A key principle of God’s work is to serve people where they’re at. In this digital age, people are on social media sites, like Facebook. Are you? Over 1 billion people regularly use Facebook to connect with family, friends, and colleagues. The average user spends 20 minutes each day on Facebook. How can your ministry make an impact in that 20 minutes?
Pages
Lots of our BASIC ministries have effective Facebook Pages. If you don’t have one yet, think of it as a web page within the Facebook world. Pages allow organizations and public figures to update their fans about their happenings, share pictures and videos, create and invite people to events, and more. Pages are a great marketing tool for your ministry, and have the potential to bring new students to your group. My ministry has seen students come to meetings and events simply because they saw posts from the Facebook Page.
Messages
This isn’t an earth-shattering idea, but it’s still worth mentioning. I use Facebook messaging more often than email when I connect with students. Most of my appointments with students come as a result of me finding them on Facebook and sending a quick message, inviting them to get coffee. I also use messages to connect with specific leaders to ask favors and delegate tasks. I’ve experienced an overwhelmingly successful response rate with Facebook messages.
Events
Using Facebook Events is a simple way to get the word out about your meetings and special events to tons of students who may never see your fliers on campus. Keep in mind, setting up a Facebook Event is not a substitute for other methods of advertising, but it’s an awesome compliment. It’s power lies in the roots of word-of-mouth marketing, as your students share and invite their friends to your events. As we know, most people attend events because they are personally invited by someone they trust. Facebook Events is a brilliant application of this principle.
Advertisements
Facebook offers a whole slew of options for Page administrators to advertise to potential leads. Facebook advertisements are relatively inexpensive, highly targetable, and effective in purpose. For example, I recently set up an ad to get more Page ‘likes’ for my ministry’s Facebook page. I was able to target around 8,000 college students within 10 miles of my city with an ad to get students to like the page. I only spent around $10 and got about 10 ‘likes’ over the course of the week that I sponsored the ad.
Groups
Facebook Groups are awesome ministry tools. My ministry has a group set up for our student leadership team, where we bounce ideas back and forth, delegate tasks, and post prayer requests. Another group is used by our worship ministry, where setlists and team roster are posted each week. Yet, another group is used by all advisors within the BASIC network, where we share updates on our campuses, ask for prayer, and encourage one another. Groups are great tools in keeping communication flowing, and making people feel as though they’re part of the ‘in’ crowd.
Facebook has many more tools that are useful for ministry. By using at least these five, you’ll most likely see an increase in attendance at your weekly meetings and special events, and create a culture that permeates the day-to-day routine of your students. I’m interested in learning from you! What other ways have you used Facebook to win students for Christ?