Almost everyone has a Facebook account. Checking it and posting to it regularly (follow me at www.facebook.com/BeKnownForSomething).

The majority of churches have (or should have) a Facebook page, but most need to improve their social media presence.

If you’re a church communicator, you’re juggling a lot of things and don’t have a lot of time, but you still need to engage your congregation better where they spend time. And your members are meeting on Facebook regularly, many times a week, and often many times a day.

Want some easy-to-understand improvements that give quick results? Here are 5 tips:

1. Encourage More Followers. Ensure you have as many people following your page as possible. Talk from the pulpit (or announcements) regularly about a huge benefit of engaging on the page. Get people to take out their phones in the service and click “like” on your page. Have a competition. Make sure you regularly remind people to check Facebook and share your posts. (Hint: Use a Facebook ad to reach your local community)
2. Create a Rhythm for posting. Freshen your creativity for posting, and create a strategy with regular timing for your posts. Consider who you’re reaching and talk “personally” to them in the posts. Entertain, inspire, and occasionally promote. But do all of this like clock-work. Be reliable. (Hint: Adding a picture will increase engagement)
3. Boost Your Posts. Facebook makes it easy to promote and push posts (login as an administrator and it’ll be a button under the post). Do it. Sadly, regular posts don’t get pushed to everyone following your page. You must boost to reach more followers. Which post to boost? Start with an entertaining one that demonstrates your new rhythm.
4. Lead to Next Step. Some posts should have an obvious next step. Add a link for people to go to your website or ask people to share the posts. Research says that the posts that get shared are often posts that ask for it. (Hint: Just don’t be obnoxious in the requests)
5. Check Post Performance Regularly. Under your cover image (once logged in as the page administrator), there’s a “…” next to the message button. Click and choose “View Insights” to discover important information about your audience. Look at which types of posts are getting the biggest reach and engagement (and you can boost here too). Click on the people tab to discover your audience demographics. Click on the posts tab to see when people see your posts (hint: perhaps that’s a good time to post!)

These 5 things will set a foundation for a great church Facebook page, but it’s not a one-time fix! It’s a continual process that you must set in place and monitor; all while adjusting and learning.