CCCC Social Media Research

Doing life with God, for God, God's way

Draft Version: Nov. 18, 2022

Development Notes

This page is intended to direct the research into Social Media for the purpose of reorganizing our Social Media presence, design, and purpose.

Each area should be researched to find the Best Practices for each area. Those are then to be listed in our Social Media Guide page and used to maintain a consistent brand, look and feel, navigation, and so on. Of course the environment of each social media service must be taken into consideration due to the many differences in presentation and possible customization.


Purpose and Use of this Guide

It has been long agreed that social media is a valuable resource for reaching out to others, providing different types of material and support, all while disciplining church members and 'dragging people to heaven'. This guide is intended to provide details, observations, and suggestions for establishing a positive and powerful social media presence that is a tool for evangelism and discipleship.

One of our guiding phrases is; Worship, Connect, Grow, and Serve. Our social media presence, activities, resources, and efforts should clearly reflect these aspects of 'following Jesus'.


Table of Contents

The Social Media Guide

The Plan

References

Sites


Use by Age
The landscape of social media is ever-changing, especially among teens who often are on the leading edge of this space. A new Pew Research Center survey of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 finds TikTok has rocketed in popularity since its North American debut several years ago and now is a top social media platform for teens among the platforms covered in this survey. Some 67% of teens say they ever use TikTok, with 16% of all teens saying they use it almost constantly. Meanwhile, the share of teens who say they use Facebook, a dominant social media platform among teens in the Center’s 2014-15 survey, has plummeted from 71% then to 32% today. (Ref 1)

YouTube tops the 2022 teen online landscape among the platforms covered in the Center’s new survey, as it is used by 95% of teens. TikTok is next on the list of platforms that were asked about in this survey (67%), followed by Instagram and Snapchat, which are both used by about six-in-ten teens. After those platforms come Facebook with 32% and smaller shares who use Twitter, Twitch, WhatsApp, Reddit and Tumblr. (Ref 1)

Today, 97% of teens say they use the internet daily, compared with 92% of teens in 2014-15 who said the same. (Ref 1)

Black and Hispanic teens stand out for being on the internet more frequently than White teens. Some 56% of Black teens and 55% of Hispanic teens say they are online almost constantly, compared with 37% of White teens. (Ref 1)

YouTube stands out as the most common online platform teens use out of the platforms measured, with 95% saying they ever use this site or app. Majorities also say they use TikTok (67%), Instagram (62%) and Snapchat (59%). Instagram and Snapchat use has grown since asked about in 2014-15, when roughly half of teens said they used Instagram (52%) and about four-in-ten said they used Snapchat (41%). (Ref 1)


General Use of the Internet

More than half of the world now uses social media (59%)

4.70 billion people around the world now use social media, 227 million new users have come online within the last 12 months

The average daily time spent using social media is 2h 29m. (Ref 2)


Worship, Connect, Grow, and Serve

We put a lot of stock in these. They each help us to grow and become better at following Jesus. Doing live Gods Way. These 4 areas can be a very useful way of looking at our social media activities.

Worship

Streaming services invites people worship our Lord together with us in real-time, or as they are able. The music, sermon, and all that goes with them provide a time to ignore interruptions and focus our minds and souls on worshiping our Lord as a family.

Connect

Through several activities we can connect with people we could not otherwise, and they with us.

Grow

In real-time or in videos people can sit with us and learn more about what it means to be a Jesus follower.

Serve



Human and Personal

In every instance we must have a personal, looking into their eyes, being an authentic person who believes what we are saying and cares for the people who are connecting with us. Nothing really canned in a sterile way, but rather the voice of someone talking directly to the person on the other side of the screen. Acknowledge them, direct things to them, involve them in whatever is going on.



Things to Experiment With

Sermon Quote Graphics Just like sermon video clips, sermon quote graphics are a great way to help your congregation meditate on a recent sermon throughout the week. To make a share-worthy graphic, identify a quote within your sermon that will generate the most response from your audience. Then, design a graphic for your social media platform of choice. (Ref 3)

Live Prayer This type of content has become increasingly popular for ministries with the rise of social media's algorithm prioritizing video posts. Hosting a live prayer session can be a great way to build relationships with your in-person and online congregations. Since social platforms like Facebook and Instagram have restructured their algorithms to prioritize video, Live videos can quickly boost your reach and engagement. (Ref 3)

Video Personal Testimonies Personal testimony videos are great for building faith and expectancy amongst your audience. A common misconception is that these can only be shared within the four walls of the church, but quite the contrary! It's a great way to build community and spark new connections within your church AND online! Someone watching may be so encouraged by the testimony and realize that they can overcome this same challenge. This type of content is a win-win! (Ref 3)

Definition Posts These posts can help educate your audience on different topics relevant to the Christian faith or even unique words used in your church. Here are some ideas:
(Ref 3)

How-To Posts These posts can add tremendous value to your audience while giving them practical tips for their Christian walk. Here are some ideas:
  • How to study the Bible?
  • How to read the Bible daily?
  • How to Pray?
  • How to Fast?
  • How to do the 'Daniel' Fast?
    • (Ref 3)

    Recommendation Posts Sometimes your audience needs a recommendation for tools they can use daily to strengthen their faith. This is an easy way to build trust and be helpful! Here are some ideas: (Ref 3)

    Church Groups/Ministries/Programs Your audience will love hearing about the different community groups, ministries, and programs they can join. This generates awareness about what's going on in your church and encourages participation. (Ref 3)

    Church Testimonials Creating video testimonials from your members' church experience can be a great way to promote your church on social media. This type of content can be what helps someone decide to visit your church. (Ref 3)

    New Sermon Series Advertising a new sermon series is a great way to generate engagement with your online audience and even increase in-person visits to your church. (Ref 3)

    Funny Memes Who said the church can't have fun? A great way to engage your audience is through funny Christian memes. (Ref 3)

    Prayer Request Asking your audience to send you their prayer requests via direct message or comment is a powerful way to build a relationship with your audience and get great engagement. This type of post is sure to create a deeper relationship with your following. (Ref 3)

    Favorite Line or Takeaways from the Message Another great way to spark activity in your comment section is to ask people what their favorite quote was or what they learned from a sermon. This type of post will also give you an idea of what to post for your viral sermon clip or quote graphic! (Ref 3)



    Trends

    Following last year’s social media demographic data, younger consumers continue to flock to TikTok and Snapchat versus Facebook and Instagram.

    As younger users migrate to TikTok, perhaps it’s fair to say that Instagram is no longer the “hip” network in the eyes of today’s teenagers.

    That said, Instagram maintains a firm hold on Gen Z and Millennials — these groups make up roughly two-thirds of their base.

    TikTok’s popularity and growth are unprecedented (~10x more users since our last social media demographics breakdown).

    Not only is the user base booming but also activity — users are spending nearly 90 minutes per day on the platform.

    Fact: nearly 40% of Gen Z say they’re directly influenced by products they see on TikTok and brands should take notice.

    LinkedIn: Conventional wisdom might say that LinkedIn exclusively caters to an older audience, but now Millennials dominate the platform.

    Given that only 180 million (25%) of LinkedIn’s users are located in the US, the platform has a massive international reach.

    Snapchat is still huge with the younger crowd, although it recently lost its top spot as teenagers’ go-to network.

    YouTube’s popularity among younger users highlights the ongoing, long-term shift toward video content.

    (Ref 4)

    Facebook Number of monthly active users: 2.91 billion Largest age group: 25-34 (31.5%) Gender: 43% female, 57% male (no data on other genders) Time spent per day: 33 minutes Instagram Number of monthly active users: 2 billion Largest age group: 25-34 (31.2%), with 18-24 close behind at 31% Gender: 48.4% female, 51.8% male (no data on other genders) Time spent per day: 29 minutes TikTok Number of monthly active users: 1 billion Largest age group: 10-19 (25%) Gender: 61% female, 39% male (no data on other genders) Time spent per day: 89 minutes per day Twitter Number of daily active users: 211 million (up from 187 million) Largest age group: 18-29 (42%) Gender: 38.4% female, 61.6% male (no data on other genders) Time spent per day: 31 minutes LinkedIn Number of monthly active users: 810 million Largest age group: 25-34 (58.4%) Gender: 48% female, 52% male 63% of LinkedIn users access the network weekly, and 22% daily Pintrest Number of monthly active users 431 million Largest age group: 50-64 (38%) Gender: 78% female, 22% male (no data on other genders) Time spent per day: 14.2 minutes Snapchat Number of monthly active users: 319 million Largest age group: 15-25 (48%) Gender: 54.4% female, 44.6% male (no data on other genders) Time spent per day: 25+ minutes Youtube Number of monthly active users: 2+ billion Largest age group: 15-35 (highest reach) Gender: 46% female, 54% male (no data on other genders) Time spent per session: ~30 minutes (Ref 4)


    Best Practices

    Know Who Your Audience Is
    You’re going to have a tough time connecting with followers if you don’t have a good understanding of who your audience is. Otherwise, they may not care about the content you’re posting and they may not connect with the voice you’re using. Figure out who your audience is by developing your buyer personas and this will help you to more effectively build relationships on social media. (Ref 5)

    Know Which Social Media Platforms to Use Different people use different social media platforms. For example, if you’re trying to reach seniors over the age of 60, then Snapchat is probably not your best bet. Figure out what social channels your audience is using so that you don’t end up wasting your resources on the wrong platform. (Ref 5)

    Have a Personality Don’t be afraid to have a personality when you post. Some of the businesses that are the most successful on social media are known for their sense of humor and their willingness to take risks (where appropriate, of course). The more of a personality you have, the more willing your followers will be to engage with you. (Ref 5)

    Maintain a Singular Voice Although you should have a personality when you post to social media, make sure your voice is the same across all platforms. Consumers will be confused if you have a somber, distant tone on your website but a goofy, informal tone on social media. (Ref 5)

    Be Active You should try to post on a daily basis, whether it’s posting links to new content, posting questions to your followers or simply responding to comments. The more active you are, the more engaged your audience will be with your brand. If you’re not active, then people will eventually just forget about you. (Ref 5)

    Know When to Post Use analytics to figure out when your target audience is most active on social media in order to reach them. Posting at a time when nobody is logged into their social profile means that whatever you posted will go unnoticed. (Ref 5)

    Don’t Just Share Your Content While you should use your social channels to share new content when you’ve published it, be sure to share other things as well. For example, share content from other sites that you think your followers will like or find helpful. Share posts from your followers that you like. This shows your followers that you’re not just using social media as a promotional tool. (Ref 5)

    Always Respond Because social media is very public, always respond to questions or concerns posted by your followers. You should especially address negative comments (as long as they aren’t purposefully inflammatory). Remember, social media is a PR tool as well, which means everyone is watching how you handle irate or unhappy customers. (Ref 5)

    How to Get the Most Out of Your Social Media Platforms To get the best use out of your social media page, optimize your profiles. Make sure that your profile pages use relevant keywords to get discovered via search. You should brand your profile pages with attractive cover photos, backgrounds, and colors. Find out your users' interests. By finding out relevant issues and interests you can attract more users and business. You need to post frequently! Post 5x or more daily on Twitter and once or more each day on Facebook, Linkedin, and other social media platforms you use. Make it a habit to use hashtags whenever possible, because it helps with tracking of promotions, targeting readers by areas of interest, and starting conversations. Try to stand out! Invest money and time on great quality images to make people stop and look at your brand. You should also try to humanize your brand by sharing candid photos of yourself and your team. Make things exciting for your fans and customers by doing contests and giveaways. Dial-up social media at events. You should create event pages, select a hashtag, interact with attendees, stream videos, and then publish content from the event. Perfect your timing by using analytics tools to discover when your followers are most active. It’s really important to learn from your analytics. This helps to determine where traffic is coming from and going to. Keep up with changes because the networks make changes often and you don’t want to fall behind. The most commonly used type of content on social media is visual (71%), blogging (70%), videos (57%), and podcasting (10%). (Ref 5)

    Set SMART Goals Identify Your Audience Be Human Seek Relationships, Not Just Followers Create an Editorial Calendar Automate the Right Way When in Doubt, Get Visual Make Your Presence Known Stay Active Piggyback on What’s Trending Don’t Be Afraid to Pay Use Tools to Monitor Your Activity Create Content People Actually Want to See (Ref 5)

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    Section Header Template

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    Reference Links

    Material

    Take a look at this and pullout some useful stuff maybe. https://churchfuel.com/12-new-digital-ministry-lessons-for-every-leader/

    (Remove any link not used)

    Number these as ref points so that in the body they can click on a ref # that takes them to the ref below where they can see the date recorded and jump right to it.

    Format: Ref# hyperlink. (Use article title as the link text). Date last accessed.

    1. Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022
    TikTok has established itself as one of the top online platforms for U.S. teens, while the share of teens who use Facebook has fallen sharply (AUGUST 10, 2022). Last seen; Mon 05 Sep 2022 07:29:56 PM EDT. This article is full of granular detailed statistices about the use of social media by youth in 2022. (Last accessed: Mon 05 Sep 2022 07:56:31 PM EDT)

    2. Global social media statistics research summary 2022
    This page goes into granular detail about the general use of the Internet, and social media in particular, in detail. (Last accessed: Mon 05 Sep 2022 07:56:06 PM EDT)

    3. SOCIAL MEDIA IDEAS FOR CHURCHES - THE ULTIMATE LIST (Last accessed: Mon 05 Sep 2022 08:24:59 PM EDT)

    http://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/

    http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/
    (Common stats)

    http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ - Most popular social networks worldwide as of January 2022, ranked by number of monthly active users

    4. - Social media demographics to inform your brand’s strategy in 2022 (Last accessed: Sun 11 Sep 2022 10:02:39 AM EDT)

    http://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-demographics/ More demographocs

    http://adespresso.com/blog/social-media-demographics/

    http://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/ - More demographics

    http://www.socialpilot.co/blog/social-media-statistics

    http://bloggingwizard.com/social-media-statistics-facts-trends/

    http://financesonline.com/number-of-social-media-users/

    http://www.websolutions.com/blog/most-popular-social-media-platforms-by-total-users-age-and-gender/

    5. 8 Tips for Using Social Media Effectively

    5. How to Use Social Media Effectively

    5. 15 Tips to Building a Better Social Media Presence

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/292169

    http://www.searchenginejournal.com/create-effective-social-media-marketing-strategy/256965/

    http://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/7-characteristics-of-a-successful-social-media-presence/

    http://www.saltwaterco.com/uncategorized/5-characteristics-of-good-social-media-content

    http://emplifi.io/resources/blog/key-qualities-of-social-media-content-strategy

    http://www.acrolinx.com/blog/5-characteristics-of-great-content/

    http://business.localfluence.com/7-qualities-of-a-good-influencer/

    http://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-best-practices/

    http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/social-media-positive-mental-health/

    http://theconnectedchurch.org/characteristics-connected-audience-social-media/

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7717533/

    http://www.thecreativepastor.com/thirty-churches-to-follow-for-social-media-inspiration/

    http://callhub.io/church-social-media-strategy/

    http://missionalmarketing.com/social-media-for-churches-the-ultimate-guide/

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zmgu0SjYYMw

    http://www.faithward.org/how-to-develop-an-effective-social-media-strategy-for-your-church/

    http://get.tithe.ly/blog/how-to-create-your-churchs-social-media-strategy-in-minutes

    http://get.tithe.ly/blog/how-churches-can-use-social-media-to-attract-millennials

    http://taggbox.com/blog/church-social-media-wall/

    http://theconnectedchurch.org/reasons-church-focus-social-media-ministry/

    http://www.givelify.com/blog/social-media-churches/

    http://careynieuwhof.com/9-great-ways-for-leaders-to-use-social-media-3-mistakes/

    http://blog.walls.io/socialmedia/social-media-for-churches-a-guide-to-engaging-your-congregation/

    http://landslidecreative.com/21-social-media-posts-ideas-churches/

    http://churchtechtoday.com/boost-your-church-engagement/?amp=1

    http://churchcommunications.com/the-top-social-media-trends-for-churches/

    http://www.focusonthefamily.com/church/five-practices-for-church-leaders-to-align-social-media-with-their-gospel-mission/

    http://reinforcelab.com/social-media-content-ideas-for-churches/

    http://twelvethirty.media/communications/5-social-media-content-ideas-every-church-can-use/

    http://www.delmethod.com/blog/social-media-evangelism

    http://illumeconsulting.co/the-ultimate-purpose-for-a-church-using-social-media/

    http://blog.socialmediastrategiessummit.com/every-pastor-should-use-social-media/

    http://www.crosswalk.com/slideshows/10-ways-social-media-is-hurting-your-local-church.html