We are a little over 3 months into 2017 and there are new features being rolled out almost weekly. Let’s see what we expect might happen in 2017…
1. More emphasis on engagement – David Clark
What we experienced back in the early days of social media was that you posted something, and that’s it. It isn’t like that anymore—Especially when you want to see growth and community being built. Your credibility in your social space is based on your engagement. The very least we should be doing is responding to the people that comment. We should really be going further – following people back, liking their photos, commenting on them, etc. It’s not enough to respond to the things on your pages only. Engagement is huge and it takes very little skill – just a lot of time. You can easily train a trusted volunteer, especially during busy season or on weekends. It’s easy to hand off some of those responsibilities to volunteers. There is no excuse to ignore it all together and just be posting content.
2. The amounts of quality content will grow – Jacek
We are in the middle of a massive fight for our attention. If we want the voice of our churches to be heard on social media we will have to produce more content whether we like it or not. The times of posting anything are long gone. Those who produce more will win. Still, we can easily turn this trend to our success with the amount of content our churches create each week. And I don’t only mean Sundays, that’s obvious. We can win big if we learn how to utilize user-generated content to work in our favor.
3. Video is where we are headed – David
The more video I see and the more success I see with it, the more I believe this to be true. I see brands using video so smartly on social media. And there are so many opportunities and such a need to take more video to our church’s social channels.
4. You have to be live – Jacek
Not long ago so many churches went crazy about live streaming. While it is totally understandable many have not noticed that there isn’t as much of a need to spend thousands of dollars for gear to live stream. Almost all major social networks go live now. We understand that Facebook and Instagram encourage live big time (have you really missed the notifications about someone going live?), so we need to be there and be there live.
5. Build a great volunteer team – David
Whether you are a church of 40 or 400 or 4000, there’s a lot to do on social media. And it’s not something you would just give anyone the keys to. Still, the more people I talk to and the more people I see doing church social media successfully, they are not doing it alone. They aren’t the only one who are posting and commenting and liking. They have built a team of people who help with those responsibilities.
Find out more and connect with David Clark
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