The Sixth Step of the Church Social Media Framework: Putting it All Together

In this episode Nick Recaps each step of the Church Social Media Framework for 2023, and he puts it all together. Get your notebooks out (or head to the transcripts) to take notes as we go quickly through all areas and social channels and lay out a church social media and marketing strategy.

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Transcripts: http://www.hybridministry.xyz/040

SHOWNOTES
//TRAILER
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//YOUTUBE
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/035
//TIKTOK
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/036
//FACEBOOK
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/037
//INSTAGRAM
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/038
//EMAIL, TEXT & WEBSITE
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COMPLETE YOUTUBE PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YCREabCjGg&list=PLngXlSr64YaIbzg_DNJrTrCtBHQnxcOVo&index=1

NUCLEUS WEBSITE BUILDER:
https://www.nucleus.church

TIMECODES
00:00-02:24 Intro
02:24-06:08 Becoming All Things to All People on Social and Digital Media
06:08-08:36 Step #1: A Good Church Website
08:36-11:08 Step #1 after the Website: YouTube
11:08-17:53 The Full Weekly Social Media Strategy
17:53-20:10 Better Weekly Church Emails
20:10-21:59 Outro and Final Encouragements

TRANSCRIPT
Nick Clason (00:00):
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hybrid Ministry Show. My name is Nick Clason. I am going to be your host. And in this episode we are taking the last, uh, several episodes where we talked through YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, email, text, website. And then we're gonna put it all together and hand you the perfect custom package social media plan for your church here in 2023. Excited to have you with us. As always, wanna let you know that every single episode we provide for you transcripts, you can head over to hybridministry.xyz for this episode. You'll go back slash 0 4 0 for episode 40. Also, we are on YouTube, so go ahead and click the subscribe button over on that. And finally, every little, uh, piece of content I pull out for these episodes, we also post those over on TikTok, so you can follow me, hit all those things up in the show notes and any other links and articles and relevant things that we're going to be talking about.

Nick Clason (01:10):
I will also drop in the podcast episode show notes. Again, you can find all of that, um, just in your podcast catcher or at hybrid ministry dot x y z. Additionally, in as always, you know the drill, it would be incredibly beneficial and helpful to us if you'd consider giving us a rating or a review, a like or a subscribe on YouTube. All in any of those things, help us just be found, just be seen and get this message of hybrid ministry out to the masses a and to the world. And so if that's something that you have the time or are willing or able to do, we would greatly, greatly appreciate it. And as a thank you, we want to offer you a 100% completely free ebook. The title of the ebook is, have I already Ruined My Church's TikTok account? How to Post a TikTok from Scratch, starting at the very beginning from A to Z.

Nick Clason (02:00):
You can head to the show notes for a link to the ebook as well. Um, and what will come along with that is when you sign up, you'll also get a bonus throw in of the social media checklist. Everything you need to do every time you post to every single social media platform. Once again, so glad that you're with us. Let's go ahead and dive in and put all of the last several episodes together. Well, everyone, if you are just diving in, you, what you're doing is you are catching us at the sixth episode of the sixth Part Church Social Media Framework for Churches in 2023. And what we've done is we've parsed through each individual's social media platform as well as spent some time on website, email, and text. And so really we had four, and then we had an additional three that we package into one episode that was in the most recent episode.

Nick Clason (02:50):
And then in this episode, we're gonna take all of those facets, all of those pieces, and we're going to put them all back together. So, uh, just as a reminder, all the way back at the very beginning of this episode in the trailer, um, I'll drop a link to those in the show notes. But we started with and talked about YouTube and if you've listened to any of these episodes or even just maybe a few of them, you are probably in the boat, probably one or two camps, one, wow, good information. Thank you. No way on the earth I would have time to do any of that. And I get it right, like it's a lot. It can feel overwhelming and definitely if you have none of it started starting and launching, some of these things will feel potentially overwhelming. The other camp is you're ready to take the hill.

Nick Clason (03:36):
You're like, let's go. I'm all in. I believe in this stuff. I think we do need to lean more into the hybrid space and reach more people where they are. And whatever the camp you're in, let me just remind you that one of the things we talked about in the very, very, very first episode is that the apostle Paul reminds us and says that he became all things to all people. And in that way, we're gonna do that. And I'm not saying that we're gonna bend to culture and go, you know, the wayward ways of the world, but we are going to find the places that our people are and we're going to intersect and enter into their life, um, with the places that they're finding themselves. And so a majority of people are spending time on phones, on social media, and, and, you know, this is how they are living their lives.

Nick Clason (04:22):
Like less and less people are sitting down, uh, to browse a computer to find information about churches, websites, whatever, whatnot. But what they are doing is they are navigating, scrolling and spending majority of time on social media. Now, every demographic is a little bit different. You know, gen Xers, boomers might be spending more time on Facebook where millennials might be spending more time on Instagram. Gen Z and Jen Alpha are finding themselves on things like TikTok can be real. The fact of the matter is like we have this unique moment in history and time on social media where all of the platforms are in an alignment of what they want, short form, vertical video based content. And this is how we can provide that, and we can put that together on a social media strategy for our churches. So before you give up, before you let go, this is the why behind the, what all these reasons is.

Nick Clason (05:19):
We wanna show up in some of the most meaningful places of people's lives. And not because we think that like, you know, someone stumbles across a short 32nd TikTok that they're gonna like repent and give their life to Christ. But we're building a rapport, we're building a relationship. We're showing up regularly in the places that they also are finding their time to show up. And that's what the Apostle Paul, that's what missionaries, that's what pastors would do. So how can we, how can you position yourself and leverage yourself as a church to show up in a spot where you can help build trust and build rapport with people so that yeah, one, you are building a relationship, eventually down the line, they do make a decision, make a commitment, and become a more committed and devoted follower of Christ. So step number one, the first thing that you're gonna want to do is you're gonna want to have a good church website.

Nick Clason (06:16):
Your website is sort of the backdrop and the, or the backstop you, if you will, of all of your social media platforms. For any of you who are baseball fans, you know that behind every, uh, catcher, um, there's a backstop. And so a pitcher throws and if the ball goes too far behind them, the ball gets stopped by what is called the backstop. And you can, you're gonna kinda want that as your website. It's also gonna sort of be your kind of home base. I'm very into baseball analogies this morning, apparently went to a baseball game last night. Uh, nonetheless, you want these things to sort of be your place where people can know, um, where they can always turn to. And so all of your social links should be able to go out from your websites as well as if you ever need to just embed a video or a resource or something like that, you need to have a website that is mobile friendly.

Nick Clason (07:08):
Um, and that is also, you know, probably, let's be honest, even mobile first one that feels familiar to people, one that looks like other, um, websites that they're spending their time on. And so if you don't have a website yet, odds are you probably do hone that in a little bit. Um, get that built out so that it's a little bit more user friendly. Um, and begin to think about how can you create even like blogs or resources or other additional pieces of content that can go with and supplement some of the other social media things that we are gonna be talking about. My all-time favorite website builder is from Nucleus. The guys up in Canada, pro Church tools, Brady Shearer and those guys. Phenomenal website builders. So easy. So user friendly and built four churches and four pastors. And you don't need a lot of like website information.

Nick Clason (07:59):
Know how knowledge to pull one of those off. So if you, um, are thinking about starting one or you're like a side ministry youth pastor and you have the go ahead from your senior pastor or communications team to build some sort of like additional website, this can be a great one. Stop shop. It also, excuse me, it also has podcast like functionality, sermon, um, upload places where you can link YouTube videos, all those types of things. So let your website kind of be your first stop, your first shop on, um, creating a backstop and creating a home base for everything else that we're about to talk about.

Nick Clason (08:38):
All right, so what about, uh, what, what's the first step then? All right, so the first step I would say and I would recommend is that we make it YouTube begin recording and putting up long form YouTube videos of your content, of your sermons from the weekend. And if you, um, did not go back and have not listened to the YouTube episode, uh, one of the things that I have been recommending, and one of the things that we have been doing in my own church in my own context is we don't have the framework and the infrastructure to like live stream our student ministry services. And so instead of, uh, buying cameras and hooking it up to the soundboard and just posting a video of me or anyone else on our team teaching, we are actually sitting down in front of a camera, much like I'm doing right now and just pre-filing our message, talk our message content that allows us to craft it and hone it specifically for YouTube, make it better YouTube length, create YouTube hooks.

Nick Clason (09:40):
I can do some post-production editing type stuff, but then that also gives me like video clips that I can use later, oh, excuse me, that I can use later on down the road in and for social media. And so starting with YouTube as your spot, the other reason why that's important is because as we go, we're going to incorporate and use TikTok, Instagram reels, Facebook reels, and YouTube shorts. We're going to use all of those things. And if we're posting little, little snippets of, of the sermon of the message at the end of it, you can just have a ender screen that says, watch the full video on YouTube. And so when you do post something that goes viral or, or is seen by more people than just those who are following you or your church, what you can do is you can be pushing them to a longer form piece of content.

Nick Clason (10:30):
It's pushing them down that funnel, you're building a relationship with them and maybe they see a few of your messages, 1, 2, 3, of just the little clips until finally they're like, maybe I do wanna hear this message. Maybe there is something interesting and enticing that's gonna want me to click and hear the full version of this message. And so that's why I recommend starting with YouTube, starting with filming your messages and getting them posted up there, PA pr, use all the YouTube practices, use good thumbnails, use good titling, put 'em in playlists, use SEO related things, and all of that information is available for you and to you. In the YouTube episode that we talked about, Facebook reels, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, and TikTok, I would recommend posting anywhere from 10 to 15 pieces of short form content per week. That is on average two to three pieces of content per day when you're in the growth phase.

Nick Clason (11:28):
If you're not in a phase where you're looking to grow and get a lot of awareness and people seeing you, um, then you still wanna try and remain consistent and you can maybe back that down to just one per day. Um, but what I would recommend is that you can, like I said, use the clips from your YouTube teaching video pre-filed and put them on your TikTok and Instagram reels account. I would also then aim, uh, to use things like trending sounds, trending hashtags, uh, templates that you see in cap cut. You know, the more time that you spend on TikTok personally, you're gonna know these things. And if you're like, well, that's not me, that's okay. Um, I would, I would beg you and recommend that you reach out and find someone in your church who's Gen Z, who's younger or who's a teenager, um, and who might have some ideas of things that you could do.

Nick Clason (12:18):
But keep in mind that the trends, they are quick. I mean, I remember at one point, um, I bookmarked one on like a Thursday and I came back around on Monday and it wasn't a thing really anymore. So you kind of just gotta jump on it and post it when it's available and ready to do that. So don't miss out on those. Hop onto those. And some of those things are, are the things that are gonna help you get discovered the most by outside people because it's, it's a popular thing in the moment. And so TikTok is pushing those pieces of content and you'll know the ones that are trending when like you get on TikTok yourself or Instagram or whatever, and you see it 2, 3, 4, 5 times in like one sitting, one stint. You know, it, it's just one of those things that like, it just keeps recurring.

Nick Clason (13:03):
You're like, okay, how can I use this? And if you go back even before the six part church social media framework, we did an episode on YouTube trends. And one of the things that they found was that they said, uh, consumers, um, are looking for content creators who are going to post like mem ified content or they're going to make jokes about like certain things in pop culture or whatever. So that is a thing that is both culturally relevant and I think it also can work for your churches. And so if you are using, um, TikTok, any of those things, think of it less of like a mini sermon posting platform and more of like a meme, a funny account like that. That's really why people are getting on those apps. They're getting on those apps to be entertained. What about Instagram? So Instagram that everything I just said, that's your Instagram reels strategy, however, there's more to do on Instagram.

Nick Clason (14:00):
So, um, what I'll do is, um, and I laid this out in the Instagram, uh, podcast, but on on your feed, if you hired me and you're asking me to like, uh, consult your church, this is what I would propose. I would propose a me Monday, 10 memes, curate them all throughout the week and then post your 10 best memes in a carousel post. I would recommend a TikTok Tuesday where you post one of your tos also to the feed. I would do a Wednesday night recap of what's going on in your church. So maybe like a carousel post of all the ministries that are meeting that night. Uh, if not, like I'm a youth pastor, so our main kind of night is Wednesday anchors us. And so I would do, um, if I don't have the ability to do photos, I would just do like a recap post.

Nick Clason (14:45):
Um, on Thursday I would do some sort of like recap from your message. Uh, on the week on Friday I would do a photo dump of like, uh, a week in the life of my church. And then Saturday I would do either a sermon quote post or an invite back to church Sunday post. And if you don't wanna post Sunday, uh, then save that quote post for Sunday and do a, use the like Saturday invite to church post. There's a seven day posting strategy on your Instagram feed on stories. Uh, I would also focus on engaging heavily in your stories with your people. That's sort of the spot to kind of go back and forth and that's where your actual followers are going to be engaging and interacting with you. Um, and so you can take any of the other like Instagram real content that you've been posting that didn't also post to the theater that maybe didn't do as well.

Nick Clason (15:32):
And you can also share those to your, uh, Instagram stories. And then you can use things like slider tools, question tools, true or false tools, poll tools, uh, question stickers and engage with your audience in that way. And so you can use the content you're already using and just repurpose it and push it out for stories. Other fun story ideas beyond reels are things like you can do like hot takes, like hot take oatmeal, oatmeal, um, raisin cookies are the best cookie. And put a little slider thing with like the fire emoji. Are they gonna slide it all the way down cuz they don't agree or all the way up cuz they do agree. You can do, uh, sermon recap quizzes or um, like total recall things like, I love things where you watch, have 'em watch a little clip and then you ask 'em a question about the clip they just watched.

Nick Clason (16:19):
Uh, you can do things like polls, you can do things like games. Um, take any game that you would maybe play on like a screen in your room, uh, especially if you're like youth pastor and you can just adapt it to Instagram. You can also post prayer requests and ask people like, what's going on in your life? How can we be praying for you? Stories have a lot, a lot of potential to help engage with your people one-on-one. So what would I do on Facebook? So like we talked about back in the Facebook episode, you should have a page that's your place where you're gonna be able to start throwing money towards ads if that's something that you're interested in or that you want to do. But I would also have a private group where you can have people. Um, and that's where you can really segment things out.

Nick Clason (16:58):
So parents of students, parents of kids, members of your church. And that's really where I would just spend the majority of your time. And in there I would do a very minimal amount of things. I would, uh, send like a weekly email of some sort. And if you have a good website, you don't need to make your email announcement heavy. You can make your email one story plus one call to action and that's it. And then you can take that good story that's gonna have a little bit more of like a blogy type vibe and you can also post that in your Facebook group with like an image that relates to the email of what's going on. And then I'll just post like one or two other things like, um, share, you know, share, share a photo of your view right now, um, bible emoji quizzes, just fun, quick kind of hitter things that you can post in there.

Nick Clason (17:47):
But then just let the group do its thing. Let the people drive the remainder of the content. I would also recommend sending out an email and a great to do that is Tuesday, it's historically been one of the like email days. They've done all sorts of studies on it. So schedule an email to go out by Tuesday morning at 9:00 AM then that way your people are gonna get used to it in a rhythm of expecting an email from you at the same time. Uh, if your email center gives you the opportunity to schedule it, I would definitely recommend scheduling it. That way you can get a little bit ahead and you don't have to just be chasing your email every single week. Uh, I would also perhaps consider linking some of the current messages in your email or any of the other things you wanna do on social media, any of the things you're trying to do to lean into the hybridization, lean into it and send links to those things in email because what it's gonna do is gonna kind of help create this like circular funnel of like hitting those pieces of content more and more and multiple times.

Nick Clason (18:44):
And the same thing is true with texting. You can send out registration forms, you can send out reminders of things. All those can be linked directly to your website that you have built. Again, that's your backstop. And so now you have this all-inclusive plan from website with socials including YouTube and email and texting and all of that is sort of like your package. Listen to build anything from scratch, it takes work, takes effort, whatever platform you're on, it's gonna also just take consistency. So if it's, um, like in a group text, you can text out your TikTok link, you can stage announce your new YouTube channel, um, and emails. You can invite parents to Jo to jump into your Facebook groups, whatever the case may be. But use the different platforms to help cross promote as you're starting from scratch to help build that base, build that core of those people, um, subscribing and getting on things.

Nick Clason (19:36):
And then a couple different times a year, run a blitz, get it like a big deal of a thing going on. Like right now, for example, I'm gonna date this because this is gonna come out after, but during March Madness we've been doing like a, a serial bracket in our youth ministry where people are voting on serial matchups and um, we've been using our parent email to help push and promote, um, the serial things, you know, going on in our, our ministry. So those can kind of help balance both the in-person and the online. And that's where you really get to see and use that hybrid stuff. Reminder, do not forget that God has placed you strategically where he has placed you. And while all of that slew of things may seem overwhelming, don't forget two things. One, just take one step and two, that's why we have transcripts.

Nick Clason (20:29):
So you can go back and you can parse that out and you can take that a little bit slower. If you were listening at 1.5 or two times speed, go back to the transcript and lay some of those things out. What is your next step if you're, if you've got nothing going, get a website Bill. If you got a website, then go ahead and get a YouTube channel you're not posting regularly. Start pre-filing your content, you know what I mean? Like, just take it one bite, one step at a time. You don't have to have it all done tomorrow. This is just my proposed and my recommended church YouTube strategy. And I think more, what I would say of all things is that at some point churches are gonna have to realize that social media is more than just a side gig or a volunteer role.

Nick Clason (21:12):
It is a full-time effort for somebody to pay attention to, to watch the analytics, to know what's going on. And so good luck to you as you navigate this, as you embrace it. We are always here. Please don't ever hesitate to reach out hybrid ministry.xyz for questions, for comments, for concerns, or follow us on YouTube or TikTok to hit us up in the dm, shoot us a message. However we can help. We wanna remind you that we are here, we want to give you guidance, point you in the right direction, but blessings on you, blessings on your ministry. And as always, never forget to stay hybrid.