
One Powerful & Effective Way Your Church Should Use Facebook
My church has had a Facebook page now for at least four years (probably many more). In the last year the Facebook community has grown from thirteen thousand to sixty-two thousand.
As the community has grown the engagement has also increased. The audience is also more global. A question that has been uppermost on my mind has been how to create meaningful engagement across such diverse languages and cultures.
One post that has been especially powerful and effective in terms of engagement has been asking if anyone has a prayer need. It’s been powerful because it has met a genuine need and has created a real sense of connection. What has also greatly increased is the number of ongoing prayer requests via direct messages.
It has also been powerful because of the high number of commenting and engagement means that it also spread beyond the existing audience to people who have never connected with my church before.
With Facebook now hiding posts after a certain amount of time and level of engagement I highly recommend you boost the post for 24 hours so that you give your audience time to see it. It doesn’t cost much and you meet a genuine need. Below is a peek behind the curtain to see the reach and engagement.
My big takeaway from this kind of post is that when you authentically minister to people, you will reach more people.
[Tweet “When you authentically minister to people, you will reach more people.”]
If you are looking for some more inspiration and direction check out these 21 social media tips.
Your Turn
Have you seen any posts that are both highly engaging and meet an actual need? Do you have questions about Facebook strategy or posts? I’d love to hear from you.
Hi Steve,
How do you ensure each request is prayed for? That is, what is the back end of the process? Is there a team?
Adrian
I pray for each and every one of them Adrian. It’s my pleasure and my job.
I also pass their prayer requests onto our prayer team if they are okay with it.
Great post, I was thinking about a “how can we pray for you today page” but this will work just as well and keeps the engagement up on our page. Thanks for the tip.
Nice post Steve. One prompt within this type of post that I have started to include is a CTAndor others to LIKE a prayer request comment when they pray for it. As well as prompts for peer-to-peer encouragement in commenting.
Love your leadership in sharing best practices with the community.
Kenny
Thanks Kenny!
Thanks for the tip! I’ve directed requests to FB or through our mobile app. We have a team of intercessors receiving those requests.