Getting started with social media

Transcription

1 Getting started with social media A step-by-step guide to setting up Twitter and Facebook pages for local churches The United Reformed Church

2 2 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

3 Introduction As with the other booklets in this growing series, this one has been written to offer local United Reformed churches help, advice, and ideas in engaging with the challenges of church communication. This step-by-step guide was written in response to many queries and requests for help with the basics of setting up to setting up church pages on both Facebook and Twitter. It s for anyone who has, for whatever reason, become convinced that social media is a good thing. If you are convinced social media is right for your church, but you re unsure how to get started, this guide is for you. Be reassured, using social media is technically straightforward. The two social media applications covered in this guide Facebook and Twitter are both very well designed, and most functions are intuitive. This guide takes you step-by-step through the basics. This text is heavily based on a training day that Eve Parker, the URC s press & media officer, devised and ran in May I am indebted to Eve for her initial work on it, and to Kenwyn Pierce, also a colleague in the URC s press & media office, for his work in reshaping it in to its present format. My thanks go to them both. Gill Nichol Head of Communications The United Reformed Church, January 2016 The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 3

4 Is social media right for my church? You know that really nice bit of church when the service has ended and everybody mills around for a while drinking coffee, and catching up with friends? Well, social media can extend that moment to every hour of every day. That may be over-optimistic on every count but the likes of Facebook and Twitter have changed the way we interact with the world, and they can help churches communicate more effectively with more people. Social media creates an opportunity to start a conversation not only with your congregation members, but with those outside your church looking in too. Running an interesting and engaging Facebook page or Twitter account can help generate conversations and can be a valuable asset in helping build a church community, and we hope that you ve picked up this guide because you re keen to give it a go. Before setting up an account, ask yourself a few questions. Do your congregation and the people you want to reach already use social media to connect with friends and organisations? Is there an appetite to extend this to church life? Administering the page is not difficult, but it can be time consuming; so, ask yourself, how will the page be managed, and who will manage it? If you d like to read more, there s good practical advice and general information in our Social Media Guidelines for the United Reformed Church booklet. 4 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

5 What s the difference? Facebook and Twitter are not the same. They work in different ways and do different things well. Facebook is relational: it is about friendships, personality and keeping contact with others. Twitter is faster moving and comes into its own in sharing information. Want to build a community? turn to Facebook; for developing a campaign or promoting an idea, Twitter might be your first choice. Both Facebook and Twitter are multiplatform meaning they can be accessed from different devices, such as smart phone, tablets, and desktop computers. This guide is written with desktop PCs and laptops in mind, though the basic processes are the same whatever device you use. This guide starts with setting up Facebook as this is the platform that most people (and churches) are already familiar with. The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 5

6 Create a Facebook page Here is a step-by-step guide taking you through the set up of an organisational Facebook page for the fictional church of St Martis. (We strongly recommend that you use an organisational page, [as opposed to a personal one] as it not only makes it very clear that you are an organisation, but also allows you manage your output and interaction.) To create an organisational page, you will first need to have a personal Facebook account. If you do not yet have an account, you can quickly create one by visiting the home page of facebook.com. If you are completely new to Facebook we suggest that you spend a few weeks familiarising yourself with it before you set up an organisational page for your church. When you are ready to set up your new church page: Log on to your personal account Scroll down the web page and click Create Page Select the option for Company, Organisation or Institution Select Church or Religious Organisation from the drop-down menu for Choose a category, then type in the name of your church in the field next to Company Name Click on the Get Started button. 6 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

7 Description and Set up Add a description of your page e.g. This is the official page of St Martis United Reformed Church and will include news and information of and about the church and community. It will be one of the first places we post church news and views. Upload a profile picture. Choose a picture of your church or a community project that your church has been working on make it look as welcoming as possible The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 7

8 By adding your new page to your favourites you can easily access it from your home page to help remind you to keep updating Facebook Add your church location to this section it helps ensure people are aware of where your church is and what it is doing in the local community Keep the age gap open and the gender set as all. Be as inclusive as possible In the interests section you can add a variety of things including church, family, community see what you think works best for you. Adding content Go to the About section and begin adding in all of the necessary details for the Page information. Make sure to include: The church address Times of church services The short description The long description (make sure you include the Page Code of Conduct as outlined below) The mission (this can be the mission of both of your church and the aim of the page) Your website (If you have a church website you should include this) Code of conduct (see example on the facing page which you can use/adapt for your page) 8 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

9 Code of conduct The following is a list of guidelines for commenting on our posts we re basically asking you to show respect for all users, stay positive and generate good conversations. So: Please stay on-topic No offensive language No personal attacks (hostile, derogatory or deliberately insulting comments toward a specific individual or group) Don t say things to people in a way that you wouldn t want them said to you No bullying, intimidation or hate speech No flaming (posting comments intended to induce an angry response) No spamming Never form private relationships with children you are not related to We reserve the right to remove any comment or URL at any time for any reason. Please note: if a portion of a comment is inappropriate, the entire comment will be deleted. The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 9

10 Appearance Now it s time to change the cover photo (that s the large image at the top of your page). We recommend you change this image regularly (perhaps once a month), using this space to further highlight what your church is focussing on at the moment this could be anything from a church event, community project, food banks, a season of the church year, Fresh Expressions, Commitment for Life or any other key issue or project. The size of the image should be 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels high. If you do not have software to edit the image to the right size, upload a good quality picture and use Facebook s tools to adjust it until it looks right. Make sure you have permission to use the image. Remember you can get ideas for the banner from other pages such as the URC Communications Facebook page Well done! Your church has a Facebook Page. Now it s time to add content to it! 10 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

11 Populate your page Near the top of the page you will see a box with the invitation to Write something... This is your first post. Type your message here and click publish. Easy! Add photos and albums. Make sure you have all the necessary copyright permissions. If in doubt of the rules, check the URC social media guidelines and our Getting to grips with copyright booklet. Update your status, announce your page and ask people to Like and Share You can also share updates from others such as the URC Communications Facebook page to your own timeline as a quick and easy way to begin to update people with information. The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 11

12 Administering your page We recommend having more than one person acting as administrator for your page. To share your administration duties for the church Facebook page with another member of your church, click on See All to the right of the Admins section of the church s Facebook page, then enter the address for the new admin. Give yourself a pat on the back And that s it. Be patient and be consistent. It takes a bit of time to build a Facebook following, but if you keep adding new posts and pictures, people will catch on. Getting it right Facebook is a social media platform. It is designed to help people connect and share. Using a social media successfully needs a different approach to the typical church newsletter or website. Think of your church page as a space for a conversation rather than a publication. Some things to consider: Tone is important. Social media is about relationships. It very deliberately uses the language of friendship, following, sharing and liking. The way we communicate on social media is much less formal than on traditional publications. As far as possible write with a personal, friendly style. Be human. Allow your personality and the unique character of your congregation to shine through. Think about control. In traditional forms of publishing such as newsletters, booklets and most websites, the publisher has total control over the content. When social media works well, readers can participate, engage and contribute. It is a conversation, not a broadcast. Find ways to respond to people that encourages healthy responses and continues the conversation. Say yes, and rather than No, but. 12 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

13 Be aware of people s privacy. Most of us are pleased to see ourselves recognised in places such as Facebook pages, but not all are. It is courteous to check with people before posting. Experiment. Find out what works for your page. It may be that very local issues pick up attention; maybe it s the opportunity to broaden the focus of the church to international issues that generates interest. Take note of which posts are most popular and build on them. Remember that social media is about engaging with people. Engage with people s interests, respond to everything you can and, most of all, have fun and enjoy making the connections. The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 13

14 Get started with Twitter The beauty of Twitter is in its limitation. It enables us to share messages (tweets) of up to 140 characters. Like Facebook, Twitter users can follow others to keep track of their interests. Messages need to be disciplined and honed down to work. It s not a great way to develop subtle and nuanced conversations, but it s extremely effective as a quick way to grab attention and signpost others to interesting ideas and events. There are a few ways to help your 140 characters convey a lot of information. Hashtags, mentions, links and pictures are powerful ways to make your tweets work harder. Hashtags are used to highlight key words or phrases. They link tweets to others on the same topic, and help tweets to show up in searches Mentions They are used to reference other users. Links. Point your followers to new and interesting pages on the web. Here s a tweet that takes advantage of what Twitter does well There s a lot of information packed in to this: the tweet uses clear hashtags #genderequality #genderroles, references the originator of the asks an intriguing question, has a relevant image, and tells us clearly where it is directing us. 14 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

15 Open the account 1) Go to and fill in the details, see example set-up account below Verify your phone number and confirm your account with the code that is sent to you via text message Once confirmed, complete the next six steps, ticking the boxes that are relevant to your church, or skip the steps to go straight to your new Twitter page (you can add further details at any point) The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 15

16 You will be asked to confirm your address, please do this in order to complete the set-up of your Twitter account. Shape your profile That s it! You now have your Twitter page. To edit your profile click on the egg-shaped icon, click view profile and then click Edit profile. 16 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

17 Fill in the details for your church, including the location, and ensure you include your church website link (if your church has a website) Add your profile picture and banner image, the size of the imaged needs to be 1500 pixels wide by 500px high. There are numerous free resources on the internet to help you resize your image to the correct dimensions. Try Handy hint: Twitter s 140 character limit can prove tricky if you want to link to a website with a long address. There are free resources that create condensed versions of links to add to tweets, Facebook and documents. See bitly.com and ow.ly. Tweets, retweets and followers Get going with an initial tweet. You have 140 characters to say something. Start following is a good place to start. When you start to follow someone, they are notified and might start to follow you. Now find a tweet that interests you and retweet it. It will be added to your Twitter feed and your followers will get to see it. The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 17

18 Glossary of terms General social media terms Applications/platforms Websites and mobile-phone-operated programs Direct message Sometimes just DM. This is a message sent on a public platform such as Twitter that can be read by only one person. Feed Your Twitter feed is the page on Twitter showing the most recent tweets by all the people you follow. Followers Self-explanatory. On Twitter it is people who chose to follow another user s tweets. Friending The process of adding an individual as a friend on Facebook. Depending on your settings, and the other person s settings, being a friend allows both parties to see each other s posts, write on each other s Facebook timelines and share links, videos and images. Hashtag # A hashtag # is put before key words or a phrase in Twitter to link a tweet with others on the same theme. Liking Giving a virtual thumbs up by clicking the like button (indicated by a thumbs up icon), showing that you approve of someone s Facebook status, image or comment. This term is specific to Facebook timelines. 18 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

19 Organisation page This is a Facebook-specific term describing one of the types of page that Facebook allows its user to create. A page that is labelled as an organisation page has useful features including easy ways for more than one person to monitor/manage/edit the page activity. Post This term is both a verb and a noun; it is both the process and the product of sharing/publishing content using online platforms. Profile The public-facing page of a social media account. Retweet Simply reposting another user s tweet on your account. It is exactly the same concept as sharing on Facebook Sharing Sharing a status, image or article from a social media account that is not your own; this is usually done by clicking a share button/icon. Shared content will be displayed to all of your friends. Tag You can tag a Facebook friend in your post. Tagging indicates that the post/image is connected in some way with them perhaps because you and they are in a photo together, or were at an event together. Your friend will be notified of the tag. Tweet Tweets messages of 140 characters or fewer are the essence of Twitter. They can include, links, hashtags, mentions and images. The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 19

20 Ways for your church to use social media 1. Express your point of view on important issues show the church is relevant 2. Post an idea and look for feedback e.g. should the church start a food bank? 3. Conduct an online Bible study or share the sermon online 4. Ask members what topics they would like to hear about in sermons or discuss in a Bible study 5. Start online discussions on key issues e.g. how can the church stay relevant today 6. Share church newsletters 7. Discuss progress/invite feedback on church ministries and/or initiatives e.g. Season of Invitation, outreach projects, mission partners, local community work 8. Share interesting, insightful, challenging things you have read e.g. Reform. Share recent articles, join in the debate 9. Keep church members up to date church plans e.g. what it s doing during Advent, or the summer holidays? 10. Help build relationships, encouraging members to get to know each other better your Facebook page should be an extension of that after church coffee time in the church hall 20 Getting started with social media The United Reformed Church

21 11. Communicate with those difficult to reach or those unable to physically attend church e.g. the elderly, students currently away, members who have left, etc 12. Follow-up with new members and keep them informed about ways they can get more involved. The United Reformed Church Getting started with social media 21

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24 This booklet is part of a growing series on church communications written and published by the communications department of The United Reformed Church. Titles currently available are: Dealing with the media Church print and publications Social media guidelines for the United Reformed Church Getting to grips with copyright Getting started with social media. United Reformed Church Written and edited by Eve Parker, with Kenwyn Pierce and Gill Nichol Published by the communications department of The United Reformed Church. United Reformed Church House, 86 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RT T: March 2016