Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Digital Strategy

Or in digital terms: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s digital strategy.

It’s so easy to look at churches A, B, and C to see what a great job they are doing!  The content is engaging, the photos are high quality, they have all the right hashtags, everything is perfect.  

You start to look at your own work and downplay what you have done and the level of skill you have.  You even go so far as completely shifting your strategy to mimic what they have. But the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.  The truth is the other side is probably totally different. Although we are ONE body – we are made up of multiple parts that function differently – including church congregations.

The other side may have a full team of designers and content creators that work tirelessly to create such compelling work.  The other side may also have a different audience that has specific content that resonates with them. So what do you do? I’ll leave you with a few things I’ve learned from social media:

1. Set goals – What do you want your social media to be? What’s the overall goal? Set a goal and focus on hitting it, but don’t be afraid to evolve it. 
2. Focus on your metrics – You don’t have other churches’ metrics. You only have your own, so focus there and build a strategy.
3. Create engaging content – Pay attention to the likes, shares, and comments.  Your followers tell you exactly what they want. Don’t be stagnate, just pay attention and proceed accordingly.
4. Repeat!