How Churches Can Use Social Media to Attract Millennials

One of the goals of church leaders is to pass on the faith, devotional mission, and the gospel over to succeeding generations. That’s why every church leader may have asked “how can we engage more with millennials?”— that demographic of young individuals now in their mid-twenties to age 40.

Contrary to the usual assumption, just because one is young, doesn’t mean that he or she requires ministries and fellowships to be some sort of social, high-entertainment venue. In fact, research suggests that the majority of millennials nowadays prefer sanctuaries over places like coffeehouses when it comes to fellowship. A lot of millennials have become keen on nurturing their faith and spiritual journeys. This important segment of your church community is led by social change and innovations, however, so you must adapt to stay relevant, and go beyond just building an excellent church website.

When it comes to keeping themselves updated and entertained, millennials usually spend plenty of time on social media. The majority have no qualms about updating and sharing information within their social circle —  posting statuses, tweets, and taking photos with the trendy hashtags. Ultimately, using social media gives you more opportunities in reaching out to the younger population than you could offline. 

But here’s the good news, you don’t have to be a social media guru and trailblazer to maximize its benefits. You can rely on these simple yet effective social media strategies to ramp up your church’s social media presence, and attract millennials:

1. Facebook

Being the most common social media platform, a lot of ministries are reaping success in developing their communities by utilizing group features on Facebook. A lot of churches have FB pages, and it has the most users of any social network. You can further increase awareness and prominence through Facebook by implementing the following approaches:

• Uploading photos and videos — Updating a dedicated album on your page makes the difference. Younger generations love to browse through church updates via interesting images, pictures, and video clips. Across the board, video clips usually get the most engagement. 
• Posting regular announcements via Facebook Status — You can promote your upcoming outreach event to millennials by sharing it as a status. Basically, this is a feature that enables users to post their updates, whereabouts, or significant information within their online social circle. Other church pronouncements can also be posted through Facebook Status such as recent weekend worship service and baptism.
• Setting a weekly “Facebook Live” — An FB Live with church leaders where pressing questions from church members, especially attendees from the young segment of your community, can also steer interest and appeal to millennials to join in the conversation.
• Creating a Facebook chat group —  A chat group for Bible study sessions, ministries, and other group activities can help younger members stay connected. After all, FB messenger has definitely become an all-in-one communication app, complete with unlimited messaging, audio, video calling, and group video call chat features.

2. Twitter

One of the leading platforms for social connection is Twitter. If your congregation has never tried using Twitter, now is the best time to create a profile. Just like Facebook, it has a huge following and can make people feel connected to your church and its causes on a much more personal and deeper level. Nonetheless, due to character count limits, it’s always better to be concise and straightforward when sharing news and announcements. This platform is great for:

• Church updates — You can post regular church updates with relevant hashtags. Also, look at trending hashtags on Twitter and try to post relevant church content on those topics.
• Biblical quotes — Millennials love inspirational content. The majority value motivational words inspired from the Scriptures because this can bring an entirely new perspective to the table. 

3. Instagram

This is coined as the “key channel” if you want to reach younger audiences. It’s a good medium to post trendy updates, videos, live feeds, stories, and photos. Not only that, Instagram possesses conveniently-accessible analytics that can assist in learning the specific time your posts are receiving the best responses. Instagram is great for:

• Engaging graphics with words of affirmation — As mentioned, millennials love content that motivates them towards better versions of themselves. 
• Reels  — With Instagram's relatively new “Reels” feature, post your church highlight activities through engaging video clips. 
• Instagram Stories — These are vertical photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. The purpose of stories is to get your current community, especially your new millennial followers, to see your content more often, enhancing credibility and relatability in a creative way. 

Also, in embedding hashtags on each post, be sure to use hashtags of your area or location. Instagram will show people in your location those posts on their feed. It’s a strategic way to be noticed!

4. Tiktok 

Globally, Tiktok has been downloaded over two billion times. During the first half of 2021, it topped records and reached 25 million downloads in the US. It’s a unique platform with an algorithm that rewards content through the monetization of viral videos. It also enabled millennials, and even Gen Z, a platform to be themselves while allowing businesses, brands, and organizations to inspire their followers through creative and entertaining ways. Reaching out to millennials on a medium they love offers a chance for them to see the church from a new perspective. Even millennials who rarely attend church may engage with your Tiktok content and begin exploring their faith.
Potential Ministry Approaches:

• Post Tiktok videos in the tune of praise and worship songs — Since you’re reaching out to a youthful audience, a simple dance to a modern Christian pop song will surely work.
• Share video clips of sermons — Preaching God’s word in a traditional way on TikTok is another key strategy worth considering.

Top Quality Content is King

Social media is an opportunity to spread God’s word and let everyone, especially millennials, feel more in control of deciding how to explore their faith. Successful ministries and church organizations are often led to success by how effective they are at communicating their goals, mission, and causes. And this all starts with quality content.

Content is king for two important reasons — attention and information. When millennials are reading and browsing through social media, they're looking for something to engage with. By providing quality content for those searches, by providing answers, you're able to attract more potential church members.

In summary, each generation brings something unique to social media—but it can sometimes be tricky to figure out how to effectively attract them to your church. Online digital tools such as Tithely can help identify the appropriate church marketing strategies to level up your social media presence. It’s made up of a talented and passionate team dedicated to empowering churches with the tools and software needed to seamlessly fulfill your goals. Contact us to learn more!