What started as a platform for connecting friends has become one of the hottest marketing platforms for companies, non-profits and… churches. With 500 million active users, it’s no wonder everyone is talking about Facebook.
Many people have been strongly encouraging churches to connect to people with Facebook pages (myself included). Much has also been written about the general principles of social media (it’s not another broadcast channel, it’s a platform for engagement, connections and conversations). But very little is known about how churches are actually using Facebook or how people would like to engage with their church in Facebook.
So, recently, in an effort to gain more information about church Facebook use, OurChurch.Com conducted an extensive survey.
Most respondents indicated they don’t think their church is doing a particularly good job with Facebook. While those results could be perceived as negative, a closer look reveals some big opportunities for those churches willing to embrace the world’s largest social network.
- Communicate More – Clearly people would like to see their church do more on Facebook.
- Ministry Pages – A second opportunity for churches is for individual ministries to engage with people through Facebook pages.
- Facilitate Connections – A third opportunity for churches is to help their people connect with one another.
- Evangelism – A fourth opportunity for churches is to encourage and train their people to develop relationships with those who are not Christians and show God’s grace and love to them.
- Facebook Ads – A fifth opportunity for churches is to use Facebook ads to reach out to people in their community.
A detailed report on the survey results including lots of pretty charts and additional analysis is available at OurChurch.com.
Maria Reyes-McDavis
September 22, 2010
I love how the results of this report highlight the perspective of the people, which is often (and I’ve found in my own church) not in alignment with what church leadership believes. Social media is the type of “marketing” that must be implemented with the end-users in mind, not the other way around.
Min. Ellis D. Jimmerson
September 22, 2010
I also believe in “getting in the mix.” What’s the big talk going on in our communities, government, world, media, ministries and etc.? See what people are consistently talking about are search scripture to find out what the word of God has to say. We’re always stuck on what he says or she says, but what does God have to say? Where there are questions, the Bible has the answer. This could engage in discussions on your church’s facebook page.
Zach Lorton
October 11, 2010
You can tell it was a church organization that created that survey and posted the results — the word “phenomenal” is misspelled in the graphic at the top of the page. Maybe we should send them a survey on how effective correct spelling and grammar can be used in communicating survey results. Just a thought.
Our church has started using Facebook in all 5 of those areas, and because we have an Online Campus where people can watch the services live, we have seen some great feedback from adverstising on Facebook. The ads that you pay for can be directed pretty specifically at people that have certain likes, certain demographics, live in certain areas, etc. We saw a huge jump in our online attendance one Sunday just from doing an paid ad test run on Facebook. A very good tool to use if you want to really put yourselves out there.
Line of Cars
October 23, 2010
Hey guys, maybe I’m not looking hard enough, or maybe I just don’t know the “rules”, but I got linked to this page from a blog, and I thought, “That’s a good little article, I’ll share that on Facebook.” But I can’t find the little button to do that. Which I thought was ironic.
I’m sure there’s more to this button-less situation than I’m aware of, like some sort of copyright issue or something somewhere on the site, but I didn’t really want to have to do all that research just to throw something up on Facebook.
I do know how to copy and paste a web address though. So I’m doing that now. Just thought I’d offer some advice, and point out the irony of it. Good article thingy though. Keep it up.