So based on the last column, now that you’ve planted you embassy in one or more of the social media countries, what do you share?
As we explore social media more deeply, let’s take a look at what you should share. Notice that I said “should.” There are lots of things you “can” share, but as you’ve probably already noticed from other people’s posts, there are lots of things you don’t really need to be sharing.
One of our core Audience Delivery Services at FrontGate Media is Social Media. We have a lot of experience in this area. I spend my time working for our clients to develop a strategy around their ministry or business. I’m going to share our strategy with you.
As I’ve mentioned before in this column, we are all about Fan Development, and you should be too. You want to provide value to your friends, fans and followers. You want to engage them in a way that builds them up. You want to connect with them more deeply, and they want to connect with you!
Social media is certainly about being…well, social. It’s about sharing life together. AOL calls it your Lifestream. That’s a great name.
It’s great to get a bit more personal with folks and share your life. Remember that they want you to share in what they are doing too, so do keep an eye on your friends. Some worship leaders post every single thing that comes into their minds or in their daily life, including pictures of the dentist examining each mouth in the family. That does accomplish the goal of sharing more personally, but for most of us, that’s a bit over the top, even though we love you Carlos.
From a more formal strategy standpoint, I want you to think about the types of things you have available to share. We’re going to call those content buckets. Each content bucket is an area where you can have ongoing stuff to share. Stuff is defined as information, pictures, videos or anything else you can think up. You are going to use these buckets to create specific posts for your social media outlets.
I want you add in a bucket named Questions. That’s going to remind you that you should be asking your friendbase some questions along the way. Don’t be that friend who only talks about himself or herself.
For most of us, we have lots of information to share, so that probably needs to be more than one bucket. I worked together for years with Rick Muchow, the worship pastor at Saddleback Church. Let’s use Rick as an example. In addition to pictures and videos related to his worship leading, to his church, and to his passions for family and kayaking (and probably other things too), he has multiple information buckets to choose from. Content buckets for Rick might include Rick Muchow the Worship Leader, Rick the Trainer of Pastors, Where’s Rick? (appearances), Rick’s songs/albums, Rick’s latest articles, Rick’s book snippets, Rick’s gear, Saddleback’s set list, Saddleback’s calendar, Saddleback’s teaching series, and more.
That’s all related to his church-work life. We haven’t even listed personal areas yet, and each of us should. What does God have in your life, as passions or struggles, outside of your music and service to the church? That’s where you can get more personal.
Hopefully, you can see how easy it is now to post relevant, interesting, engaging information at least 3-5 times per day every day. Once you’ve listed your content buckets, then you are ready to figure out how often to post from each bucket. Rick would not be trying to figure out what to post, but what not to post. You can also pre-schedule at least a week’s worth of posts in one sitting.
Remember your Questions bucket? You can write posts specifically for that bucket, but you can also just take content from the other information buckets and turn those posts into questions. Instead of a post like: “Saddleback This Week: Easter Performance at the Town Center” you might ask instead “Will you be able to join me at the Town Center this week for our Easter Performance?”
Send me your Social Media questions and I’ll try to answer the most popular topics as we explore this topic together.
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Reprinted from Worship Musician magazine. Scott has led classes for us at NAMM and the Christian Musician Summit. He has been featured in Adweek and at the Christian Leadership Alliance. He is the CEO of FrontGate Media, the #1 culture-engaged media group reaching the Christian audience (http://www.FrontGateMedia.com/) and is the co-founder of Creator Worship: online radio for worship leaders (http://www.CreatorLeadershipNetwork.com) .