5 Ways Your Church Can Use Twitter

Twitter is my go to social media platform. I like it for the immediacy and quick headlines that it provides. This is a great tool for small business – and churches. Think of tweeting for your church as an on going bulletin. Here are the top 5 ways to use it:

I’m a BIG proponent of the church using technology as a tool to engage with existing members and welcome new ones. Like many small businesses, many churches don’t know how to get started and keep the conversations going with those online. Here are the five best practices:

• Live updates – Always encourage people to come to the church. If they cannot, use a hashtag they can follow every church service. When they go to the hashtag, they can follow the conversation. It can also be used as a bible study technique. example: #Jesusrocks

• Announcements – Set up a hashtag for announcements or a direct link to the document for your church bulletin. If there is a change, people can see it immediately. Tweet more than once per week to insure people see the information.

• Recognition – Reward and recognize your staff members with an announcement that contains their picture with their reward, what they did to win and the reward description. They can retweet the information to friends and family.

• Here’s What We Did! – Apps such as Instagram connect directly to Twitter. When doing work forHabitat for Humanity or planting in the church garden, take pictures and IMMEDIATELY tweet. Your audience will see that you are active. Post the pics on your Pinterest Board (for each ministry, too).

• Pray – Use local Twitter search tools to see who is asking for prayer. There are people who will use Twitter to ask someone to pray for them. That “someone” should be your church. Assure them that God (and you) are listening. Students sad about grades. Boyfriend / girlfriend / husband / wife drama? Your church is there for them.

Looking for other ways to use Twitter for your church? Try this link: Church Tech Today. Remember: it’s not one or the other. You can have paper bulletins, make announcements during service AND use Twitter. Make sure you are using as many avenues as possible to reach your church members.