THE ISSUE
Social media is the culprit for a condition that is widespread among pastors and church communicators.
What is the condition?
Overwhelm.
You currently are experiencing it. Or definitely have experienced it.
No one is immune to it. Overwhelm lurks right around the corner. It can strike at any moment. Again, and again.
There is just so much to do regarding social media. There are so many opportunities. There are so many platforms.
BUT there is one thing that you must resist doing when you have even the faintest onset of social media overwhelm.
THE PROBLEM
I know it is tempting. I know there are plenty of tools shouting at you that this is the holy Grail of timesavers.
But you are shooting yourself in the foot if you try to set up any auto posting tool that takes what you are posting on Twitter and publishes it on your Facebook page. Or vice versa.
It is super tempting to let Instagram auto post everything that you put up their onto your Facebook feed. Don’t do it.
Social media NO – NO #1: do NOT set up any auto posting of content across platforms.
WHY COOKIE CUTTERS ARE BAD
Each of the social media platforms have evolved at this point so that each have a new wants differences in how they are used, and the value they bring. And therefore the type of format of content you want to publish on each specific platform.
When you get right down to it, you are not respecting your audience if you are simply copy pasting everything that you post on what network to the other.
I understand that not everyone follows you on Twitter. NOT everyone follows you on Instagram. Not everyone following you on those two are following you on Facebook. I get it.
You want to make sure everyone gets the message you want to share with them.
But posting 100% of your content with an automation tool is not the answer. Stop using the cookie cutter approach.
Think of it a little bit like you are crying wolf every time you do this. The value of all your other content just gets chipped away because if someone happens to see content on one channel, and then see it on another, the urgency diminishes for them to stop scrolling and pay attention when they see it this time.
And when you do go to publish content that is unique on the specific channel, your audience will have been conditioned to discount the need to stop and pay attention.
In fact, you’ll have to shout louder over time for your audience to hear the same message.
Seeing the same thing over and over also starts to put you over into the column in their minds with “spam” content. And the road to repairing that damage in trust is a very very lengthy one.
Repetition of a message can be a good thing for reinforcement, but you could do it in other ways besides literally showing the same exact thing at the same time on different social media platforms. Please trust me on this.
WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE?
One thing that I review with coaching clients first is to figure out where they can gain an hour a week. Two hours a week. And our day.
What in your workflow can you become much more efficient at, outsource, or find third-party resources for? You need to find time for those activities that are more valuable for you to spend your time on.
That is exactly one of the big reasons why Church Butler came to life.
I asked myself this question: If there was a way to save time on creating social media graphics and content for a good portion of what the church’s account publishes on the weekly or monthly basis, what would that be? And would having that all “done for you” free up the communicator’s time to spend it in other areas for better engagement? That’s what Church Butler is for.
Regardless, your challenge this week is to find one activity you repeated do every week and find ways to eliminate it, delegate it, outsource it or reduce the time required to carry it out.
REMEMBER THE WHY
It is better to focus on commenting, replying, and regarding this Social Media “No – No” #1, contextualizing messages for each different social media platform. Your audience deserves intentional engagement from you.
Stop auto-cross posting. And if needed, find the time to do it right. In the long run, your audience will thank you for this.
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