Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Well, it used to be you had to post every single day in order to get results on social media, but those times have changed. In this conversation, we're gonna unpack how often we think you should be posting on each social media channel for your church in order to get the best results. Let's do this. You are listening to the Reach right podcast, the show dedicated to helping your church reach more people and grow. Well, hey guys. I'm Thomas.
Speaker 2 00:00:27 And I'm Ian.
Speaker 0 00:00:28 And today we're talking about social media posting schedules for churches. I think this should be a good conversation because our advice on this has actually changed over the last few years. Yeah. I think, uh, just a few years ago, we were the, the best practice was to be posting a lot, uh, be posting all the time. Most channels, we encourage people to post every single day, uh, right. And our advice in this area has changed pretty drastically in how often Yeah. You should be posting, um, you know, the same thing still apply and that like, it's better to post good content than bad content often. Uh, of course. And there's not necessarily a penalty for posting too often, I wouldn't say. Uh, but I think that we've kind of looked at some data and we feel like we probably don't need to post quite as much on most channels as we used to a few years ago to get results. And so I wanna share some of that with you guys and, uh, get that, um, the things we've uncovered, uh, get that into or get that over to you guys there. So I think it should be a good conversation here.
Speaker 2 00:01:31 Agreed. And it could be very encouraging to the church that's had a hard time keeping up with social media. <laugh>, tell me about it. So, which is many churches, right? So, yeah, absolutely. Well, let me,
Speaker 0 00:01:41 Let's, let me offer this to you as a disclaimer before we start. Um, so we're gonna go through every channel that churches, I mean, not every channel they could be using. Uh, we're not getting to everything you could, uh, use, but the primary ones that churches could be using. Now, do not hear what we're saying as a re as a recommendation to use all of these channels. Right? I think realistically, very few churches should be doing all of this, uh, because to do all of this, well, it's gonna take a social media team of Yeah. At least one full-time person, if not a few full-time people to pull this off. Yeah. So that's more than most churches will be able to afford or be able to invest in this area. So for most churches, your best option is to choose a few, or a couple or maybe even one social channel and really hit it.
Speaker 0 00:02:30 Right. Do it exactly right there. Now, some of these channels we're gonna talk about, they overlap. And if you're gonna do one, you might as well do the other one because it's just something that it's, you're already making the content for it. And so it doesn't take much longer to add this. Uh, so we'll get into those when we get there. But yeah, please don't hear this as a, you're failing as a social media director at your church. If you're not doing all of what we're talking about here, do it this way. As we talk about these different channels, if it's one you feel like you're called to use, embrace this schedule that we're presenting, or kind of consider the schedule we're presenting on this year, that's probably the optimum schedule for you. So, um, yeah, that's kind of the way to think about this conversation.
Speaker 2 00:03:08 No, that's a good point to mention, Thomas, before we kick it off. Yeah. 'cause uh, it, it could be easily taken is, oh, I gotta do all of these or nothing at all. So, but, um, well, good. Well, the first one, uh, Facebook, uh, that's the first one here. Um, still remains the dominant platform three to four times a week. Why three to four times a week, Thomas, for Facebook? Well,
Speaker 0 00:03:29 So Facebook, um, it's, as we all kind of know now, is that it is the, I mean this is a, this is a misnomer I'd say, but it has a reputation, at least with my kids, as the geezer social media platform, right? Yeah. So, you know, you and I, we, our relationship started like right at Facebook's infancy. Uh, so yeah, I believe we had just left MySpace and got on the Facebook. That's it. I'm sure you were one of my very early Facebook friends, Ian. I don't, I don't remember when we friended each other on there, but Yeah, I know. Funny, it has this reputation as the Geezer platform. Um, when we're talking about this, there's gonna be other parts to the Facebook or meta platform we're gonna talk about here in a little bit. But I'm talking about just your general news feed, um, posts.
Speaker 0 00:04:12 So this is, uh, photos and, you know, maybe even just text posts. I guess you could still do those on Facebook, but I don't recommend just text posts very often. Yeah, so photo posts, even video posts, but that are just in the standard, uh, post style, um, three to four a week is a good pace, I would say, uh, for a typical church, uh, just because the algorithm has changed so much, uh, that things that used to work like scripture graphics or links to articles and those kinda things, you get almost no reach with those on Facebook anymore. Uh, so yeah. Um, it's, it's something that, you know, you still can use these, you'll wanna do, uh, you know, testimony, pictures and having texts with them. There's still some traction to be had there, uh, but I think anything more than three to four times a week is probably just overkill at this point.
Speaker 2 00:05:01 Yeah, no, I think that that's good. Yeah. 'cause I think a lot of people thought they had to post, uh, there a lot more often. So Good. The next one, uh, Instagram, uh, three to four times a week as well. Why for Instagram? I wouldn't that be different? Why is it not?
Speaker 0 00:05:17 Yeah, I think what you're looking for, no, I think it should be the same because really the content that you're putting on there is gonna be pretty similar in a lot of ways to what you're putting on Facebook. I don't recommend for, for your general feed, putting the same, uh, photos or the same content on each one. At least have some kind of a variation there. But Twitter, um, Instagram still to this day, while it has changed and there's so much more video and things on there, it still remains something that it is the, the best platform for photography, uh, and photography. The truth is that most churches cannot generate enough photography to be really engaging on Instagram at a pace of two times a day. Like, that's just, yeah, that's otherworldly to be able to do that kind of content there. So yeah, if you can come up with three great photos that are storytelling and engaging and would grab people's attention, I think that's kind of a number that would work. And, and you can, you know, bake in some videos and those kinds of things. We'll talk a little bit more about videos in just a second here on Instagram, but, um, I think that's a good pacing, uh, for that to get three or four really great photos that grab people's attention. If you can get that, that's a huge win on there. So, um, that's kind of how I would, I think you'll get, I think you'll see diminishing returns if you're doing any more than that on your Instagram feed.
Speaker 2 00:06:38 That's good. That's good. And, and while we're still on the Instagram subject, uh, we have Instagram stories, so on these daily, so there's a big difference there. Uh, why for that difference there? 'cause that's a big one.
Speaker 0 00:06:52 Yeah. Because Instagram stories last for 24 hours, right? So when you post a story, it goes away after 24 hours and people can't see them anymore. And so, yeah. Um, Instagram stories, you know, for those of you who don't know, those, those little faces that you see on the top of your Instagram, uh, app when you're on your phone there, um, yeah. You can click on those. They last for 24 hours, they'll tell a story, if you will. Yep. Um, to just, I think this one is one where you do want to be doing it daily still, uh, because that's how you keep yourself in people's view. Yeah. The other ones are much more algorithmic and that something you posted three days ago, it'll still show up on people's Facebook feed if they, uh, are good candidates to see your content and they haven't seen it yet, they'll still see that kind of content. Yeah. But for stories, uh, the moment that 24 hours lapses, uh, you become invisible, uh, on stories from that point on there. Yeah. So I think it's still a best practice to be doing stories daily.
Speaker 2 00:07:47 Yeah, that makes sense. You wanna stay visible, obviously, and if you're <laugh> leaving, leaving that 24 hours, that will not keep you visible. So, and then there's Instagram reels, which we have at two to four times a week.
Speaker 0 00:08:01 Yep. So I'm gonna lump this one together with the next one with Facebook reels. Okay. Because, ah, I mean, it really is very similar, uh, to one another. Um, I think that they're the same platform. They're both owned by Meta, um, right. I think generally speaking, and some of the other ones we'll talk about too, you can use the exact same content here. Um, we would recommend changing up the text of the actual post, uh, on a Instagram reel or a Facebook reel. Um, but I think two to four, that is a really good number. I would say of those two to four, I would break it up this way. I would do two to three of them being sermon clips. Uh, so maybe it's something you pulled from this week's sermon, a 62nd expert or excerpt or a, or less than 62nd excerpt. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:08:46 Um, maybe, uh, putting some music behind it, putting some, uh, some, uh, transcription or captions under it there. Yeah. Getting all that thing dialed in and make it something that's, that's really the engaging part of your sermon there, pulling that out. Uh, we have a whole service that we offer here at Reach write, uh, called Sermon Sling, where we help churches do the custom editing of these. And all you do is just let us download your weekend sermon there, and we'll give you two to, or one to three different sermon clips from it that are fully edited and ready to get posted there. Yeah. So, um, we have lots of info on that, but this is kind of that number. And then if you were to do a fourth, I think it might be something that is more a, a dedicated video, not just repurposed content, but some kind of a dedicated, uh, reel.
Speaker 0 00:09:31 And this is something that'll take a little bit of creativity on your team's part, but I think having leaders, or maybe even testimonies from within your church, but in most cases, having leaders share some kind of a spiritual truth or an idea, or maybe just something fun. Um, you know, I think sometimes these fun videos, they can be overrated here at Reach. Right? Yeah. Um, we, we have seen great results from posting memes, uh, for church leaders. Yeah. Uh, just to kind of gain traction and get with like-minded people on these platforms. So there's something to be said for that. But, so the number comes out to probably two or three sermon videos and one Nons Sermonm video. That would be a really good pace for both Instagram reels and Facebook reels.
Speaker 2 00:10:11 Yeah. No, that's good. That's good. Yeah, I think that, uh, those two are very similar and, um, yeah. Variety is good on those, like you said. So Twitter, this one's 10 to 14 times a week. Is this why Thomas that most churches we see now, or not utilizing some do, but most are not utilizing Twitter. That seems like a lot, 10 to four times. I think for the average person
Speaker 0 00:10:35 It is. A lot of times
Speaker 2 00:10:36 Docs are 10, 10 to 14 rather,
Speaker 0 00:10:37 Not 12, 10 to 14 times per week. Yeah. So, yeah. You know, two a day, I mean, I, I I could make a case for three a day. Uh, Twitter's algorithm is different from everybody else's. Um, they, it, um, things depreciate very quickly on Twitter. Yeah. Uh, so the odds of people seeing what you posted, uh, 18 hours ago are pretty slim. And if you get past a day, it becomes almost invisible unless people get onto your actual Twitter profile and look at your past tweets that way. Um, so, um, I, I don't know that most churches should be using Twitter. It's a very, very challenging platform for people to get traction on, especially if you're not an individual. Right. I think in most cases, a church would be better to use Twitter as like, that their pastors would use Twitter as an individual person, um, just because people, they generally use platform, the platform of Twitter to connect with people and their actual thoughts.
Speaker 0 00:11:33 Yeah. And people have a hard time believing that when you, because Twitter still is really kind of text-based. There's lots of text, uh, and that's what people go to Twitter for, is for the, there's also video and imagery, but usually those are just reinforcing what people are writing on the platform there. So yeah. When people see things written from a church, they're less likely to really, um, embrace it as it, it's better when it's coming across as from an individual person. Uh, right. So I think in, in some cases, even if your social media team at your church is managing it, if your pastor's okay with it, managing it as a personal Twitter Yeah. Page or a Twitter profile, you'll usually get better results on that, that way. That's a good point. Um, but yeah, so stuff becomes invisible on Twitter very quickly. So if you want to keep up and to get maximum traction, you're gonna have to get that kind of volume out there.
Speaker 0 00:12:21 So again, another reason why churches use it. Um, also, I'll say this, we're about six weeks into Instagram Threads, which is the Twitter replacement from Instagram. It's a ghost town there now. Uh, so I don't recommend until I, if you wanna try it as a church Yeah, go for it. It's kind of be, it's gonna be pretty similar to how Twitter's algorithm works, we think. Yeah. Uh, but, um, I don't recommend, uh, people, you know, really investing a ton in there unless you have extra time to do it because you're doing all these other channels already. Um, that makes sense. Who knows, this could be very different. Uh, we're filming this here in August of 2023. Uh, maybe in, if you're watching this in August of 2025, everything else is gone, and it's all threads now, but <laugh>, um, who knows. But as of right now, that's my, that's this, uh, your, your humble correspondence prediction is that Threads is, uh, not going anywhere fast, it seems like.
Speaker 2 00:13:14 There you go. There you go. Well, YouTube, this one also might be surprising only one to two times a week. So that's a bit different.
Speaker 0 00:13:22 We'll tackle these two together also. So we've differentiated here YouTube and YouTube shorts. So let's, let's talk about that. So for YouTube shorts, I think this is another opportunity for you to post the exact same things that you're posting on your Instagram and Facebook reels. You want to be, the video content should be, or could be the same. You could do something different, but I think it's probably best just to do the same stuff. You'll wanna play with the description and the titles. Uh, you don't want to use the same description and titles. I think that YouTube, there's a case to be made for spending more time on your descriptions and titles on there, because unlike the other social platforms, YouTube is also a search engine. It's the second most used search engine after Google is YouTube. Uh, so people will find your content and your shorts based on the words you put into your titles and descriptions there.
Speaker 0 00:14:14 So you spend more time on that and make those a variation of what you put on Instagram and Facebook. Um, so, and, and as an example, you want to be more careful with your keywords on YouTube. Uh, whereas your main goal on Instagram and Facebook for your short, your reels there is to just grab attention with your titles. Yeah. Whereas you wanna use the right keywords on YouTube. So, um, there, for the, for YouTube shorts, it's gonna be the same three to four or two to four a week. That's kind of the number for YouTube shorts. That would be really good for a church for your long form YouTube videos. I think two is is a lot, honestly. Yeah. So we here at Reach, right? We put out two long form YouTube videos every week. Right now, this podcast is one of them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 0 00:14:59 We also do an edited, uh, more produced video every Tuesday. And that is a really good rhythm for us that keep us top of mind. And I think churches will find the same thing. Now, obviously you have an advantage of the church is that you're already filming, in most cases, your sermon and YouTube is the logical place to put that. So one of those will be your sermon. Um, beyond that, um, I've seen churches do podcasts, uh, where they talk about topics or maybe they, they do a Wednesday night service and they film that too. That could be good content for YouTube if you're struggling. One of the things that we're playing with here right now at Reach write, and maybe you should consider is, um, in general, a full length sermon isn't the right, isn't the best length for YouTube as a platform. YouTube, um, well, it, you know, you can have videos up to 24 hours long.
Speaker 0 00:15:48 Uh, yeah. You, generally speaking, will get the best results in videos that are eight to 12 minutes. Mm-hmm. So that makes an opportunity for churches maybe to take that one point that really was a home run in your sermon, and yeah, edit that at out into like a clip that's maybe a nine minute clip and do a little bit edit of editing, maybe put in some captions, that kind of stuff there, but not as short. So it would be like a, a Instagram reel or a TikTok video. Right. But keep it at about that nine minute mark. You'll probably see some results there. So that's how you get the two. So one would be your sermon if you wanna do a second video, maybe a clip from your sermon or something else you produce. Uh, that's what I would be looking at.
Speaker 2 00:16:27 That's interesting. Yeah. That's good. I bet a lot of people weren't thinking of that. So, and I think that that can give churches some really good opportunity also for those that may not watch a whole message. Uh, so just keeping it nine minutes. Yeah. Just the meat of it. So other, that's one other benefit to it. So, good stuff. Thomas LinkedIn, optimal weekly posting for this is two to three times a week.
Speaker 0 00:16:49 Yeah, I think this is good. This is, I don't think anybody, any church that I know of where LinkedIn is their primary social channel, right. Maybe there's some, I haven't seen that in Manhattan or something like that, or in a very corporate area. Um, I don't know. I don't know where that would even be, but I can't even fathom. This would be a primary channel for a church. Um, I think it makes sense to have a LinkedIn page and to post occasionally with it. You could probably repurpose some content you're putting into other channels. I know for us, we post our blog posts onto LinkedIn and we usually do some promo posts that go with that. So that's the kind of content you'd be looking at here. If your church blogs regularly, you'd be putting that kind of content out there, putting it on LinkedIn.
Speaker 0 00:17:30 Um, so I think if you're doing that two to three times a week, this would be probably the last one I would choose of all the ones that we talked about today. Right? Yep. But you know what, it does help, even if you're not gonna do the two to three times a week, I think if you just plan on like, doing something monthly on there just to keep your page active and in the, in, in people's, uh, frame of reference on there, and you'll get occasional connection with people usually from your church. But, um, who knows what'll happen with there. So I'd say if you're not really using it, but you have a page once a month, that's, that's kind of a good way to keep it active. Uh, otherwise I think maybe you consider, if you really want to go for it, two to three times a week is more than enough.
Speaker 2 00:18:09 There you go. There you go. That makes sense. Last but not least, TikTok, optimal weekly posting frequency is three to five times a week.
Speaker 0 00:18:17 Yeah, I think that's right. Um, I think that I would probably do the exact same content again that we're putting on YouTube shorts, on Instagram reels, and on Facebook reels. This also goes on to TikTok. Uh, so it isn't something that you have to really, um, worry about too much. You're already doing that content. So these things work nicely. If you're gonna do any one of them, you might as well do all four of those channels, uh, because you're gonna get great results. It'll be different for every church I know for us, um, we see, uh, I think for most churches, you're probably gonna see the most results on, uh, on Facebook reels, uh, because usually churches have the biggest audience there. Uh, but, um, I've seen other things from different churches. Uh, so it depends on what you get. But I think that that same number, again, change up your descriptions, change up your titles, uh, but three to four, um, maybe five, that would be really great.
Speaker 2 00:19:10 Yeah. No, that's good. Well, that's, we hope this has been helpful. And, uh, I know we have, you know, some final thoughts we kind of shared at the beginning of the podcast that, again, we're not saying you have to do every single one of these, find out which ones you shouldn't. Yeah. You definitely,
Speaker 0 00:19:24 You almost shouldn't, almost certainly shouldn't be doing all of this.
Speaker 2 00:19:27 Yeah, right. And it's rare, uh, it'd be a, a rare church occurrence for it to be a good fit, so for a, for a church. But, um, yeah. So I think, uh, that should hopefully be helpful, you know, for through this, the pastor, the ministry leaders thinking, okay, which, which ones, which ones can I kind of be a champion at which one's best for my church and my people?
Speaker 0 00:19:48 Yeah. If I had any advice for churches right now, and again, this is August of 2023, um, your best opportunity still remains in short form video. Uh, that has not changed over the last couple of years. Uh, and so, I mean, uh, the reels, uh, shorts, um, TikTok videos, those kinds of things, those are your biggest opportunity. You will see this, yeah, immediately when you get onto those platforms that your, um, your image posts on Instagram versus your reels on Instagram. You'll almost certainly get a much larger reach with your videos. Uh, so this is probably, if I was gonna do one, I would focus on doing all four of those channels, Facebook reels, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, TikTok, and using the same content and making that your primary social media strategy. Um, the other ones, if you're still using those channels, there is a place for them.
Speaker 0 00:20:38 Uh, but um, that's kind of how I would recommend churches would go here in middle of 2023. But like all things social media is very much subject to change. Uh, so Yep. Totally. Maybe you disagree though, uh, maybe you've seen great results in some other platform, or if you've really stunk it up on a different one, um, yeah, I'd love to hear about that. Let us know down in the comments. We read all of the comments, we try to respond to every single one of them. Oftentimes we'll take comments and questions that we see there and turn them into future podcast episodes. So, uh, do, uh, chime in, let us know what you think. Uh, thanks so much. It would also mean a lot to us if you would rate, review, subscribe, do all that kind of stuff. Thanks guys for being a part of the rewrite family, and we'll catch you next week. See you.
