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You're Promoting the Church From Their Personal Account · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Your youth pastor posts a few pictures from a family vacation.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right below them as is a reminder about summer camp.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Above them is a volunteer request, and somewhere in the comments a parent is saying something or asking something about a church's the church's refundation.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, their personal account became another place people expect the church to answer questions.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe they're comfortable with that.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they enjoy sharing what's happening in ministry.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: But has anybody really asked?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Today on the podcast, we're going to talk about the expectation that church staff will use their personal social media accounts to promote the church.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Hi there, my name's Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders at chemistrystaffing.com.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, using your personal social media as a church announcement tool.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Something that begins with an occasional request by the church or by you can very easily become an ongoing responsibility that nobody really has clearly discussed.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: You send your worship pastor a graphic and ask, hey, would you mind sharing this?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they do, and people respond, and it works.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So next time, next week, you send another request.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, sharing becomes something you count on.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And when they don't post, you wonder whether they're excited about what the church is even doing anymore.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's a significant change.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: An invitation to share has become an unspoken kind of measure of commitment.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen it happen in churches before.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: It makes sense sometimes that staff members would talk about their church online.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, in healthy relationships and cultures, that's a good thing.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: They care about their work, they have relationships with the people involved.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: People, their volunteers are following them, their students are following them.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that personal invitation, coming from that personal account, can be meaningful.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: But enjoying your ministry and making your personal account available for every promotional request, that's a little bit different.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody can be fully invested in the church and still want a place to post pictures about their dog without also managing registration questions.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Different channels for different things, right?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing to clarify is whether personal sharing is actually optional.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Optional in practice, okay?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Can someone decline without getting questioned about their attitude?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Can they take a month away from social media without explaining themselves?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Can here's a question for you can they make their social media account private?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if you say, Oh, absolutely, of course, it's optional, but you keep a mental list of who doesn't share anything or everything, your team might be receiving a little bit different message.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: You can make it a little bit easier by saying it directly, hey, we appreciate it when you choose to share church news.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're responsible for making sure that people receive that information.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's our responsibility, whether you post it.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then build a communication process that actually supports that statement.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Start with your church's own channels.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Where should people find accurate information?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Who keeps it updated?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Who responds when somebody has a question?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: That might include your website, your email, your social media accounts, your direct communication with ministry teams.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to be everywhere.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So choose your channels that you maintain consistently and maintain them consistently.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Give somebody the time and the responsibility to manage them.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now you want to make sure that your access doesn't depend entirely on one person's availability, though.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Use appropriate account permissions to do a second authors authorized person.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: That could help you as well.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then when staff members choose to share something, they can point people toward the actual official channel, the reliable source.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and that brings us to another issue here.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: What happens after they post?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sharing an event takes a few seconds.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Handling the responsibilities and the responses can take considerably longer.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody asks a question, somebody complains, somebody sends a private message about a sensitive situation.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly, your children's pastor is deciding how to respond to a church concern from the same inbox where their sister sends family pictures.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it just kind of gets confusing.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: So give your staff a clear way to redirect those conversations.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for asking.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Please send that to the church office so the right person can help.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Something like that, right?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure that someone at your church actually follows up.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's really important.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is to help people reach the person who can answer their question without making every staff person personally available and personally responsible through every single social media account they have.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's also room for clear expectations about public conduct.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Church leaders can have a thoughtful conversation about staff with their staff, about how their public activity affects trust and relationships.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: That conversation should be explicit and it should be fair.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't quietly expand into an expectation that the church gets an ongoing use of their audience.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's just fair.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So here's a practical step this week that you can take.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ask.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ask your church team where church communication is currently happening, and find out who's regularly posting for from a personal account, who's answering questions there, and whether or not they feel free to stop.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then choose one responsibility to move on to a church channel with a named person that's going to be responsible for it.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Your staff will still gladly share the Easter invitation or celebrate a great weekend.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So let that come from their enthusiasm though, not from your dictation that they do it or your request that they do it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Put some clear expectations around any work that you're asking them to do.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Build a communication plan that the church can sustain, and then give your team room to decide what belongs in their personal feeds, because those are their personal feeds.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, this always gets a little sticky sometimes, particularly as we go into the holidays, okay?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because we've got a ton of things that we want to promote.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if we have staff, we'd love for them to promote it too.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just don't make it obligatory, okay?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it for today.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, if there's any way I can help you or your church, please reach out to me podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll be right back here tomorrow, as we are every weekday on the Helping.