Helps on using Facebook for churches. 2011

1. YOUR CHURCH AND FACEBOOK
PREPARED BY WENDY BAILEY
Inside:
 Why Your Church Needs to be on Facebook
 Pages, Profiles and Groups … Oh My!
 How to Create a Facebook Page for your Church
 Building Your Church’s Facebook Page
 It’s Not about “Marketing,” It’s about “Relationship”

2. WHY YOUR CHURCH NEEDS
TO BE ON FACEBOOK
acebook is not a fad.
Social media and social
networking are here to
stay. Since Facebook went
public in September2006, it has
become the major platform for
social connections on the
Internet in the United States and
around the world. Today
Facebook has more than 800
million active users,and more
than 50% of them log into
Facebook on any given day.
Facebook users stay connected
through their computers,
smartphones and tablets. When
making purchasing decisions, or
decisions on joining or visiting a
church,many people will rely on
advice they get from Facebook
friends. Church-shoppers will visit websites before they’ll look at a telephone book or
newspaper ad, but more and more, they are interested not only in informationbut
interactionbefore they evenattempt a visit.
While the first users of Facebook were college students (nearly 1 million of them by
Decemberof 2004),the numbers of people over the age 55 are increasing by leaps and
bounds. Many older adults are finding that Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with
children and grandchildren and friends across the street and around the world. Because
Facebook is FREE,it’s a great tool for the churchto use in building community, evangelism,
mission, networking and sharing information about activities of the congregation.
Will a FB page bring people to your church? Not likely … at least no more likely than a
webpage or phone book ad will bring visitors. Not having a Facebook presence,though, will
definitely NOT bring people to church. And, if your congregation is intentional in how it uses
this and other social media for building relationships, it will enhance the ministry and mission
or your church.
F

3. PAGES, PROFILES AND GROUPS…
OH MY!
There are three basic ways that people and organizations can interact on Facebook: Profiles,
Pages and Groups. Facebook is clear that “profiles” are for individuals and “pages” are for
organizations. Public figures are an exceptionto that, but, by and large, the rule of thumb
stands true. ByFacebook’s own rules, an organization cannot have a “profile” it needsto
create a “page. You need to attest that you have the authority from the organization to
form the page … in other words, since this is the “official” public voice of the congregation,
you needto have permission, preferably from the session, to create the page. That page will
be linked to your personal Facebook login, and can be linked to others as well. This way the
“page” can live evenafter you leave the organization or are no longer responsible for the
Facebook page.
Facebook users “friend” people’s profiles and “like” organization’s pages. But, essentially,
they act similarly. Status updates and wall posts will be pushed to people’s newsfeeds,you
can post videos, photographs, documents, links, and create events.
A group is not necessarily an “official” voice of an organization. It’s more a gathering of
people to share in news and conversation on specifictopics or interests. People can start
groups for all kinds of concerns or interests. Theycan be public or private. Typically, a
congregation would form a “page” but organizations within your congregation would form
groups. “First Presbyterian Church” would be a page, but “FPC Youth” would be a group.
You could start groups to be discussions on specific topics within the church(discussion on a
mission statement, for instance) or to reach out to the larger community (bible study on
Revelation for members and non members).
When your congregation has a “page” on Facebook, it can also create “events.” Thisis a
great way to publicize your eventboth to your congregation and to the friends of friends of
your congregation. Events can also be either public or private.

4. HOW TO CREATE A FACEBOOK
PAGE FOR YOUR CHURCH
1. Sign in to Facebook. If you do
not have a personalFacebook
profile, you will need to create
one. Go to
http://www.facebook.com andfill
in the form and click “sign-up”
2. Scroll down to the bottom of
your newsfeed and click on
“create a page”
3. Click on “Company, Organization
or Institution”. Choose “Church/ReligiousOrganization”. Type the name of
your church, andcheck the box saying you agree to the Facebook Page terms.
Click on the “Get Started” box.
4. Choose a profile picture. This is often a picture of your churchbuilding, a
logo, or an image thatrepresentsyour congregation. You can uploadan
image from your computer, or get it from your church’s website. Be surethat
the picture will look good small,as this is the image thatwill accompany all
postsby your church. Also, it’s goodfor it to be close to square. Facebook
may crop a long and skinny photo in a way thatlooks bad.
5. Don’t invite Friends or upload your list yet. You’llhave a chance to do this
later after you have the page allset up, looking just the way you like. Justclick
continue.
6. Enter your congregation’swebsite. If you don’thave a website, this
facebook page could act as your church’ssite, so don’t worry.
7. Enter a sentence or two about your church. This is not a place to say
everything. Make it inviting and interesting, but true. This may be a good
place for your church’smission statement(assumingit’s lessthat 250
characters). Click continue.
8. Congratulations yourPage is set up. Now, it’s time to build the site to reflect
the life of your congregation

5. BUILDING YOUR CHURCH’S
FACEBOOK PAGE
Now that your page is set up, you will needto add information about your congregation to
the site. Click on “Edit Page” to begin building. This is also how you will edit information in
the future if needed.
There are a number of areas to edit or build. You can see them in the column on the left of
the page. Let’s begin with “basicinformation”.
BASIC INFORMATION
Category: Companies & Organizations; Church/Religious Organization
Community Page: leave this blank or add a topic. You may want to add “Presbyterian”
UserName: This is a good way to create an easy way for people to find your churchon
Facebook. Facebook provides you a long id number for your page,but you probably want to
create something that you can easily publish or tell people in order to find you on Facebook.
Once you set this, you cannot change it. Also, you may need to have at least 25 fans or
“likes” in order to get a user name. If you have a church website, you may want your
Facebook user name to be similar. Rememberthat there are hundreds of churcheswith
names like First Presbyterian or Westminster Presbyterian, so you’ll have to find something
unique to your congregation.
Name: This is the name of your page as you set it up. This is a place, too, to consider making
a very common name more unique. For instance,instead of “First Presbyterian Church”,you
may want “First Presbyterian Plainsboro”.
Founded: Enter the year your churchchartered or leave it blank.
Address: Use the street address of your church,not a post office box or mailing address.
This is what visitors will use to find you on Google Maps or their GPS. Facebook also allows
people to “checkin” to locations. If you have your physical address, then fans can tell their
friends that they are at your church!
About:
Description:
GeneralInformation:
Mission:
These are all ways to say differentthings about your
congregation. Be sure to say that all people are welcome and
the times of your worship services,etc.
Email: Go ahead and leave a churchemail address. This is a good way for potential visitors to
contact the church. Don’tleave your personal email here,though. If your church doesn’t

6. have an email address, you can get one for free from Google mail, yahoo, or other online mail
services.
Phone: Yes, list your church’sphone here. Be sure,that your church’svoicemail is working
and gives basic information about the church.
Website: This should list your church’swebsite if you have one.
Be sure to hit “Save Changes” before moving on to other areas!
YOUR SETTINGS
Posting Preferences: youhave a choice regarding which identity you want to use when you
post on the church’spage. If you will be the primary and “official” voice of the congregation
on Facebook, then you should checkthis box. If you checkit, every time you post on the wall
here it will appear as posted by the church. If you don’t checkit, your posts will be identified
as coming from you, personally.
Email Notifications: Click this box to have an email sent to you every time someone posts or
comments on the congregation’s page. If you don’t want the emails, then leave this box
unchecked.
Be sure to hit “Save Changes” before moving on to other areas!
MANAGE PERMISSIONS
Page Visibility: Whenyou’re page is in development you may want to checkthis box, so that
people cannot see it until you are ready. This should only rarely be used.
Country Restrictions: There is typically no need to restrict or limit which countries can see
your church’sFacebook page.
Age Restrictions: Unless you are going to have “adult only” content on your page, there is
no need to restrict the age of people who can see your site.
WallTab Shows: What do you want visible on your wall? Just the postings from your page?
Or everyone who wants to post on the wall? This should be carefully considered. If you are
using your page primarily to share information from your congregation, then it will be best to
choose “posts by page.” If, on the other hand, you want to have a more “open source” page
where all visitors’ posts can be see,check“All Posts.” You can always come back and change
this setting, if you find the churchisn’t being well served as it is.
Expand comments on stories: if you don’t click here,long comments or a list of comments
will not all be visible without manually clicking to expand.
Default landing tab: This should indicate which aspect of your page visitors will see when
they first come to your page.

7. Posting Ability: This allows you to choose what kind of content your visitors can post on
your page.
Moderation Blocklist: List any terms you can think of that you would want to block from
your site. Typically you would leave this blank unless you find yourself with a problem of
some sort.
Profanity Blocklist: Here you can choose the level of censorship for profanity on your page.
Delete Page: Do not click here,unless you want to permanently delete your congregation’s
Facebook page.
Be sure to hit “Save Changes” before moving on to other areas!
PROFILE PICTURE
This is where you go to add or change a profile picture that representsyour congregation.
FEATURED
In order to build connectivity on Facebook, your congregation can “like” other pages. Up to
five of these links will appear on the left navigation bar of your congregation’s page. To
begin, you can “like” the presbytery’s page or PC(USA)’s page.
RESOURCES
If you’re looking for help, this is one place to look. There are helpful articles and links here to
help you build your page and its effectiveness.
MANAGE ADMINS
As the person who set up the page, you are an “admin” to the site. This gives you accessto
all the settings as well as the ability to post as your church. Think carefully about who else
you’d like to make an administrator of your site. The pastor, the clerk of session, other staff
members,elders? You want to balance accessibility with the ability to speak with a unified
voice when posting and using Facebook as your congregation.
INSIGHTS
As your page is used more, this is a good place to keepabreast on new users and the growth
of the site itself. Use these statistics to set goals for your congregation’s Facebook presence

8. IT’S NOT ABOUT “MARKETING,” IT’S
ABOUT “RELATIONSHIP”
Often congregations will say, we’ve got a Facebook page but it doesn’t do us any good. Just
having a page or merely posting information about your congregation’s programs or worship
times assumes that people will come to your page to find out about you. While that may
have be true of the Yellow Pages, and it is somewhat true for your congregation’s website,
Facebook is a “social network” and it requires interactivity for it’s effectiveness. Building a
relationship is what Facebook is about, not broadcasting information.
So, how does a congregation build a relationship on Facebook?
1. Post regularly… everytime you post something to you’re your congregation’s wall it
gets “pushed” to the newsfeeds of those who have “liked” you. But, the newsfeed
is verycrowded, and yesterday’sor this morning’s posts are quickly buried and not
seenanymore. Plan posts throughout the week (at least one per day for eventhe
smallest of congregations). Use a tool suchas Hootsuite (Hootsuite.com) to
schedule your posts.
2. Post linksto interestingand relatedarticles,photos or videos. Don’t just share
what’s going on at your church. Sharing news of other congregations, the
presbytery, pastors of neighboring congregations, the local food pantry, or other
missions, etc. is a great way to stay connectedand show how involved your
congregation is in the larger Church. It also keeps your congregation’s page active
and shows you are a congregation with vitality and effective mission.
3. Comment on posts and on other people’s walls. When someone posts on your wall
or comments on your post, be sure to respond. It doesn’t have to be long or deep,a
mere “thanks for sharing” goes a long way to build community. Stay positive in your
comments … particularly if someone says something that seems like a complaint,
don’t get defensive,but that them for their input and give more information if it’s
needed. Commenting on other people’s status, particularly if they mention the
churchor people associated with the church,is also very important.
4. Ask questions. Questions encourage people to share their thoughts. Asking a
question like “what are you thankful for today?” or “what are your favorite advent
traditions?” or “do you say grace before meals with your kids? “ is a great way to
start building conversation and dialogue. Tryto make the questions relate to what’s
going on in the life of the congregation.
5. Take polls/surveys or quizzes. There are polling apps you canput on your page,but it
doesn’t have to be that complicated. You might ask for people to post their favorite
hymns or praise songs in a comment. Tell them that the top four hymns or praise
songs that get the most “likes” will be usedduring worship nextmonth. You might
also ask trivia questions about the congregation or theology or the Bible …. The first
one to comment with the correct answer could get a free download from iTunes of
their favorite Christian song. Use your imagination … look to see what other
organizations are doing to build traffic and interest in their page.

9. 6. Encourage people to post photos or videos. Wheneverthe churchhas an event,
encourage people there to take pictures and post them to the congregation’s
Facebook page … or post to their own profile and “tag” the churchin them.
7. Create events. Use the event app to create events for your congregation. They
could be “real” events like the hanging of the greensspecial service or “virtual” like a
day of prayer for the congregation, or season of giving, etc. Be sure to invite people
to the events, and to encourage others to invite their friends!
8. Think about your Facebook page as “being” church,not just getting people to
“come to” church. Create an event for a “virtual” Bible Study. Use the page to
encourage prayer and reaching out to those in need. Consider everyone who “likes”
your page or seesyou on Facebook as a child of God.
9. Plan Facebook “campaigns.” Plan times of the year whenyou’re going to have
specific goals for Facebook. Use the themes of worship seasons or preaching series
to plan your campaigns. Goals could be to increase our “likes” by a certain number,
or to post and commentevery day.
10. Yes, it takes time. Some Social Media expertshave given the rule of thumb of an
hour a day for building your social network effectively. I don’t think most
congregations will needto spend that muchtime, but 30 minutes three or four times
a week seems reasonable for eventhe smallest of congregations. Building
relationships take time, making friends takes time and energyin real life as well as on
Facebook. But, once those relationships are formed, they are valuable. We don’t
witness the love and compassion of Jesus Christ through ads or marketing, but we
can be great and powerful witnesses through relationships.