After a number of requests about Park’s Twitter policy, I decided to share it with the rest of you: we don’t have one.
I’m not a huge fan of policies. They take too long to write out and shouldn’t really be an issue as long as you are managing what you are doing well.
That being said, here’s a few tips on how we use Twitter…
Why Do You Use Twitter?
I think this is an important question every church needs to answer.
Don’t Twitter because everyone else does, consider your audience and your context and determine if that’s an effective way for you to interact with them [and if it’s worth your time]. If it seems like a large number of people in your church use Twitter, strongly consider how you could integrate it into your communications strategy.
How Did You Start?
We set up a Twitter account for Park and connected it to the general email address that all of our church-wide emails are sent from. We didn’t promote we were on Twitter, we just let the account sit there. In less than six months we accumulated over 100 followers without advertising we were on Twitter… people were finding us. The 100 mark was my milestone to begin Twittering, so we did… about a year ago.
Who Twitters for Park?
I do. No special reason why it’s just me – I’m just the one person who does it well, so it falls on my shoulders. Other staffers do have access to the account. [If you want multiple people to manage your Twitter account, CoTweet is a great product to check out.].
Who Do You Follow?
We will follow back anyone who mentions us, retweets us [and doesn’t appear to be SPAM], and anyone who follows us who is from Chicago.
Why Follow?
9 times out of 10, anyone who follows us attends our church. Following them gives us a great window into their day-to-day life. We’re able to see what they are talking about, what they care about, and what they are saying about their experience at Park. It’s free research!
What Do You Tweet About?
We Tweet about a number of different things. The idea is to use Twitter to connect people to information that matters to them. We try to Tweet at least a couple of times per day, not to create noise, but to keep us at the top of people’s minds. [Also, we will typically update our Facebook Page status each time we post a new Tweet.] And, we use Twitter to help generate traffic to our site.
People have to go to websites to get information; social media enables information go to people.
If you look at our blog stats, one of the largest referrers to our site is Twitter and Facebook. So, use any form of social media as a vehicle to get people to your site – or wherever you deem your “central point” for disseminating information.
An Example of a Week in Twitter at Park
- Mondays – we post a Tweet when audio/video of weekend services is posted.
- Tuesdays – we’ll Tweet about any events going on that week for people to connect with.
- Wednesdays – link to an online version of our weekly enewsletter.
- Thursdays – focus on the weekend and events people can connect with during the weekend.
- Fridays – FollowFriday! On Fridays we typically do the FollowFriday thing and recommend staff members or ministries that we support.
- Weekends – we Tweet quotes from weekend messages, repost Tweets of what people are saying, and respond to questions/comments people make about their experience at Park.
Remember the most important thing…
The keyword in social media that is often overlooked is the word social. It’s meant to be a conversation, not a lecture. Don’t turn social media into another broadcast point, use it as a place to engage with you audience, to listen to what they are saying, respond to their questions, and bring more humanity to your church/organization.
Create Lists for Your Staff
One of the things we did recently was create a Twitter list of all of our staff members who Tweet. It’s a simple way of connecting our audience with people who work behind-the-scenes and make Park what it is. Again, another way to “humanize” your church.
Does Park’s Pastor Twitter?
Yes. A number of them do. Our lead pastor is @JaxnC. I don’t think every pastor should Twitter… most should. I addressed that in a previous blog entry.
Is there a “Twolicy” for Park’s Staff?
No. We trust our staff. We view all social media, blogs, etc. as the personal responsibility of our staff members. It’s their outlet and their place to be free to express their views/opinions and not an area we need to manage or control. We do, however, remind them that they do represent Park and to be mindful of that as they tweet and blog. Thus far we haven’t had any incidents or issues arise for us to do anything more than tell them to remember who they represent!
Even If You Aren’t Going to Twitter, Secure Your Account
A friend of mine works at a VERY large church that jumped on the Twitter bandwagon awhile ago. Well, the church didn’t… someone else did. Someone started a Twitter account for the church and began tweeting for them, following people [myself included] and quickly accumulated many followers. The only challenge was they had no idea who was doing it. Long story short, it turned out someone who was attending the church had started the account… he graciously gave the login info to the church who now manages it, but the lesson here is simple: create an account for your church, even if there are no plans to use Twitter on the horizon. This is a great rule of thumb for any form of social media for that matter.
Closing Thought…
Twitter isn’t a end all, be all… but can certainly be a great way to connect with your audience. Just remember it’s not another broadcast channel, but another way to engage.
We’re still learning ways to use it and for now, this is what we’ve learned.
What about you? Are there lessons you and your organization/church have learned from using Twitter? Any successes? Any lessons learned? Share them!
