This week we are going to look at three easy to implement ideas for increasing the engagement with your people through your church’s facebook page.  In the last 18 months our facebook presence has grown 500% and now exceeds our Sunday morning attendance by 1,000 people! Our goal is to not only increase your “fans” but also to increase the amount that that interact with you online!

Facebook has a powerful set of tools called “insights”. This week’s posts assumes that you have some basic understanding of how this system works.  Take a few minutes right now and learn about facebook insights.  [Mashable’s Article on the Basics of Facebook Insights]

One critical measure of engagement is how much people “like” your content.  Are they taking time to actually click on that little button to let you and their friends know that what is happening on your facebook page is worthy content in their mind.

Over the last year and a half we have noticed a trend that has increased both our “likes” and our total number of facebook fans . . . both of those things happen when we post new photos to our facebook page.

This spike is most pronounced when we post the photos after special events that we host at Liquid. [Fun at our 5k for clean water.] [Our outreach to host Christmas for hundreds of economically marginalized families in the community.] [A Dad and Daughter Dance that our Family Ministry gurus hosted]

Here are some easy to implement ideas on maximizing your photo posting to your church’s facebook page:

• Host a Photo Booth – At our “Me and My Guy” dance we asked the dads and daughters to come dressed up in their disco best.  When they arrived at check in our team took photos of every “couple” that came.  We then printed the photos during the event for them to take home . . . and posted them to our facebook page.
• Speed to Post to Critical – The Facebook culture rewards speed to delivery of content.  The shortest time between the photos being taken to being posted is critical.  Don’t want until next week . . . post the photos from the event to your page.  People are more likely to “like” a photo when they are still in the afterglow of your event.
• Ask them to “Tag Themselves” – Rather than having your staff or volunteers go through and tag all the photos of people . . . invite your people through email or your facebook status to log into the photo album and them to tag themselves.  This get’s them to see themselves online . . . most people love seeing themselves . . . as well as gets them seeing all their friends from church and tagging them too!
• Plan “Viral Photo Ops” into your Events – Similar to a viral video . . . you need to plan parts of your events that will make great photos on facebook . . . ones that people will want to “like” and comment on.  At our 5k for clean water last fall Tim Lucas, our lead pastor, dressed up as Darth Vadar . . . people loved getting their picture with Darth Lucas . . . and it made great photos for facebook!  [Click here to see the Darth Photos]  What does Darth Vadar have to do with a 5k for the clean water cause?  Not much . . . but Church is Fun! (and it makes great photos for facebook!)

What about your church?  How have you used photos on your facebook page to drive engagement? [Leave your comments now!]

On Wednesday we’re going to look at what we’ve learned about “status” updates that best increase engagement with our people online.