Personality.
Let’s break that word down. At the root is the word, ‘person.’ Not to get all brainiac on you, but ‘personality’ derives its meaning from the Latin word ‘personal’, meaning the quality or act of being a person. I don’t know about you, but that fact changes the way I think about the word ‘personality.’
You see; I’m an introvert. So when I think about my personality, my mind usually goes to sitting down at my computer and writing, or watching a good movie, or drinking tea with my wife. Those things are part of me as a person, and I am recharged when I do those activities.
But when I think about my personality, my mind also thinks about my dry humor. (Dry would be probably be an overstatement. It’s more like just straight up bad.) I think about my mannerisms. These are also things that make me a person.
So naturally when I think about my online presence, I should think about how my personality can shine through. I think about how I am a real person online. This includes tweets that I send, Facebook posts I write, snaps I take on Snapchat, pictures I post, and videos I record for any social media platform. Anything I’m doing online needs to be infused with my personality.[quote]Anything I’m doing online needs to be infused with my personality.[/quote]
Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. Often, I get too caught up in making stuff sound good or look good that I forget to infuse my personality into it. In fact, usually the most personable things I do online are those things that aren’t planned. Those tweets that are just ‘off the cuff’ or in the moment. The only caution to take with this is that I must be disciplined in these times. Many times the ‘in the moment’ tweets aren’t necessarily the most uplifting or appropriate things to say to the world.
Now let’s think about this in terms of your church’s social media presence. Just like it’s important for you as a person to think about how you can infuse your personality into your social media presence, it’s just as important for you to think about it for your church as well. Without personality in social media, your church is going to become stiff and uninteresting.
Consider with me again the word ‘personality.’ When your church has a personality on social media, it simply means that you’re making it personal for the people following your church. Your audience will feel like they’re connecting with a real person behind your church’s profile.
We all want to connect with a person?not a faceless brand. When your church has personality on social media, your community will feel more comfortable connecting with you.[quote]We all want to connect with a person?not a faceless brand.[/quote]
So I want to give you 3 ways to have personality as a church on social media.
1. Reply to Facebook comments.
Replying to Facebook Comments is one of the simplest, yet most personable, things your church can do on social media. When you reply to someone’s Facebook comment, you’re acknowledging that their engagement in what you’re doing is important. This will lead to more engagement in the future and higher retention with your community.
Don’t just reply to Facebook comments, though. If you’re replying from your church’s Facebook page, take it a step further and leave your name at the end of the comment. This tells the person commenting that there is a real person behind the brand.
An example of this would be, “Glad the sermon was impactful for you, Brad! – Josh”
2. Reply to people who follow you on Twitter.
This may sound pointless and monotonous, but you’d be surprised how much relational equity this one small practice can bring to your church. When you reply to new followers on Twitter, you’re telling them that your church is here to have a conversation. It immediately sets the precedent that if someone has a question or wants to talk about something, you’ll be there to reply, because there is a real person behind that Twitter profile.[quote]When you reply to new followers on Twitter, you’re telling them that your church is here to have a conversation.[/quote]
An example of what this looks like could be: “@sarahz awesome to have you following along with us, Sarah!” It’s a simple thing, but can mean a lot to people.
The other added bonus is that people will often retweet these replies. That’s how much that reply means to them. So not only are you replying to that person, but then that person’s followers are seeing your reply as well. This may take some practice, and some extra time, but it’s worth it to let your church’s personality shine through on social media.
3. Utilize a social media volunteer team to reply from their profiles.
Another great way to show your church’s personality is to allow your community members to do it for you.
Many churches utilize volunteer teams to reply to Facebook comments on their page or tweets. The cool thing is that they’re not replying from the church’s profile; they’re actually replying from their personal profile. This allows people to connect with other real people, instead of just a branded profile.[quote]Many churches utilize volunteer teams to reply to Facebook comments on their page or tweets.[/quote]
This also allows your community members to volunteer in very simple but impactful ways, while also lightening the load for you and infusing your social media presence with more personality from real people.
With these three simple steps you can infuse more personality into your church’s social media presence. Without personality, it’s easy to just become a faceless brand online, or a robot. And the last thing a person wants from your church online is an impersonal robot.
People want to feel like they’re talking to a real person. So give them that experience, and they’ll thank you for it.
