Groups help people with common interests join together in an online forum—so what can your church do to embrace Facebook groups? Starting with a good foundation and having a well-planned road map is key to having success with this community-building tool.
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Jeanette:
You've heard about Facebook groups, right? Groups help people with common interests join together in an online forum. So what can your church do to embrace Facebook groups? And more than just embrace them, how can you build a genuine community online using Facebook groups? We'll talk about that and more in today's episode.
Bryan:
Hey, church communicator. Welcome to the Church Juice podcast. I'm Bryan Haley, the producer of Church Juice. And as always, I'm joined today with my cohost, Jeanette Yates. We are here energizing church communications.
Jeanette:
That is right, Brian. We are energizing.
Bryan:
We are recording this pretty early in the morning too.
Jeanette:
We are.
Bryan:
It's good. Got some energy today.
Jeanette:
Yes. So we're talking about Facebook groups today and the name of this episode is Facebook Groups 101. And why are we doing a 101? Well, we're going to be spending several episodes discussing Facebook groups and doing a deep dive. But before we do that, we want to just make sure we're all on the same page about the basics of Facebook groups. After all, starting with a good foundation and having a well-planned roadmap is key to having success with this community-building strategy.
Bryan:
That's good. And I think we've talked a little bit about Facebook groups in the past couple of episodes, but we've talked about other mediums for building community online too. Like we've mentioned in the previous episode, Facebook groups are the major place that people go online for community. And there's a reason for that. First of all, it's easy, right? But also it's just a good spot to build genuine community, because people are there. That's what Facebook has built and that's what they've built it for. So even though groups were not created specifically for churches to build community, it's a great spot for churches to really take that tool that we have available and use it for ministry.
Bryan:
And that's where... I was reading recently, again, Nona Jones's book on digital ministry. And it's really just us taking the tools that are available. And instead of using it as a platform to broadcast our message, we need to realize that these are all tools that we have available to build community and make disciples of Jesus. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Why don't we jump in? I think we've talked a little bit leading into this episode. There are five key areas that we want to talk about today. So let's start with the purpose. How do you define a group's purpose? What does it look like?
Jeanette:
Before I even talk about that, I do want to say one of the reasons we're doing this, the way we're doing this today and talking about these five elements, is that maybe you at your church, listener, are ready to start a Facebook group, because you bought in, you get it. It's where they are. We want to create a place to build community. You understand that, but then you're like, "Okay, now what?" And so we really want to take a step back before we just tell you how to press the buttons, which we trust that you can figure out on your end, but we want to take a step back. And so the first thing we want to think about, and this goes for any of the things we're going to be talking about in the future really, what is the purpose behind your church wanting to create a Facebook group?
Jeanette:
Now there are many reasons churches might want to create a Facebook group. Today, we're going to focus on the purpose of community building. So let's just... You might want to create a group to generate interest in an event or something like that, but we are talking about community building. So that's what our purpose is.
Bryan:
Well, and I will also argue that no matter what your stated purpose is, at the very foundation, community is the purpose.
Jeanette:
Right.
Bryan:
We were all created for community to be in community with each other. And that's, regardless of what your stated purpose is for your group, the reality is you're trying to build community in one aspect or another.
Jeanette:
That's true. Number two, the second thing that we need to think about, we know we're building community, but what type of community? So we need to think about our audience here. And so when we're thinking about, "Yes. We're ready to create a Facebook group because we want to build community. We know this is the way to do it." But what kind of community? Are we building internal community. So are we trying to... Because we've talked about this in several episodes, the issues that we've faced with the pandemic and all of that stuff, separating all of us and not having us all in the same place may have our members feeling less like a community. So maybe we really just want to start and say, "Hey. Let's just try to bring our members and regular attendees together and build community internally."
Jeanette:
That's what we really need right now. We're feeling all separate. That may be one audience that we need to focus on. Maybe we feel like we figured that out over the last year and a half, and we've got that blacked out.
Bryan:
Absolutely.
Jeanette:
And we're... Or maybe we already have a Facebook group doing that, but we want to now reach out externally into the broader community and bring people in whether they attend our church or not. Maybe they go to another church or don't go to any church, but we want to come around a common theme. That's the right word.
Bryan:
A common interest, right?
Jeanette:
Yeah, interest.
Bryan:
That's what groups are. They're all interest-based or needs-based, so a good Facebook audience, like you were saying, could be internal. It could be your current community. So let's talk about what's the difference there? What does that look like?
Jeanette:
We talked about this type of Facebook group last time when we're talking about internal communities, probably the easiest one to get started with like the 101, just start a Facebook group for your members.
Bryan:
Let me interject here and say, if you don't have a Facebook group for your church members, this is where you should start.
Jeanette:
Right.
Bryan:
Create one for your church community. And we'll talk about what to post and all of that in a little bit. But if you don't have a group, that's where you should start.
Jeanette:
And one of the reasons this is a good idea is, because there's a lot of internal things, and a lot of times churches are struggling to figure out where to post it because they know people are on social media and they're like, "Okay. We probably should just post it on social media, because that's where people are." And then they end up posting things that are really internal out on their page. But this Facebook group of your members would be a great place to ask people to sign up to volunteer.
Bryan:
And the other thing that I have found too, is, I don't know if you know this or not, but the age demographic of Facebook is growing older. That's what I have found in our own church community is that the people who feel disconnected because they don't think that they are technology relevant. They don't like getting the emails and all that. They spend their time on Facebook. So when we share prayer requests or a prayer list in a Facebook group, those older people who don't like to get it by text or email or whatever, they're seeing it in the Facebook group and they're actually interacting and engaging in that way too. So when you know your audience, who's actually in the group and who's interacting over there, you can also tailor the content that you create or that you post.
Jeanette:
Right. Exactly, right. So that is, like we said, the easiest place to dip your toe in and get started. You will have an engaged audience pretty much automatically, because you're inviting people that are already there and already active in your church, on campus, perhaps. And then you're just saying, "Hey. We're also going to hang out. And maybe we can discuss the sermon after or do prayer," or-
Bryan:
It's a great hybrid model. And the other thing that I think we should point out here too, is when you post things in a group, as opposed to your page, your public-facing page, Facebook's algorithm makes it so that more people in your group are going to see it. Now you could add another layer to that. And if you post video, then even more people are going to see it, because Facebook likes video and it likes groups trying to build those community elements. So those are important as you think about where to post things and what to post to.
Jeanette:
Right, exactly. Now let's switch gears and talk about building, creating a Facebook group for a broader audience. So your community, a few miles around your church or whatever. And we really could spend the rest of our time talking about ideas here, because they're really endless. As you've said, Bryan, it's about what is our community interested in that we could speak into? Your community may be interested in some things that you can not speak into, so you don't have to do everything. And I think we talked about this before we started recording too. Like if there's already a group serving that purpose, there's no reason for you to compete. Maybe go join that group though.
Bryan:
Yep.
Jeanette:
All right.
Bryan:
One thing that I see pretty often in churches, in my own church too, is a once upon a time they created a marketplace group, like an online yard sale. But now Facebook is so prevalent in the marketplace, the buy, sell, garage sale online area that you don't need one for your church. Because if people post it, they're posting it to all these different groups already. So find a place that's relevant to your community. Maybe you are in an area of a lot of young families. So creating a group for moms of preschoolers might be a good idea. But if you don't have that, or that's not an audience that you're trying to build community with, then you need to realize that and know where to spend your time and what to focus on too.
Jeanette:
Yes. So there's a lot of things that you can think about when creating this externally-faced group. And I was thinking about some of the things that my church has done over the years and some ideas that we've had and our church runs a preschool. So we, of course, want to make sure that those families feel welcomed and loved and supported in the hopes that, if they don't have a church already, that they would come to our church. And so creating a group that, not only tells them about when we have services, because we're also sending postcards and flyers and all that stuff too. But giving those mothers a place to come together and talk about the things that moms want to talk about.
Bryan:
Yep. Those felt needs, like there's a million bloggers out there of moms with young kids, right?
Jeanette:
Right.
Bryan:
Or traditional magazines that have blogs and things like that. So sharing resources, sharing articles, those types of things, posing questions, those are all great things to build community. And they don't have to be directly related to church or ministry.
Jeanette:
Right. But they can provide some insight for you-
Bryan:
Absolutely.
Jeanette:
Into what ministries you might provide for them. And then another recent thing. So our church has had a ministry. We called it our Friends Ministry for, I don't know, it's been there decades. It serves adults that have intellectual disabilities. And so it served adults for a long time. So we've had this ministry that has served adults with IDD for a long time. Over the last several years, because we've had that ministry for adults, many families that have had children have started coming, because they know that we're familiar with how to care for people with IDD. And so we've said, "Okay. Well, instead of them having to wait until their child is an adult to have [inaudible 00:11:34], why don't we try to build this ministry out and include a ministry for all ages or at least expand the ministry."
Jeanette:
So part of this is we're partnering with the homes that some of these adults live in. We're partnering with the schools that some of these younger kids are attending. We're already in the community working, serving alongside, being a part of all that. And then, as we decided to have a ministry, so now we actually have a youth club where our youth are a part of that club that is specifically designed for those students with IDD. And so that is another place where we could have a Facebook group that reaches those families.
Bryan:
Yeah.
Jeanette:
And again, share resources. And, of course, the Facebook group is a safe place. We're getting ready to talk about privacy here in a minute. But especially if it's locked down where you can share photos and videos of the children interacting and engaging with each other. And I just think that that's another example of a way that you can reach a larger community that is already in your church.
Bryan:
Yeah, that's really good. So two things, when we talk about audience, first, if you don't have a Facebook group, create one for your church and start building community that way. That builds habit too. So as you start to build out different groups, people will understand what's happening here and what the purpose is. When you look at external groups, find what's needed in your community. Don't recreate a group that already exists for people who you're trying to reach. But find the space where you can speak into a need or a certain idea or element of your audience that you're trying to reach. And speak into that by creating a group.
Bryan:
Don't tie it too closely to your church, if the focus is external to the outreach-oriented. Obviously, you can post things about church, but don't name it, My Church's Neighborhood Group, right? Make sure that you are fully outreach-oriented when you try to do things. But let's move into the type of group privacy settings, because there are some of these groups that we talk about could be very sensitive or they could be something depending on who you're trying to reach, you may want different privacy settings. So let's dig into that a little bit. Recently, Facebook has updated.
Jeanette:
Right.
Bryan:
Recently, meaning it was probably a year ago, but still semi-recently, they updated how you set settings. So it's really simplified. You either choose private or public, but why don't you explain why you would use either one of those?
Jeanette:
So really honestly, the more I think about it, I don't know that you need a public group, because I feel like there's a lot more that could go awry. Now there might be a case that you need a public group. So if your group is public, then basically anybody on or off Facebook can see that group. And if that's okay for what you're doing, maybe it's an event or something like that, that you're trying to gather interest around, maybe that's okay. Now you have to be on Facebook, I guess, to see more details about that group, but you could still see what's going on in a public group.
Bryan:
I would argue though, that you can see what's being posted, so if you are trying to be very outreach-oriented and you're building this community for, I don't know, a co-ed softball league in your town, then it's okay for people to see what's being posted most of the time. But they can't post, unless they're a member of the group. Maybe it creates just enough interest where people [crosstalk 00:15:22].
Jeanette:
Just enough interest. Okay, okay. I'm going to back off my statement. Okay. You're right. You're right.
Bryan:
But generally speaking, I think I would agree.
Jeanette:
Yeah. Well, in the private setting is a misnomer almost, because normally you think of something as private, as like hidden. Nobody can tell what it is, but a private Facebook group can still be... People can see that group so they can search for softball league, whatever and see it. They just can't see anything about it. So they would have to ask to join, et cetera, et cetera. So the samples I gave, even the one that was external, might still benefit from being a private group where not anybody can get in there. Not anybody can see everything that's going on.
Jeanette:
But to your point, there are the cases of the public, but if you just set it for private, then you get to choose, is this group hidden or is it visible? So you can have a private group that's visible when other people search, or maybe you can also attach the groups to your Facebook page. So if it's on your Facebook page, they would see, "Oh. These are the groups associated with this church," or you can make it hidden. And again, depending on the nature of your group, you might want to have it hidden. I think that's for more sensitive groups.
Bryan:
Yeah. I would say a good example is like, if you have a rehab or some sort of church recovery [crosstalk 00:16:54].
Jeanette:
If your church has Celebrate Recovery or something like that, and you want to have a group for the people who attend your Celebrate Recovery meetings, then definitely private, hidden, all those things. That's a great example.
Bryan:
Yeah. Or even I know churches that create as a way of communication with one another, a private group that is hidden for pastoral care. So they may have a lay team of people, so you can share things. A lot of church management systems, you can also do it there, but sometimes private hidden group in Facebook would be a lot easier. But generally, if you're creating a private group, you're going to want it to be visible, because you want people to see that it's there and that they can join it. Until they joined the group and you accept them in, they won't be able to see what's posted or anything like that, or even the members of the group. But they will be able to see your About description or whatever else you have there, the rules, I think.
Jeanette:
And I will say, when you go to create a Facebook group, y'all, whenever it asks you a question, like, do you want this public or private? It's going to tell you, if you select this, this is what this means. If you select that, that is what it means. They're not expecting that you know all that. So they're going to give you some prompts that ask questions, or at least tell you what it means, so that you're not just guessing blindly. So I think that's another thing to not worry about it. If you're like trying to take notes right now, and you're like, "Okay, excuse me.."
Bryan:
No. I'll use this as an opportunity too, to plug our brand new resource. Facebook for Churches is an all new ebook that we wrote from the ground up. A lot of you that are listening, came into the Church Juice community by getting this ebook. So we've rebuilt it. And one of the areas that we talk about specifically is in building Facebook groups and all of the different settings, all of those different things and what that means for you. So if you don't have that, head over to our website. We'll put it in the show notes too, but make sure you get that and it'll walk you right through. We talked about the type of group.
Bryan:
Let's talk about managing the group a little bit. We've got a few minutes left. Let's talk about managing it. Let's talk about what type of content do we post in there? Who's moderating that content? What does all that all that look like?
Jeanette:
This is another thing that we will probably get into deeper in the coming episodes as well. But just the gist of what I want people to realize is you want to have some plan to have eyeballs on this group. I was doing a training the other day and I said, "This is not a set it and forget it situation. You have to have some eyes on the prize." And initially when you start a group, you're probably not going to have a ton of engagement going on. You're going to have to get it started. So you might be able to handle that on your own. There's a couple of things that you can do, and Facebook has these tools built in to groups for you to help with managing and moderating in moderation.
Jeanette:
One thing is you will want to create guidelines for your group. They have some best practices and include... You don't want to be telling people, "Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't do this." But instead, "This is the kind of community we're trying to build. And these are the guidelines that are going to help us get there." Okay?
Bryan:
Yeah. And also Facebook creates... There's a default set of ground rules that you can use, which are pretty basic, but pretty also encompassing of what most groups want to. So that's an easy way and you can build on that.
Jeanette:
So you can do that. You can also set it up, so people have to answer questions when they join the group. So you can just have people request to join the group and then you just approve them. But you can also ask them for a little bit of information. How did they find the group? Why are they interested in this particular topic? Especially if it's an external one, things like that. So you can do that. And those things you're like, "What does that have to do with moderation?" Well, that helps you know who you're putting in the group and know where you're starting from. So those are two easy things.
Bryan:
Yeah. A good example of that too, is the Church Juice group. For those of you who are members of it, to join it, you had to answer two questions. I think it's what church or ministry are you a part of? And then you also have to provide us our email, because we've created this group to be specifically for people who are already connected to the Church Juice community. So your email address, we can check it in our system or add you to our list. And if you don't provide those answers, then you don't get into the group. So it is actually a great way for you to screen people, depending on what your purpose of the group is or what your audience is. That's a great way for you to screen those people trying to join too.
Jeanette:
So you can have people able to just post when they want to, but that's especially difficult when you're just getting started because they're still trying to figure it out. It's like a no man's land in there, when you're first getting started. So I always suggest you start with having pre-approval, which means that before any post gets in there, you as the admin will have to pre-approve it. Now you may decide that you don't need to keep that going. Especially if it's in an internal group and people seem to be understanding the rules, and you're never having to decline a post. And you've... We'll be talking about in a few minutes, your content plan has set the stage for them about what types of things that you're looking for in posts from the community.
Jeanette:
Then you can maybe back that down or you can also pre-approve certain people. So you don't have to pre-approve everyone, but you can say, "Okay. I know that every time this person posts, it's good stuff." I'm going to let them. Maybe you go ahead and let the pastors post when they want, and then build it out from there. So that's one thing. And then eventually, hopefully, your group will be going, whether you have pre-approval or you're letting people post, enough that you're going to want to not have to be on call all the time. It's going to be busy and active in there.
Jeanette:
And so you might want to recruit some volunteer moderators or just volunteer engagers. With my work, I have some volunteer team engagers. They don't have to moderate anything. They don't have to make any hard decisions, but they just engage with our audience. And so there are tools. When you look in your insights of your group, after you've got it started, after it's going, you're going to see who the top posters are in your group. And the cool thing about this is you still may feel like there's not a ton of posting. And maybe the top person has only posted three times this month, but they've posted consistent good content. And they seem to be encouraging other people in their comments on other posts. Then that's a person that you want to say, "Hey. I would love for you to join me in this ministry of community building." Really set a vision for them.
Jeanette:
We can talk about that later, not make it like a job and maybe give them a free coffee every now and then for the trouble of taking that extra care. But those are just some ideas about how to start with moderation and then how to bring in other people to help you manage it once it starts to grow and get more engagement there.
Bryan:
Yeah, that's really good. And I've also found that when you people ownership of something, just in general, when we talk about volunteer building, you give people ownership of it, they're more excited. And so they may end up posting more often, or you may be able to give them a little bit more responsibility or ask them to do a little bit more when they feel like they can own this space.
Jeanette:
Well, and one of the things that I did with my team that I've built is I saw people that were doing what I already wanted them to do. Like if I created my own team, this is what I want my team to do. And so when I pitched it to them, I said, "Hey. You are already doing this. I just want to make it official." I just want to say, "You're part of this team." Maybe you get a little swag, things like that. And you don't have to do anything different than what you're doing. I'm just telling you, "You're doing a great job and I want to see more of it." So that's another thing too. It doesn't have to be this big ask that's scary.
Bryan:
Sure, absolutely. So last thing that we want to talk about is content. Obviously, when you create a group or you create any new communication tool, you want to have a strategy. You want to have some plan about what we're posting, when we're posting, why we post this? Why don't you talk a little bit about that? And what do you think a good content plan for a group looks like? How's that different than a page? You've been talking a lot this episode, so I apologize.
Jeanette:
That's okay.
Bryan:
I just keep asking questions.
Jeanette:
So a couple of things to think about. So if you're a business, you can have the best location ever, but if your product isn't good, no one's going to buy it.
Bryan:
If you don't put a sign out front, no one knows you're there.
Jeanette:
You can have the best product and marketing, but be in a bad location where nobody can see that marketing, nothing happens. So we have to have the good location which we do. Here we're in Facebook for a reason. Everybody's there. And now we've got to make sure that the content is what's going to build the community. It's not just gathering all these people together and having them stare at each other, metaphorically. It's creating that conversation. Conversation builds relationship. Okay? When you're thinking about your content plan, you want to think about who did we bring together? How are these people connected? What's their common interest? What's their common purpose?
Jeanette:
And your purpose is community building. Those two things go hand in hand to build your content plan. You do not have to post every single day in your group. You do want to be consistent, and people join this group for a reason. So you don't want to switch it up on them, start sharing things that you said you wouldn't share. But if you've invited your members to come together in community, what things would you do if you brought them together in an in-person fellowship? Do more of that. If you're bringing together a group of people that all love softball, have your content surround that. Now some basics are, if you don't ask questions, people aren't going to answer them. So create content that asks questions or sparks conversation.
Jeanette:
I think you've mentioned this already, but using a variety of types of content. So we want graphics. We want short video. Maybe we do a live from time to time. So you want to have a plan. We want to go live on Facebook in our Facebook group. Okay, how often? What are you going to talk about? Are you going to interview somebody? Think about those things ahead of time. So in the beginning you want to start posting a lot more, because you want to get it going.
Bryan:
The more you post, the more people will engage. And then they'll start to understand that, "Oh. I can post these things," or, "It's okay to ask questions here," or whatever.
Jeanette:
And a lot of your posts are just going to be that orientation. Maybe you go live once a week there in the beginning and say, "Welcome to our new members," this and that. And that's another thing. There's a lot of things that Facebook encourages you to do. So once you've added people to your group, it's going to say, "Hey. 20 people joined this week. Do you want to welcome them in a welcome post?" It's going to tell you to do that. And so follow those prompts. And then it even has... Which I love this, that Facebook has done in their groups recently, they have different post types. So you can do a writing prompt or a Q&A or a poll or something like that. And all of those are community building. Every time I do a writing prompt, I get a lot of engagement.
Jeanette:
People are sharing pictures from their church services, all that kind of stuff. So you can do that. So if our church had a Facebook group just for members or just for regular attendees, so one of the posts that I might do in the Facebook group is "What's your favorite kind of pumpkin? Is it one of these traditional looking ones? Or is it one of these ugly, weird ones with the bumps?" Asking them questions that's related like, "Yeah. We're the pumpkin patch church. Visit." But it's fun or go live from the pumpkin patch or a photo one. You can be like, "Share your picture of your jack-o'-lantern," or, "Share a picture of your pumpkin pie," or whatever. Lots of different ideas.
Jeanette:
So you want to have a structured plan. You want to plan it out. I like a month long plan, so maybe you're just like, I just want to plan out this first couple of weeks. Because another thing is like, you're going to get feedback, what people are engaging with, what they're not. And then you can adjust your plan accordingly. So your plan isn't going to stay the same. It's going to adjust as you build more connection and community in that group.
Bryan:
The idea is if you have a plan, it's a lot easier to follow than creating it day by day on the fly. So plans give you guidance. It's not rock solid. It's your own plan so you can adjust it however you want.
Jeanette:
And people love consistency. So if you're doing a Motivation Monday, people start to plan on that. And so that's another thing is too. You don't have to post every single day, but post consistently and get them used to it. And then that's more of an anticipation and they're coming back. They're coming back.
Bryan:
That's right. But I know that a lot of churches struggle with creating this plan, this ominous plan or strategy that we talk about. So there are two ways that we're going to help you as a result of this episode. First, you can head over again to our resources and download the Church Communications Strategy Guidebook that walks through your church's entire communication plan. But more concretely and more specific to this episode and talking about Facebook groups, we will have a PDF or some document or a template that your church can use and can adapt for its own Facebook group. We'll post that in the Insiders Facebook group this week too.
Jeanette:
You should go join our community.
Bryan:
You should join our community. Start interacting with church communicators all over the globe, just like you. Any last comments, thoughts that you want to add on.
Jeanette:
I want to encourage people that if they want to talk more about Facebook groups that they should, and I know we just said this, but really go into the Facebook group, tag us and say, "Hey. I listened to the podcast. I'd love to hear more about this." Or, "When you said this, you lost me. What you talking about?" That's fine too. We want to hear from you. We want to hear what questions, where your struggles are, because that's what we're here for. We're here to come into that space and help make it easier and help break it down, so it's in chunks that you can handle. Because it can be overwhelming, especially as a church communicator, who's trying to not only do Facebook, but all the things.
Bryan:
All the things. So yeah, head over to the Facebook group, Church Juice Insiders Facebook Group. If you haven't joined it, request to join. We'll accept you in, just answer the question. But it's a great place for you to build community with other communicators. Because whether you feel like you are alone on an island by yourself, the reality is that you are not, and there is a community of people just like you from all over the place. And we love to have conversations, tough conversations, fun conversations, all over the board, but it's a great place to build a community.
Bryan:
So I am excited about the next couple episodes specifically. Next week, we're going to talk about different use cases for Facebook groups. So I'm really excited about that. So if you haven't already, make sure you subscribe wherever you're listening today, so that you get the latest episode every Monday. And, of course, if you haven't already, join the Insiders Facebook Group. And you can get that, the link to that, as well as today's show notes, a transcript, all of the things that we've talked about, links, you can get today's show notes by going to churchjuice.com/podcast.
Jeanette:
The Church Juice podcast is a listener-supported production of ReFrame Ministries, a family of programs designed to help you see your whole life reframed by God's gospel story. Church Juice is produced by Bryan Haley with post-production by audio engineer, Nate Morris, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For more information about Church Juice, visit churchjuice.com. For more information on ReFrame Ministries and our family of programs, visit reframeministries.org.