Digital Strategy

Here are some simple tips for being more strategic in our digital communications (particularly social media):

• When resources are limited and you don’t have a detailed digital church strategy, try to focus on one specific platform (e.g. Facebook or Instagram, but not both) so you don’t spread yourself too thin – it’s best to do one platform well, rather than lots poorly.

• Define your target audience very precisely – it can be tempting to say we want to reach ‘everyone’, but this isn’t possible and waters down our effectiveness. Focus in on excatly who you are trying to reach. Find a niche. See above resources on creating audience personas. This also needs to be tied into your mission planning as a church (see below tab ‘creating a social media strategy’ for more on this) – maybe your focus is reaching local families, or beinging an eco church, or maybe it’s inclusivity, social justice, mental health, etc. Define your demographics – you can’t reach millennials and those who are retired with the same content, you need to pick an audience and taylor your strategy.

• Consider some simple questions: Are you using the right communication channel to reach your audience? How often are you going to post? (and on set days?) Do you have a visual brand (style guide, or simple logo, colours, and fonts for your church) to follow? What content are you going to post? (plan ahead and have a social media calendar)

One of the best places to start when thinking about digital strategy is with looking at your church mission plan. As such, the Mission Planning Toolkit from the Evangelism and Growth Team is a great resource for establishing your strategy for mission and digital in your context.

Here is an extract that is particularly relevant to also writting / thinking about a digital or social media strategy:

Once you’ve spent some time dreaming together, you are likely to have lots of ideas and possibilities that will need sifting. What will your church or circuit focus on as priorities this year? There is no point choosing too many priorities as it will scatter your energies too much. If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Consider the four areas of Our Calling—worship, learning and caring, service and evangelism. One priority for each area is fine—and you may choose to focus on just one or two areas this year and to look at the others next year. 

Once you have decided on your priorities you need to decide what you will do to develop each one, who will do it and when. This helps you to keep each other accountable, makes it much more likely things will get done and ensures the work is shared out fairly.

You don’t need to do everything all at once. Some things can be actioned fairly quickly; others take lots of time to plan. You may decide to spread your activities over the next 18 months, for example. It doesn’t matter if your mission plan takes time to implement, as long as you are taking action. 

As well as considering what you will do, you also need to think about what fruit you hope to see. This is likely to take more effort to figure out. We are used to thinking about what we will do as a church. We don’t often think about the difference we want to make as a result of our actions. 

If we do consider the fruit we hope to see—guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit—it will be much easier for us to review our activities in the future. We will be able to see what is working and what isn’t. We will be able to make strategic decisions about how to spend our limited energy, time and money. 

You might also find this guide helpful:
New Places for New People: Starting new Christian communities – a practical guide

So Everyone Can Hear: Communicating Church In A Digital Culture by Mark Crosby (2019) – Communication lies at the heart of every healthy community; the church is no exception. In Matthew 11:15, Jesus says, ‘Whoever has ears, let them hear’. How do we make sure we are saying things in a way that invites all people – no matter their background – to engage with what it means to be church today? This colourful, engaging and practical book will help leaders and members alike be more mindful of how they ‘communicate church’ both inside and outside of it within our dynamic and ever-changing digital culture.

Details of how to recruit a digital role coming soon – including sample digital job descriptions, interview questions, expectations etc.

In the meantime you might find the chapters on recruiting a pioneer role in this guide helpful:
New Places for New People: Starting new Christian communities – a practical guide

These additional topics may be of interest, as they directly or indirectly relate to strategy:

Digital Evangelism

Digital Discipleship

Digital Safeguarding

Digital Training

External Resources

Contact our Digital Communications Enabler:

Elliot Crippen
digital@yorkshirenemethodist.org