An online magazine for pastors and church leaders.

Good news!

After analyzing hundreds of Facebook posts published by churches, we’ve discovered proof for the best kind of content to post online.

This is crazy:

Through our case study, we found that when churches prioritized this type of content over others, they saw the following results on Facebook:

  • 3.25X more reactions/likes
  • 8X more comments
  • 27X more shares

To make a point, I want to share with you a number of individual examples from within our case study. And show you exactly how to use this proven content strategy in your own church.

First, I’ll show you how Citipointe Church used this technique to increase their shares on Facebook by 22X – without spending a dime.

Then, I’ll show you how Christ’s Church of the Valley used the same strategy to increase a post’s likes & reactions by 7X?-?also without any paid promotion.

A Proven Online Strategy: The Video Guarantee

The name of this content strategy is: The Video Guarantee.

Take a look at these recent statistics concerning online video:

  • Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined
  • Video drives a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engines
  • Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it on video compared to 10% when reading it in text

Now, sure, these statistics are promising, but do they carry over into the church world as well?

This was the question we set out to answer with our case study. We wanted proof that this would?or?wouldn’t work for churches. Let’s take a look at a couple of specific examples…

How Citipointe Church Multiplied Their Facebook Shares By 22X

The Video Guarantee strategy is very straightforward.

Simply stated, instead of publishing an image or text-based post, the next time you plan to post on social media, create a video-based post instead.

Keep posting at the time of day. Same subject matter. Same length. Same events. Same tone.

Just use a video, instead of an image or plain text. That’s it.

Does this sound too good to be true? Well, let’s take a look at a pair of specific results…

First up, we have an image-based Facebook post that Citipointe Church published promoting their Easter experience.

This image-based post earned 15 reactions/likes, 0 shares, and?0 comments.

Image-based post earned 15 reactions/likes, 0 shares, and 0 comments
Image-based post earned 15 reactions/likes, 0 shares, and 0 comments

This is where things get interesting…

Citipointe Church then published a similar post on their Facebook page, promoting the exact same Easter experience, the only difference is in this post is they used a video instead of an image.

The results?

This video-based post earned 71 reactions/likes, 22 shares, and?2 comments!

Video-based post earned 71 reactions/likes, 22 shares, and 2 comments
Video-based post earned 71 reactions/likes, 22 shares, and 2 comments

Keep in mind…both of these posts are promoting the exact same Easter service. The only difference is that one is a video-based post and one is an image-based post.

Despite the similarities in subject matter though, the Citipointe video-based post outperformed the image-based post to a tune of:

  • 5X more reactions/likes
  • 22X more shares
  • 2X more comments

That’s Not All…Now Let’s See CCV’s Amazing Results

Let’s take a look at another example…

In this example, Christ’s Church of the Valley (CCV) is promoting an outreach event where their church gets involved with local schools. They call it Love Our Schools Day. Below you’ll find an image-based post they published on Facebook promoting this event.

This image-based post earned 37 reactions/likes, 0 share, and?0 comments.

Image-based post earned 37 reactions/likes, 0 shares, and 0 comments
Image-based post earned 37 reactions/likes, 0 shares, and 0 comments

CCV then published a similar post, promoting the same outreach event, except, instead of an image, this time they used a video in their post.

The results…

The video-based post earned 261 reactions/likes, 36 shares, and?5 comments.

Video-based post earned 261 reactions/likes, 36 shares, and 5 comments
Video-based post earned 261 reactions/likes, 36 shares, and 5 comments

Again, both of these posts are promoting the exact same church event. Yet, despite these similarities, the video-based post outperformed the image-based post to the tune of:

  • 7X more reactions/likes
  • 36X more shares
  • 5X more comments

How Can You Start Using This Strategy?

What’s the bottom line?

Remember, our case study looked at hundreds of Facebook posts published by churches and these are just two examples of the results we found.

Let’s revisit the full results…

Of the hundreds of posts that we analyzed, here is the aggregated data:

Video-based posts on Facebook outperformed image-based posts to the tune of:

  • 3.25X more reactions/likes
  • 8X more comments
  • 27X more shares

How To Use The Video Guarantee Strategy

Look:

The Video Guarantee is one of the simplest social media strategies that you’ll ever encounter.

Keep posting exactly what you’re already posting on Facebook. Except, instead of image and text-based posts, swap the images and text out for videos.

When you do this, you can expect to see a huge leap in organic reach as well as likes, comments, and shares.

It gets better…

I know how intimidating video production can feel. To produce a great video you’ll to need a certain amount of gear, time, and money.

Fortunately, there are plenty of options for churches – regardless of your budget.

Here are a couple of those options:

Regardless of how you wind up doing it, begin experimenting with The Video Guarantee strategy. Swap out images and text for videos. I can’t wait to see your results.

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