Does it really matter How our Church’s Facebook page is setup?

People do not like to connect to organizations on Facebook. That includes church Facebook pages. It’s cold and impersonal. And social media is all about, well, being social.

A great example of this is my own church, which has a large, extended Facebook family of close to 200+ people, all connected to one another and communicating on a daily basis. Yet less than half them are members of the Churches actual Facebook page!

Question: Is it wrong to get Mafia Wars gifts from other church members? Is it creepy? Or is it just me?

I’m sure there are churches out there that do very well with social media, but setting up a page for the church just for the sake of having one misses the mark. Your Church Facebook page will likely sit stagnant, largely because it doesn’t have face that people know. Churches are about the people, they’re not really about the building.

As you read this though, you’ll discover how to give your church the face it needs to thrive on Facebook.

Your Churches Face is You

If you’re reading this, understand that this isn’t some marketing thing you have to run by the church. This can totally be an arm of your ministry, and you don’t have to ask permission to do it. Social media is all about organic growth, and churches often can’t facilitate that on their own.

That’s why I recommend most churches stay out of the Facebook business, at least directly. Instead the pastor, the pastors wife, deacons and elders should connect to the members and one another through personal Facebook pages. The impact is significantly more powerful, than using a church FB page.

In fact, you can deepen the impact even more by setting up Facebook Group Pages. Group pages can be setup by anyone in the church, and serve as a ministry outlet, and a way to tie the members together behind certain causes and movements.

Group pages make the face of your church much more apparent. Furthermore, these groups can be linked directly from the church website, which gives you church that much more of a face in the community. The more people know about you and your church, the more likely they are to come to you when they need salvation, need help, or they want to serve.

And Facebook Groups are the ideal way for them to make first contact with the church.

How to set up a Facebook Group for your church

Step 1: Make the topic broader than just about “the church”.
The last thing we want to do is have this simply be about the building. We want this to be your thing. So my recommendation before doing this is to pray, and see if this is something God is leading you to do, and then ask for direction from God, and if needs be, church leadership.

The group should be highly topical, with the caveat that the subjects MUST be actionable. For instance, just making a group about abortion isn’t going to get very far. Your audience already agrees with you. However, a group which is dedicated to raising money to help unwed mothers pay for carrying the baby to term – now that’s a movement that people can get behind.

You could start a prayer chain, and invite the church members to join.

Or maybe your group should be about coming up with ideas to reach out to the community. Advise everyone that they’ll be putting some of the best ideas to use next week, month, etc.

Are you getting the idea yet? Make your group’s topic actionable. You can have a group dedicated to the church itself, but my advice is to use the same formula as above: i.e. actionable subject material. Make it about a need in the church, financial or otherwise. Maybe you start a group dedicated to raising money for the deacons fund, or combating pornography addiction inside the church’s walls. Remember make sure the topic is about an actionable need in the church.

Step 2: In the Description be specific, not only about the Groups agenda, but about the Church, as well
When setting up the church group, in the description, near the end put the churches location and denomination, subtype etc., For instance my church would be: Perrow Evangelical Presbyterian is a charismatic church which serves the Greater Charleston WV area, from Cross Lanes WV.

The reason for this is purely for search reasons. Facebook pages tend to rank very well in Search Engines like Google and Yahoo. So the hope is that anyone who searches Google for Evangelical or Charismatic Church in Charleston WV may find us. Anyone who searches those terms within Facebook will definitely find us.

Finally, Facebook does a good job of hiding the Groups setup. It’s located here:

At the top right, just left of the search bar click Settings > Applications > Groups (which is about midway down the page) > and then click the “Create New Group” tab at the mid-top-right of the page.

Beyond that I would just let the creative juices flow. If you have an idea go with it. If you don’t, do not force the issue. Let the spirit lead you, and you and your church will be rewarded. Anyway, that’s my two coppers.

God bless you guys!

P.S.

If you would be more interested in learning how to grow your church through social media click here.