If you have been creating content for a while you know how easy it is have a content drought. Your social media is humming right along and then one day you ask yourself, “What’s next?” and you are realize you don’t have an answer.
A content drought can hit you at any moment. It can cause your church’s social media to stray off message, lose voice, or mindshare with your audience. How do you avoid a content drought? Well, here are eight ways that I know will help you beat a content drought:
Crowdsource from Your Church Members
You church members can be the best source for social media content. Have some fun with your church members and let them take over some social media channels. For example, what if you let one of your students run your Twitter account? I know that sounds dangerous, but with some precautions put in place you might be surprised.
Do a Recap of the Year So Far
Were there some big moments in your church in the last few months? It might be time to give your church members a reminder of how God has moved through your church in the last year. Take some time to capture testimonies, quotes, and collect photos to celebrate where God has taken your church.
Give a History Lesson
Do your church members know how your church got started? I bet if you took a poll, a lot of your members couldn’t tell you (unless you are at a new church plant). Take some time to share a little bit of your church history with your members.
Share What We Believe
It’s never too late to circle back and reintroduce your church members to your church’s Articles of Faith. Are there some theological areas that members don’t understand that you can help unpack?
Give a Look at the Year Ahead
Is it time to get people excited about how God is going to move in your church? Take some time to highlight big events or traditions coming up this year for your church. Explain why your church is doing these events and how you hope that God moves through them.
Transcribe Your Pastor’s Sermons
Your pastor’s sermons can be a wealth of content for social media. You can pull quotes for Twitter or Instagram (here are a few examples) and transcribe the sermons to blog posts with new insights from your pastor.
Run a Hashtag Campaign
One way to get content from your church members is creating a #hashtag campaign for your sermon series. For example, this month our church is doing series entitled “JourneyOn at Home” to launch our family ministry, so we are appending all of our social media conversations with the hashtag “#athome”.
Host a Social Media Tutorial for Your Church
If you are trying to get social media content from your church members, you might want to consider hosting a tutorial at your church to help your members join the social media conversation.
Create a Social Media Content Calendar
I have written before about the importance of calendaring out your social media. When you do this simple task, you are able to see when a content drought might strike and you can prepare in advance.
Next time you hit a content drought try one of the suggestions above and see if it helps you get back on track.