Here is a short list of 12 ways that your church can improve their Facebook page, from our friends over at StartupCatholic.
12 Ways To Improve A Parish Facebook Page in 2018
1. Display your Mass and Confession times. The ‘About’ section or ‘Our Story’ would be the best places for this so it is easy to find. During holidays and holy days, ‘pin’ this information to the top of your page.
2. Develop a regular posting schedule. This should be a daily strategy, in real-time, but may also include scheduling future posts.
3. Establish a small Social Media Team that includes: an assigned page manager, competent content creators/editors, and photographer(s). One person should be in charge – only one person – who is directly responsible to the Pastor. There should be multiple, trusted contributors from the parish.
4. Find/share good catechetical content from your local Diocese and from dynamic Catholic speakers and organizations. You can find a lot of good content, even beyond Bishop Robert Barron​ (whom we love!).
5. Make sure your page’s profile picture is the parish’s logo and the cover photo is a HQ image that displays an aspect of parish life. Change your cover image seasonally (at the very least).
6. Use Facebook Live to cover significant events and/or homilies, parish presentations, holy hours, concerts, and so-on.
7. Purchase Facebook Ads and assign them to the people who live in your community. This is paid advertising, which effectively helps promote whatever you choose, such as upcoming events or an invitation video. This is the fastest way to connect online with the most amount of people in your town.
8. Respond to private messages immediately (or set up a friendly, concise autoresponder message).
9. Upload all future videos directly into Facebook, rather than sharing YouTube videos. Facebook buries content from other platforms.
10. Record/promote a short parish welcome video, made by the Pastor, and promote it. Throughout the year, this can be done by other selected staff members or parishioners.
11. General Rules: Less Text, More Graphics. Never Clipart.
12. Use the power of the pulpit to ask parishioners to ‘Like and Share’ the parish Facebook page, and, in homilies/announcements, refer to content that can be seen on the Facebook page.
You can choose a weekend to promote the Facebook page at all of the Masses that coincides with the release of the Pastor’s welcome video. September is a great month for this.
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Have we missed anything? Let us know in the comments!
