1. Reach the unchurched and hurting in your community with hope. There are many ways that you can do this through Twitter, including keyword searches, conversation monitoring, and a well thought out content strategy.

2. Promote what your church members are doing, or what your church is supporting.

3. Share the overall vision of your church.

4. Share member comments and testimonies

5. Make your church easily accessible by tweeting details such as parking information, dress code, music style, pastor and leader names, etc…making new attendees as comfortable as possible before they walk in.

6. Communicate with your community and congregation. Find out what they are struggling with or areas they are hurting, and let that inform your ministry decisions.

7. Quickly identify and respond to needs within the community. Twitter is a great way to connect those in need with members of the congregation or community who have the resources to meet their needs. One of my Twitter friends, Dr. Kevin Lin, echoed this reason when I asked for input on this blog:

Your tweets and social media presence as a whole should be genuine, collaborative, and transparent. Your goal should be outreach and connecting with the community outside your congregation – which works perfectly in Twitter’s framework. To get you started, here are 6 ideas on what you should post to your Twitter account, and 1 thing you SHOULDN’T post.

1. Tweet live photos of services

2. Tweet references to Sunday’s message throughout the week (quotes from the sermon, verses, reminders of action steps, etc).

3. Tweet prayer requests when appropriate (be mindful of privacy issues!)

4. Tweet the needs of individuals or families within the congregation or community, when appropriate.

5. Back up your Twitter presence with a blog. (For more information on this, see my post “10 Reasons Why Your Church Should Blog.”)

6. Have “Tweet Ups” as an extension of services, where you can meet people you built relationships with on Twitter.

DON’T post any defensive messages or engage in fights. A lot of people just want to fight and argue about religion, and Twitter gives them a relatively anonymous way to stand on a soapbox and do just that. Be careful not to engage in this type of behavior. Maybe read a few of their past tweets to get an idea of their sincerity and temperament before you decide to respond or not.

If you would like more training on how your church can use Twitter, please click here to contact me for a quote for services.. If you would like more information on Twitter, see my previous blog post: Twitter 101.

Written by Brittany Botti
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Brittany Botti