I love making to do lists, especially in the beginning of a new year. It’s easy to become excited about the new goals and ideas that come from the possibilities of a new beginning. What’s not easy to do though is to create a “stop doing” list.
A stop doing list is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a list of things that you’ll stop doing in the New Year. When used properly, it can be quite powerful in making you more productive. What makes it powerful? By stop doing certain things that aren’t working, you can provide capacity and time to do more of things that are working.
Before you begin creating a list of goals and ideas for your church’s social media list, you need to consider creating a stop doing list for your church. That’s right, a list of things that your church’s social media needs to stop doing this next year. Think about it for a second, aren’t there a list of things that you know you need to stop doing to make your church’s social media more effective?
Making a stop doing list for your church’s social media is key to setting your church up for success in the New Year. It’s not always easy to do, but it does free your church up to achieve more. If you want to create a stop doing list for your church, I’ve already started one for you. Below you find five things right now that your church needs to stop doing to in order to have successful year. Read through the list below and ask yourself, what would happened if our church stop doing these things with our social media?
Stop Chasing Numbers
It’s easy to become caught-up in the numbers game. How many likes does your Facebook page have? How many Twitter followers do you have? While these numbers can be good indicators of how your social media strategies are working, they don’t always tell the true story.
Yes, you should know your numbers. However, remember that the essence of social media is about connecting with people on a personal level. This means building relationships one at time and that’s not easy. You can’t do this on a mass level or automate this. You and your church have to be human on social media. You need to maintain a personal element in everything your church does.
Stop Joining the Latest Social Networks
Snapchat, Yo, and Snarkle. Yes, it’s fun to be on the latest social networks (okay, I made that last one up). However, they can sometimes be more hassle then they’re worth. Sometimes, they’re not stable (remember the Twitter fail whale?) or they haven’t really figured how they’re going to make money. Either way, new social media networks should be carefully vetted before joining them.
Stop Abandoning Your Content Calendar
When things don’t go right, your first option may be to go off your social media calendar (you have social media calendar, right?). It’s easy to panic and try to go for a quick win, instead of taking a deep breath and determining what’s not working and why.
If your social media plan is not working, don’t abandon it for cheap tactics. Instead, stick to what you’ve planned and see it through. Once you’ve worked your plan, then take the time to review and determine what you need to do better (you can do this during your end of the year social media review).
Stop Focusing on Yourself
Social media isn’t about you. It’s easy to focus on your church and generating content that just focuses on itself. However, if all your social media points to you and your church, then that’s not very social is it?
Instead of focusing on your church, try focusing your members instead. You can do this through stories, photo tagging, and highlighting key moments in your church members life (what would it look like if your social media accounts wished every single church member happy birthday?).
Stop Just Posting Announcements
One of things that I learned early in my job was that it’s very easy to take the church bulletin and just use it for your social media content. In fact, I think this is the strategy for most churches. While this may seem like a good idea from a marketing stand point, it really adds little value for your audience. Remember to tell stories not bullet points.
Creating a stop doing list is like spring cleaning. It’s an opportunity to create space to do this most important things that really matter for your church. I challenge you to begin creating a stop doing list and give yourself the capacity have a great new year.
What does your church need to stop doing this year? Click here to share below.