Facebook Group Tips for Your Church, Online

Sometimes having an online community, especially on Facebook Groups, can be difficult to maintain engagement of the members involved in the group. It’s easy to not be involved, and ignore posts when our active lives are going on around us. Social media activity can easily slip away when engagement is low. So what are some practical steps to keep your audience as active as possible? How can we convert these “consumers” and turn them into “engagers”.

1. Live interaction: Keeping up on a daily, or every other day basis can really boost interaction. People don’t want to miss out. Liking and responding to comments is where true community and engagement happens.
2. Accountability: Keep your key group participants accountable. Have them post about their spiritual walk to help encourage and inspire others. You can communicate with them directly outside of Facebook to ask for their input or you can tag them in a post or comment to ask them to engage with a question or post.
3. Information: Keep your content informational and educational. Especially in a group designed for church attendees, groups should be a place where you share devotionals, prayer requests (as appropriate with privacy policies), verses of the day, etc. You can ‘sprinkle’ in announcements about events or giving requests, but let your first priority be to add value to your group participants day. 
4. Active Posting: Who engages in a stale Facebook group? Post often! Posting once a week is not enough for a Facebook group. We recommend that you post 3-4 times a week at minimum. You can also schedule this content out in advance so that you don’t have to set a daily reminder to post in the group, but rather a weekly reminder to schedule the next week of content.
5. Be Available: Be active in answering questions and encourage your group participants to ask. There are no stupid questions, only the ones that aren’t asked. Respond thoughtfully to each person.
6. Be Positive: In an age where may people are pulling away from Facebook for political or social reasons, be a light in the darkness. Let the posts from your group fill your participants feed with positive yet challenging spiritual content that will lift them up.

Groups can be a lot of work, but the payoff of the engagement that you are able to create in a group versus a Facebook page is well worth the effort. Let it be a team effort with your staff and share the burden of posting content!

You are now ready to go crush groups and convert these “consumers” and turn them into “engagers”!

Stadia is getting ready to launch another round of their Phygital Learning Communities. Almost 70 churches right now are learning how to THRIVE, GROW, and MULTIPLY. We want to help your church learn how physical and digital can work together to achieve your mission and vision, meanwhile letting your Church, Online, be authentically you. Phygital Learning Communities are starting soon. Check out http://stadiachurchplanting.org/phygital for more information.