Social Media and Ministry

Bethel University & Converge 2012 Biennial

Peggy Kendall, Bethel University& Mark Kraakevik, The EDGE Church, Colorado

Session Overview

• Survey results• Creating a social media fit• New ideas to try out

Survey Results

• Survey Purpose• Online survey January,

2012• 103 churches

(56 Converge churches)

Church Size

0-250 250-500 500-1,000 1000-5000 Over 50000

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

# of churches that fit each category

Church Place

Rural & Small Town30%

Suburban50%

Urban20%

% of Churches in Each Place

Primary Type of Attenders

Children & Youth6%

Young Adults10%

Middle Age56%

Seniors29%

# of Churches Identifying Their Primary Age Group

Use of Social Media

Sr. Pastor Facebook

Church Facebook

Twitter Blog E-Mail Blast

Private SM Platform

0

20

40

60

80

100

% of Churches That Use Regularly

Perceived Effectiveness of Social Media

Sr. Pastor Facebook

Church Facebook

Twitter Blog E-Mail Blasts

Private Platform

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5

5-pt Likert Type Scale:

Facebook Pages

• Person or Organization?

• Large Organization or Smaller Ministries?

• Relationship Building or Marketing?

Sr Pastor Facebook

• Relevance

• Accessible

• “Having our Senior Pastor have a Facebook page, he is able to share not only sermon topics, scripture verses and visions for our church, but he is able to be a "regular" guy by sharing his heart about his wife, his children, sporting events, travels.”

• Uses

• “He only uses it to wish people ‘happy birthday.’“

• Boundaries

• “This is her social page. Not any church related stuff there”

Church Facebook Page

0 to 4 (0-1/

week)

5 to 12 (2-3/

week)

13-20 (4-5/

week)

21-30 (almost every day)

31-10005

1015

About how many times per month does a staff person or volunteer post something on the church's Faceb...

Church Facebook Page• Traffic Success: “All generations in our church tend to benefit …

that it doesn't work as a singular method of communication.”

• Traffic Failure: “We have had some response to questions asked or people responding to events we have posted but traffic is not as high as we would like.”

• Management Problems: “Poor management, do not have a person who has taken on responsibility for this as a passion”

• Uses: “We post about large events as reminders, and add some photos from events.”

• Uses: “80% of those who "like" our churches facebook page are former attenders who have moved away but would love to stay in touch with our church.”

Twitter• Average use: 1 time a day

• Least effective of surveyed tools

• Management: “Twitter is a quick, concise way to say much. We have some of our pastors who pre-select tweets and then schedule those tweets to be posted through the day or week.”

• Audience: “95% of our twitter followers are other ministry professionals, non-profits, or twitter bots. Very few of our congregation members have twitter, use twitter, etc.”

• Uses: “Not much interaction.”

• Uses: “Twitter is used primarily as a push to our blogs or website.”

Blogs

• Average 1 new blog per week (some churches 1 per month and a few 30-40 times per month)

• Uses: “Encouragement and for further input on sermons. Not a whole lot of response on the blog”

• Uses: “We post blog posts on certain seasons in the church calendar (i.e advent, lent).”

• Management: “The lead individual provides the most posts and then others with blogs share as well”

Mass E-Mails• Usually once per week

• Perceived as most effective social media tool

• Reach: “Only about 3 families do not have an email account, so it is a great form of communication for our church.”

• Uses: “We send out a weekly Friday email with announcements. Special events, or registrations also are sent out in their own email. The pastor sends out emails to the congregation related to prayer or special events about twice a month.”

• Problems: “They're effective for quickly getting out a mass message, but email also greatly contributes to the noise, and when too many different people/ministry areas use it, can muddy the message and clarity of our communications.”

Specialized Social Media Platforms

• “The Table Project” or “The City”

• Provides a private area for congregational prayer and service requests

Marketing Preferences

Sr Pastor Facebook Page

Church Facebook Page

E-Mail Blast

Text-Messaging

Website

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

If your church was going to promote an event, which would be the primary social media tool used?

Other Social Media• YELP!, Four Square• Text-messaging• Text-polling• QR codes• YouTube• E-Mail PrayerNET

Interesting Findings1. Blogs:

the more children in the congregation, the less effective the blogs are perceived to be; the older the congregation, the more effective

2. Church Facebook: the more young adults, the greater the likelihood that the church will have a church Facebook page

3. “Social” media: the more young adults, the more the church uses social media in a 2-way fashion; the more middle aged adults, the more 1-way messages are used

4. No effect based on size or location of church

What Works?– Announcements– Prayer Requests– Sermon follow-up– Stories – Build capital campaign momentum– Videos of worship songs, sermons & marketing

campaigns– Volunteer opportunities– Event follow-up with pictures– Follow-up connections w/ non-Christians (as a

result of questions or comments)

What are Problems With Social Media?

• Can’t use just one• Misunderstandings can happen easily• Some people are more private than others• Technical problems & mismatch with adoption levels• Inactivity and lack of monitoring• Inappropriate comments• Inappropriate self-disclosure (especially prayer

requests)• Time

Advice• Target your audience and speak to each audience

differently• Consistency & branding• You need a champion• Don’t be discouraged by silence• Proofread• Keep it short• Use the tools to build relationships• “Just Try it!”

TENSIONS

Tensions

• Marketing vs. Relationship building

• F2F vs. Virtual• Authority vs

Collaboration• Church vs. Everywhere• Pastor vs Friend

Tensions: What is your goal?Marketing vs.

Relationship Building• Media• “Social” Media• Web 1.0 or 2.0?–1-Way or 2-Way–Static or Fluid–Text-based or Visual

Tensions: How do we connect?F2F vs. Virtual

Conversations• What do we lose?• What do we gain?– Accessibility– Control– Momentum

• Ministry– Information gathering– Reverent affirmation– Conversations

Tensions: Who is in charge?Authority vs

Collaboration• Changing View of Authority• 2-way communication=loss

of control• Problems– Many voices– Loud voices

• Opportunities– Buy-in– Meeting needs

Tensions: Where is ministry?Church vs. Everywhere• Changing Role of Place– Community– Here & now– Mobile technology

• Problems for everywhere– Less committed– Community building– Boundaries of work and

home

• Opportunities– People see in– Integrates life

Tensions: Who am I?

Pastor vs Facebook Friend• The great equalizing

effect• Opportunities– Humanize– Starting point

• Problems– Boundaries– Respect

Strategy

• Who is your audience?• What media are they using?• What is your goal?• How virtual do you want to

get?• How much control do you

want to give up?• Where is your ministry

located?• How much do you want to

share?

Basic Social Media Tools

ResourcesSocial Media Ministry:– Click to Save; Tweet if you Love Jesus (both by

Elizabeth Drescher)

Social Media Marketing:– Church Marketing Sucks.com– Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies

Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz– Groundswell by Li & Bernoff

Misc. Good Books:– Reboot: Refreshing Your Faith by Peggy Kendall