Blog | How to Nail Content for Your Church’s Social Media
How to Nail Content for Your Church’s Social Media
Social media has become a powerful tool for churches to connect with their congregations and reach the wider community. Most churches, however, don’t use social media to its full potential. What if, instead of just using your social platforms to share updates and post event flyers, you could actively deepen your community, reach new people who need encouragement, and share God’s truth and love?
Creating an impactful content strategy for your church that you can actually follow through on isn’t as complicated as it may sound. In this blog post, we’ll lead you through some actionable steps for developing your voice and tone, identifying your content pillars, and creating a posting schedule that helps you use your social platform to further your church’s vision.
Find Your Voice
Your voice is the unique way your church expresses itself through written communication. A consistent voice helps you connect with and become recognizable with the people you’re trying to serve.
To find your voice, take some time to understand your identity and your audience.
Identity:
Audience:
In a digital world filled with noise, authenticity stands out. Your voice should reflect the genuine beliefs and personality of your church community. Whether it’s through inspirational messages, personal stories, or moments of reflection, authenticity fosters deeper connections with your audience.
While voice can seem like an ambiguous concept, it’s actually a measurable aspect of your identity. Identify 3 – 5 voice keywords you can use to describe your voice— maybe you are compassionate, approachable, and lighthearted. Maybe you are bold, irreverent, and inspiring. Use these words to guide your writing in every caption you create. As you continue to hone in on your voice, consider how punctuation, the words you use again and again (or the words you choose to avoid), and the rhythm of your writing helps to reinforce those keywords and bring your church’s personality to life.
Identify Your Content Pillars
Content pillars are the core themes and categories around which you can build your social media content strategy. They serve as guiding principles that help you make sure you stay consistent, relevant, and effective in your message. Content pillars not only provide structure and direction, but they help you stay consistent, relevant, and effective in communicating your message.
Like finding your voice, to identify your content pillars, refer to your church’s identity mission, vision, and values. Consider what things you come back to again and again, even as your teaching series changes throughout the year. What topics are more relevant and important to your congregation? What direction is God calling you to lead in your community?
Some examples:
Community Building, Scripture, and Finding Your Purpose
Practicing Evangelism, Building Spiritual Discipline, and Honoring God in Relationships
Grace, The Teachings of Jesus, and Social Justice
You can examine these pillars through the lens of your current series and different content formats, like congregant testimonies, behind-the-scenes reels, and informational carousels.
Plan Your Content Schedule
The most important part of a successful social media strategy is consistency, so choose a posting frequency that you’re confident you can follow through on.. Anywhere between 2-3 times a week is a great place to aim, but whatever you choose, make sure it’s a schedule that you can sustain consistently.
Once you know how many posts you’ll choose to share each week, you can use this Chat GPT prompt to help you create a content calendar. Just customize it to your church’s voice, vision, and audience and copy and paste it into Chat GPT.
“Acting as my social strategist, please create a 30-day social media content calendar, posting {x} times a week. The focus is on {content type, ie. blog posts, Instagram posts and reels, Facebook posts, etc.} The content should revolve around three central content pillars: {insert your content pillars}.
For each day, please provide:
1. The day number
2. The content pillar it aligns with, rotating through the three pillars.
3. The content type, alternating between “Scripture,” “Inspirational Quote,” “Personal Testimony,” and “Teaching Point.” {Feel free to edit these content types as you see fit}
4. A compelling hook for each post. The hook should be a short, engaging sentence designed to grab the audience’s attention immediately. For example, “Is fear keeping you from God’s calling on your life?” or “What if we told you miracles are already happening all around you?”
5. A “How-To” section for each post. This should provide more detailed information on what my community will learn in the post.
The goal is to create a balanced and engaging mix of content that aligns with my church’s vision of {insert your vision statement}, targeting {insert a description of your congregation, including stage of life, regional demographics, and where they are in their faith journey}. The content should be {insert brand voice keywords}, suitable for a social media audience seeking {what your congregation most needs in this season of life}. Please give me the information in a grid.”
This prompt isn’t designed to create all of your content for you, it will hopefully give you a place to start, making the ideation process a bit easier.
While social media is far from the most important thing on your to-do list, it can be a great tool for creating, growing, and nurturing the community you’ve been entrusted to lead. We hope that these tips can help you use your social platforms to the fullest and create a presence that’s encouraging to your audience and helps you further your church’s vision in your community.
About the Author
Emma Tarp is a writer and worship leader based in Minneapolis, MN. On her best days, she's highlighter-deep in a good book or teaching herself to sew. On her other best days, she's helping passionate folks and inspired businesses put words to their work. Find out more at emmatarp.com.