What Facebook Can Do For Churches

I love Facebook! I gave it up for Lent so I've been seriously missing it. I even hear from Jamie that they changed FB while I've been away so I'll have to relearn some things. I love the connectivity. I love the control. I love it all! If you're a church leader, Facebook is a tremendous tool. Here are two things that you should be taking advantage of.

Set up a church group.

You can set up a church group for people to join. This is another form of staying connected and communicating information quickly. It's fun for the Facebookers in your church and a valuable tool for you. Build up a FB tribe!

Advertise on Facebook.

I just started doing this recently and its probably the best advertising move I've made. Whenever anyone sees a profile page, there is a row of 3-4 ads on the right-hand side. What many people don't realize is that these ads are customized to the user. Advertisers can target age groups, regions, people with particular interests, etc...

I set up a Living Hope ad and tested it for 5 days. I set it up to pay per click (i.e. - when people click on our ad, I pay around $0.35 and it takes them to our church website). I also set up a $1.75 daily spending limit. My ad targeted ages 16+ in Dixon, Vacaville, and Davis, CA.

In 5 days time, my ad was posted 33,000 times, 14 people checked out our website, and I only spent $4.27.  In my experience that's about the most cost-effective advertising around. We spent $250 on a shared TV ad recently that ran for 2 months and got nothing. We have spent hundreds of dollars on yellow pages ads in the past and got very little return. But for a little over $4, several people in our community checked out our website and know more about us.

Leaders, this is a great tool worth checking out. You control who you target. You control how much you want to spend. Good stuff!