We recently analyzed hundreds of Facebook posts on church pages to answer the question:
Which factors correlate most with improved engagement?
We looked at content. We looked at time of day. We even looked at length of posts.
But one factor stood out above the rest.
On average, churches that used this one simple trick saw 3.25 times more reactions/likes than churches who didn’t.
Also… this one simple trick can be 100% free. It doesn’t have to cost you a dollar.
The Video Guarantee: A Social Media Strategy That Gets Results
So what is this one simple trick? I call it The Video Guarantee.
Here’s how it works…
Instead of publishing an image or text-based post, the next time you want to post on your church’s Facebook page, create a video-based post instead.
Simple, right? But does it work?
Well… when churches did this, we saw the following results in the hundreds of posts that we analyzed:
- 3.25 times more reactions/likes
- 8 times more comments
- 27 times more shares
Churches posted at the same time of day. With identical subject matter. Nothing else changed. Except instead of using images or text, they used video.
And using a video made all the difference.
Let’s take a look at a pair of specific examples…
How Woodvale Pentecostal Church Increased Facebook Post Likes by 4X
You might be wondering…does this really work?
Let’s start by taking a look at a specific example of a church you’ve likely never heard of: Woodvale Pentecostal Church.
Woodvale is an average-sized church in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. And by using The Video Guarantee strategy, they accumulated four times more likes on a Facebook post, promoting a special event almost every church hosts each year, an Easter service.
Now it’s time to reveal Woodvale’s results:
The Image Post
First, we have an image-based Facebook post that Woodvale published promoting their upcoming Easter experience.
The image-based post earned 33 reactions/like, 33 shares, and 3 comments.
Image-based post earned 33 reactions/likes, 33 shares, and 3 comments
But that’s just part of the story…
The Video Post
Woodvale then published another Facebook post, promoting the exact same Easter experience, but this time, they used a video-based post instead of an image-based post.
The results?
The video-based post earned 126 reactions/likes, 139 shares, and 7 comments.
Video-based post earned 126 reactions/likes, 139 shares, and 7 comments
Keep in mind, both of these posts are promoting the exact same event. The only difference is that one used a video and one used an image.
Yet, despite the similarities in subject matter, the Woodvale Pentecostal Church video-based post outperformed the image-based post to the tune of:
- 4 times more reactions/likes
- 4 times more shares
- 2 times more comments
Now It’s Time to Check out Elevation Church’s Amazing Results
Let’s take a look at another example…
In this example, Elevation Church is promoting an upcoming sermon series entitled Waymaker. To promote the upcoming series, Elevation posted a pair of teasers on Facebook: one image-based and one video-based.
The Image Post
Below you’ll find the image-based post they published on Facebook.
The image-based post earned 289 reactions/likes, 5 shares, and 7 comments.
Image-based post earned 289 reactions/likes, 5 shares, and 7 comments
The Video Post
In comparison, here are the results for the video post, teasing the exact same upcoming message series…
The video-based post earned 1,200+ reactions/likes, 367 shares, and 43 comments.
Video-based post earned 1,200+ reactions/likes, 367 shares, and 43 comments
Again, both of these posts are promoting the same sermon series. Despite these similarities though, the video-based post outperformed the image-based post by a staggering amount:
- 4 times more reactions/likes
- 73 times more shares
- 6 times more comments
What Does This Mean for My Church?
To make a point…
These are just two handpicked examples from our case study. But we analyzed hundreds of Facebook posts from churches of every size, location, and demographic.
And of all the posts that we analyzed, here are the aggregated results:
Video-based posts outperformed image-based posts of similar subject matter on church Facebook pages to the tune of:
- 3.25 times more reactions/likes
- 8 times more comments
- 27 times more shares
How to Use the Video Guarantee Strategy
The Video Guarantee strategy is wildly simple.
Continue publishing the same types of content you’re already posting on Facebook. But instead of image and text-based posts, swap the images and text out for videos.
When you do this, you can expect to see a huge leap in organic reach as well as likes, comments, and shares.
That’s not all though…
I understand how difficult creating videos can be. To produce a great video you’ll to need a certain amount of gear, time, and maybe even money.
Thankfully, there are plenty of options for churches—even if your budget is small or non-existent.
Here are a couple of those options:
- Instead of spending money on expensive video lights, leverage natural lighting during magic hour at the beginning and end of the day
- Use DIY tutorials to find alternatives to expensive camera gear—like this one
- Download affordable, done-for-you stock footage from a platform like Storytape
However you wind up doing it, make sure to begin experimenting with The Video Guarantee strategy on Facebook. I can’t wait to see your results.
