Facebook has now passed 350 million users. That means there are probably thousands of people in your community on Facebook. If you want to reach out Facebook has become a great way to connect.
There are a lot of advantages to Facebook but for this post I’m only going to be discussing how your church can use it to connect with the community.
There are three types of pages: individual, group, and Fan Club pages. Most experts that I read recommend that you set up a Fan Club. I’ve included a link on how to set up a page.
Once you have the account set up you have two things left:
- Get members
- Write content that is relevant to your prospective audience
To get members start with your current church members and ask them to spread the word through their friends. If you have 100 members and they average 200 friends then you can potentially reach 20,000 people. If ten percent find your content relevant and recommend you to their friends: 2,000 people with 200 friends each = 400,000 people. You can see how this has the potential to grow.
The next question is what to write about? To answer that we have to remember what our goal is: to reach out and connect with your community. Two types of message work best. The first is updates about what is going on at the church: Christmas events, Children’s events, special services, new Bible study, etc. The second message is a devotion or inspirational message. Between these two types of messages you will let people know about what is going on at the church and also start reaching them on a deeper level. Make sure you allow your personality to come through. People want to connect with people they like.
Another question that is often asked is how often to post? The answer depends on the size of your church and the number of other people who can log in and post. If you post to much people will get tired of hearing from you and to little and they’ll not remember who you are. It seems to me that one to seven times a week is enough to build relationships. You can either post on your wall or send an email out to everyone. Devotions are probably better sent by email, but shorter ones can be posted on your wall.
Consider doing something special for Christmas, Lent or other major events. Again make sure you ask members to repost the messages.
If you do this you should find your Facebook group and your church growing.
I am an older pastor on a staff with many younger who of course are advocates of using facebook. At the risk of sounding like the “old” guy who isn’t willing to try out new ideas and concepts for ministry I argue that I am probably more progressive than most over 40. However, facebook concerns me in that the public interraction with others can easily be misunderstood, or someone could offend even without intention, and the whole facebook membership would be witnessing this event would it not? And is it possible for others to infect a virus to all …. and what about someone who may have personal information or online information that they do not wish others to be aware of…. I admit to a great deal of ignorance, but I do know that new innovations like “my space” as not been without problems. I do not want to lead our folks into what could become a very messy, and negative experience.
I use and currently prefer email for most of distributing information or means of contact.
Carl: There are concerns and I’d like to address them here.
First Facebook does a pretty good job policing comments and whoever are the administrators of your facebook page can also control content and ban anyone who is causing trouble. (Online excommunication if you will).
I am not aware of a facebook account being infected with a virus. It is more likely that your password will be stolen.
A more conservative way to start a facebook page for your church might be to set up a “facebook group.” It has many of the “fanpage” advantages but is not open to the public and you must approve the people who join. This advantage is also a drawback because your church’s facebook page will not be picked up in the search engines.
I think the potential advantages of facebook outweigh the potential drawbacks.