As usual, I continue to read numerous technology websites to see what’s new and what technological advancements can help ministries reach out online easier. I came across the article “Increase Traffic by Optimizing Publish Times” and the main software they spoke about was hootsuite, which is located at hootsuite.com. The premise of this article was to help social media specialists learn the benefits of scheduling their posts at certain times using hootsuite.com software and not have to manually post their facebook, twitter and linkedin updates.
I started using hootsuite.com early 2010. It was an important factor in my development of a social media strategy for ministries. With ministries that have a good amount of content to distribute via social networks, hootsuite is a good way to automate the process of content distribution. As stated earlier, with hootsuite you can schedule your posts at any time of the day, this not only enables the automation of multiple types of posts such as ministry updates, daily devotionals, ministry links, videos and pictures, but also enables posts during traditional off hours. These off hour posts make a local ministry visible to an international audience. This was the strategy I used for a large ministry located in Dallas. This pastor not only had a large national following, but a large international following, thus we started to schedule facebook and twitter postings throughout the evening and overnight hours which were targeted towards the international audience.
With hootsuite a ministry can schedule their social media posts up to 30 days out and this can help the ministry focus more on the content and interactions of social media and less on managing the technology used to distribute it. One of the main points I focus on in The iChurch Method is the strategy used in social media and not the actual technology. The websites used for social media may change but the strategy (content and interactions) will remain the same. Here is an example of a ministry’s weekly social media strategy from The iChurch Method:
Facebook Social Media Posting Strategy Template
Monday
- Morning - Inspirational Quote
- Afternoon - Product from Weekend Shows or Sermon
- Late Afternoon - Video (current events, promotions or Sunday announcements)
- Evening - Poll
- Night - Repost Inspirational Quote
- Overnight – Additional inspiration
Tuesday
- Morning - Inspirational Quote
- Afternoon - Video (current events, promotions or Sunday announcements)
- Evening - Weekly Broadcasts of TV Show/Sermon
- Night - Repost Inspirational Quote
- Overnight – Additional inspiration (testing this strategy)
Wednesday
- Morning - Inspirational Quote
- Afternoon - Current Event/Conference Post
- Evening - Bible Study Information
- Night - Repost Inspirational Quote
- Overnight – Additional inspiration (testing this strategy)
Thursday
- Morning - Inspirational Quote
- Early Afternoon - Conference Post
- Late Afternoon - Video (current events, promotions, update or Sunday announcements)
- Early Evening - Poll
- Night - Repost Inspirational Quote
- Overnight – Additional inspiration (testing this strategy)
Friday
- Morning - Inspirational Quote
- Afternoon - Product from Weekend Shows
- Evening - Video (current events, promotions or Sunday announcements)
- Night - Repost Inspirational Quote
- Overnight – Additional inspiration (testing this strategy)
Saturday
- Morning - Inspirational Quote
- Afternoon – Saturday service Reminder
- Night - Repost Inspirational Quote
- Overnight – Additional inspiration (testing this strategy)
Sunday
- Morning - Sunday Service Post
- Afternoon - Product airing on TV
- Evening – Reminder about Sunday evening service
- Night - Inspirational Quote
- Overnight – Additional inspiration (testing this strategy)