How many times have you looked at your social media today? If you are like most of us, you are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or another site several times a day. You use social media to connect with friends and even with businesses and brands you like. And I have learned that social media is what you make it and it is not just a tool for political rantings and cat pictures. I have groups where prayer requests are made and I often use my personal site as a place where people can ask for prayer. But what about our churches? I don’t do a lot of reviews but my colleague Chris Craft has spurred my interest in social media and how churches use it with his eBook, The Connected Church.

In the past decade, more churches have begun to use this tool to reach their members. According to statistics from Buzzplant, about 51% of churches are using social media. Most of the churches use Facebook with a few using Twitter and Instagram.

Like me, Chris has dedicated his career to helping businesses with their marketing using his writing talents. And he has a heart for helping churches use social media to connect with their members. In his eBook, Chris points out that social media is not a tool for increasing attendance but rather a way for the members to keep up with church activities and events. Many of the people who run church social media sites are just volunteers and have no formal training in marketing.  Chris’s easy-to-read book is full of ideas that include:

• How to create visual content for your social media sites.
• How to break down your weekly sermon into social media posts.
• How to create a blog.
• How to manage your content in a timely way.

The Connected Church is packed full of information that can help churches use social media in a more impactful way.  I recommend it to any church that is looking to use social media to connect with its members. You can learn more here.