Ben Franklin’s quote: “Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail,” can be applied to many areas of life, but it rings so true in successfully managing social media. It’s hard to determine what works for your church and who you’re reaching if you’re not planning content ahead of time and going to analyze how it’s performing. It can be a hard task, especially for those who have a million (okay, probably not that many, even though it may feel like it sometimes) other things they’re responsible for. To help streamline your social media planning, here are three of our most useful tips!
Get Organized
Organization comes easy to some, and others have to work a little harder at it. But, learning to organize your content, captions, and socials will help you BIG TIME! Figure out who your target audience is. If you have been running a page for a while, look at your analytics. Determine what has worked and was hasn’t. Once you determine who your targeting, think about what kind of content they want to see. Seek out others who are doing it well to use for some inspiration.
Create Your Content
You’ve organized all your stats, you’ve got a plan, now it’s time to create your content. Some people can sit down and create content for two or three months at a time, while others only have the capacity to do two weeks at a time. Figure out what works for you, as long as you’re planning ahead. You have to start somewhere, after all. Tools like Canva are great for creating graphics from templates. You can even check out some cool Canva hacks here. Maybe you’re looking for something a little more…..well done. You can check out graphic subscription services that have pre-made and customizable graphics along with captions. One of our favorites is SundaySocial. The benefit of going with a subscription service is the minimal time it takes to download the graphic and caption and plug it into your calendar, which is a HUGE help if you’re running short on time.
Schedule Your Posts
You’ve done the hard part, now plug your posts into a scheduler, and you’re done! There are so many different schedulers out there, including Facebook and Instagram Creator Studio. However, it’s hard to get a general overview when using different schedulers for different platforms. We love Outreach Digitals’ newest release of their social media scheduler. I have been using it for a few weeks, and it is so simple. With four clicks, I can have a week or month scheduled with graphics I upload or premade graphics from their library of over 3,000. They have a free 14-day free trial, and if you’re looking to streamline your scheduling process, you should give Outreach Digital a try.
Conclusion
It may feel overwhelming, starting with social media. It’s important to remember that social media isn’t just a billboard for your church advertisements. It’s a way to connect, engage, evangelize, and build relationships with people. Like most pastors don’t get up and wing their Sunday morning sermon, we shouldn’t be winging our social media. There are so many resources to help streamline the process to save you time while still reaching people with the Gospel. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see immediate results. Everyone has to start somewhere.
