Facebook is the internet's most widely used social network, with over 3.065 billion active monthly users worldwide and over 37 million daily users in the UK.
The majority of Church of Scotland congregations are already using Facebook to connect with their members and their local communities. Whether you are one of these churches and wish to improve your online presence, or you are just beginning your Facebook journey, we hope these hints and tips will help you make the most of this useful platform. A Facebook account will also enable you to post to Instagram at the same time since they are both owned by the same company (Meta) and work together. Only open and maintain Instagram account if you can commit to posting a regular stream of photos and/or graphics and accompanying news. Photos are important for Facebook but they are essential for Instagram. Ideally if using both Facebook and Instagram you want to create some diversity around what you post on the respective platforms – if posts are identical on both then users are likely to unfollow one of the accounts to avoid getting spammed with the same content.
Getting started
What kind of account does your Church need?
Facebook offers three options; a profile, a page, or a group. A profile represents a single individual and is for non-commercial use. A page is a timeline for organisations and businesses. Groups are effective in connecting family, peers, colleagues or people with a shared interest.
We recommend you create a Facebook page. Churches, church members and people interested in the Church use Facebook more than any other platform – in fact many churches use Facebook pages instead of a website. A page will enable people to find you and explore the life of your church. This page can be used to advertise events and to share prayers, images, videos, thoughts and quotes.
Note: You must already have a personal Facebook account (a profile) that you can use to create a page. You will then become the admin of the page. You should then assign other people as admins and editors (Facebook has a guide on how to do that). You can remove yourself as an admin for the page later if you no longer wish your profile to be attached to the church page.
The details
Here are some tips for creating an effective Facebook page:
Remember the basics
Fill in the required information in the About section, this includes the church's address, phone number, website, email address, social media accounts, a short biography, office opening hours, a contact person and any other important information. It is important to be clear that you belong to the Church of Scotland.
Images tell a story
Your cover photo is the large image at the top of your profile. This lets you feature a unique image that represents who you are. You want to use a good quality photo. An image of your church outside or inside is always good. Make sure to follow current image size guidelines (851 by 315 pixels) to get the best results. Anything less and the photo will be stretched or distorted.
Your profile photo is the smaller image on the left side of your profile. Use a good quality profile photo. We recommend using an image which represents your church or the Church of Scotland logo (which can be found on our visual identity webpage). This photo will appear whenever you interact with other people on Facebook and when people search for your church. The current image size for a profile photo is 320 pixels wide and 320 pixels tall.
Choose a username
Facebook allows you to choose a unique username (i.e. Church of Scotland) and URL (i.e. www.facebook.com/cultsparishchurch Make sure you choose something that will make sense to your congregation and the general public. Take a look at the usernames and URLs of other congregations to get some ideas:
- www.facebook.com/EdinburghPresbytery
- www.facebook.com/GreenbankParishChurchEdinburgh
- www.facebook.com/stgeorgestroncofs
- www.facebook.com/lylekirkgreenock
Build your Facebook community
- Post daily (or at least frequently)
- All content from the Church of Scotland website and Facebook is ready-made for local churches to share
- Share photos of your church events (remember to get permission if you are using other people's images)
- Highlight examples of the good work your church is doing
- Use shareable/engaging content – inspiring quotes, meaningful scripture and compelling thought-pieces
For example, the Church of Scotland posts a daily prayer on Facebook that is available for all to share. One of our most popular prayers reached more than 55,700 people, was shared by 783 people and liked by 515 people.
- Create a Facebook ‘event' for each of your church's events
- Facebook asks you for the basic information for your event; the name of the event, location, time, details of the event, and keywords. Don't forget to add an event photo - the image size must be at least 720 pixels wide but looks best at 1920 by 1080 pixels. Be sure to give plenty of notice ahead of time.
- Use Facebook live to share short videos of events or an uplifting thought for the day
- Post your weekly Sunday sermon
- Perhaps you have something to say on an issue that's topical in the news? It could be how you are helping to tackle loneliness, child poverty or supporting refugees
- Ask questions – spur a conversation about a topic with an open-ended question
- Interact with the people who comment on your posts
- Share relevant posts from other pages. It could be a news story from Church of Scotland or the Moderator, or a Lent reflection from Christian Aid. Follow other organisations and share any relevant posts of theirs
- Facebook will only show your posts to a small percentage of your page followers. However the more people like and share your post, the more people will see it in their news feeds.
Addressing mistakes
If you post something and find you have made a mistake such as a spelling error you can select the three small dots at the top right of your post and then click edit. You will then be able to correct the text.
You can also delete posts using the three small dots. Do not delete a post if it has been seen and shared as it will cause confusion when people wonder what happened to the post. In these cases you might want to add a comment if there is something that has changed that you need to address or add another post clearly marking it as an update.
Evaluating your results
Once your page is underway you can begin to evaluate your results. Select the Meta Business Suite tab in the Manage your Page section to the right of your Facebook page where you can find out how many people are viewing your posts (reach) and which posts are attracting likes shares and comments. Learn more about Meta Business Suite.
Likes and shares are the best indicators of how relevant your content is to your audience. In the planner section of Meta Business Suite you will be able to see what time of day your Facebook fans are online. Use this to your advantage and post at peak times to get the greatest amount of engagement.
We have found that posting in the morning and later around 7:30pm in the evening secures the most engagement for Church of Scotland posts, but you can experiment to find out what works best for your church community.
We make every effort to keep our advice up-to-date but Meta does change some of the features on Facebook from time to time. Recently, for example, Meta has acquired Instagram and now offers the option of posting to both platforms. Currently you will find all the information about your page's performance and how to include Instagram in Meta Business Suite.
Remember to think about key church dates, such as Lent, Easter, and Christmas, and plan in advance for content you can share around these important times. You can schedule posts in advance in Meta Business Suite.
You will want to understand what your audience loves about your church. Photos and videos usually get 10 times more engagements than a post containing only text. If you choose to create a post with only text, make sure to keep your message short and concise.
You will be asked if you want to boost a post which means paying Meta to show the post to more people. Communications Department policy advises churches against paying Meta for any reason. Your engagement will grow if you post interesting, relevant content.
Avoid oversharing
Lastly, try to avoid posting and sharing content all at the same time. Use the Facebook post scheduling system to space out your posts. Choosing specific times of day can give your audience a much higher chance of seeing and engaging with your content.
Scheduling a post is relatively straightforward. Post like you normally would, but instead of selecting publish, scroll down to scheduling options and set the time and date for when you wish to schedule your post. Learn more about Facebook post scheduling.