Every week I hold online office hours and answer questions from folks like you. This week we’ve got a question about marketing budgets and bulletin advertising. Take a look and be sure to join me every Wednesday from 2-4 p.m. CDT for online office hours!
What is the number one missed church social media marketing opportunity?
My Response:
That’s a great question. The answer, unfortunately, is easy: Calls to action.
The majority of churches don’t know how to properly make calls to action without sounding desperate. Others still do nothing but make calls to action to their own detriment. They sound like a used car salesperson trying to make their quota for the month.
Churches need to learn how to make appropriate calls to action. By that I mean every piece of content should have some sort of actionable item in it. Put simply, what do you want people to do with with content you’re giving them?
That, above all else, is the most important—and overlooked—opportunity for churches and social media.
Any tips on how to get pastors to blog once a week?
My Response:
My guess is that you’re having trouble getting your pastors to blog because you see the value in it and they do not.
You could always try the heavy-handed approach, “Do this or else!” That tends not to work well, though, especially if you’re not in a leadership position.
If I were you, I would start showing them why they need to start blogging. Approach it from a missional perspective, a narrative perspective and a practical perspective.
Give them examples of how your organizational goals can be accomplished by telling stories of the congregation through the blog. Find out what they care about missionally-speaking and show them, tangibly, how blogging can facilitate the mission.
Use NewSpring’s blog as an example.
They have a section that’s solely devoted to telling stories of life change happening at NewSpring. Even reading a few of these will get your heart pumping!
Keep in mind that websites with a blog get 55% more traffic than those sites that don’t. The more you blog, the better the chances people searching for churches in the area will find you. It’s a no-brainer, really.
Hope that helps. This battle’s a tough one, but if you stick with it you’ll help them see the light
Thanks for the great questions everybody! Hopefully this information will help you get from where you are to where you want to go. See you next time in the office!
Jonathan Currier
October 18, 2012
I do a blog I get some very positive feedback for, though I don’t do it often enough. I am also not clear on how best to connect blog and website or how to increase the blog traffic. I know doing it more often will help.
Ricardo
October 20, 2012
I happen to design websites for churches and this has always been my number one recommendation to all churches. Its not only good SEO but it also offers a glimpse to visitors of how the church is and learn more about their pastor.
But like you mentioned before its so hard to get them to do it because they do have a limited amount of time and they feel like they should better spend it doing other things.
AJ
October 23, 2012
Our pastor and elders blog regularly, having a total of about 3 posts a week. They see the importance of it but feel that the congregation doesn’t.
No one posts comments, very very few people read it at all. Our struggle is how to get the people in the church to realize this is a great opportunity to get to know the leadership better and understand the direction of the church.
Chris
October 25, 2012
Excellent point Justin. Really enjoy your material and thanks for the insight. You hit the nail on the head. We aren’t selling anything, but we are commissioned with the greatest call to action that has ever been: to go forth and make disciples of all nations. The root of that is communication. We have to use each and every tool available to that end and use it to the best of our ability. You might have some insight on a recent post of mine as well. Love to have you share your thoughts: http://www.254marketing.com/would-jesus-have-had-a-facebook/
calling
October 29, 2012
Another way to help with keeping up with a blog is to make a calendar of topics, that way when it’s time to write one, the author (pastor) doesn’t have to come up with the idea – which is often the hardest part of continual blogging.