So you’re thinking about hiring someone to handle social media for your church or maybe you’re thinking about applying at a church that’s looking to hire. Either way, it’s easy to get caught up in the process and not think through some essential elements that the job requires. Here are four questions to ask when creating or applying for a social media position at a church.
Is the Job Is Content or Platform Focused?
Content or platform. While picking one doesn’t mean you ignore the other, your job description will need to lean one way or the other. If you decide that the job is more content related, then you’ll want go with someone who thinks like an editor of magazine. If you go the platform route, then you will need to think more technical, someone who can manage the ins and outs of something like geolocation search or ad tracking.
Is the Job Focused on Creating or Curating Content or Both?
A lot of social media directors don’t realize how much content creation will have to take place before the accept a job. Sure every church thinks they have a story to tell, but the social media director will need to produce those stories, figure out the key hooks and how to make the story digestible into your social media channels. As you can tell, the content creation process is much more lenghthy than curating content. Make sure you’ve clearly spelled out the difference.
Is the Job Focused on the Overall Church or All Ministries?
You will need to clarify whether the job is focusing on large church messages or all of your church ministries (students, kids, missions, etc…). Sometimes, ministries will believe that the social media staff works for them as well. If you don’t clarify responsibilties then you’ll quickly find your social media staff creating Facebook pages for a puppet ministry when you’d rather have them focusing on a larger message.
Is the Job Focused on Live Event Social Media?
It’s one thing to work out of an office and create social media, it’s another to do it in a live setting. If your working out of an office setting, then you can set your hours and the job can be predictable. However, if you want coverage of all your live events and you have plenty on the calendar, then the job description needs to reflect that.
Do you have more questions about creating a social media position for your church? Feel free to contact me and I’ll help in anyway I can.