Stop! Church social media content requires branding

Do you wonder if you’re wasting time on your church social media content? You could be if you’re creating random posts about various themes and events. There’s a better way. It’s called branding: identifying what makes the content your church’s, and controlling it so your followers recognize and want it.

It’s building a framework for why someone should like your page. It’s what makes “you” unique, beneficial, and needed by your audience. If you stopped posting, they’d miss your church social media content because you do it so well.

When you put branding parameters on what makes your church’s content uniquely needed, it allows you to be creative within those controls. That content playground becomes your recognized brand. And you limit your posts to communicating your expertise while controlling design elements so your followers quickly identify your content visually.

In fact, adding a small logo, controlled colors, and limited fonts, notify your audience, who’s seeking your content, to slow down in their social media scrolling. Research confirms that branding can increase recognition and engagement. That’s a win!

Here are 5 steps to creating controlled, branded, church social media content:

1. Know your audience. Don’t have many followers? Do whatever you can to define the type of person who will want social media content from you. Start with your congregation and motivate them to follow your page, and then watch others (who are similar) follow along. Consider their needs, concerns, and goals — what they want from a church to improve their spiritual well-being.
2. Define your thread. Remember, there are many spiritual social media pages — so decide what you want to be known for in order for you to be unique, relevant to your audience, and needed. That defined, written content needs to be delivered consistently and not easily found elsewhere.
3. Create a content strategy. You need written rules for delivering consistent and controlled content over time. Consider tone and timing too. It also helps you establish a regular pace for posting stylized, edited, branded content. 
4. Control your visuals. Your audience needs to quickly recognize your church social media content in order to trust it, seek it out, and share it. Include a small logo symbol or a design element from your logo. Don’t overdo it but understand how to make the graphic your own. Control color and fonts as well as the layouts!
5. Be engaging and authentic. Be social so you’re recognized as being one of them. Social media is a two-way conversation; therefore, ask questions, create polls, and ALWAYS respond to comments in a way that extends the conversation and encourages spiritual discussion.

Anyone who creates content for a church social media page understands the constant pressure to engage regularly. But be careful it doesn’t get stale. Regularly watch metrics to ensure you’re evaluating what it means to engage within your brand structure. You may need to adjust slightly along the way!