Communication
Utilizing Social Media In Ministry
I graduated from college with a Bachelors in Communications. My main focus was Electronic Media which at the time meant radio, television and film. I...
While my youth were packing shoeboxes for the homeless, I snapped a well-angled photo.
When I heard our Keynote say something brilliant, I tweeted it.
An adult volunteer at my church told me that her group was going on a mission trip; I check her Facebook later to repost some of her photos.
Social media is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction for me. I worked for more than five years as a social media professional for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, heading their platforms. I enjoyed telling the Good News. I believe we have a responsibility to show the world what we’re doing. As Pope Francis tells us: “it is our responsibility as Catholics to bring the Church’s teachings into…the ‘digital continent’” (2014 World Day of Communications).
Today I’m a Director of Communications and Youth Ministry at a local parish. While social media is a part of my job, I had to adjust my expectations for how I would communicate. I don’t have nearly as much time to devote to my church’s social profiles as I did in my previous position. Fortunately, in my earlier position I spent five years researching social algorithms and figuring out how to optimize social posts for each platform. I learned the “best” time, format, frequency, hashtags, imagery…
Social media isn’t random, and it takes some work, as a social media professional I get asked questions about best practices. Here are the top three questions I usually get asked and how they apply to youth ministry:
HOW OFTEN SHOULD I POST?
Short answer: At least once each day, and ideally twice each day. The lifetime of a post is short. Unless your post is hugely popular and keeps getting pushed to the tops of peoples’ feeds (algorithms at work), then your post won’t be seen by everyone because they’re visiting social channels at different times.
Not only that but if you choose to tweet only once a day, guess what I bet your default post is? Something promotional. “Come to this” or “Don’t miss this.” Facebook can filter for this type of language easily. If this is all you post, you won’t get views. You need to balance these posts out with purely educational, spiritual, and formational content.
Take advantage of scheduling platforms. They are worth the money because they save you time. With a scheduling platform, you can repeat content. You could have one post repeat every other week. (Scheduling platforms do this for you.) Just make sure the post is engaging. You can schedule evergreen, Catholic content. I recommend posting live at events.
WHAT SHOULD I POST?
I always find this question so funny. We are Catholic. There is a plethora – and yes, I used that word – a plethora of Catholic resources! Try quoting a saint or a well-known pope. Use the daily readings and create a catchy hashtag. You should schedule this content daily.
The other content is “live” content when you grab a video of your pastor giving a blessing over the teens before your year of ministry kicks off. Or, when Isabelle says she is so ecstatic to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and you snap a photo of the group and put her words in quotes.
Be the lens for the audience that cannot be where you are in that moment. What do you see? What is unique? People love this stuff. They genuinely don’t know it’s even happening! People are on fire for their faith: Tell the world! Better yet, show them. Bonus: Parents will love you because their kids look happy; it gives them pride.
Be the lens for the audience that cannot be where you are in that moment. Click To Tweet
WHAT TIME SHOULD I POST?
When you post entirely depends on your audience and your platform. I recommend logging in to your profile, studying the backend analytics for just 10 minutes, and you’ll already begin to notice trends about when your fans visited your profile. If this doesn’t help you, think about when you most often check social media and go with your gut. Noon to 1 p.m. always seems to be a happy range for Twitter, while evening hours spike more on Instagram. Experiment a little with different hours and see what sticks. Often, the same people who like your content will continue to like your content – and they’ll begin to know when to expect it, and Instagram will continue to know when to show it to them.
Just last week, one of the high school seniors attending a movie night I ran said to me (while I was posting a photo on Instagram, of course): “No way! We have Insta?” and he proceeded to make sure he and all his friends followed our account (you can follow us here too, by the way).
This stuff does have an impact. If you produce engaging, consistent, attractive content, it will only build your online reputation and your ministry. This is where teens live. We have to be there, too: “The Church needs to be…present in, the world of communication, in order to dialogue with people today and to help them encounter Christ. She needs to be a Church at the side of others…” (2014 World Day of Communications).
What best practices have you learned with social media?
Natalie J. Plumb is the Director of Communications and Youth Ministry at
St. Ann Catholic Church, where she received all her sacraments growing up. She was born and raised in Washington, DC, and attended DC public schools. Plumb graduated from Penn State with a B.A. in print journalism and minors in French, Spanish, and TESOL. She then received her M.A. in broadcast journalism from American University. She has reported with WTOP, the Washington Examiner and the French Embassy in D.C. Plumb is passionate about her faith, cantoring, and music ministry, dance, languages (
French and Spanish specifically), keeping active, having a blast, traveling and people. She served for five years as Coordinator of Digital and Social Media for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, in Northern Virginia before working at St. Ann. Find her online at
nataliejplumb.com and @