What to Post on the Parish Facebook Page

Last week I began to address the idea of social media ministry from the perspective of the focus of the person who is administering your social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). I suggest that there are three ways to measure their ability to actually minister on social media.

1. How they know and serve their audience, which I addressed last week
2. The content they share which I will address this week and
3. Their understanding and use of different social media platforms for ministry, which I hope to address next week.

Ministry content on Facebook

After you read this blog, you may feel overwhelmed with how much work is involved in researching, creating and posting social media content when it is a ministry. I will not kid you. It is work to produce quality content. It takes time to discern relevant topics that will serve your audience in a way that uplifts their minds and hearts to God. It takes time to write descriptions that are meaningful and easy to read. It takes time to find (public domain) images or to create your own.

That being said, I have been creating social media content for parishes for more than six years. I have come to these parameters. This work is to share faith in Christ with all who seek it and to offer it not as some other-worldly experience, but as experience rooted in the world in which we live. Good social media adds value to people’s lives first and then invites them to be part of the community or organization in various ways.

For this blog, I will focus on ministry content for Facebook Pages from the parish point of view—but religious communities and organizations can adapt to their situations quite easily. To have a viable Page, we need to post a minimum of two to three times a week and normally not more than three times a day. We want to post a variety of content, drawing on relevant sources. Here are some of the sources I have come to use:

Faith-based sources: the Sunday liturgy, the liturgical seasons, Mary and the saints, the scriptures, the teachings of the Church, the writings of the Holy Father, prayer and sacraments.

Member-based sources: by this I mean photos or photo albums sharing the current activities of the members especially those events that demonstrate living and growing in their faith. Always post with their permission and only post the best photos and never post a photo that is not flattering to someone. We can have fun with these posts—show a happy community.

Current event sources: national holidays, World Days of Prayer for various intentions, support for the poor and suffering, etc.

Parish news sources: announcements or promotions of activities that are taking place at the parish or in the diocese or in the world that our followers may want to know about and/or participate in.

Evangelizing moments: I always post invitational type posts for Christmas, Easter, Ash Wednesday (usually making them ads to people in the local area) as well as invitations to consider inquiring into the Catholic faith.

If we pay attention to the “Reach” of our Facebook posts—how many people actually see them—we will get a good idea of which kinds of posts our followers like most.

Quality is better than quantity. Quality takes time. Well researched, well written and attractive posts keep people engaged and that’s what we want. Again, two or three meaningful posts a week is fine. Some weeks you may have more and that is okay too, but try not to have fewer.

Your comments are welcome.

Here is a free Facebook post for you based on the Gospel of October 21. Click on the image and save it to your computer.

In the Gospel for the 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus tells his disciples who are looking to be “great” in his kingdom that his way is different than those who seek to “lord it over” others. “Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10: 43-45