I have love and hate relationship with Facebook. I think it’s interface is poorly design and I don’t like how it handles my privacy. But here’s the truth, majority of people who are on social media use Facebook. In fact, if you’re like most churches in America, your primary social media channel is Facebook. So if you haven’t done it yet, it’s time to get serious about your church’s Facebook page.
For most churches, there are two goals with Facebook. The first is to increase the number of people who like your page. The theory has always been, the more people who like your page, then the more people will see your content. The second is obviously increasing your reach (more people seeing your content). This usually dependent either getting more likes or paying to boost your post. Of course there’s a catch….
The fact is that not everyone who likes your Facebook page will see all your posts. It’s reported that only about 15% of your audience will actually see your posts. Now, for some that numbers is debatable. However, I’ve found that number to be fairly accurate.
Don’t fret thought, there are some things you can do overcome this limitation. There are tactics that you can utilize that will help increase your reach (who sees your posts) and the number of people who like your page. I’ve covered this before, however, I want to give some additional tactics to improve your Facebook page. Here they are:
Study Your Audience Insights
Audience Insights is your dashboard for understanding who your audience is. You can find Audience Insights under Ads Manager. With Audience Insights you can get information like Gender, Age, Employment, Relationship Status, Education and Geography. (Keep in mind that this is different from Page Insights.)
Now why do you want this information? Well, if your like me, you make certain assumptions about your audience. I make assumptions all the time about age, gender and geography about our congregation. However, when I look at Audience Insights I can get a much better picture of who our audience really is.
This new information allows me to reshape my content in terms subject matter, design and tone. I can now better serve my audience by shaping content that fits their needs. This of course lets me make better use of my time and resources.
Display Your Page Administrators
If you want to showcase the people who are running your Facebook page, you can display the page administrators in the About section of your Facebook page (go to your page settings to see this). This is a great way to show how your Facebook page is being run by real people. Think of it like giving your Facebook page little more personality.
Embed a Post on Your Blog
Okay, this is a cool feature that I see all the time, however I didn’t occur to me that anyone could do that is well. If you’re looking for a great way to showcase your Facebook content on your own website you can embed a Facebook post on your website.
Now, why would you want to do this? Well I can think of two reasons. First, by embedding the content on your website, you’re giving people a signal that your active on social media. This is also great if you don’t have a news or announcement feature on your website, because your Facebook post embed could act as a substitute.
Second, this allows people to easily click through the embedded post and like your page. This tactic is superior to just having a Facebook icon on your page, because it will draw a significant amount of attention to your Facebook presence.
Call To Action Button
While it’s great that people are engaging with your Facebook and content and liking your page, you’ll want a call to action on your Facebook page. Why? Well, why Facebook is great for reaching your audience, we don’t want to tie ourselves solely to that platform. One way to insure that is by using the call to action button.
With the call to action button we can:
- Signup for a email list
- Go to a certain section of your website
- Take people to an event registration page
While this tactic does not necessarily increase your reach or likes, it can help you achieve our overall goal of giving your church more exposure.
So go ahead and try these tactics to help your church’s Facebook page succeed. It’s small tactics like these that eventually create the momentum that you’re looking for with your Facebook page.
P.S.
If you’re looking for things you can do to improve your church’s Twitter profile, check out this post.