How your Church can Adapt to Facebook’s change to Pages

Facebook made a big announcement to Facebook Pages on Thursday night that just rocked every marketer, brand and Church. Literally, this was what most marketers and Church Communicators were talking about on Friday. But, just like everything else, there is a silver lining here.

Facebook is no stranger to changing things up. They are constantly making minor and some major changes over the course of their history. It is part of what every good company does. So, as Facebook changes, we have to change and adapt as well.

When Facebook first started, it was all about connecting with friends and family. However, over time, Facebook Pages have become increasingly popular as businesses, brands, newspapers and Churches (just to name some) have created Pages to share content and engage people. That has slowly but surely taken over most of Facebook to where it has become less social between people and more social between businesses and brands. So Facebook decided to deemphasize Pages to where they will not be seen as much in people’s newsfeeds. They want to put the emphasis back on people content, not brand content.

So does this mean your Church’s Facebook Page will no longer be seen anymore? It does decrease the chances of people seeing it on their newsfeed but it doesn’t prohibit them from seeing it entirely. In fact, if you do this one thing in the video below, you can ensure the followers of your Church’s Facebook Page will see your content.

In addition to what was mentioned in the above video, there are other things you can do that will help your Church get their content out to people.

Ministers can become more involved on Facebook. Facebook has devalued Pages and their reach. That means the Church’s page won’t be seen as much. But they haven’t done that to actual people. Now is a great opportunity for your Ministers to become more involved in sharing stuff about the Church and the Bible on their personal page. Ministers can now rely less on a Church’s page to share and more on their own profiles to share about the life changing ability of Christ in your life and the lives of others. If you are still not convinced of how great an opportunity you have to reach the masses on social media, here are 10 reasons why ministers should be on social media.

Create more Facebook Groups. For a while now, Facebook Groups have become increasingly popular. Whereas Pages have become more about information sharing and updates, Groups have become places where people tend to share and engage more. In Groups, real community is developing whether it is in the form of a Bible Study, sharing stories and experiences or encouragement, people involved in groups are much more active than on Pages. I have done Online Life Groups on Facebook for a while now and they have been really engaging.

Do more LIVE videos. Facebook loves videos and, according to their news release, any content Pages produce that increase conversations and discussions will be valued and shown on newsfeeds. They go on to say that “live videos often lead to discussion among viewers on Facebook.” That means, the more engaging LIVE videos you do that spur conversation and discussion, you will not see much of an impact on your Church’s Page.

Put a reemphasis on your Church’s website. No matter what social media platform you are engaged with for your Church, the main source of your content needs to come from your Church’s website. When you post to Facebook or any other social media network that content becomes theirs. It is not yours. They can choose to use it for whatever they want or they can choose to delete it at anytime. It’s their content once you post. However, whatever you post on your Church’s website is your content and only yours. So keep creating great content on your website (events, blog posts, videos, information) and share it not just to Facebook but all the other social media networks as well.

Conclusion

Every social media networks makes changes. Facebook has consistently made changes and will in the future, as well. As they continue to make changes, continue to adapt and work with it. The less you become dependent on one social media network, no matter how large it is, the better off your Church will be when social networks makes changes.

What do you think? What other things can you do to adapt to Facebook’s change in Pages? Share your thoughts below or social media using #ymsidekick when you post.