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

🔥 [FREE] Hybrid Ministry Strategy Guide🔥

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

======================================
DESCRIPTION
📹 YouTube is an incredible platform for reaching teenagers with the message and hope of the gospel.

🖥️ It's Clear that YouTube is (or should be) the most used platform for Youth Ministries

🎤As a Youth Pastor, you already have natural YouTube skills

💥We'll also unpack some of the other features that YouTube has to offer, beyond long-form video

📹 Follow along as we unpack YouTube for Youth Groups on our FREE Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngXlSr64YaLHMhNNfqmmmAsKRJ1VCBJl
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/091

//YOUTUBE VIDEO
https://youtu.be/ucvXfaVRJ6E

//YOUTH MINISTRY LEADER COHORT
https://www.derryprenkert.com/ymlcohort/

//DYM FACEBOOK GROUP
https://www.facebook.com/groups/493666560814931

THE REASONS TO USE YOUTUBE
//INSTAGRAM VS TIKTOK VS YOUTUBE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r73ceADGZxQ&t=1063

YOUTH PASTORS ARE YOUTUBERS
//STATISTICS FROM 4 PLATFORMS ADDED UP
https://youtu.be/slB0Rmf_X0c?t=489

EXCLUSIVE FREE OFFER!
//INQUIRE TO SEE IF THERE'S SPACE
https://www.hybridministry.xyz/articles/editing

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

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🆓 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
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 You Want to Reach More Students, Right?
01:15 The Statistics that Prove YouTube is a Perfect Strategy to Reaching Teenagers
04:22 The Reasons to Use YouTube
07:14 Youth Pastors are YouTubers
09:30 Exclusive Free Offer!
10:05 Answer Student's Questions
11:20 Other Features of YouTube that I Love!
14:35 It's time to make content on YouTube that's made for YouTube

TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:02 - 00:00:28:05
Nick Clason
Youth pastor. Let me guess. You want to reach more students and Youth Pastor, let me also guess that you care about pastoring and developing the students that God has already entrusted to you. Let me guess. You pour a lot of time, energy and effort into your teaching messages because you care about the students that God has given you and you want them to grasp the truth that's found in God's Word.

00:00:28:07 - 00:00:56:14
Nick Clason
Listen, I agree with you, and I think that you work too hard to craft and pour over and study and pray and agonize over your messages only for them to die on your hard drive the moment that they're delivered. And so I think that we and all youth ministries should be leaning into the digital presence. That's why I've built this podcast, Hybrid Ministry.

00:00:56:14 - 00:01:24:26
Nick Clason
So in this episode, we are going to talk about why youth ministries need to be on YouTube, why you should be on YouTube, and how you can get started and yeah, maybe even not add more work to your plate. Welcome to the hybrid ministry show. My name is Nick Clason and I'm absolutely pumped and fired up to talk to you about this because in my over a year journey on this podcast, I have grown to love YouTube.

00:01:25:02 - 00:01:54:22
Nick Clason
When I started with social media and when I started trying to reach students on the Internet, YouTube was a distant kind of far strategy that was on my radar. Like it was like, I'll post some videos over there, but in my time since that, which was probably five, six, seven years ago, I have come to love YouTube and I am more and more convinced that YouTube in addition to all other digital and social mediums that we can effectively reach students with.

00:01:54:24 - 00:02:16:21
Nick Clason
But YouTube is one of the best resources out there, and Gen Z, right? Gen Z, I'm not Gen Z, but the students are. We as youth pastors trying to reach they use their mobile device more than any other device combined. I've actually posted a clip that said that exact stat on my Tik tok, all my socials link down below in the description.

00:02:16:21 - 00:02:34:17
Nick Clason
If you're interested in that, if you are watching via a podcast catcher I am and have some graphs and charts on screen via YouTube. The YouTube link is down below in the description as well, but they use their mobile device. Any other device combined. And one of the comments that I got was like, Well, no duh, what do you want us to do?

00:02:34:17 - 00:02:53:16
Nick Clason
Use a portable DVD player? And I thought it was a hilarious comment because while they were sort of coming at me, it's an it's a fair question, like, yeah, what do we want Gen Z to do? Like use the archaic technology that we as millennials and Gen Xers and and older had to and were forced to use before the invention of the cell phone.

00:02:53:19 - 00:03:21:07
Nick Clason
The cell phone is amazing. Additionally, 45% of teenagers claim to be online get this almost constantly and finally people say that they are two times double as likely to share video based content rather than text based posts. I am in a youth ministry leader cohort is based on Zoom. It's a national thing all across country. More information if you're interested in that down below in the show notes.

00:03:21:07 - 00:03:38:25
Nick Clason
But I recently got tapped and asked in my cohort if I would be willing to workshop this idea of social media, and I was thrilled and honored with the opportunity. And so part of what I'm going to share with you today is actually from that presentation, but I'm going to expound upon it a little bit more because I think about like this.

00:03:38:25 - 00:04:09:21
Nick Clason
If an alien were to come down and were to see these statistics that Gen Z uses their mobile device more than any phone, and 45% of teenagers, 45, almost half claimed to be online constantly and video based content is two times more likely to be shared. Then an alien would come down and be like, Dang, if you people are trying to actively reach young people with the most important message, the message that you have has been laid on your heart and that God has placed on you and said, Go preach the Gospel to all nations.

00:04:09:22 - 00:04:34:09
Nick Clason
And by all means that part of our nations mean that must mean that youth ministries are crushing social media. Well, in the famous words of Lee Corso, Not so fast, my friend. And here's why I actually posted back in July 2019 the download Youth Ministry Facebook Community group linked to that. If you're not in that already on Facebook, it's a great community of ideas and questions and answers.

00:04:34:09 - 00:04:56:24
Nick Clason
It's a really great place. But I my question was this and I think I have like 100 to 200 responses. So not a massive sample size, but also not small either. And I said, Hey, how would you rate your web and social presence right now? And many people said, okay, 49% said okay and 48% said really, really bad.

00:04:56:26 - 00:05:16:23
Nick Clason
And only 3% said it was good, which I don't get how that math adds up, but feel free to double check me on that. Hey, if you are in the okay category, get going. Give me like like we're glad you're here. If you're in the bad category, then you probably only subscribe because this next playlist that we're in, I mean, honestly, it's for you.

00:05:16:23 - 00:05:47:25
Nick Clason
And even if you're in the great category, turn the bell on because I want to help. Level up your YouTube game in this playlist that we are finding ourselves in. Talking about the importance and value of YouTube and why YouTube, right? Pew Research actually have some statistics. Again, if you're listening, you may want to scrub over to the YouTube section of this video where 20 in 2022, 95% of teenagers say that they have used the following apps or sites, the app that 95% of them said they use was YouTube.

00:05:47:28 - 00:06:12:11
Nick Clason
The next highest was Tik Tok at 67%, a massive drop, Instagram at 62 and Snapchat 59 and Facebook at 32, which is down from 71% in this comparative study from 2014. And so actually we debated the topic Instagram versus Tik Tok versus YouTube right here. The video that you'll see if you're on YouTube right now, you can click on that and go watch that video.

00:06:12:11 - 00:06:50:19
Nick Clason
As we explored the pros and cons of each of those categories. And then actually left a final verdict about which of those platforms you should be using. Hint Side note Spoiler alert it was YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world behind Google. Some may classify it as third, but even if you do buy into that third largest search engine in the world, think it's behind Google, Google images and then YouTube, which so Google and Google images kind of are one and the same, which is I think why people debate between second and third, nonetheless, is the only platform backed by the power of Google and the Google search engine.

00:06:50:24 - 00:07:12:27
Nick Clason
So think about it. Why do you use YouTube? You jump on there to ask questions, how to change your oil and how to rewire a ceiling fan into your house and and how to, you know, get fastpass is that Disney, which unfortunately they don't have them anymore. But if you or anyone has connections down in Orlando and you want to give me a ticket, my family or come in in September, so send that on my way.

00:07:12:27 - 00:07:47:00
Nick Clason
But nonetheless, we get on YouTube to get answers to questions. Guess what? What do we do As youth pastors? We answer students questions. YouTube and youth ministry are a match made in absolute heaven. Think about it. You're actually already doing this. Your series that you have planned for next month. You are planning it in response to answering a student's question, or you are planning it because you think that your students need this particular message or this particular topic or this particular book study.

00:07:47:00 - 00:08:15:27
Nick Clason
Right. And the good news is all four social networks Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, all of them have a short form, vertical based video component right now that is taking the social media landscape by fire. So what that means for you and what that means for me is we can create one type of content, short form, vertical based video, which by the way, remember video posts two times more likely to be shared, and then we can post them across all of the platforms.

00:08:15:29 - 00:08:45:19
Nick Clason
We no longer have to create content that's specifically curated for each platform. We can create one piece, one type of content to get that message out and spread it across all four of the social networks. I've done this before. A link down below some of my statistics to the particular section in the video where I did it, but I pulled like just four pieces of social media content across all four platforms and I added it up and you know, none of them were like amazingly high in their view rate.

00:08:45:19 - 00:09:21:04
Nick Clason
But when you strung all four of them together, we reached over 500 students on a really badly performing post. And so my question to you and all youth pastors, like I said back at the beginning, is do you want to reach more students? Social media may in fact be the door in which you can reach more students, not because you're looking for vanity metrics, not because you want to become a famous influencer, but because you believe as a youth pastor that you have been given the burden to help carry out the Great Commission from Jesus Christ himself, to reach the world with the message of the Gospel and the message of hope.

00:09:21:07 - 00:09:49:28
Nick Clason
And you can look directly into a camera and share that message with your students. And you, like I said, you're already answering their questions. What if you just started capturing those answers via video? I'm actually opening up a limited amount of spots, three in particular. In fact, they may already be filled up from some of my cohort friends where I am going to offer done for you editing you film your teaching message, you send me the footage, I will send it back to you edited.

00:09:50:05 - 00:10:09:24
Nick Clason
I'll give you three short form, vertical based videos that you can post on whatever platforms you have, and I'll create a YouTube thumbnail for you to go ahead and get that thing started if you're interested. More information link down below in the show notes, in the description or in the podcast catcher wherever you are. But I love what Sean Cannell actually says.

00:10:09:24 - 00:10:30:01
Nick Clason
He says what you should do on YouTube is answer specific questions. He calls it his ASQ strategy. And like I said, you're doing that when you're creating your teaching series. So like for example, in our student ministry, we just got done answering the specific question, How do you use the Bible? How do you use the Bible? Right?

00:10:30:03 - 00:10:43:26
Nick Clason
Answer that question for your students and then when you have a student who comes to you two or three months later that says, Hey, can you help me get started on how to use my Bible? You don't have to be like, dog, we just did a series on that. Three months ago. I wish you would have been here.

00:10:43:28 - 00:11:06:02
Nick Clason
You can give them the link to that content, right? And even your most strict homeschool best parents, which by the way, that's me. I have an eight year old, the five year old. We're probably going to homeschool our kids next year. They love YouTube and they watch YouTube, but they only are allowed to watch it. When we my wife and I are in the room with them on the big screen in our main living room.

00:11:06:04 - 00:11:27:10
Nick Clason
And so you can you can deliver your content via YouTube to even the strictest parents and you can, you know, wave all the way up to the kids with absolutely no parental supervision on the Internet because all students, 95%, are on YouTube. Now, they may not be hungry for your content, and that's why you have to help kind of build and grow that audience.

00:11:27:10 - 00:11:53:11
Nick Clason
And that's why I love that YouTube offers the shorts section. They have the kind of TikTok, discovery based algorithm stuff. We've gained a lot of subscribers just organically, both on this personal channel here and also on my student ministry channel, far more on my student ministry channel, by the way, because we're shooting and producing content with our students and we're also shooting and producing content with our student staff, that's fun, engaging and entertaining.

00:11:53:11 - 00:12:17:21
Nick Clason
And then hopefully they follow us there and then maybe they get a little sneak peek of one of our short teaching reels or videos or whatever, and then that will link to a longer form, more elaborated, fleshed out answer to something that we're answering their specific question. I also love on YouTube. They have now the community tab with like polls and you can ask questions and you can post pictures and all kinds of stuff.

00:12:17:21 - 00:12:45:23
Nick Clason
It mirrors a more traditional sort of social media experience that wasn't there before for YouTube. I also love, love, Love their playlist feature. It is both a great place to dump any and all of your series You can any like three, four, five, six, seven week series can be a three, four, five, six, seven video playlist. And additionally, we're going to get deeper into this in this particular how to use YouTube playlist on this channel.

00:12:45:23 - 00:13:04:03
Nick Clason
It's very meta if you think about it. My playlist helping you create playlists on YouTube for your student ministry. But nonetheless, like you can also offer free courses to things that are necessary and need to be answered by your students. For example, we did one on baptism, but whenever you get up and preach on baptism, think about it.

00:13:04:03 - 00:13:27:24
Nick Clason
A wide and vast majority of those students have already been baptized. And so in a lot of ways, what's a good message and a good reminder? It's also not always like pressing more relevant to every single student in your room. However, if you have a playlist, you can send that information to students and links and descriptions, subscribes, likes, all those types of things where you can help them move on into that next step.

00:13:27:24 - 00:13:53:19
Nick Clason
You can meld the in-person and the digital and use it to work together, just like we all do in our own lives. We're using technology to to weave into an intersect, into the main and real parts of our lives. And also it's got the live kind of portion of the of YouTube that you can put a camera in the room and and livestream and you may be thinking, Dude, I can't livestream.

00:13:53:19 - 00:14:18:18
Nick Clason
I don't have that capability in my youth room. Truth be told, neither do I. And that's actually why I propose that we as youth pastor should film videos very much like I'm doing right now on a camera and so on. This right here on screen is my e-book. It's 100% completely free, and in there is a link to my buyer's guide on getting YouTube gear set up for under $100.

00:14:18:25 - 00:14:52:18
Nick Clason
You buy things like a tripod, a microphone and some lighting. You can do all that for under $100 and then use the cell phone that you already own that's in your pocket. And if you don't have a smartphone, find somebody in your life who does. You probably know someone would be my guess and then start filming pre filming your messages and we can get you started for under $100 and like I said, a limited run right now where I'm offering three people into my kind of beta trial course of I will edit your videos for you on social media, but live streaming is probably what most of us do.

00:14:52:18 - 00:15:19:14
Nick Clason
It's probably how most of us post our church's content onto the internet, but that's not made for YouTube, that's made for church, which is why I actually, you know, I recommend pre filming the messages because you don't have live streaming capabilities, but I also recommend pre filling messages because it's what's made and optimized for YouTube. Would you rather watch a video that's made for YouTube or would you rather watch a video that's made for another experience?

00:15:19:14 - 00:15:44:15
Nick Clason
Or are you sort of just in the back of the room and you're not the focal point? And the speaker, the presenter, they're not focused on you. They're focused on what's in front of them and they should be right. That's why I recommend pre filming your messages. It's not going to be that much more work. All you have to do is find time to sit down for 20 to 30 minutes per week, deliver your message, direct to camera, and potentially send it on to me to edit.

00:15:44:15 - 00:16:14:23
Nick Clason
If not, you can do some basic editing. We're going to get into that in this playlist, but that's why I recommend pre filming because the most dynamic content, if you go to the YouTube home screen on your YouTube account, probably the content that is being delivered to you and fed to you through the algorithm is content that is made for the medium of YouTube and you can create content like that by pre filming your messages that you're already doing the study and work to produce and make.

00:16:14:23 - 00:16:45:18
Nick Clason
And with a few small tweaks, we can get you up and running and launch a YouTube channel where you can reach students with the hope and the message of the gospel with a content that is made for the medium in which you're posting and we're going to get into all of that linked right here on the screen. Make sure that you subscribe so that you don't miss a single other video here in this playlist we here at the hybrid ministry show want to make digital discipleship easy, possible and accessible for you.

00:16:45:21 - 00:16:48:04
Nick Clason
So as always, 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"
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🎅 "The Ultimate (and FREE!) Christmas Party Gude"
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GUIDE: https://hybrid-ministry-40060036.hubspotpagebuilder.com/worlds-greatest-donut

😨 "Have I already Ruined my TikTok Account?"
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📹 "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.