I recently had the honor of speaking on an ICSC (International Catholic Stewardship Council) panel about social media in the world of stewardship and development.
How do you feel about social media? Often people approach social media with fear or dread, but the good news for you is that working in the field of development, especially within the Church, means that you have LOADS of content at your disposal.
I think a mindset shift is essential, you aren’t just promoting the work of your parish or diocese to convince them to support your work, you are sharing the ways in which Jesus is doing life-changing work to inspire others to join your mission.
Practical Social Media Tips
- Establish your audience. What is their age group? Male or female? Establishing your audience will help you know how best to present your material and which platforms you need to be on. Maybe Facebook and Instagram make the most sense; maybe you need to be on LinkedIn; maybe you just need Facebook! Establishing your audience will help you make strategic decisions.
- Tell stories! People and faces do well on social media. People will share content that resonates with them, or when they see someone they know (or themselves!). If you work at a diocese, think of different ministries you can highlight and feature the people in those ministries. Short, personal testimonies do very well too.
- Use video when possible. Video ranks better than still images, and you don’t need to worry about it being a professional grade video. A 20-second gospel reflection from your bishop or a well-loved priest can help people feel connected to your parish or diocese.
- Ask ChatGPT for help. AI can be a great tool to help generate ideas. Drop your website into Chat and ask it to help generate social media ideas. Many people feel overwhelmed by the constant content demand of social media, now you can offload some of that with AI.
- Don’t worry about going viral. Your goal isn’t to go viral, your goal is to share your institutional message using the language of social media. You want to get in front of your particular audience, not the entire world.
- Make a plan. Having a social media plan and calendar will help alleviate the mental load of constantly posting and coming up with ideas. Decide how many times a week you want to post, what type of content you want to post, and then use Meta Business Suite tools to help you post during high traffic times.
