Why is social media important?
We are in a digital age, and social media is no longer considered ‘niche’ or only for young people. Social media makes it easier to reach out to people and places other methods of communication cannot reach. It’s a case of ‘going where people are’. It connects us, and when used properly can increase learning and spiritual growth within our churches. It offers opportunities to reach out in mission and evangelism.
Read more in my 2023 article: EMERGING FROM THE COCOON – Why digital is key for the church in 2023
Training videos from Elliot...
Over the past 5 years Elliot Crippen has done various videos to help resource local churches, these include:
- Social Media masterclass (2024)
- Social Media trends for churches 2023
- Social Media trends for churches 2022
- Social Media trends for churches 2021
- Understanding online platforms for church safeguarding
Watch all the training videos on YouTube here
District Resources
Church Social Media Graphics and Methodist Photography Bank
Free downloads for churches, created by Elliot Crippen, District Digital Enabler. Over 100 pre-made social media templates that have been designed to work for local Methodist Churches. A Photography Bank containing 100 high-quality photographs taken by Elliot in Methodist Churches around Yorkshire.
Best practice for Methodist Churches: Design and Branding – a practical guide and suggestions
Design and Branding Guide (PDF)
Practical checklist: Church Communication and Publicity
Comms and Publicity Checklist (PDF)
Practical checklist: Church Outreach on Social Media
Social Media Outreach Checklist (PDF)
Digital Safeguarding Best Practice Reference Document
https://bit.ly/DigitalSafeguarding
The best resource for improving your effectiveness on social media as a church or as a Methodist, is to follow Elliot Crippen (our digital enabler) on Instagram. He posts regular social media tips for churches and offers creative examples of social media posts and videos that you might want to replicate…
- Know your purpose. Why is your church on social media? What is your vision and values – connected with your church mission planning (social media is part of our church mission and stragegy, not something seperate) – what are your specific aims and objectives?
- Know your audience. Is your target the church congregation, or people in your community? Your target audience can’t be “everyone”! Narrow down a defined audience and how you will tailor your content to reach that niche.
- Create engaging and relatable content. Social media isn’t a noticeboard for your church. It’s not a static website, or a place to only advertise your services and events. Only 20% of your posts should be promotional, the other 80% should be engaging and relevant to your audience (see below for content ideas)
- Know how to post and play to the algorithum to reach more people. The least effective is method is posting links > then plain text > images and graphics are great > video is even better > and live video is the most effective.
Hootsuite (https://hootsuite.com/en-gb) – Hootsuite is a social media management platform and allows you to integrate and schedule social media for your church across different platforms. There is a free version and paid version with additional features, which can be offered at a discount for churches and charities.
Buffer (https://buffer.com) – Social media management platform with free and paid options available. Plan and publish your content for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, all from one simple dashboard. Craft the perfect post for each social network, all in one place.
Later (https://later.com) – free marketing and scheduling platform for Instagram, but also you can visually plan, schedule and analyse posts for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Plan a Week of Instagram Posts in 20 Minutes. Spend less time posting to Instagram and more time growing your business.
Tweet Deck (https://tweetdeck.twitter.com) – TweetDeck is a social media dashboard application for management of Twitter accounts. The most powerful Twitter tool for real-time tracking, organizing, and engagement. Reach your audiences and discover the best of Twitter.
Here are some places where you can get images or graphics for use online:
- https://unsplash.com
- pexels.com
- https://ministrydesigns.media
- churchmotiongraphics.com
- https://pixabay.com
- https://freebibleimages.org
- canva.com
- www.cpo.org.uk/digital
You can also access some pre-made graphics from the district that you can use for free here: Pre-made Graphics
These additional topics may be of interest, as they directly or indirectly relate to Social Media:
Contact our Digital Communications Enabler:
Elliot Crippen
digital@yorkshirenemethodist.org
Training from the Connexion...
Getting Started Online is a new course in 2023 from the Methodist Church exploring our place in the digital world. It’s made up of 24 short videos.
Find out more here: www.methodist.org.uk/gettingstartedonline/
Watch all the training videos on YouTube here
How to make a beautiful social media post
Emma Nash demonstrates how to put together words and a beautiful image to make an eye-catching social media post for your church. In the video, she uses the free design software at www.canva.com and royalty-free images from www.unsplash.com
Lessons from a year on social media – webinar
Holly Adams and Abi Jarvis from the ‘Evangelism & Growth’ Team of the Methodist Church chat about the highs and lows of a year running the Evangelism & Growth team’s social media channels, and how you can learn from our mistakes and successes. Contains some really good tips and advice.
Facebook for Churches
Background: Facebook is a social media website founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Users can post comments, share photographs and post links to news or other interesting content on the web, chat live, and watch short-form video. “People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.” In Europe, over 307 million people are on Facebook – and in the UK 78% of all internet users are on Facebook.
District Resources:
Around 21% of Churches in our District have a Facebook Page. Whether you are looking to improve yours, have a complete overhaul or create your first church Facebook Page, the below information should hopefully help you:
Facebook is still a widely used platform and so a great place to have a church presence. A Facebook Page is the public face of your church and can be a useful alternative (or addition) to a church website. A great place to start.
Ease of use: medium
Target Audience: Baby Boomers through to older Millenials
Best for: all churches
Facebook Groups:
Facebook groups are perfect for connecting with your existing community. How many of your congregation are already on Facebook? If lots are, then a Facebook group provides a space for building relationships and connecting through the week.
Target Audience: existing community
Best for: internal communication
[note – Facebook updated it’s desktop design in 2020, and some of these guides have screenshots from the ‘old’ design, indicated by the words “Classic Facebook”]
How to get started on Facebook (for individuals)
Level: Very Easy | 11 pages | written 2020
This is a super simple user’s guide to Facebook for beginners in our Church. It is a guide for individuals who are interested in accessing church content on Facebook, or wanting to connect with friends and family, but not confident with setting up an account or using it once they have done.
Step by Step: How to set up a Church Facebook Page
Level: Easy | 6 pages | updated 2021
This guide is for beginners and walks you through each step in creating a Facebook Page for your church.
Best Practices for Church Facebook Pages
Level: Easy to Advanced | 2 pages | updated 2021
This guide is for those who manage existing Church Facebook Pages and provides practical advice on how to get the best out of them, ranging from simple to more advanced tips.
Guide to going live on your Church Facebook Page
Level: Easy | 8 pages | written 2020
This guide is for beginners to provide a step-by-step for how to go live on your Church Facebook Page. Includes guidance for doing this using a windows computer (not Macs) or any phone/tablet.
Guide to recording a video for your Church Facebook Page
Level: Easy | 9 pages | written 2020
This guide is for beginners to provide a step-by-step for how to record a video at home and then how to upload it to your Church Facebook Page. Includes guidance for doing this using a windows computer (not Macs) or any phone/tablet.
How to use a Church Facebook Page (Classic Facebook)
Level: Easy | 3 pages | written 2019
This guide is for those who haven’t used a Facebook Page before, but have just been given admin/editor access for a Church Page which is already set up. Walking you through how to get to the page and post on it. Some more advanced tips are included at the end.
Guide to using Facebook Pages for Evangelism
Level: Intermediate | 4 pages | written 2020
This guide is to provide tips on using this communication tool effectively for evangelism for those who already have, or help run, a church Facebook page.
Guide to using your personal Facebook profile for Evangelism
Level: Easy | 3 pages | written 2020
This guide for those in our churches who already use Facebook provides tips on using this communication tool effectively for personal evangelism.
It’s easy to get confused between the three different options you have on Facebook. In simple terms, a ‘profile’ is for individuals, a ‘page’ is a public profile for businesses, charities or churches, and a ‘group’ is a community-based feature where small groups of people can communicate together.
Facebook Profiles
A Facebook Profile is created when you set up an account on Facebook as an individual. If you’re on Facebook yourself and have set up an account, then you have a Facebook Profile. In the words of Facebook: “A profile is a place on Facebook where you can share information about yourself, such as your interests, photos, videos, current city and hometown. To see your profile, click or tap your name or profile picture at the top of Facebook.”
It is designed for individuals in mind – it’s for one person, where you can add other people as friends, and can choose to share personal information such as gender, age, relationship status and more. Facebook accounts shouldn’t be accessed by more than one person, and a personal profile shouldn’t be passed from one person to another. As such they shouldn’t be set up for a Church.
Note: under Facebook’s Terms of Service you should only have one Facebook account as an individual and shouldn’t create a second account for yourself for work purposes. Instead, for those who work with young / vulnerable people, you should adjust your personal privacy settings so only a small amount can be viewed publicly. You have complete control over what information is visible to others on Facebook and can restrict it as much you need (including not allowing others to add you as a friend).
Facebook Pages
In the words of Facebook: “You must have a profile to create a Page or help manage one. Pages are places on Facebook where artists, public figures, businesses, brands, organizations and non-profits can connect with their fans or customers. When someone likes or follows a Page on Facebook, they can start seeing updates from that Page in their News Feed.”
Facebook Pages are great for Churches as we are an organisation that wants to connect with our ‘customers’ and communities – this is exactly what Facebook Pages are designed to facilitate. Facebook Pages give you many additional features you don’t get with a personal profile. Multiple people can be given access to the Page and can be assigned ‘roles’ depending what they need to do. Think of your Facebook Page as the front porch of your church, it is the public face of your church and can be a useful addition (or alternative) to your website.
A common confusion for Facebook Pages, is that you need someone to monitor posts to the page. Whilst this is true for Facebook Groups (see below), it is not the case for Facebook Pages. Visitors can send private messages to your page (if enabled), and they can send comments to your Page (if enabled), but only you control what is posted on your actual page for others to see.
Facebook Groups
In the words of Facebook: “You must have a profile to create a group or help manage one. Groups are a place to communicate about shared interests with certain people. You can create a group for anything — your family reunion, your after-work sports team, your book club — and customize the group’s privacy settings depending on who you want to be able to join and see the group. When you join a group on Facebook, you start seeing content from that group in your News Feed.”
A Facebook Group might be suitable for your church but remember that it is best used for internal communication. They are great for your congregation to communicate with each other during the week and promoting discipleship (e.g. you could have a group for your church house group, messy church, toddler group, youth group etc.) but they are not great for inviting visitors to join – as the process of having to ask to ‘join’ your church group is off putting and can give the impression that your church is an exclusive ‘club’. How many of your existing congregation are already on Facebook? If lots are, then a church Facebook Group provides a space for building relationships and connecting through the week. If a Facebook Page is your front porch, then your Facebook Group is the living room.
You can also join and post in a Facebook Group as your church page (rather than your personal profile), and link your group to your page, to make it easier for people to find. Do be aware, if you create a group for your church or church group, you will need a few admins of the group who can monitor posts and approve requests to join.
More info here: www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/church-england-digital-labs/labs-learning/facebook-pages-vs-profiles-vs-groups
These additional topics may be of interest, as they directly or indirectly relate to Social Media:
Contact our Digital Communications Enabler:
Elliot Crippen
digital@yorkshirenemethodist.org
How to get started with Facebook (Methodist pdf)
A super-simple step-by-step guide on how to get started on Facebook. Please share this with anyone you think might benefit from being digitally connected but who have yet to ‘take the plunge’.
Faith on Facebook Toolkit
Official tips and advice from Facebook for churches. Covers all basis and is good for beginners and experts alike.
Ultimate Church Facebook Page Guide (Pro Church Tools)
A guide by Pro Church Tools giving tips on using Facebook Pages for Churches.
10 Effective Facebook Tips for Churches (article)
An article with some really useful tips on using Facebook as a Church
Understanding Facebook Insights (CofE article)
An article from the Church of England on understanding insights on Facebook.
Reaching more people from your Facebook Page
An article from a digital evangelism blog on how to reach people using your Facebook Page and 5 strategies to overcome ‘Facebook zero’.
Free Facebook Banner downloads (from CPO)
Some graphics produced by Christian Publishing & Outreach that you can download for free to use as your Facebook Page cover photo
Social Media post ideas with examples (CofE article)
As the person looking after social media for your church, there’s nothing worse than being stuck for ideas, and it’s easy to fall into a routine of only posting about upcoming services and events. Church of England article with seven social media post ideas, with examples.
Twitter for Churches
(now “X”) Unless you already have a good presence and strategy for being on Twitter / X – and are finding that you reach and engage with people there – then I would no longer recommend that churches use Twitter / X as a platform. You may want to use it in a personal capacity, but I would encourage you to invest church resources in other social media platforms.
Instagram for Churches
Background: Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by Facebook and founded in 2010. It used to only be available as an App on a mobile device, but can now be accessed online as well. It’s like a simplified version of Facebook, with an emphasis on mobile use and visual sharing. At the beginning of 2019 there are an estimated 24 million Instagram users in the UK (42% of the population). It’s also incredible popular with the younger generation.
Instagram is a highly visual platform and growing at an increasing rate. If you’re looking to the future and / or wanting to reach a new generation then Instagram is where you need to be. You’re increasingly likely to be able to better reach people (especially millenials) in your community through Instagram rather than Facebook.
Target Audience: Millenials
Best for: Missional churches, urban churches, parents/families
Complete guide to using Instagram for your Church
Level: Easy to Advanced | 4 pages | written 2020
If you are using Instagram at your church, or if you are looking to start on the platform, use this document to help you make the most of Instagram and reach more people.
Guide to using Instagram and Twitter for evangelism
Level: Intermediate | 5 pages | written 2020
This guide is for those who have their own Instagram and Twitter accounts or who run church accounts to provide tips on using
these platforms effectively as tools for evangelism.
These additional topics may be of interest, as they directly or indirectly relate to Social Media:
Contact our Digital Communications Enabler:
Elliot Crippen
digital@yorkshirenemethodist.org
An Introduction to Instagram (CofE article)
An article by the Church of England digital team on Instagram.
Setting up an Instagram account (URC online pdf)
A helpful guide for churches on how to set up an Instagram account by the United Reformed Church
How to create an Instagram profile for your church (CofE article)
An article by the Church of England digital team on how to create a free profile and business profile on Instagram.
Best practices for Instagram (article)
A useful article with tips on using Instagram for your church
How to use Instagram Hashtags (Pro Church Tools)
A video and guide by Pro Church Tools on using Instagram Hashtags to gain followers for your church
Taking good photos of your church
Advice on how to take good photos of at your church, which can be used on any platform, but is particularly useful for Instagram
YouTube for Churches
Background: a video sharing service used by many young people. It can be a great place to upload your church videos to use/embed elsewhere (or even for live streaming). However, it takes a lot of time, skill and resources to produce regular high-quality videos for success on YouTube. Active monthly users: 2.0+ billion (source). Target Audience: young people.
Follow our District YouTube channel here, where you can also view all the circuit and church YouTube accounts in the district.
This depends what you define as “use” YouTube – if you create videos or live stream at your church then you should definately have a YouTube channel. It’s a great place to store and share vidoes. However, that is using YouTube as a file sharing service and not as a social media platform.
Should you use YouTube in a social media capacity?
YouTube is the new Google for many young people (but is used by all ages). It takes time, skill & resouces to produce high-quality videos. Very few churches can achieve this – however a pioneer or fresh expresion of church may have success pursuring a YouTube Ministry.
Guide to uploading your church video to YouTube
Level: Easy | 4 pages | written 2020
This guide is for beginners to provide a basic step-by-step for how to upload a video to your YouTube channel.
Here are some general tips to improve your church YouTube channel:
- Use custom thumbnail images for your videos (bonus: use Canva to design and create an image in the exact size for the thumbnail)
- Add a header image (you can also use Canva to design and create this image, and Canva have lots of templates and give you the exact size you need)
- Add contact information, a description and other details to your channel
- Customise your channel page by added sections: you can highlight playlists, lists videos by popularity, suggest other channels to subscribe to, or a host of other options
These additional topics may be of interest, as they directly or indirectly relate to Social Media:
Contact our Digital Communications Enabler:
Elliot Crippen
digital@yorkshirenemethodist.org
How To Create A YouTube Channel Beginner’s Guide (YouTube video)
Learn how to create a YouTube Channel in 2020! A step-by-step beginner’s guide, from creating a YouTube account to optimizing the key ranking settings most people miss!
How To Customise Your YouTube Channel (YouTube video)
Learn how to Customize Your YouTube Channel in 2021 from channel trailer, to channel banner, to channel about section. Learn how to add, edit and remove featured sections.
YouTube Strategy for Churches (Pro Church Tools)
YouTube is the second most popular website in the world – even more popular than Facebook. But there’s so much more to YouTube than just uploading your church’s sermons. Here you’ll find resources to help you truly understand the powers of YouTube and what it takes to get noticed.
Using video and storytelling to share the gospel (Joseph The Dreamer)
Joseph the Dreamer is a Christian YouTuber and this is a link to his presentation at the Create conference by Living Roch Church. It includes tips on writing titles, designing thumbnails and more.