posted on Instagram, as well, but its strength lies in the sim-plicity of single images.


› Limited Media Mix: Although a picture can be powerful, if your content tends more towards text, links, or other media, then Instagram may not be the best platform to represent all aspects of your organization.

› Mobile-User Focused: The benefit of Instagram as a mobile app can be a chal-lenge if your target audience are not strong mobile users. Do a little research first (with your current church members and fans, as well as potentials) to see if mobile is the best way to connect with them.

› Location is Key: Instagram cannot be operated remotely. Because this plat-form is an app that is tied to a dedicated device, it would be challenging to have more than one person managing your Instagram account. Also, if physical loca-tion matters to your organization, then the Instagram-linked device needs to be present at the proper location to make this social network effective.

GOOGLE+

Google+ is a social network with over 500 million users, but with roughly 300 million active users who post content regularly and interact amongst each other. A bit more on the professional side, Google+ is a place for an organization or ministry to network and gain contacts, as well as post original content and get feedback. This is a network for

http://www.instagram.com

http://plus.google.com


anyone who is looking to expand their “circles,” literally, and gain more influence.


› High SEO Rank: It’s Google. Like it or not, Google is an internet giant and one of the top search engines. As covered in the sections about Facebook and You-Tube, your content and keywords make a difference in how well your posts show up in a Google search. Google will of course favor their own products, and so having your brand represented on Google+ means automatic high SEO.

› Professional Interaction: A lot of companies and brands - especially virtu-al ones - have a strong presence on Google+. This gives it a more professional feel, more so than a platform like Facebook, where most users are there simply to socialize. If you want to reach people in the professional sphere, a Google+ page could benefit you.

› Advanced Innovation: It is a rapidly-growing site, and new features are constantly being added. Google+ has always been a platform that supports multi-media, but now includes advanced sharing options through Google Drive. Google Hangout is the real-time video chat feature exclusive to Google+ users. Both the Hangout and the document-sharing via Drive offer unique ways that you can connect with followers.


› Low User Popularity: Few people actively utilize it. While Google+ is an inno-vative and growing platform, it is still not the most popular social network, and many people treat it as an after-thought.

› Check the Numbers: Google+’s user stats are not always accurate numbers. The reason for this is that anyone who has a Gmail account (or other Google account such as a YouTube channel) is automatically given a Google+ page. The number of people who have a Google account versus the number of people who are active on Google+ and maintain their profiles are very different. As with any of these platforms, do some research first - all the while keeping in mind your why and your goals - and don’t blindly follow number trends.


CHAPTER 5BLOGS

A blog is a website distinguished by content of regular articles or posts, written by one person or a team of contributors. Blogs (a shortened form of “web log”) can be professional quality articles and essays, or more like online journaling. Any subject matter is fair game.

One of the main ways a blog can benefit your ministry’s blueprint is through their ability to be far more customizable than any of the platforms mentioned in previous chapters. There are many blog hosting sites, all of which offer a wide range of themes, or allow you to create your own.

The content of your blog is entirely up to you. A blog gives you the flexibility to post whatever content you choose, as often as you choose, and with little or no length restrictions.

BLOGS AS SOCIAL MEDIA

The blogging platform offers many ways to be social and connect with your members and followers. Though a blog does not have the instantaneous interaction of a network like Twitter, the comment fields for every post offer a conversational venue much like Facebook or YouTube. Readers can comment on a post, and even reply to others’ comments, as can the host of the blog.

A blog can serve as your home base on the internet - whether you already have a website or not. It is from here that your content can be shared to other social media platforms - for example, you can post links to blog entries on your Facebook or Twitter profiles.

In your content, you can ask questions and ask for feedback. When people comment on a post, you can reply - even if it’s just to thank them for commenting. You have the ability to show people that you value them and are invested in making personal connections.

Most blogs offer basic analytics, so you can track your most popular posts and most searched keywords. Over time, this can help you in streamlining your blog content to greater meet the needs of your members or partners.

While considering your blogging options, always remember your why. Why do you want to connect with people? What is your specific message or the goal of your ministry?


BLOGGING TO PROMOTE YOUR MISSION

With the freedom to create and customize your content on a blog, you can use this platform as a part of your blueprint to represent any and every aspect of your church or organization.

Users can subscribe to or follow your blog, like any other social network. Blog posts can be delivered to subscribers’ email addresses, similar to a newsletter. This enables you to keep your followers and supporters updated, even if some of them are not on Facebook, Twitter, or another social network that you use.

The creators of the new social media app Turbo here at Helps2Media are focused on one thing: helping churches, ministries, and other non-profits build an online presence and engage with their audience. We have our own profile on most of the major social media networks, and we also have a blog.

Our blog allows us to post more detailed information about what we do, as well as tips, step-by-step instructions, and even personalized stories. For example, here is a recent post written by one of Helps2’s social media managers. It’s a personal story about the seamless blending of life, a music career, and growth through social media.

Well, if you know me, you know I am both a lover of social media and music artistry. Oh yes, I said music artistry. Not just a performance, but the art that goes into making a great song. I enjoy making music, creat-ing melodies, and watching others do the same. It’s become a pretty wild and fun passion. My passion is so big that I, of course, have my own so-cial media outlets that are dedicated to my very own musicianship. What is even more worth noting is that social media has helped me to capture AMAZING (sorry for the all caps, but I had to do something to capture how strongly I feel about this) opportunities. I could go on and on about what kinds of doors social media has opened for me as a musician, but there’s one recent door I want to specifically talk about.

The rest of the post can be viewed here.

http://www.turboforchurches.com/true-story-how-using-a-hashtag-got-me-a-music-gig-in-another-country/


BLOGGING KEEPS IT PERSONAL

As mentioned earlier, the benefit of a blog is that each and every post can be longer, more detailed, and far more personalized than what is offered by any of the other major social media platforms. There are many ways that churches and ministries successfully use blogs to reach people and grow their organizations. Here are a few ideas:

› Daily or weekly Bible devotional posted as a blog › Regular updates and testimonials from a missionary or a traveling worship team, detailing their day-to-day work and people they are connecting with on their mission field

› Youth groups writing blogs about their events › Testimonials, success stories, and praise reports of any kind

There are as many ways to use a blog in your blueprint as there are many types of ministries. Your blog is limited only by your imagination. The power of blogging as it can help your ministry grow lies in the personal nature of the content. Write from the heart as it fits your church’s individual mission and theme. Write often and write consistently. People enjoy the personal touch - the social part of social media - and blogging can give your outreach efforts that extra personal touch.


CHAPTER 6THE ULTIMATE ACTION

After much explanation and what we hope to be an informative guide to build your social media blueprint, the next step is likely the most difficult: putting all this information into action and doing it.

As we all know, living life and doing ministry is often times a big enough task in itself. Doing social media on top of that can add a tremendous amount of pressure. Sometimes, to even begin thinking about your social media needs can leave many people overwhelmed, as well as insecure about becoming the ministry you have dreamed of being.

So, what do you do when you feel as if you need social media to excel in reaching your goals, but don’t have the resources or time to do it? You don’t need to change your vision and goals. You only need to adjust your blueprint.

NO RESOURCES

Maybe you are the person who does not have the resources to hire a social media manager to help facilitate and manage your online presence, but you still have a desire to make social media happen. For people in this category we recommend that you start small. Starting small does not mean that you won’t gain influence or your efforts are insignificant. In fact, many individuals and organizations who are now major players in the social media realm have gotten their start on a tiny level. Typically that level consists of one person with a few hours a week invested into their online presence.

We suggest that you start with two of the social platforms mentioned in chapter 4 that will work best for your goals and where your ministry is headed. Once you decide on what platforms to use, you can take anywhere from one to a few hours a week and fill those chosen platforms with content that pertains to what you are doing.

Maybe you are running a food shelter? Post your daily food specials at the beginning of each day, share about what inspires your organization to exist, share where you’ll be serving food, and ultimately share whatever else God may be leading you to share. Let your posts be engaging and memorable.

When it is obvious that goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action.

-Confucius


There are many online tools that can be used to help streamline social media posts. For example, many people will program a week’s worth of posts into programs like Hootsuite, Buffer or SproutSocial. Once one inserts their content in these online scheduling apps, posts generate on their own, freeing users of the burden of having to put content up throughout the work day. Whether or not these online tools are free or cost a fee to use depends on the features you desire to use within their service and to what extent you use them.

Remember, the ultimate goal with your social media is to be social. Interact and converse with people to the point where you earn the trust of those who follow you online and then you will have well-earned influence in their lives. This is what leads to loyal supporters.

NO TIME

If you don’t have the time to build and manage your own social media, you may need to outsource it to a company, such as Helps2Media or another social media management firm that may be a good fit for you. Those who have outsourced their social media to execute their blueprint are rarely disappointed.

Most social media firms take their client’s social media and digital presence very seriously. They focus, communicate and strategize on behalf of you and your ministry to help reach the goals, as well as influence, that you have designed to reach through your blueprint.

Social Media Management focuses on sharing your cause and getting you the supporters you need, but in the language they know best: social strategy.

While you don’t have the time, they are constantly talking with prospective followers. Think of it in terms of constant networking, but online where millions of people now find and rely on recommendations, affirmation and feedback before they choose to partner with a ministry or cause. Social media management makes this happen.

38%of organizations said they

would increase theirinvestment in Social Media

Management Systems

62%of organizations said they

would increase theirsocial media investment

Econsultancy / Responsys 2013 Marketing Budgets surveyStatistics from

http://www.helps2.com

http://econsultancy.com/reports/marketing-budgets


TAKE HOLD OF YOUR DREAMS

Consider the ultimate reason why social media exists: to connect everyday people beyond the confinements of physical location. With such a significant opportunity at hand, it is important to explore and reflect upon your “why”.

Why is social media beneficial for you to take hold of? Your cause? Your ministry? Your church’s growth? If you can pinpoint your why, your efforts on social media will function with great purpose and effectiveness.

Your time is now. Don’t wait any longer to create your blueprint and reach the path of influence that you dream of reaching. The arena of social media is your open door, which if used effectively, can lead your church or organization to major growth. With your goals and the information we’ve provided, dare to make your dreams a reality.

Questions? Comments? Want to learn more about how we can help with your social media? Connect with us, here, at Turbo For Churches!

Our Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Youtube

http://www.turboforchurches.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Turbo-for-Churches/1723304371228628

https://twitter.com/Turbo4Churches

https://plus.google.com/u/2/100992287312820380788/posts

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqjmzQFXf9Av_0hvlyJAwRw

Social Media Guidelines for Spiritual Communicators

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