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A Presbyterian pastor on getting real with Reels

In our church’s social media posts, we’ve noticed a trend: The single, static photo is declining in effectiveness compared to short video clips. Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) has been pushing “Reels,” which are videos less than 90 seconds long. There are two considerations in creating these Reels — technical aspects and content.

Measuring, and understanding, online worship metrics

How can we measure who is worshiping with us? If your online worship uses Zoom, you can simply count the faces on your screen. But if you are streaming your worship to Facebook, YouTube or through your website, interpreting the metrics is trickier.

Church in the digital age

Counting people in the pews is no longer a viable way of recording worship numbers. With some joining online, how does a church measure attendance trends?

Social media needs a strategy

It’s one thing for your church to be on social media, but simply having a presence is not enough. What is needed is an understanding of the various social media platforms, who uses them and what content gets noticed. So, let’s begin with the basics. The platforms we think of most often are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For church discussions, we will be focusing on Facebook and Instagram.

Social media needs a strategy

Churches can improve the effectiveness of their social media by matching their messaging with users’ expectations for each platform.

Get your social media noticed with hashtags

Posting your ministry happenings on social media is great, but it can be even better (translation: more folks seeing what you have posted) with the use of a hashtag.

From rooms to Zooms

On Sunday at 10:15 a.m., we gathered for worship in the Sanctuary of LoveJoy United Presbyterian Church. It was one of the first beautiful spring weekends of the year. The church service was entirely ordinary, save that I asked the congregation to refrain from shaking hands during the passing of the peace. It was March 8, 2020, and it was the last time that we would worship together in the sanctuary for more than a year.