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🛠️TOOLS I USE THAT CAN HELP YOU!
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

//BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

//OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Fall is here!
00:14 Time to Finish Strong
03:38 Unboxing the Fall Social Pack
08:58 How to Build your Social Media to Actually last!

--------------
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:05 - 00:00:34:02
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Fall is here. So stop scrambling to post every single Wednesday on your social media because I've already built your social media plan. Just copy paste it. Post it. Welcome to the Hybrid Ministry show. Welcome, everyone, to the Hybrid Ministry show. And today it's finally here. It is launch day this fall. Seasonal social media packs, similar to the summer one that I had running all summer long, is exactly what you need for your youth ministry social media.

00:00:34:03 - 00:01:00:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It is a blend of custom and done for you, content that you can pair together and best of all. If you've been following along in this fall, a masterclass for your kickoff event. If you did The World's Greatest Donut, if you did the bracket, then students are now locked into your social media. That entire playlist is linked right here at the top of the screen or in the show notes down below if you're listening on your podcast.

00:01:00:16 - 00:01:35:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if your students are locked in to your social media now because they've been voting and discovering and determining what the world's greatest donut is in your context and in your student ministry, well, then, now you want to continue to to lean in to what's going on on your social media and like, don't forget that. Like if you also used our welcome box strategy and our magnetic calendar and like they open that box and they scan that QR code in there on your YouTube channel, like students are seeing your content on their algorithm.

00:01:35:01 - 00:01:55:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so therefore you need to keep feeding that algorithm. Unfortunately for social media, you have to continue to keep feeding it in order for it to like be successful. But fortunately for you, I have just created a seasonal three months worth of content so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. All you got to do is download this pack.

00:01:55:22 - 00:02:14:13
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It's less than $20 or better yet, become a Patreon member for $4 a month, which, if you add that up for three months, is $12 and you get the pack for free as a part of your membership and bonus podcast every single Monday morning, you can use that to continue to add to your feed while you're doing that.

00:02:14:13 - 00:02:34:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And the social media pack is taking care of it over here. You get to go over here and deal with all the things that you have to do for fall. You have to start locking in your curriculum, which I would recommend co-leader, by the way, and you can use hybrid ministry ten for 10% off that, or you have to like build your calendar, you have to build your budget, you have to recruit new volunteers.

00:02:34:08 - 00:02:58:05
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, you know, like, you got this thing over here that's gnawing at you. You know, you should do it. You know, it's important. Maybe you don't, but, like, trust me, it's important. And so my pack will help take care of that. It will give you content that you can continue to post and keep that thing active. And the best thing is that when you typically download a pack, it's not very custom to you and your ministry, right?

00:02:58:07 - 00:03:23:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
When you download a pack, more often than not it's a bunch of like static and stock graphics, and we have a few of the like done for you that like, isn't tied to your context or your ministry at all. But we also have a whole section where it will be you or your students or your volunteers, your faces that people know, love and will recognize and that will help make your social media feed feel custom and personal, which is the entire goal.

00:03:23:12 - 00:03:54:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So without any further ado, what I want to do is I want to unbox this a little bit. And so in the next section, let's look at what is included. If you choose to, jump into the full seasonal social media pack. So if you are watching here on YouTube, you are seeing my screen. And so if you download the, fall seasonal social media pack from Patreon, you are going to get a folder that looks like this.

00:03:54:23 - 00:04:16:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so it says start here Hybrid Strategy Guide and then custom for you and then done for you. So in the start here PDF, it just explains what's going on with the seasonal social media pack three months of custom fall related youth ministry, social media. Just as a reminder, Patreon members for four hours a month, you get this package included in your membership.

00:04:16:27 - 00:04:41:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So consider signing up that now up to $48 a year, and you'll get four seasonal social media packs along with a bonus podcast every single Monday morning. But like I said, it's completely either done for you. It's either a section of done for You, which is just download, plug and play or custom for you. It's got some recommendations here of like maybe some microphones that you might want to consider investing in.

00:04:41:12 - 00:04:59:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like this one right here, for example, I just want to point out like this one, I mean, like, oh, here we go. Opened up. This one is 789. So like, it really is very, very like affordable and very, very cheap. Obviously it's not going to be incredibly, you know, high quality, but it will still get the job done.

00:04:59:22 - 00:05:19:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then right here, is your recommended posts per week. Okay. And so you look here, it's like September 1st and you got like your spiritual practice posts, your emoji posts, your Bible trivia posts. Okay. Or if you want to build your own calendar, you can do it down here, in this blank section of the schedule.

00:05:19:29 - 00:05:45:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Furthermore, this right here explains kind of like the strategy that I'm attempting to get you to, to participate in. So, like, why social media? Why vertical video, and all these things. This actually is available as one of the member downloads from but a year ago over on Download Youth Ministry. But I'm just including it here so that you can kind of like see and understand like the strategy and like and what I'm saying here.

00:05:45:11 - 00:06:12:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then let's look at the Dunphy section first. There are five Bible verse real videos. So, here's, you know, a bunch of different, like, verses you can post those super quick, super easy. Here's some like emoji, back to school, kind of like guessing themed, ones that you can post super again, super quick, super easy. Here are some spiritual practice videos Bible memorization, study praise.

00:06:12:27 - 00:06:33:17
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You know, share. You know, pray for a friend. And then, take the next 60s to sit in silence. And then finally, these are like some curso based videos. So, like, what do you do if you're feeling lonely? What do you do if you're feeling sad? And what do you do if you're feeling insecure? So like, those are all very simple.

00:06:33:19 - 00:06:57:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I said, download done for you. And then over here, these are the custom ones. Right? So every single one of the custom folders gives you some instructions how to do it, what to do. These are some Bible trivia, questions. So it's got five different rounds of five different posts that you can do Bible trivia. You can either hop on screen and do it, or better yet, hand it to a student and let them do it.

00:06:57:15 - 00:07:15:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then I also give you some graphics that you can use, to just overlay it, and you can build that in like a cap cut editor or a TikTok editor. And once again, have your students do it. Here are some, like recap or like devotional type videos. They're like, you're going to be your spiritually charged pieces of content.

00:07:16:01 - 00:07:32:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Again, you can hop on camera or you can hit to student and all of these, right? I have five script ideas right here that you can use. And it's got editing notes and all the things like that. If you have like a long form version of your message, you can use link in the description, something like an opus stock pro, to clip that up.

00:07:32:28 - 00:07:50:08
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And you can also just post that and then kind of like skip this little, folder section altogether. These are some men on the street. Would you rather fall based questions? So here's again some instructions on how to do it, what those are. And I created overlays. So all you gotta do is just go around, ask a handful of students using one of those microphones that you bought.

00:07:50:11 - 00:08:10:07
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Would you rather wear an itchy sweater or continually have leaves in your pocket? Would you rather be lost in a corn maze or smashed your perfectly carved pumpkin? Would you rather have, to eat leftovers for a month or risk every lawn in your neighborhood? Right. And so you see how like, those, those are great. And then finally, here are some transition invites, our videos.

00:08:10:07 - 00:08:39:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So I give you the beginning of a video and then you overlay that right here and like, boom, you have one of your students pop in and, they say, hey, you should come to youth group, like, Wednesday night. What time? All that type of stuff. And I give you five of those. And so these all are the custom sections of your, of your social media strategy because a, a completely done for you is going to rob your social media feed of you.

00:08:39:22 - 00:08:59:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I don't want to do that. And so this is about as easy as we can make it so that like it still has you in it, but it's still also like not that much work. You can clear this bar. And like I said, we can get your students up to speed on this, which is what we're going to talk about in the next section of the video.

00:08:59:20 - 00:09:39:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So remember, while we're trying to increase social media engagement on your feed, the ultimate goal in all of this is not just social media engagement, but hopefully life change in the in the life of your teenagers and of your students. And so hopefully, the more that they engage with you on social, it's also going to mean the more that they're going to engage with you in person, which is really like the impetus for this entire hybrid strategy online, which is where a lot of students are spending their time and their lives paired with your in-person moment, so that together you can create a solid hybrid environment, one that, like your students, they're they're stepping back

00:09:39:21 - 00:10:09:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
and forth in between those two worlds constantly. They live in that sweet spot called hybrid. And this social pact helps bridge that gap between those two different, sometimes seemingly opposing sides of the ministry aisle. And so I want to encourage you to continue to lean into it. And best yet, the best way that I have discovered to keep this ongoing, sustainable strategy, because I want to point out, I'm encouraging you to post three times per week.

00:10:09:11 - 00:10:41:20
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In my context, we post ten times per week. The only way that I'm getting ten posts done per week is by creating and leaning into a fully student run, an LED social media team, and I am going to detail and outline every single step of that in the very next episode, so that you can build that for yourself so that you can pass that off and you can teach your students very simply how to become influencers in their faith, not just online, but in their faith.

00:10:41:23 - 00:10:55:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That episode is going to be the link to right here on screen. Go ahead and tap that. Head over to that video and we will see you in episode 165 for building your own social team. But until next time, and as always, my friends, do not forget to stay hybrid.

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

💥[CUSTOM] Hybrid Coaching💥

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======================================
DESCRIPTION
Church Youth Pastor, David Carpenter, shares how he teaches the Bible to his teenagers and lays out his complete digital process.

The amazing thing about David's strategy is that it not only looks great online, but it's incredibly cost effective.

David is a digital discipleship genius, listen in!

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/108

//YOUTH PASTOR FACEBOOK GROUPS
https://www.facebook.com/groups/493666560814931
https://www.facebook.com/groups/youthpastorsonly

//DAVID'S CANNON M-100
(This link does create a small commission for our channel)
https://walmrt.us/3W0Fu4g

//FAST & AFFORDABLE GRAPHIC DESIGN
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw

//HYBRID STRATEGY GUIDE
Do it all on your phone!
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//DAVID'S CANNON 70D
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Camera: https://walmrt.us/3xGoMiN
Lens: https://walmrt.us/3LkIZxu

//NICK'S LINKTR.EE
https://linktr.ee/clasonnick

//BRADY SHEARER - PRO CHURCH TOOLS
https://prochurchtools.com/

//DAVID ON SOCIAL
[CHURCH ACCOUNTS]
https://www.youtube.com/@Harrodsburg.Students
https://www.instagram.com/harrodsburg.students/
https://www.tiktok.com/@harrodsburg.students
[PERSONAL ACCOUNTS]
https://www.facebook.com/dlcarpen140
https://www.instagram.com/davidleecarpenter/

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🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
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😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products
VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

AUTO POD
https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv

TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Who is David Carpenter?
02:59 What is your current youth ministry social media?
07:16 What exactly do you do?
14:19 Digital Discipleship for Cheap
16:48 The Easiest Content for Youth Pastors to Create
20:34 Don't Be Afraid!

--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT
00:00:01:02 - 00:00:25:04
Nick Clason
What's going on, everybody? Hey, I got another interview style episode for you today. This time it is with David Carpenter. He's a youth pastor in Kentucky, and I came across David through social media, I think, in like a youth pastor, only or doing type style Facebook group. He was talking and answering a question about social media. And so his answer intrigued me.

00:00:25:04 - 00:00:45:21
David Carpenter
I clicked on his profile and I saw that David is very much leaning into a digital and hybrid ministry experience in his church and in his ministry. So I reached out and I scheduled an interview. And so, without any further ado, I have the exclusive David Carpenter interview for you to check out here on the Hybrid Ministry episode.

00:00:45:21 - 00:01:08:00
David Carpenter
If you find this helpful in any way, I would love it if you would subscribe, like, and share it with a friend, but without any further ado, check this interview out between myself and David Carpenter. I'm here with David. David, what is up, man? How are you doing this morning?

00:01:08:00 - 00:01:26:11
David Carpenter
I'm doing great. I am recovering. We're in the middle of a VBS week right now as we're recording this.
So some of I'm sure if some of you all know how that goes and, we're, you know, kind of making it through, but it's it's a good time and it's a good week. So now we're doing it. VBS at night, church or VBS in the morning. Church. Yeah, we're VBS at night. okay. And I'm, I'm crazy youth pastor David.

00:01:26:11 - 00:01:38:16
David Carpenter
So I, you know, get stuck up on the stage and then do crazy dances and jump around and, and the like. So that's kind of the kind of the rhythm, at least once a week in the summer, that, that we're in. But yeah, it's a good time.

00:01:38:11 - 00:01:45:16
Nick Clason
Yeah. We've all been there. We've all been. Yeah, we've all been there, just, you know, part as part of the gigs.
How goes. So, Well, that's awesome. I'm excited that you guys are having a good week. I hope that you're getting, at least some sleep. And I hope that your coffee this morning is strong so that you can recover. Well, it is VBS know, but I, I came across David, I think, in like a DYM or youth pastor's only or something like that Facebook group.
and someone had asked some sort of question about social media or something, and, you replied, I have no idea what you said, but I started creeping on you and your profile, and I just saw a lot of different, like, videos and like shorts and reels and stuff like that. and it was more than I was used to for, I guess I would say like the average or like or standard youth ministry, social media that I saw.
And so because of that caught my attention. and so I followed you and or became friends with you or something on Facebook. reached out to you and, and chatted a little bit. But I'm excited to have you on here today, because I'd love to know, you know, what is like your as it stands today, in your student ministry at your church.
Like what is your current sort of like social media or digital presence? What does it what does it look like? What do you what do you aim in for? And how's all that going?

00:02:51:04 - 00:03:16:19
David Carpenter
Yeah. well, I appreciate you asking and obviously honored to to be here. And we connected on, on that, question. And, you know, I started doing social media stuff when I was probably shoot 14 or 15.

00:03:16:21 - 00:03:46:04
David Carpenter
my dad was a pastor. And obviously, I'm sure lots of pastors kids out there know you get roped into doing things. And he was kind of an early innovator and had started doing a weekly YouTube show for our church. This was probably back in 2012, 2013, and I wanted to increase the views on it. So I created a Facebook page for it and kind of started to put together a logo for it and, and try to find ways to increase its, viewership and things like that.

00:03:46:04 - 00:04:15:09
David Carpenter
And kind of got my feet wet doing, you know, video editing and social media stuff at that point. But, instead of ministry, you know, we are looking at social media as an opportunity to disciple our students, but also as a, an outward opportunity to disciple, you know, literally people across the world, and, you know, practically that looks like a couple different things.

00:04:15:11 - 00:05:00:16
David Carpenter
platforms we use, we use, YouTube. We put our regular, weekly ministry teachings on podcast form. we use TikTok and we use Instagram, which is connected to a Facebook account. Our students don't engage there much, but, we, we share some of that stuff because I think it helps to keep parents connected, but, kind of a shift in the mindset going into it for us is, is that opportunity for discipleship that, you know, we are producing teachings and content that, man, it it's kind of already done and we have the opportunity to capture it and record it and then redisplay it, to potentially an audience that

00:05:00:16 - 00:05:21:21
David Carpenter
was missing on a Wednesday night or an audience that may, may never be able to come to our church. and so, you know, kind of, for you, probably about a year ago, we, we started thinking about ways for our church and our student ministry to really maximize, digital, you know, opportunities to reach people and, and disciple people.

00:05:21:23 - 00:05:41:03
David Carpenter
And over the last year, we've been kind of rolling that out and stepping into that over time. because we want to make sure that we can do it in sustainable and continuous ways. But, yeah, it's it's really just it's it's an opportunity for discipleship and for us to tell the story of our church, for us to tell the story of our state of ministry.

00:05:41:05 - 00:06:06:18
David Carpenter
people love stories. And, when, when we have the opportunity to share the stories of what Jesus is doing in the lives of our students or, or just even ways that our students are connecting and and enjoying their teenage years in a healthy Christian community. we feel like that's a win.

00:06:06:18 - 00:06:32:09
Nick Clason
So, yeah, no doubt, the most recent episodes, that I had, I had are like, year long resident on here.
And it was interesting because he mentioned the value that like, our social media sort of like presents and, and just philosophy and strategy, the value that it brought to like our attendance and our students are actually like in the room. Right. Because a lot of times, a lot of times I think it's like, we view it as like a replacement for the kids that were not at church or, for the kids that aren't even there yet.

00:06:32:09 - 00:06:57:17
Nick Clason
But he was like, no, it I thought it enhanced like the experience for the kids are already there, which was like an interesting like I'd seen it too, but I hadn't like, I hadn't come to that sort of like conclusion, like he had. So I because I do think the argument a lot of times that I feel like either we face as youth pastors or even just like me with this podcast, it's just that there's not enough time, and we need to focus on the kids that we have.

00:06:57:19 - 00:07:16:08
Nick Clason
And so to hear you say like, this is not this is an opportunity. This is a way for us to lean in with the kids that we have like that I agree with I would agree with that. And so get like get specific here, like help, help us out, help people out. Like what exactly do you do? Like what camera do you use?

00:07:16:08 - 00:07:38:00
Nick Clason
What like software are you using to edit. Like what's your because you're a real youth pastor with a real job, with real responsibilities, with real messages to write and programs to create, like, how are you, involving digital media into that? And like, what's your workflow with all that? Because it feels like it would probably be a steep learning curve or just a lot of extra work.
And maybe it is, but like, what are you doing? What's helping you out? What's what are some shortcuts? Maybe that might be out there.

00:07:38:00 - 00:07:55:02
David CarpenterYeah. Well, first, I think what you said is completely true, that it's it is an outward facing thing, but also one, I think sometimes where we as preachers assume that people come and listen to us.

00:07:55:03 - 00:08:27:07
David Carpenter
I speak to our students on Wednesday nights for about 18 to 22 minutes. Sunday morning there's a, you know, 28 to 32 minutes. And we think they probably remember everything we said, right. Like they they wrote the notes. They've got it in. They've already applied every one of these points. You know, it was all iterated. And I remember my great illustration and one, you know, when, when we're including things that are reflecting on the teachings, I think that reinforces and reminds those who were in the room and also, things like we did a post on our social that did really well a few months ago of, yeah, a picture of a student taking notes,

00:08:27:09 - 00:08:44:03
David Carpenter
and the post was all overlaid on the photo of the student was the notes from Wednesday night, some of the notes that we'd given them, and then in the caption was information. What? Why do we encourage students to take notes? Why do we give out handouts and and give an opportunity to teach culture in in those moments? So it definitely is for the kids in the room too.

00:08:44:03 - 00:09:06:21
David Carpenter
But yeah, practically speaking, we, from, September, August to May, we regularly gather for student nights. Our church takes the month of June off, and then we come back in July with some different programing on Monday nights. But for those student nights, we capture those, I capture those from our soundboard straight into GarageBand. It's nothing fancy.

00:09:06:21 - 00:09:27:24
David Carpenter
I think if you listen to podcasts, you're probably smart enough to go get a it's a I think it was an $8 adapter that is a board out to a usb-C in. And I just record the audio of the speaking. and we do podcast for the reason of one number one demographic for podcast listeners is like 12 to 22.

00:09:28:01 - 00:09:43:13
David Carpenter
I heard somewhere. And so our students and student aged people are listening to podcast. And also I use those as a resource for our parents always encourage our our parents to stay connected. If you listen to the podcast as a parent, hey, you can listen to what your student is learning and stay engaged and connected to our students in that way.

00:09:43:17 - 00:10:03:11
David Carpenter
So we have audio in that way. And then we as a message is beginning. Our church is not a very big church. We're in a more rural area. We're about an hour, 45 minutes an hour south of Lexington, Kentucky. and so we have a canon in 100, which is not a super nice camera. it's an outdated model.

00:10:03:11 - 00:10:27:06
David Carpenter
I think the 200 came out a couple of years ago. So this is a post post, you know, model camera. and we set it on a tripod high enough that it's pretty well over the students head, and we record those and, get a long form video of the message. and that goes on YouTube and that, that again, the primary purpose of that is for our parents to have a way to connect.

00:10:27:08 - 00:10:47:19
David Carpenter
I don't have any visions of, of those, you know, going viral or making me famous. it's, you know, those are we're getting 2 to 6, eight views on those videos. but, you know, it's it's so that we have a digital record of it. And then, those get split into my goal is always two short form clips that go on TikTok and Instagram.

00:10:47:19 - 00:11:10:15
David Carpenter
And if you can get them short enough YouTube shorts a week. as a way to reiterate, I reiterate, there's a word in there somewhere. I probably reiterate. There you go. That's the one. our teachings on Wednesday night, to connect back with those students and obviously to disciple people who, you know, they may be near to you, but are far from out or need encouragement in their faith.

00:11:10:17 - 00:11:32:20
David Carpenter
so that's pretty practical. I use Premiere Pro. I've always used Adobe products. it's but the what we do, I mean, you I feel you could get a YouTube video, of your teachings. You could use a phone and a, digital recorded mic, like a, phone in usb-C mic, especially if you've got a light, you know, new model phone.

00:11:32:22 - 00:11:53:09
David Carpenter
if you're not in a large space, this as your space gets larger, it's the lens being able to zoom in on the space that you're in. But it's not fancy technology. the church has invested $10 in an an adapter to record the audio, and now we just, we got better quality from the board straight into to a laptop.

00:11:53:10 - 00:12:16:05
David Carpenter
So, I mean, so that's that's kind of the we build out from there because, we can stay consistent with that, especially through the school year. the other things we're doing is, we show up with a camera to everything we do. I use a canon, I'm sitting here looking at it. I think it's a. Let me look, let me tell you, for I like to.

00:12:16:07 - 00:12:36:00
David Carpenter
It's a 70 day. I couldn't reference a 7080 or an 80, but with a 70 to 200 lens. I'm not a photographer. about two and a half years ago, I started taking pictures. And I've gotten better over time. You can put that thing in auto, and if you take enough pictures, you can get a couple good ones.

00:12:36:04 - 00:12:52:17
David Carpenter
Some. Some will look good, right? Yes. Exactly right. If you can get a couple good ones in focus, and we have leaders now that, you know, of course, like when I'm, when I'm speaking or on stage playing a game or something, I can't get those pictures. I tell them, hey, just this is how you focus it and do your best.

00:12:52:17 - 00:13:11:01
David Carpenter
And they always, you know, I've got multiple leaders who can come out with a couple good pictures. Those are great to have for your YouTube thumbnails and Instagram Reels covers. And then also just having a photo library, is helpful for for to stay consistent. That's one of the most important things I feel like with social and success in is consistency.

00:13:11:01 - 00:13:34:23
David Carpenter
And I think for people like us who work, you know, a full time job as a student, pastor, youth pastor, that's probably the greatest challenge. So building rhythms into your regular weekly life to prioritize social is important. And I think that's kind of what you are in doing what you're doing, trying to encourage people towards. And something I would definitely Amen.

00:13:34:23 - 00:14:00:06
David Carpenter
Yes and amen with what you're doing to say, hey, we are busy, but the five ten hours a week that it takes to, you know, record and and put a message on YouTube, cut it up into some clips, maybe find another way to to post on social once another week, once. Once a week. Twice. Like it's worth it because you are connecting to your kids where they already are.

00:14:00:06 - 00:14:20:17
David Carpenter
And it's an incredible mission field. It's an incredible opportunity. And, and I think it it's one of those things where sometimes we think, well, if I had time, I would, but it's like, no, this is something we need to make time for. Digital discipleship, should should be a priority, especially, for people reaching, you know, Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

00:14:20:19 - 00:14:40:05
Nick Clason
Yeah. Dude. I mean, I couldn't agree with you more. You said, like, so many things in there that, like, I like I feel like I've been saying, you know, so, like, the first thing of which is, like, you spent $10 to get better audio. And so because one of my arguments that I feel like a lot of youth pastors have is like, we're not the main room, we're not the main auditorium.

00:14:40:05 - 00:14:56:02
Nick Clason
So we don't have like the live stream gear. We don't have all that type of stuff. And like, you know, you just made the case, like, you don't have to have all that. Like, you can just put a camera up in the back of the room, like one of the strategies that we recommend, here on this podcast is like just sitting down like pre filming your messages.

00:14:56:02 - 00:15:25:05
Nick Clason
But if you don't even have the time to do that, like you can do it, David did. And just put a camera in the back of the room, capture your audio. And that's even one less like step of extra work, you know, and like you were saying, and it's interesting when you talk about like, having a digital library, like, that's a fantastic resource for down the road, because you might be counseling a kid, or kid might come to you with a particular issue and you're like, I've actually like studied that in Scripture.

00:15:25:05 - 00:15:45:09
Nick Clason
And like, I have that information and I've packaged it in like a sermon. It just was like two months ago. But like you have the YouTube link, let me send that to you. Because maybe they weren't there, maybe they weren't coming to your church yet, or maybe they whatever the reason, right, that were to your point, they just don't remember it because our teachings aren't as valuable as we hope and think that they they would be.

00:15:45:09 - 00:16:09:17
Nick Clason
And there's so there's really is so much like I agree, so much value in creating like a digital, a digital library far beyond what we can possibly think or imagine. I think. And you, if you start now, that begins to build and compound on itself, you know. So if let's say you're hearing this in the middle of this summer and this year, you're like, I'm going to start capturing my messages and posting them on YouTube.

00:16:09:19 - 00:16:27:19
Nick Clason
By the end of the school year, you have a full year library worth of content. So like David said, just you gotta find the time like it's it's we it's no longer an option anymore. I don't think I think you can keep doing it and you probably won't get fired, right. You can keep living life in your very like analog youth pastor way.

00:16:27:23 - 00:16:50:05
Nick Clason
And with all the irons in the fire like that is a way to keep doing the job. But I think we yeah, as youth pastors, can be more effective if we choose to invest in, engage and lean into what this digital space has to offer. For sure. David. What? if anything, is there anything that you're like, I would love it if we could get to this spot.

00:16:50:07 - 00:17:10:15
Nick Clason
Like, these are some of your, like, goals or dreams for your digital stuff, but your youth pastor and you haven't, you know, but legs all the way under it yet or, you know, it's it's a down the road sort of project that you'd like to see. Certainly. you know, obviously you want to continue to work to upgrade the quality of the, the content you're putting out.

00:17:10:17 - 00:17:35:00
David Carpenter
I would love to, lean into, more conversation, type content for YouTube and podcasts and even, you know, using those on social. We did a series, in the month of February. we call it All My Friends. And we sat and took three weeks. I interviewed, a couple different people, two of them. One week it was two of our students, two of our graduating seniors.

00:17:35:00 - 00:18:09:22
David Carpenter
And those videos are our best videos on YouTube. bar none, you know, and did so well. And and it's, you know, it's telling those stories. Yeah. I think people really like that. So content like that and, and more, student driven content, I think is the place we're going. And for your busy youth pastor, man, lean into, you know, your students, your students, our content creators, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are born into a world where they are all create content.

00:18:09:24 - 00:18:31:24
David Carpenter
I mean, go watch a seven year old kid. I go to the gym and my the my gym owner, his daughter, I think she's 7 or 8 and she walks around the gym with a digital camera and makes pictures and videos and, and edits and stories of, you know, her and all her, you know, people at the gym.

00:18:32:01 - 00:18:55:17
David Carpenter
They are all doing it. Yeah. Ask them, lean into them. And that's kind of a space that I would want to grow in. Is is including and and using our students, in that ministry, as, as a way to include them in the discipleship process online and also to, to tell their stories.

00:18:55:17 - 00:19:16:17
Nick Clason
And that's so good. And, you know, you use Premiere Pro, I use Premiere Pro.
So, like, you might hear a couple of guys on this podcast be like, man, it's like, I don't know that I'll have access to it. Like everything now is so accessible. Like I did a whole week's worth of daily recap videos off of my cell phone with cap cut a year ago. And like Canva, you know you can use Canva Pro and do tons of stuff on there.

00:19:16:17 - 00:19:34:24
Nick Clason
And because you're nonprofit, if you're church, it's free. You know, Canva, Canva for, nonprofits is completely free, but they'll give you like the pro, the pro version of it. And so like, you don't have to have all of these, like, higher level skills that you used to have to have, like the barrier to entry into this stuff is is so much lower.

00:19:34:24 - 00:19:53:11
Nick Clason
And you're so right. Like, our students absolutely eat this stuff up and probably want us to just get out of the way and let them do it anyway. So we should just we figure that out. All we gotta do is put a little infrastructure around it. Form.

00:19:53:11 - 00:20:18:13
David Carpenter
Yeah. I mean, what better thing could we do than like, really as student pastors?
What what better, greater opportunity we have then to empower students to step into ministry and to see their life as ministry? They're on social. They they're just like, we we want to encourage them to see their high school basketball team as a ministry. So we would we should do encourage them to see their digital life as a ministry.
Right. It's it's not that we put it in a compartment but that all of that we all of the things we do, our ministry and opportunities to share Jesus and and what better thing could we do than to teach our students that and to include them in that, that

00:20:18:15 - 00:20:55:23
Nick Clason
you're you're so right on that. Well, David, any other sort of like thoughts or words of encouragement that you would have, like, you have opportunity here to like, talk to some other youth pastors, people in church ministry like, you know, what what would you as you look out across the landscape of youth ministry and probably, if you're like me, the lack of digital integration that is existing like what? What would be your like final words or just, you know, final encouragement pieces to to other youth pastors?

00:20:55:23 - 00:21:20:05
David Carpenter
Yeah. You know, I was, I'm a great resource for, for anybody listening. of course, you know, these resources here. I looked at your Linktree the other day, and, I mean, gosh, some incredible resources you've got for for student pastors on there, for a digital resource.

00:21:20:05 - 00:21:45:20
David Carpenter
And also, I would encourage people to look into pro church tools. Brady here, I listened to his podcast every week. And and he is giving out, I mean, just free stuff. he did a, a poll on his Instagram, a couple months ago and asked, you know, these are church creatives. These are people like you and me who value church using digital, you know, marketing and digital opportunities to reach people.

00:21:45:20 - 00:22:18:05
David Carpenter
Jesus. And he asked those churches how many of them their church has a TikTok page. And of those people, 10% said yes. and I you know, you mentioned that group on Facebook of youth pastors only. and I think every time I see someone and it may have been even in that post that we connected on ask about TikTok, I see so many comments of, well, TikTok is just, you know, naked people or dancing people or, or or music that we wouldn't want our students to listen to or whatever.

00:22:18:07 - 00:22:56:23
David Carpenter
And, you know, my courage would be, don't be afraid to step into new things. as in terms of digital, you know, digital outreach, as a student pastor, as a student ministry. you know, when I came to, to this church, our, our ministry was very young, lots of middle schoolers, fewer high schoolers. And with that, fewer of our students had social media, like, a lot of our consistent students weren't on Instagram, they weren't on TikTok.

00:22:57:00 - 00:23:25:12
David Carpenter
And I think sometimes we could think, well, our students aren't even there. Why would I even invest into that? The one there's students in your community who are there, and two, you know, we're we're not affirming everything on something by putting our presence there. There's bad stuff everywhere. You know, our kids grow up and go to college.

00:23:25:14 - 00:23:42:08
David Carpenter
And guess what? I tell our kids all the time, hey, when you go to college, if you want to get into something, you can find it there, right? Your parents can only protect you for so long. And that's true in a lot of digital spaces. If you want to find, sinful things in on the internet, it's not really hard to do.

00:23:42:09 - 00:24:03:22
David Carpenter
All right? We're all mature and old enough to know that that's true. So our choice is either to be afraid and hide and say, well, if I'm not there, I'm not encouraging anybody to go there. Or we can say, hey, there's lost people there. There's people that are far from God there. And I mean, shoot, the way that TikTok's algorithm prioritizes locality.

00:24:03:24 - 00:24:27:24
David Carpenter
There are people in your community, students in your community who are there. And even if you would not encourage your students to go create an account, there, you can still go reach people there. And we have the greatest message that's ever been told. And we have the greatest means to take that message to the whole world. Why would we be afraid?

00:24:28:01 - 00:24:49:00
David Carpenter
And that would be my encouragement. Man is, hey, don't be afraid, try stuff. And guess what? I made a post. shoot. It was on our I was actually on our church page and it did did well on Instagram and did well on YouTube shorts and flopped on TikTok. I mean, like seven views, like horrible, awful. and guess what?

00:24:49:02 - 00:25:27:04
David Carpenter
The sun still came up the next day and not everything's going to work. But don't be afraid. Step into digital spaces because there is an incredible opportunity to minister to students and reach students in those spaces. And so I would just encourage you, don't be afraid. Yes, we have discernment from the Holy Spirit. Yes, there is wisdom. And no, we don't have to say yes to everything, but be wise and be willing to step out and trust that God can take your, a message that that someone is listening is is teaching maybe to a room of of 15 students.

00:25:27:06 - 00:25:44:06
David Carpenter
And there's something you could say in that, or a guest could say in that, or one of your students could encourage somebody with and millions of people could be encouraged with the love of Jesus. And I mean, what, what kind of incredible opportunity is that? And why would we not lean into that in any way we could? you're so right.

00:25:44:06 - 00:26:12:16
Nick Clason
And, you know, TikTok was just the new one, but everyone else has figured out how to compete with them. Now. So Facebook, Instagram have reels and YouTube shorts. And so if you're like, well, my kids aren't on TikTok, well, if they're on Instagram, you can still make the exact same type of content. If they're on YouTube, you can like my I, I crack up because like my hours, I have parents who are like, my kids aren't on TikTok, but they're on YouTube more like they're on than they're watching the same same things, same stuff.

00:26:12:20 - 00:26:32:04
Nick Clason
You haven't done anything. They're just on YouTube now. So, yeah. you know, it's it's all that's the thing. Like I work at what I say is one of the most conservative churches, and so we have just as much parents or whatever who might be a little freaked out by some of these things. And, but YouTube seems to be like the safe one.

00:26:32:08 - 00:26:50:05
Nick Clason
You know, I'm like, well, on YouTube and, like, oh, yeah, that's fine. Like, because parents watch YouTube and you can watch it on your TV in your house because there's like an app for it on your all your smart TVs and stuff like that. And so like our executive pastor, his daughter, she's not social media but do watch all of our like YouTube stuff on their TV in their house.

00:26:50:05 - 00:27:11:09
Nick Clason
Like even the silly stuff that we do. Even like the little shorts in the games and stuff that we do on there. And so it's like you said, it lean into it because if that's where our students are, I think there's a stat from Pew. Like 95% of teenagers say that they will use YouTube. So if that's where they are, like, you're right, why would we not be there to get there?

00:27:11:11 - 00:27:28:09
Nick Clason
So get there. Well, man, I appreciate your time. David, where would be like, if people want to see all this stuff, I'll drop some of these things in the show notes. Like, how can they get Ahold of you? How can they, check out what you're doing on your churches and youth ministry, social media? let us know where where they can find you.

00:27:28:11 - 00:27:47:20
David Carpenter
Yeah. Our, our church is, everywhere. It's it's Harrodsburg dot church. So our seed ministry is Harrodsburg dot students. That's YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. You should be able to get to there. my Facebook and Instagram, our David Lee Carpenter. There's a lot of David Carpenters out there, so I put my middle name in there. You should be able to find me. and if I can help or encourage anybody along the way, I would love to do that. I'm thankful for you to to let me. Come on. And I hope it helps somebody bless somebody today.

00:27:47:22 - 00:28:44:24
Nick Clason
Absolutely. Hey, thanks for being on. Appreciate your time today. And we'll talk next time.

https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

======================================
DESCRIPTION
Whether you think it or not, if you're a youth pastor, you're in the content creation business!

In this episode we'll walk you through how to create
•Epic Titles
•SEO Infused Tags
•Meaningful Descriptions
•Links that get clicks
•Helpful Chapters
•Eye-Popping Thumbnails
•YouTube Cards & End Screens

This step-by-step guide is your way to get started growing on YouTube, today!

FULL PLAYLIST
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/095

//YOUTUBE VIDEO

TITLES
"The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

//SONY ZVE-10
https://walmrt.us/3IyaDWv

TAGS
//VIDIQ
https://vidiq.com/hybrid

DESCRIPTIONS & LINKS
//ONLINE MESSAGE EXAMPLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVc2Ij_Wo9w

//DIGITAL NOTES (YOUVERSION EVENTS)
https://my.bible.com/events

CHAPTERS

THUMBNAILS
//ADOBE TUTORIALS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaKVpQBDSQV6Q9hFeXCptHSu

//CANVA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0FQWvKjP_E&list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw&index=2

CARDS
💥 [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Video Editing for Youth Pastors💥
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing

💥 [LIMITED TIME OFFER] Social Coaching for Youth Pastors💥
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/coaching

//TELEPROMPTER
https://walmrt.us/4a6ZJU1

END SCREENS
//MOTION ARRAY
http://www.motionarray.com

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

======================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "The Full Hybrid Ministry Strategy"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🖥️ "My 9 Favorite DYM Resources"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

📨 Full Proof Recruiting Email
EMAIL: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/recruiting-email

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

//BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
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AUTO POD
https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv

TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 Youth Pastors are Content Creators
01:48 Creating Captivating Titles on YouTube
04:57 Adding Relevant Tags
07:07 Creating Descriptions that Matter
11:00 Create Chapter and Timecodes
11:55 Eye-Popping Thumbnails
13:14 What are YouTube Cards?
15:44 End Screens on YouTube

--------------
✍️TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:38:18
Nick Clason
Mr. Beast, Dave Ramsey, Sean Cannell and you? What do all four of these people have in common? Well, all four of them, including you, by the way, are a content creator. And if you're a youth pastor, you are in the content creation business and maybe not yet creating online content, but you have the skill set necessary because we right now are in a playlist linked right here at the top of the screen where we are talking about YouTube for youth ministry.

00:00:38:18 - 00:01:07:10
Nick Clason
And if you've done the things that we've talked about in this playlist so far, while you start pre-recording your messages and you start scoping them out ahead of time, and you start with the idea of posting them to YouTube, which, by the way, right now I'm offering a very limited time free editing offer. So if you pre film your messages and you want to send them to me, once you get to the whole kind of editing part, which tends to be what trips people up on YouTube, I would be happy to do that.

00:01:07:10 - 00:01:28:24
Nick Clason
Click the link down below in the show notes and reach out and let me know and inquire if those spaces are still available. But you know, content is one thing, right? Like creating the content, shooting the content, even posting the content, right? But when you post it, there are actually some pretty incredibly important things that you need to make sure that you are doing.

00:01:29:00 - 00:02:00:16
Nick Clason
And we are going to talk through all of those things today in this video where we are talking about your titling, your tags, your description, the links that you include in your description, how to make chapters, thumbnails, cards and end screens. I know it seems overwhelming, but let's hang out and let's dive into that today. So if you head on over to YouTube, once you've created an account and you click create and you click upload video, you will get a screen just like this and you will click select file.

00:02:00:16 - 00:02:20:11
Nick Clason
And then you will begin uploading it. And once it begins to upload on YouTube it will look like this. So this is from episode 93 on video editing. And so I've already input all the details. But if you are watching, on YouTube right now, you'll see this. If you're on a podcast catcher, head to the link in the show notes and scrub ahead to this section.

00:02:20:11 - 00:02:41:23
Nick Clason
But you will see right up here at the top your title. Now, this is what most people do in churches. This is certainly what we did in church, especially when we started in the middle of the pandemic. We had a show, it was called unscripted and we would, have them classify by seasons, which I thought was pretty cool and pretty innovative.

00:02:41:23 - 00:03:16:01
Nick Clason
So we would say like unscripted season two episode four, which was great for us as far as indexing and titling and categorizing. However, think about this. If we had a lesson on unscripted that week and unscripted was every single thing in the, show. So that included like the game and the worship and all the thing. But like, if we had a message on suffering, let's say, like it would just say season two, episode four, there was no titling there that, you know, indicated, what the actual topic was of the message.

00:03:16:01 - 00:03:38:00
Nick Clason
So your title, just like your thumbnail, both are really important as far as communicating to your audience what your video is going to be talking about. And so if you're in church, a lot of times we do this in churches where in the middle of like a series and we're like, David series, sermon three. Right. Which like, that's great.

00:03:38:00 - 00:04:00:27
Nick Clason
And you can actually on YouTube really easily include your series into a thing called a playlist. And so they can all be included. David, you know, can be included into a playlist, but talk about what you're talking about, you know. So if you're talking about David and Bathsheba, maybe your title is like coming back from Giant Mistakes or leaning in to God's grace.

00:04:00:27 - 00:04:25:14
Nick Clason
Right. And I'm going to talk to you in just a minute about ways that you can figure out the best words and the ways to title these things. But very simply, if you make this small shift from just creating it for your church people, where you're explaining, like David, you know, message three and instead shifting it to like what the actual topic is like, that is going to be one major and massive shift.

00:04:25:14 - 00:04:50:10
Nick Clason
And in my completely free e-book, which is linked right here on screen with a little bit of a rebrand, new new title, we are now switching the name if you've already downloaded it. Still the same content. I just changed the title to The Complete Hybrid Strategy Guide. and we actually talked to you, in this e-book in detail for you how to start pre filming your messages and how to get going on YouTube.

00:04:50:10 - 00:05:08:10
Nick Clason
So maybe you've been watching this playlist, but if you download this e-book it will be kind of your step by step guide to starting to create content on YouTube. Once you get past your titling, there's another really important part. And it's all the way down here at the bottom. it's passed you a little description box. It's pass it thumbnail thing.

00:05:08:12 - 00:05:28:26
Nick Clason
It's pass your playlist selector and it's in this area here called tags. Okay. Now you'll see right here on mine I have these little like, ranking things and that's from a service called vid IQ which link down below is a vid IQ link if you're interested in grabbing that for a free trial or for a period of time.

00:05:28:28 - 00:05:48:25
Nick Clason
But this will help rank what some of your tags are. So if you are talking about David and Bathsheba, you might write in David and you might write in Overcoming Sin, and you might write in God's restorative grace. And just these tags, these are ways in which people, that search for things on YouTube. Because, remember, YouTube is owned by Google.

00:05:48:25 - 00:06:12:24
Nick Clason
And so people are going to YouTube and they are searching things like they went on Google, for example, how do I come back from a massive mistake that I've made and maybe your video on David will actually help communicate that. Or maybe someone's looking for some research on David and they're saying, hey, I want to know, like, when were David and Bathsheba like, you know, what year did David and Bathsheba take place or something like that?

00:06:12:24 - 00:06:32:05
Nick Clason
I don't know, but just begin to think like the people that are searching on YouTube. And so you may answer certain things like, you know, how to overcome sin, but you may also answer David and Bathsheba, you know, whatever year it was or something like that. And so you can put some of those things in. And this little plug in here is from vid IQ.

00:06:32:05 - 00:06:54:24
Nick Clason
And so I have that plugged in right here at the top, watch some of my stats and gives me kind of some, some analytic type stuff. And so it also can give me you know, some, some suggestions for tags and stuff like that. And so if you are interested in that, something like that, you can get that for a pretty nominal, pretty minimal fee and also a trial to go ahead and get the ball rolling on that.

00:06:54:24 - 00:07:14:24
Nick Clason
You should definitely check that out. But tags are pretty important. And you'll see that it has, 500 potential characters. So whatever you do, try your hardest to, get your tags filled all the way out to as close to 500 tags as possible. after that, I want to talk here for just a minute about the, description section.

00:07:14:24 - 00:07:33:13
Nick Clason
So the description section, this is where I include a lot of, like, relevant links. And so if you're watching on YouTube and you're watching my video right here, this is my, you know, hey, I'm offering free editing right now, so click that link. And since that's one of my main kind of call to actions out of this message, out of this video, like, I want you to click that.

00:07:33:13 - 00:07:50:29
Nick Clason
I'm putting it right up at the top. I also have my strategy guide right here. and you can also grab that as well. then right here, this is like just a description. So just think like think like a little mini, you know, paragraph two paragraphs, three paragraphs, kind of blog post. So same kind of idea as the tags.

00:07:50:29 - 00:08:19:13
Nick Clason
But this one is you're typing it out. You're typing it out, for the audience that may find it because YouTube and the algorithm, they're always crawling every single piece of text and every single piece of content from the video. So all the captions that you have, all the words that you say, all the things you write, all the tags you have, all the title that you have, all those things go into account as people are searching and looking for different videos on YouTube.

00:08:19:13 - 00:08:37:26
Nick Clason
And so, just fill this thing out and I'll show you an example. if you are watching on YouTube, you can see me navigating over to it live time right now. But our student ministry YouTube account, and you'll see that we have every single one. We have, a next step. So this just takes us to we use, Church Community builder.

00:08:37:26 - 00:08:58:27
Nick Clason
So this is our digital Next step card that's included in every single description. And we have a thing called digital notes, which students can use to follow along, both live in the room and also here on YouTube. And so, this is free a free service from the YouVersion Bible app. It's just a way to continually make things more hybrid in your space.

00:08:58:29 - 00:09:18:28
Nick Clason
and so look, you look we're talking about David this week as well on this episode. and so this is just an example of a couple of links that you can include. And I like to try to include every single, next step, every single link into here, into the digital notes. And so, you know, right here it says Ready to surrender Control.

00:09:18:28 - 00:09:40:27
Nick Clason
Let us know by taking a next step. This is the exact same link as the one I just showed you, right. It takes it out to that next steps form as well. And so we're all this is like our final last step. And so in my sort of like ultimate strategy guide I'm posting fun shorts that people will find as I'm posting spiritual shorts so that people will be inspired, that then push to our long form content.

00:09:40:29 - 00:09:55:26
Nick Clason
So then they go watch a long form version of our video, and then that drives them to a next step, and then they take the next step here. And that's how we capture and gather their information. That's how it is in a pie in the sky type of world. It doesn't always work that way. You know that as a youth pastor as well.

00:09:55:28 - 00:10:14:06
Nick Clason
But this is how I can reconcile and say like, this is why we post fun content. This is why we post short inspirational shorts, because we're driving to this long form version of our video, which is then driving toward a next step which allows us to capture information from students, gather their their info and follow up with them, and ultimately disciple them.

00:10:14:06 - 00:10:36:04
Nick Clason
Right. And so that's that description. Place is also where you can include, the links like, you know, digital notes. If you want to do that, feel free to borrow that, steal that. You use that in your own space, or in next steps form or whatever the case may be, if you are not, you know, like if you're, not a youth pastor and you're also just looking to post videos on YouTube, that would be where you might post things like affiliate links and whatever.

00:10:36:04 - 00:10:55:02
Nick Clason
And so you'll see that for me as well. Like right here, these are my show notes. And so these are different things like you know this it takes you to the show notes on my podcast page. This is you know we talked about Cap Cut, DaVinci resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, some other links about growing as an editor, tutorials, limited time offer.

00:10:55:04 - 00:11:17:11
Nick Clason
Here's all my socials. Here's some other freebies. Here's some affiliate links, like so. All that stuff is kind of chock full in there. But then this is another really important thing. This is really, key thing to do. I think when you're posting videos to YouTube is create chapter and time codes, and all you got to do is just add them right here in the description.

00:11:17:11 - 00:11:39:21
Nick Clason
If you're watching live on YouTube, you can see that. And I just go back through the video and I watch it manually, and I type out when I started talking about each of these things. And if you are watching on YouTube, you'll see down below. I'm also now starting to highlight that on screen with some text right? So that whenever anyone's watching, they can scrub ahead and see what I'm actually talking about in each section of the video.

00:11:39:21 - 00:12:00:15
Nick Clason
Because I don't know about you, but there are some times where I don't want all the fluff at the beginning, I just want the direct answer. So YouTube helps index better when you include chapters, and just by putting them in there, YouTube will auto break that up and it will, create chapters and create divisions within your video for the people in your in your space that are watching it.

00:12:00:17 - 00:12:27:20
Nick Clason
beyond chapters. the other thing that is really important, probably just as important I would say, is the title is your thumbnail. And so your thumbnail is very simply your, your, your like first impression, right, of what's going on. And so, a lot of experts say you want anywhere from, 2 to 6 words on the thumbnail, as little as possible.

00:12:27:21 - 00:12:51:07
Nick Clason
Because think about if someone's scrolling through on their phone. They're just getting a small image of it. So you want it to be enough to incite curiosity that will cause someone to click on it and then get started on your video. And so rather than David, invest Sheba week three of the David series, your church name in your, you know, date that you preach it or whatever.

00:12:51:10 - 00:13:14:20
Nick Clason
Like just simply post like, you know, returning to God. Something like that. Right. And you can put, like a screenshot of yourself or a screenshot of whoever's speaking and do some graphic editing. With that, you can use things like Adobe Photoshop. You can use things like Canva, links to those all down in the description of this podcast episode.

00:13:14:22 - 00:13:20:01
Nick Clason
but you can use some of those things so that you can create a good first impression.

00:13:20:01 - 00:13:35:08
Nick Clason
One other, couple other kind of like next level sections. And you'll see here, here's my vidiq optimize score. there are a couple of things here that I have not, you know, like, they don't they don't think my titles very easy to understand.

00:13:35:10 - 00:13:53:06
Nick Clason
but one of the things that can help increase your score is adding things like cards. And so you get one card per playlist. And if you're watching this video, I did it right, the very top. Right. So we're in a playlist called YouTube for Youth Ministry. In this video I did it as well. I did it at 45 seconds.

00:13:53:13 - 00:14:09:28
Nick Clason
And so I'm just highlighting like, hey, you're in the middle of a playlist. If you want to go back to the beginning, catch up, or you may reference another video from another time. Maybe somebody, doesn't want this video that you're talking about, but you can help point them out to another type of thing that they may be interested in.

00:14:10:01 - 00:14:33:04
Nick Clason
It'll show up on screen, similar to something like this. Someone can click on it while they're on YouTube and take them to another video on YouTube. Sean Cannell has, a Ten Commandments for YouTube. And one of the things is keep people on YouTube's platform as long as possible. At least that's YouTube's cool, right? And so, all these things help help you rank better.

00:14:33:04 - 00:14:54:19
Nick Clason
So that's an example of a card. You get one of those per video. And when you're pre filming you can write that in. And if you're using a teleprompter like we had talked about in a previous episode, linked to a teleprompter down below in the show notes. Grab that. But you can write that in so that you make sure that you include the card in your video, but you can, you know, kind of point to it.

00:14:54:21 - 00:15:12:28
Nick Clason
and here's like a little hack, like if you are filming direct camera, if you point with your left finger, it'll pop up right here on top of your screen. A lot of times I'll add a sound effect and maybe like the thumbnail of the playlist or the video I'm talking about, and pop it right in right where my finger comes in, and also have it come across right above it as well.

00:15:13:00 - 00:15:33:11
Nick Clason
That's just a little editing thing. And again, if you're interested in editing, reach out to me down below in the show notes. but finally the last piece. And, you know, also, by the way, hey, listen, here's the thing. Maybe you don't have a budget for editing and you're like, I want to do this. and I'm going to learn editing, but, like, I just I need someone to help me walk through this.

00:15:33:11 - 00:15:53:19
Nick Clason
Like, I'm also offering some coaching right now at a smaller rate. for sessions of coaching, just a few. Just a few bucks. If that's something that you're interested in, I can help you go from wherever you are and start making progress on your hybrid strategy today. And then the final piece that you want to include is your end screens.

00:15:53:19 - 00:16:17:29
Nick Clason
And it's the same concept as the card where you want to keep people on the YouTube platform. As long as possible. You'll notice on, this video here, I included, four different end screens. I have, and this is, this is a little hack. I often, dovetail onto the next video on my on my playlist, but this is the most recent video I've uploaded.

00:16:18:03 - 00:16:36:27
Nick Clason
And so right now I don't actually have the next video on my playlist. all the way edited and all the way uploaded to YouTube. And so right here, this is just a placeholder once I upload, video 94, this is video 93. Once I upload video 94, I'll go back into here and I'll replace this video right here, which is called video, which is best for viewer.

00:16:36:27 - 00:17:03:04
Nick Clason
That's YouTube's algorithm doing its thing. And I'll add video 94. Now you might be thinking, Nick, aren't if I post it and I say next videos on screen and it's not uploaded yet, won't that be a problem? And yes, for that like one week or so it won't be there. Okay. But from that moment on, once you upload or the the second video on the playlist goes live, it will live there on for the rest of eternity and time.

00:17:03:04 - 00:17:29:12
Nick Clason
And so one of the things we got to start getting, getting used to as youth pastors and people using the internet is that YouTube will live on in perpetuity forever, as long as you keep it up there and so. Well, the people that watch your video now, for your church, maybe in the series with David and Bathsheba, when you move on to the next section of the The Playlist and you're talking about David at the end of his life, and that's video number four.

00:17:29:15 - 00:17:51:09
Nick Clason
If people discover this a year down the road, two years down the road, ten years down the road, they will have access to that next video. And you can serve the people on YouTube forever. And that's one of the beautiful things about you and I as youth pastors, becoming content creators is that we can, effectively reach more people than just the people in our direct physical care.

00:17:51:09 - 00:18:10:14
Nick Clason
And that's one of the reasons I think going hybrid as at least one of the other benefits and I don't even think it should be the main or primary benefit of what we're doing, but it is at least something that we can use and utilize to our advantage. I also oftentimes include the playlist on here and the subscribe thing as well.

00:18:10:14 - 00:18:26:14
Nick Clason
And so you can add those to the end of your video as well. You can create a little Endor screen like I do, which has like little placeholders. And you just pop the video right in there. You can use something like a motion or a.com to find a thing like that. Speaking event screens. You will see right here on screen.

00:18:26:14 - 00:18:45:19
Nick Clason
If you're watching on YouTube our next video, which is the importance of playlists and courses. And so we're going to talk in depth about those. How do you utilize them and the advantage that you and I as youth pastors have, and how playlists are the perfect solution for us in our churches, in our youth ministries. So go ahead and check that video out.

00:18:45:19 - 00:18:49:08
Nick Clason
And don't forget, and as always, to stay hybrid.

https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

2024 [FREE] Youth Ministry Masterclass on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

======================================

DESCRIPTION
😫 Are you tired of seeing church announcements flood your social media feeds? It's time to rethink this strategy and take a closer look at the potential hazards it poses.

📹In this video, we delve deep into the reasons why posting church announcements on social media might not be the wisest choice.

👍But, don’t worry! We’ll show you exactly what to do! And how to not lose your life to it! Especially if you follow our time management tips, which is a part of the 2024 Youth Ministry [on-demand] Masterclass
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLIJceFHg7w8vxlx5ARqXeg

======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/080

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/slB0Rmf_X0c

PURPOSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
//OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION]
https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9

//METRICOOL
https://metricool.com/

POST YOUR MESSAGES ON YOUTUBE
//[FREE] E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

//$100 STARTER KIT
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

//YOUVERSION LIVE EVENTS
https://my.bible.com/events

TAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE NEXT LEVEL
//OPUS.PRO [1 CLICK VIRAL SHORTS SOLUTION]
https://youtu.be/TiW4ooQpAvo?si=W_4pCZZbZmUnzsB9

//SONLIFE
https://www.sonlife.com/

//[FREE] E-BOOK
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

IDEA #2: TELEPATHY
//ADOBE PREMIERE PRESETS
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

IDEA #3: RANK 'EM
//DYM RANK 'EM RESOURCES
Christmas: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em%3A-christmas-edition/christmas-games-9126.html
Fall: https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/rank-%27em---fall-edition/holiday-or-seasonal/fall-8962.html

IDEA #6: EMOJI PHRASEOLOGY
//MY FAVORITE 9 DYM PRODUCTS
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

IDEA #8: SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS
//SPIRITUAL PRACTICE VIDEOS
https://www.downloadyouthministry.com/p/spiritual-practice-videos/social-media/instagram-8804.html

WHAT TO DO ABOUT FACEBOOK?
//CANVA PRO FOR [FREE!]
https://youtu.be/g0FQWvKjP_E?si=D6jJLxEdkEy9z0FV

WHAT TO DO ABOUT INSTAGRAM?
//BUDGET GRAPHIC DESIGN EDITORS
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaIdZ-RLm5uVVlHj46FKrMYw

👉 STAY CONNECTED WITH NICK
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clasonnick
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hybridministry/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clasonnick
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HybridMinistry
Website: https://www.hybridministry.xyz

======================================

🆓 FREEBIES 🆓
📅 "1 Month Done for You Social Media Posting Tool"
https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/free-hybrid-ministry-e-book

🎅 "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/christmas-party-run-sheet
PRACTICAL YM TIPS: https://www.youtube.com/@practicalyouthministrytips

🍩 "FREE World's Greatest Donut Event Guide"
GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/ebook

📹 "Adobe Premiere Pro Presets for Animating Layers"
https://share.hsforms.com/1VL1oWwWwQ82PLwsPFkPITgnumis

======================================
🛠️TOOLS
Some of the below links are affilate links in which we do recieve a small commission based on your purchase or use of products

//BEST DYM RESOURCES
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/dym

OPUS.PRO FOR AI SHORTS & REELS
https://www.opus.pro/?via=a5d361

//YOUTUBE STARTER KIT FOR UNDER $100
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/youtubestarterkit

AUTO POD
https://autopod.lemonsqueezy.com?aff=MX7Vv

TRY REV.COM FOR TRANSCRIBING
https://rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

--------------
🕰️TIMECODES
00:00-01:06 Stop Doing this on Social Media
01:06-04:14 What is the purpose of social media?
04:14-07:04 Post Your Messages to YouTube
07:04-11:42 Taking your social media to the next level
11:42-12:12 Idea #1: Drafts
12:12-13:45 Idea #2: Telepathy
13:45-14:04 Idea #3: Blind Rankings
14:04-14:20 Idea #4: Know it or Nah
14:20-14:33 Idea #5: Staff Videos
14:33-15:39 Idea #6: Emoji Phraseology
15:39-15:44 Idea #7: Sermon Clips
15:44-16:35 Idea #8: Spiritual Practice
16:35-16:46 Where to Post all these videos?
16:46-17:34 What to do about Facebook?
17:34-19:27 What to do about Instagram?

✍️TRANSCRIPT
Try Transcribing for Yourself at Rev.Com
http://www.rev.pxf.io/R5nDOa

Nick Clason (00:00):
Summer camp, fall retreat D. Now your next outreach experience, the reality is there are always things to do. You're always trying to get students to come to you. You're always trying to get people to fill and populate your next church events. So naturally, what do we do? Well, we need to put it on the church website. We need to make sure that it gets listed in the church bulletin. We need to add it to the pre-roll before the service and post it to social media. Stop it. No, seriously, stop it. Stop posting your announcements to social media. Don't do it. Don't do it. We're tempted always to post our announcements to social media because we think it's another outlet, another strategy, another place to inform people. But the reality is nobody wants that on their social media feeds. I hear you. You're like, yeah, but what else should I do? Nobody listens, dude. I get it. Okay, but let's look at it. What should we be doing on social media?

Nick Clason (01:07):
So stop posting your announcements on social media. I saw this reel the other day about this guy talking about the Red Bull social media experience, and he said, red Bull is crushing it. He said, what are the local pizzerias and restaurants in your town doing? People are not getting on social media and thinking like, man, I wonder what's on the menu today. Because if you look at a pizzeria on social media, you know that they're going to be posting or you know that they're going to be serving pizza. That's just a part of the experience. And so he said, what Red Bull's doing on social media, we know that Red Bull serves Red Bull energy drinks, but what their primary goal on social media is entertainment. So that's why people get on social media. They get on social media to be entertained. Can we as a church adopt some of those strategies not forever and forsaking some of the spiritual components that can come about on social media, but can we do that on social media?

Nick Clason (02:08):
And the fact is, yeah, actually social media has ushered in a new era with the discovery platforms, with short form video based and videos are still king. And you know what you can do? You can actually take clips and snippets of your message and use this strategy right here. It's linked at the top of the video and this completely free tool Opus Pro. Check out in that video link in this description, link in that video description. But the fact of the matter is you can use tools out there. You can use AI to help you and aid you if you're not a great video editor, if you don't know how to clip things up on social. But the fact is, you might even be thinking, well, what am I supposed to do? How can I post things there? There's a lot of services out there to post things on the feed.

Nick Clason (02:52):
So you may be scheduling your lock-in post. You may be scheduling your church announcement post. You may be scheduling your summer camp. Stop doing those things. You can create videos, you can create moments of entertainment, and you can use a posting service if you want. Linked Below is my experience with a posting service called Metrical. That's probably who I would recommend. I do still like to just post everything I do live. I find that the algorithms prefer that and that things just perform better from a views and metrics standpoint. But if you don't have time for that and you're like, there's no way I could do that, then check out Metrical. It's completely free for most up to a certain number of posts and it's worth it. But you never want to get on a feed. Think about your own habits. You never just want to get on a feed that's just littered with, come to this event, come to this event, come to this event, come to this.

Nick Clason (03:47):
That's boring. And you know what? Your social media probably reflects that. If all you're doing is posting announcements, you're probably only getting a single digit number of likes because the reality is that's not what people are looking for when they get on social media. And so I know you got a lot to announce, you got a lot to get out there, but social media is not the place. So what should we be doing? Well, let's check that out. So churches, youth pastors, regardless of where you are in this on the org chart at your church, what should you be doing? Well, number one, start posting long form to YouTube. And now when I say that if you have live streaming capabilities in your room and you don't have time to sit down direct to camera, then go ahead and post your live streams to YouTube.

Nick Clason (04:38):
But if you don't, I don't. I'm a youth pastor and we are in our very own room, our very own space, and our room is not outfitted for live streaming capabilities. So we actually sit down very similar to what I'm doing here direct to camera. I have a teleprompter and I do deliver a message there. Now, that entire strategy is laid out completely for you, for free right here in my 100% completely free ebook. But that is the baseline. That's the basis for all my social media, everything else sort of branches off of there. So all of our messages that we produce and that we perform, everything that we produce in the room, we also then go ahead and do it directly on YouTube. So pre film your messages, it gives you two strategic advantages. Number one, if you don't have live streaming capability, it gives you a way to film it that is good, helpful, beneficial, looks good, direct to camera.

Nick Clason (05:32):
You can do most of that for under a hundred dollars. That's also linked below in the show notes with just a cell phone camera and a few little pieces of gear. But then from there, what you can do is you can take those messages, post them to YouTube. You also get an opportunity to practice your message. So then when you are standing up live in the room in front of a bunch of students, it's not the first time that you're looking at that material. You have done it before. You have delivered it before, once you've pre-filed, done direct to camera. The one thing that I love about that is in YouTube, they have a description thing, just like me, a lot of things down to the description in this video. Also over at hybridministry.xyz/080 But you can do the same kind of concept.

Nick Clason (06:16):
You can paste a next steps form. And so for every single one of your messages, you can push students towards a next steps form. We like to use the you version events, live events for in the room. Students can follow along, take notes, read scripture, but we also post the link to that in every single video. So if they're watching on a laptop, then they can sit down, they can scroll through that on their phone, they can take notes, they can engage with the Bible on their phone right in front of them. So you can link certain things. And then by the way, hey, if you are announcing summer camp, you can be like, Hey, summer camp registration link in the description. You don't have to make it some static boring graphic post. You can actually weave it into the rest of your strategy. But then dovetailing off of your long form YouTube videos is this next piece that you definitely don't want to miss.

Nick Clason (07:05):
So after YouTube video, the next thing I recommend that you do is that you post shorts, reels, tiktoks to your feeds. And the good news is all four of the major platforms, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook if you want to, it's really easy to link with your Instagram and TikTok are all asking for similar content. So what you can do now on social media for the first time in a lot of years is you can create one piece of content for one platform, but you can spread it across all fours. You can post the same thing to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook Ourto for example, I posted these this week. This week, a couple weeks leading up to Christmas when I'm filming this. You're going to get this in the new year, but we do thing, and I'm going to detail, it's actually detailed right here.

Nick Clason (07:53):
I'll completely free my ebook, but we're going to go through nine ideas that you can do to start doing entertainment based things on your social medias and stop just posting announcements. One of the things we do are drafts stole this, saw this on someone's TikTok somewhere. So we were doing drafting Christmas movies across all four platforms. We had on TikTok, we had 383 views. We had on YouTube, 280 views we had on Instagram, 214 views. And then on Facebook we had 175 views, which totaled 1052 views across all four platforms. Those aren't great numbers by the way either. That's just very standard. I picked the second most recent post that I posted just to give you a good example of a real time strategy idea. I'm not trying to highlight my best one or anything like that, right? But here's the question. Would you like for your content to get in front of a thousand people probably, right?

Nick Clason (08:46):
And that wasn't great. We've had posts that have hit 13,000 on Instagram, 27,001 time we did a football draft. So we've had way, way bigger success. But then that was a entertainment based one. Also in the same week, we've posted a spiritual based one that one did not do as well. And this is actually an underperformer in my opinion. And we've had ones that do similar to the draft response in around those numbers on all the four platforms. But we had on TikTok, we had 224 views. We had 211 on Instagram, we had only 15 on Facebook, which is pretty low. And then 1 42 on YouTube, which is also relatively low, but still that total to 592. I know for me that feels low, but we don't have 592 students or people come to our youth ministry program. So we post fun content. We also post spiritual content, and then that's anchored underneath the baseline by our long form YouTube video.

Nick Clason (09:48):
And what's crazy is that Opus Pro, the message clip that came through Opus Pro. And so you'll notice there's a little overlay that says, watch the full video on Cross Creek students YouTube channel that is just a preset that I made. And every single one of our videos spits out with that little watermark. I can change it, I can customize, I can do. The stats aren't crazy, but you should subscribe because this is actually part of the 2024 Youth Pastor Masterclass. We're right dead in the middle. If you subscribe and if you hit the bell, you'll get notified when the next video drops. But I like to think about it like this or I want, but I like to think of it like my neighbor. I want to share the gospel with my neighbor. I want to tell them about Jesus. But every single time I have a conversation with my neighbor, I'm not sitting down and telling them about Jesus.

Nick Clason (10:34):
I'm working the relationship. I'm having a conversation. I grew up in church. I grew up in a ministry called Sun Life, and they have a thing called spiritual, CPR, cultivate, plant Reap. And really the cultivate stage is just build the friendship. Plant is like sprinkle in seeds of spiritual conversations in the gospel and then reap is like present the gospel and ask them for a decision to follow Jesus. Yes or no. And a lot of times on social media, we take the approach of reap, ask them for a spiritual decision, ask them to respond to the gospel, yes or no every single time as opposed to trying to cultivate our audience as opposed to trying to plant little seeds of curiosity, spiritual moments, things like that. So here are ideas, things that I do in my own personal context. It's all outlined here. Am I completely free?

Nick Clason (11:23):
Ebook? You should definitely check it out if you haven't yet. But it will help you take your social media from being boring and dumb and announcement based to entertainment based and personality driven. Not just your personality, but students, other volunteer leaders, other staff that you might have. So these are things that we do. We do a thing called a draft, and that's what you just saw the results from. But two people sit down and then they just draft things under a certain category. We've done Christmas movies, we've done potatoes, we've done burger places, we've done Christmas songs, we've done Thanksgiving food, we've done Halloween Candy, we've done Avengers, we've done Blue Characters. Literally anything you can think of. One person next person, one person next person. The only caveat is you can pick anything you want, but if it's already been taken, it's kind of off the board.

Nick Clason (12:12):
The next thing we do is a fun little game called Telepathy or Wavelength or nsync or just guess the number. And two people sit down and one person's thinking of a number, the other person's asking them certain categories, and then the person that has the number in their brain, they're telling the other person their answers from that category based on their number. So for example, if I'm thinking of the number one and you ask me for a day of the week, I'm going to say Monday. And then if you say food, I'm going to say Tomatoes. Okay? And so then at the end of it, you ask four things, four different things. So day of the week, food, movie, Avenger, and then you give 'em all. And then at the end, the other person, I was asking the categories, they say, are you thinking number one?

Nick Clason (12:57):
And if they got it right, they got it right. If they got it wrong, they got it wrong. The one thing I love about this game is we intro it like this. Hey, we're playing this game. The number's going to be right here on the screen. The number pops in on the screen. You can edit that in an editor like Adobe Premier Pro, I got completely free presets. Link down below if you want some of those that will do animations like this and like that, and rotate in, rotate out all those things, all the things you just saw on the screen. If you're not watching on YouTube, all those things are in the link in the description. Go grab the free presets. But if not, you can do that on your phone in a phone editor like TikTok or Cap Cut. But you can say, Hey, the number's on the screen, close your eyes if you don't play along.

Nick Clason (13:37):
Alright, here we go. And then that person can open their eyes and they can watch and they can actually try to guess the number. So it's actually engaging the person on the other side of the phone. I like to do blind rankings. TikTok has a blind ranking filter, so you can blind rank all kinds of things. Disney movies, Disney characters, and a blind rank is just you're ranking them in a one through 10 or one through five order without knowing what's coming next. I also have some examples of that on Download Youth Ministry, a link to that in just a second. I like to do these things called Know it or Nah, so you've probably heard it where they play a little five second clip of a song on TikTok. Just find those audios on TikTok. And then you choose one side of the room.

Nick Clason (14:14):
So I'll get four or five people if they know it, they go to this side. If they don't, they go to that side. We'll do staff video. So we'll have our staff participate in certain things we were just giving away for our Christmas party. Craig Cash, our senior pastor's name is Craig. We were giving away Craig Cash, and so we did the Craig Cash Olympics, we did all kinds of Christmas type things. One of my favorites is a game I have on DYM called Emoji Phrase theology. People just trying to guess the emoji phrase. And I'll just sit down or have a student sit down or a leader sit down or walk around and quiz students, Hey, what's this emoji phrase saying? What's this camp emoji phrase saying, what's this Christmas emoji phrase saying? Was this back to school emoji phrase saying, and I'll clip those in.

Nick Clason (14:54):
So I take a game that's already created, and instead of just doing the kind of static standard screen-based graphics, we customize it to our own space. Link down below are my favorite nine DYM products that I have. Several of them are hybrid based. Several of them don't just focus on the screen only or digital, but it's a melding together of the two. And you can take that next layer to the next level, right? Like my emoji phrase, theology. There's a social media component, but you can take it to the next level and customize it with a host, asking people the answers to those questions. And just some simple video editing on the backside, whether that be in a software like Adobe Premiere Pro, or you can do it on TikTok or in Canva, or not Canva, but Cap Cut. I always get Canva and Cap cut mixed up.

Nick Clason (15:40):
You can use the video clips out of Opus Pro like I was talking about. I got some spiritual practice videos on Download Youth Ministry. One of my favorites is someone's scrolling through TikTok and you just point to the screen right here and it says, stay or scroll, read the Bible with me. Point, point, point, point, point, point, point. Wait a second. And you say, all right, thanks for staying. Let's read the Bible together. And you read a passage of scripture right there on social media. That's all you do. It's super basic, super simple, but it has a great response because what you're doing then is you're cultivating that relationship. You may get those people with the draft or the instinct telepathy game or the blind ranking or the know it or not back and forth, and then you're like, Hey, let's do some spiritual stuff together.

Nick Clason (16:19):
Let's memorize scripture. Let's read the Bible, let's do a prayer. All those types of things. And you can do a lot of that stuff, especially with the bedrock of your messages. Long form video, you can do a lot of that stuff on Opus Pro. Saves you hours. It saves me hours every single week. So continuing on our strategy, you can post all those types of videos to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Facebook. But what about Facebook groups? Well, let's check it out. You should definitely have Facebook groups. You should have a Facebook page also because a Facebook page is where those things dump into, but then have a group associated with that. If you're a youth pastor, my only strategy that I recommend on Facebook is a Facebook parents group. That's mostly where they are. You can post things like car ride questions, and you can use Canva Pro.

Nick Clason (17:06):
It's completely free for churches. It's also linked below. We did an entire video on it, so you can go check that out in the description, but you can just create square graphics for your parents to talk about stuff with their students on the way home. And that's just a great discipleship strategy. If you're a church communications person, you should probably have a little bit more active Facebook group. But for a youth pastor, most students aren't on Facebook, but most parents are. And so that's where the strategy comes in. It's for the parents. Lastly, on Instagram, you got the feed. You also got stories on stories. The ultimate goal, I would say, is to engage with your people. So repost things if they tag you for sure. You can also post engagement style questions. What's your favorite Christmas movie? What's the best Halloween candy? What's your New Year's resolution?

Nick Clason (17:53):
What's one thing you're going to be doing this weekend using only emojis? Tell us what you did this last week. Stuff like that. Engage with your audience. A lot of times, I'll take a reel that I post, so I don't post every single one of those reels to the feed, though that option has recently turned off, so I have to post it, then go back later and take it off the profile grid. I'm sure there's a setting I'm missing, but nonetheless, I'll sometimes then share the reels that didn't also get shared to the feed into a story, and that's just a way to do engagement. And then I may throw a question sticker like a slider bar or a question or a quiz sticker or something like that. Just engagement. That's my goal in stories. And then on the main feed, just post photos of your people and post recap photos from a Wednesday night, from a Sunday morning, from a Sunday night.

Nick Clason (18:36):
Brady Sheer is doing these carousel based education, entertainment based carousel posts where ask the question and he answers it. They are money, and I think that they are here to stay, and you don't need a lot of graphical work to do some of those things. You can do something simple and easy and basic like that simply on Canva. Or even simply maybe in the Instagram stories editor, we have a complete playlist where we look at budget graphic editors, if that's something you're interested in. It's also linked below. But finally, speaking of education, that's one of the main ways that we help disciple and teach our students about Jesus and help them take meaningful next steps towards him, which is the next video in this 2024 Youth Ministry Masterclass video linked right here on the screen. We'll talk to you next time as we're making discipleship easy, possible and accessible. So as always, stay hybrid.