Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Your church has a YouTube channel and that's great, but how do you actually engage people on YouTube? That's the question we want to answer today. And the answer is spoiler create great content, but that begs the question. What kind of content should your church be creating? That's what we're going to answer today. We hope this conversation helps you reach more people and grow. This is the retrial podcast.
Speaker 0 00:00:33 You're listening to the read-write podcast. The show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my cohost Ian Hyatt. We're here to help your church see more visitors and grow. Hey guys, welcome to the retried podcast. Episode number 65. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my cohost,
Speaker 3 00:01:09 The and Hyatt what's up Thomas.
Speaker 0 00:01:10 Hey, and not too much, man. Excited to have our conversation here today. We're gonna be talking about what kind of YouTube content your church should be creating. Uh, what type of YouTube content churches should be creating out there? Uh, I think, uh, a lot of churches built a YouTube channel, uh, right when COVID started and then realized, oh no, we gotta get online and get this stuff out there. And YouTube, I think remains the best place to be placing your content. I know there's other services, uh, there's faith specific ones. There's things like Vimeo. Uh, there's other hosting services, but YouTube is fantastic because it's there and it also has the social component to it. So, uh, putting your content on YouTube, but I think what a lot of churches got stuck in this rut of the only YouTube content they have out there is their sermon every Sunday.
Speaker 0 00:02:02 Uh, so they have their Sunday sermon and then the next post on there is their next Sunday sermon. And, uh, you know, th well, YouTube is a really great platform. Uh, it really is designed and the algorithm works in a way that favors certain kinds of videos over other kinds of videos. And so sermon content while it's good. And there is lots of preaching and things online. I think it is probably not the content that will perform the best. Well, I think every church should be doing it. Uh, that's the kind of thing that I think also that, um, you know, you probably want to have other stuff in there too. So today we're gonna be talking about what churches can be putting on there. In addition, uh, we'll, we'll probably talk about sermons, but in addition to that, especially, uh, like what other content should you be making out there? Uh, so, uh, I think it's going to be a good conversation and something that should be useful to most church leaders.
Speaker 3 00:02:53 Yeah, absolutely. It's funny. Uh, when we talked about doing this episode here, I was like, gosh, you know, maybe should get a consultation from my son. You know, my son is 10 years old, but, or my daughter who she's 13 and, you know, they know YouTube in, in and out, you know, and, and a lot of these kids in the younger generation, they want to become YouTubers. That's like to actually their goal. And you and I never said that we were okay. We want to be a YouTuber when
Speaker 0 00:03:20 Yeah. You didn't want to be Hollywood famous, I think for a season there. I remember. So that was the YouTube
Speaker 3 00:03:29 That, that is right. That is right. So, but, uh, but no, it's great. And I liked that. You said we're going to talk about sermons, but I, like you said that other there's other things that you can do with it. And I think this will be helpful for a lot of churches, because I think the first thing it's easy to think of sermons. Right. And of course already content we're recording. And we're going to talk a little more about that, but, uh, but yeah, there's a lot of different things. Why don't you kick us off on the, the first, first things first that someone should do when they get a YouTube channel set up, right. First thing,
Speaker 0 00:03:55 You should make a YouTube intro video. Uh, so, uh, this is important. This is the one that on every YouTube channel, there's a video you can pin to the top. Uh, so when someone goes onto your channel page, it's going to be one video that it says, this is the kind of the one that we recommend that you watch first. And this is usually going to be a video that's probably two minutes long or so at the, at the most probably. And what you're going to do with this video is it's going to talk a little bit about the kind of content you're going to make and what your church's about, what kind of content you're going to be putting on YouTube. But here's the key to it is in this video, you ask people to subscribe, ask people to become subscribers of your YouTube channel.
Speaker 0 00:04:38 Uh, and, uh, you know, it's, it's probably going to be just like a talking head video, maybe something so much similar to this right here. Uh, you share a little bit, and the more you put into it, the better off you'll be. So if you have some B roll footage from your church or preaching or a worship or people hugging in the foyer, uh, the thing we say around here is people caught in the act doing the values of your church. That's good content to have in there, but it'll be usually over something like this, where you're talking and sharing. Um, the thing about YouTube videos, as you do want to be like, what works on YouTube is high energy and engaging people that way. So animated, uh, there's a reason I'm, I'm kind of Italian. So I do talk a little bit with my hands, but using your hands and moving around and doing those things. That's important in these kinds of videos here. But yeah, it, intro video I think, is really vital. And again, the key and what it does is it helps people get some, to helps you to get subscribers. And that's going to give your videos in front of more people, both inside and outside of your church in the future. So I think that's really an important thing to do,
Speaker 3 00:05:41 And it just makes sense to do it. It's really, I mean, you know, you should think, I mean, I can see why it's overlooked sometimes, but it makes sense to do, because think of someone coming onto your website for the first time, or, um, you know, even if you have a business like social media page, you got to have some sort explanation of, of what they're going to receive, why they're there and why they should, like you said, you know, subscribe and, and all of those things. So yeah, not too tough to do too again. Yeah. Short. Uh, so like how you said short doesn't take, uh, doesn't take like, you know, high-end camera equipment or anything like that to pull off an intro course, the more video quality you have the better, but you don't have to, to, to break the piggy bank, so to speak for that. Um, so yeah, what worth it and make sense. Yep. That's good.
Speaker 0 00:06:27 Hit the next one. Good.
Speaker 3 00:06:28 Next one is sermons. Like we said, uh, we'll get it out of the, after the intro video, we'll, uh, you know, get their 400 pound gorilla on the, on the porch. And what is it in the room? Uh, rather, uh, so sermons easy to do. You're already recording sermons. Uh, you know, it makes sense for them to be there, uh, not just here on your YouTube channel, but on your website and on social media as well. So while YouTube is social media, but people don't think of it like they do, uh, Facebook and Instagram, but this is a good place where you want people to, if they're subscribed, they're going to get new sermons, they can, they can search past sermons. Um, and there's a lot of other benefits to it as well for getting sermons on here. Right? Yup. Yup.
Speaker 0 00:07:09 I think that what I want to point out, and this is yes, having your sermons on there, you've done the hard work of making the video already to make it YouTube friendly content. There is a little bit of work you need to do before you just, uh, you, you call it good. So it's not just a matter of uploading your sermon and, uh, you know, writing your title in there. So a few things just that come to mind. Number one is you got to work on your title. Uh, so your title on Sunday is probably not the best title you could be using on your actual YouTube video because on Sunday, what you preach out there, you probably have a creative title. So if you're talking about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire, uh, you probably call it, uh, you know, faith under fire or something like that.
Speaker 0 00:07:52 But that is not a good YouTube title. You probably want something more like, uh, how to stand firm in your faith or how to build your faith, uh, how to maintain strong faith in challenging seasons, more generic terms, because the people aren't searching for faith under fire, they're searching for generic answers to questions. So those make for better YouTube videos. So that's one thing I think making a great thumbnail, uh, th that's what makes YouTube content, uh, more engaging and more likely for people to click on it. So if it's, if the thumbnail is just the default from your video, there's not a thumbnail, just kind of a, a still from the video that YouTube selects. Well, it probably won't be as engaging, uh, as other videos. And it might even catch you with your mouth wide, open looking silly or something like that. So you probably want to make a specific thumbnail, put some text on there. So maybe for the Shadrach Meshach and Abednego sermon, it's a build your faith is what it says in text there. And it's like our, how to build your faith. And then it's a picture of maybe you doing a, an expression or something that you and I just filmed a bunch of expressions for our YouTube backgrounds, always fun to do. We just had a,
Speaker 3 00:09:04 The funny ones coming at our, uh, our listeners here soon if you're truly,
Speaker 0 00:09:09 And our whole staff had a really good, uh, a really good time laughing at us. And the funny faces that we made for all those expression pictures. So anyway, that's neither here nor there you'll see them in the future here, but take the time to do that kind of stuff. And then I guess a third thing is you got, you can't just leave it empty. As far as content in the description, the description is a place where you probably want to have at least your points and a few sentences about what's there. And then probably some links. That's something that's pretty customary in YouTube videos is like, so if you reference a stat, um, you know, I know in an actual sermon on Sunday, people can't, uh, you can't, you know, give people the reference there, but people are going to check you out on YouTube.
Speaker 0 00:09:49 And they're going to want to know, Hey, when you said that stat about a divorce rate among Christians or something in our sermon today, where did you get that today? Where did that come from? And so put that in there, putting some links out to stuff, and it gives you a chance to link to other things like your prayer page on your side, if people need prayer, uh, they can link to, um, uh, other sermons that are maybe of a relevant topic. Uh, so if you have another sermon that it a series, you can link to all those other sermons in this series. So there's lots of little things you can do. And so it's not a matter of just slapping your video on there. Uh, actually take the time to build it out a little bit and get some of those YouTube specific things, right? You'll get better results if you do that.
Speaker 3 00:10:29 I like that. And one of the things I'll mentioned, cause I get this question a lot as a pastor will say, you know, Ian, should we, should we put the whole worship service on there? Not just the sermon, uh, and the answer is probably not. Um, if now, and it's not because you don't have a great worship team in there, we know they're valued misses. What makes it tough? I think for a lot of pastors is they, they, they obviously want the worship experience to be a part of it. And the team worship team to feel included in it, not just be about the pastor's message. We get all that humility and merit to all of that, but it's really tough. Isn't it for there to, unless your elevation or one of these kinds of churches, it's really tough to get good audio quality from live worship, right? I mean, that's probably one of the big reasons, uh, one of the big reasons to probably not do it.
Speaker 0 00:11:16 Yeah. I mean a service, like get a one microphone to sound good is not that hard. And that's hard enough. I mean, getting just your microphone is the PR the preacher to sound good. You know, that that's a challenge getting the 17 channels of your entire worship team, all dialed in. Again, I guess the moral is unless you're willing to spend a lot of time on that and then getting the lighting right. And all the things that go with it, people are just more forgiving with, uh, more, uh, instructional content like that, and more like teaching content than they are with video content. Cause when he gets to, or when he comes to content. So because you remember you're competing with like the way that Ariana Grande day and Justin Bieber produced their music videos when you're doing music content, whereas talking head content, it's usually just easier to manage that way.
Speaker 0 00:12:06 So yeah, I think you're right. That's pretty cool. The next one here. Um, is it my turn, right? Yeah, it is my turn. So the sermon so sermons and then sermon clips. Uh, so this is another kind of content and I think this is really something that's good for the YouTube algorithm, uh, is that you want to be able to use some of your sermon clips, uh, not the entire sermon, but breaking it into smaller, more thematic type chunks. So if you had a four point sermon that you gave over the weekend, chances are one of those points. Maybe you spent seven minutes on it. It really was something that was strong. And if you take a normal sermon, you'll probably have three or four of these different clips that you could be using there. So breaking those out from the message and turning them into their own piece of YouTube content, their own video, I think that really could go a long way.
Speaker 0 00:12:56 It helps you to create more content. You could be a little bit more creative, maybe putting overlays on these things. So if you talk about an illustration in there and there's a graphic that works with it, you can stick that kind of thing in, you could put up a little bit of a music pad behind it and it makes it just more of an engaging kind of piece. Now, one word of advice on this is that the algorithm does favor slightly longer content. Uh, so I think on YouTube specifically, this isn't the case for Tik TOK or Twitter or other places or Instagram, but for YouTube specifically five minutes is kind of a target that you're looking for when you're building these kinds of clip videos. So it can be a little bit of a longer topic. So something that is 6, 7, 8 minutes is great for this kind of stuff here where you can break this out and talk about it and, and kind of build a story behind it there. So I think a YouTube clip is really valuable a sermon.
Speaker 3 00:13:49 Yes, sir. I'm a clip. And one of the things I said, I would say too is remember, unfortunately, people, their attention span, right? It's just not, not, everyone's willing to watch a whole sermon. I've missed sermons before for my pastor. And I've, I've gone back to listen to, I just didn't have the time something came up. Uh, and so this is just another, it it's CR it's another way. And I'm not people still do the whole sermon. We just said that. Right. So, but you know, this is a good alternative to, for those people that, you know, maybe they, they only got 10 minutes or so, or whatever, um, you know, keep it short and, uh, and give them kind of the meat of your message. Like you said, if there was three points, let's just kind of condense the main, uh, meat and takeaways of, uh, of those points. So, uh, so I think for people's attention span, I think a lot of, I hear a lot now from, uh, pastors and ministry leaders that are starting to do more of this, uh, they understand the benefit of short clips and, and, and how people will, will kind of want that content often more than longer stuff.
Speaker 0 00:14:51 So, yep. Nope. That's exactly right. Yeah. So I think that that's, that's good stuff, uh, having the shorter clips, I think it just works for today's short attention spans you're right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:15:00 Another thing that's good testimonies. We, uh, we talk about this a lot. It's great content. It's been great content for churches and businesses alike for years. The term we actually, I think in one of the last week's episode that I mentioned is a, it's a third party credibility builder. So we've just talked about, uh, you know, first party would be, I guess the pastor, uh, you know, someone's hearing from the staff member that the church representative themselves, it's always powerful when you hear from someone else, a member of the church, someone, uh, and, and, and it's just another way to get creative on YouTube. But, um, but you know, again, keep these short, like we just said to the sermon clips to, you know, a few minutes tops, I'd say for these, um, you know, three minutes tops, if you can get it shorter than you, we know it's tough when you're getting someone to do a video, uh, to kind of, you know, keep them, keep them short if they're volunteering their time and they're passionate. And, and I know because I've done some of these videos and so at my churches, that I've been a part of. So yeah. So I think that's the thing is that, you know, it's, it's another way to get creative with content and it's very powerful. It's, you're, you're, you know, someone gets to talk about what God did at your church or through someone at your church. Um, so great content.
Speaker 0 00:16:14 Yeah. I think what's really good about testimony. Videos is they are the most likely content to be shared. So if someone gets out there and shares their testimony, and then you take the time to produce it and add it in and put in music and graphics and those kinds of things, and you put it on YouTube, these people are very likely to be sharing it with their family, their friends, putting it on their social media accounts. Uh, parents share about stories about their kids. And it's like, it's, it just, it has a viral nature to it when you do testimony videos. So I think this is a no brainer is if you create, if your testimonies, I think it's a great idea to make testimony, videos and the right place to put them as on YouTube, getting that content out there for people is really good.
Speaker 0 00:16:56 Yeah. Awesome. Number four, uh, is, uh, Bible FAQ's. Uh, so I think these are really great videos, uh, because if you've pastored for any length of time, you'll start to realize that you get some of those same questions. Usually the hard ones that are getting asked all the time of you. Right. So, uh, you know, I I've been in ministry long enough and sometimes you don't want to answer these questions publicly. Maybe it makes you uncomfortable, or, you know, maybe it's something about, uh, something about tithing or giving that you don't like to talk about, or maybe it's something about, uh, what happened to the dinosaurs or creationism are older than younger, or why are you where your church stands on traditional or new definitions of marriage? There's all these kinds of questions out there. There's, there's no limit to them. Uh, but I think that they, because they're things that lots of people are asking and because some of them are a little bit there's there's differences of opinion on this.
Speaker 0 00:17:52 It makes for really good content on a platform like YouTube or really any social channel, because people will want to talk about it, share it, uh, debate about it, get into your comments and say what they think about things. So these are really valuable videos there to be making these kinds of Bible FAQ. So maybe your process is that when someone comes and asks you a question that you've heard many times before, uh, you know, what, whatever it would be, maybe take that as a cue to, Hey, maybe we want to make a video about this. And the nice thing too is in the future, when someone comes and asks you to give you a short answer, but I went into a lot more detail about it in a video that I made, I'll send you a link to it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:18:33 And that, that get, that helps you avoid that difficult conversation a little bit too. And I think it gives that person right. To be able to kind of go on their own time, on their own time and do research and get that content from you.
Speaker 0 00:18:45 Yeah. I think the nice thing about it is that when, when you give them that kind of a resource there, there's certain things that you can't take the time to answer as someone's walking out the door on Sunday. Right. And so I've been asked those questions, like, you know, I'm shaking hands at the door and they say, where does this church stand on LGBT issues? So, yeah, I don't have time to, to answer this right out for, by next sermon. And I'm talking to every prayer, there's a line of people taking my hand. It's like, I can't get, I could, I could give you a short answer that probably doesn't do any justice to what we believe on these kinds of topics. Here are these kinds of conversations. And I don't think that's how you'd be best served. And so a better answer than we're against it or something like that is to get in there and say, you know, that's such a great question. Uh, I have made like a 60 minute video detailing, really what we believe about this exact issue. And we've got scripture verses in there. It would mean a lot to me if you would get in there and take a look at it. And I'd love to get your feedback on it too. So shoot me a messenger in the week, but I don't have time really to give you the full answer right now, but there's this content. I hope it, I hope it helps you. So an answer like that would be valuable. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:19:54 That's good stuff. We'll all lead us home here with the last one and that's have behind the scenes video footage. So this is great actually, because I mean, I think we always think of just Sunday morning experience and promoting that at the church, you know, which is important. That's what, uh, that's probably the first thing on someone's mind is if I check out a church for the first time, what's the preaching going to be like, what are the people like, what what's going to happen with my kids. But I think it's really cool if the church goes behind the scenes and maybe shows what, what goes into the work that's done on Sunday morning, you know, maybe it's your, your kid's ministry leader, you know, and what, how they prepare the curriculum and how much they pray for the kids ahead of time or, or even outreach.
Speaker 3 00:20:37 That's a great thing behind the scenes. If, if your church has a community outreach or a food pantry or whatever it is to get some footage of, of you guys being the hands and feet of Jesus, that's, that's really valuable stuff. So, um, you know, churches hopefully have an, every church has something going on behind the scenes and, and something in that when you show something like that, I think it, again, it remove, reduce, reduces apprehension and removes any ambiguity that people may have. Uh, you know, that there may be, would keep them from checking out a church for the first time, or maybe it's even someone that's already visited and they don't know what's going on behind the scenes. And you're giving them an idea of that. And maybe, maybe that'll be something that leads them to want to serve your serve at your church and take a step deeper.
Speaker 0 00:21:25 Yup. That's exactly right. I think that the value of behind the scenes footage and kind of putting some work into that is that it helps people break down the barriers between members and clergy, if you will. So people sometimes, and we've talked about this before, how testimonies, like we said, they, they build it, uh, build credibility from someone who they can relate to maybe more than the pastor of the church, because that's not obvious thing is that it, people will say this, if you're leading a church, they'll say, well, of course he does that. He's the pastor of the church. He has to do that. Or that's part of his job to do those kinds of things. But the more you can break that down by being authentic, you know, having whether it's a blooper videos or, you know, seeing what life's like in the office and seeing making yourself and your staff and your church team more relatable. I think that really goes a long way in helping to break down those barriers, helping people engage more with your team and just build relationships. That's something that's really important in ministry.
Speaker 3 00:22:23 Absolutely. Absolutely. I love it so, well, we hope this has been helpful, right?
Speaker 0 00:22:28 Yeah, absolutely. If it has, uh, you can let us know if you have any questions on YouTube comment on, on YouTube comments, on YouTube videos and ideas. You can put that in the questions down below. If it has been helpful, please do consider subscribing to this channel. Uh, it does mean a lot to us, whether you would subscribe on YouTube or on apple podcasts or wherever you are following us here, uh, do subscribe, let people know about it. Thanks so much for being part of the retried family. And we'll catch you guys next week. Thanks for listening to the reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online and reach right studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week.
