Social media is ministry
Mia Harper, Contributing Writer
Most people would never put social media and ministry in the same category. But can social media be another form of ministry?
“For me, social media is an opportunity to reach a student where they are, speak their language and earn trust in the world they feel comfortable in for the sake of sharing the gospel.”
This is how youth minister, J.G. Faulk, believes the media works for ministry purposes. Ministry in social media form can extend the importance of community by encouraging the church body to get involved in serving and being relational with each other. When creating a social media platform for your ministry there are four simple steps: create, content, consistency, and community.
The first step is to create your platforms. Start by choosing the social media platforms that bring the most engagement from the audience you’re wanting to reach. Narrow down what apps your students use the most and put more effort into engagement on those platforms. For the current generation, applications like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are going to be the best options.
The second step is creating content on your platform. Middle and high school students have short attention spans, it is important to keep your content simple, relevant and repetitive. Keeping your content unique can grab your students attention. Also, you can use trends or creative graphics that are appropriate and simple to get out your messages.
When using Instagram and TikTok, it is a good idea to create short videos that recap your events. Stories and reels are a good tool to make your content more visually interactive. Students should be able to look back on the memories they shared together at DNOW weekends, seasonal retreats, and midweek so that they will want to stay involved.
Another important part of posts are captions. You want to make sure your captions are short, clever, and pertain to what you want the students to remember. This is an opportunity to create engagement through your posts and build relationships.
The third step is keeping consistency of your platforms. Posting on a regular basis and keeping your content consistent in theme are great ways to keep students engaged on your platforms. Schedule out dates and times to work on content and then post it consistently so you do not spend too much time being inactive on your platforms.
The final step is community and engagement. Stay active and interact with your students on your platforms. Students are given the opportunity to comment with questions, further clarification, or encouragement to other students and the church when you post for them. You want students to engage since this will build relationships among the youth pastors, volunteer leaders, and other students in the long run. It also is a way to make the students feel seen and loved which is our goal as believers.
