Social media is part science and part art. So many factors determine the success or failure of any social media strategy. Promoting your Christmas church services can be challenging when there are so many Christmas messages already out there on social media. Cutting through the clutter and noise of Christmas can be tough. But I think I’ve found a way to help you that will cut through the noise which you can put into action straight away .
I found with our own Christmas promo video on Facebook this year that the engagement wasn’t huge, it was okay, but as a key component of our outreach for the year we wanted as many people as possible to engage and share when they saw it.
Here are the three tactics I found which exponentially increased the engagement and impact for our upcoming Christmas at Crossway production.
1. Embed the video
Don’t link out to YouTube of Vimeo, the video won’t appear as well as it does when it is embedded into Facebook.
Embedding the video means that you can’t schedule the appearance time a long way in advance, but you will be okay if you upload the video around the time you want it to appear.
2. Let the post run its natural course
You will find that the video will eventually lose its impact. That is okay. You want the organic reach on Facebook as this will give you social proof for the next and most important step.
3. Create a page post engagement ‘sponsored story’
Don’t click on the link in your Facebook app feed called ‘sponsored stories’. Create a ‘page post engagement’ in the Adverts Manager on Facebook. This way your targeting will be much more accurate. Here is the key to your success. Only promote it to your existing audience who already like your page. You want to put the story in front of them again and again. They will watch, like or share it eventually.
Now you could say, Steve, if I spend money on Facebook of course my reach will increase and the likes and shares will increase. Well, maybe they will, but by only increasing your spend on your existing audience you will not be dropping into people’s feeds who have never heard of your church who will consider your content as spam rather than a video their friend recommended. Word of mouth trumps advertising to the wrong audience every time. You will also allow for a more cost effective campaign.
I timed our first run for three days from Friday to Sunday after the initial post on a Thursday. Here are the results.
You turn
Have you ever used paid tactics to get in-front of your audience and increase engagement on social media? What other smart tactics would you recommend? Or do you have any questions about this post? Drop a comment below.
