This is the third post in a series. It might be helpful to start from the beginning. Or not. Whatever works best for you.
Events and parties are a big part of ministry. Church life should be celebratory and fun, but if I can, I’d like to confess something: I hate planning parties. I’m not good at it, and I’m easily overwhelmed.
Given that, one of the best ways to get a handle on events to funnel them through Facebook. Now, this isn’t a net that can catch everyone you might want to attend your event—and it might even cast too wide of a net!—but it can do a lot of good.
So, for the past few years, I’ve been creating events for my church on our Facebook page. There’s been a lot of learning and a lot success, and I’m going to share as much as I can with you.
Right. Now.
Choosing the Events to Create
Not every event your church holds is designed for the public to attend, which means that it’s ok to hold some unpublicized, “secret” events.
For example, my church just held our annual “Wreck the Halls” event, which is basically where we take down and pack away all of our Christmas decorations. It’s a simple event that doesn’t require a lot of people and shouldn’t really involve outsiders. Now, we’ve had outsiders randomly show up before as we generally hold this event in place of a regular Sunday evening or Wednesday night service. When this has happened, we’ve had to explain what’s going on and why, which often results in the new person offering to stay and help, which we accept because 1) who knows what relationships might be formed when work shoulder-to-shoulder and 2) many hands make for light work.
But even if outsider attendance isn’t the worst thing, it isn’t the main thing, and so shouldn’t be encouraged. That’s why if we need to create a Facebook Event for one of these types of nights, we create it in our group, which is private, and we communicate to our people that this isn’t a good time to invite your friends.
When you’re looking to create Facebook Events, start with events that you want to see filled with new people, with people who don’t already attend your church (or other churches). Filter out “insider” only events from those that are designed to make “outsiders” into “insiders.”
Creating the Event
There are plenty of in-depth “how-to” tutorial out there about creating FB Events, so I won’t keep you too long. Let me just take you through a few of the important options.
Basic Info
- Event Photo: Pretty simple, just do as Facebook says: “For best results, use a 1920 X 1080 pixel image (16:9 aspect ratio).” I would add, however, that you should keep text to a minimum. If an image is comprised of over 20% text, it cannot be used in advertisements on Facebook. This would prevent you from paying to boost the event’s posts on Facebook. Not a deal breaker, but a frustration that you’d do well to avoid.
- Name: What do you call this event? Make it catchy, but not overly complex.
- Location: If you’re having this event at your church, then you’re all set. FB will set your church/page as the location. However, if you are having it off-site, you’d want to note that here. If you’re lucky, the location will listed on Facebook, which makes it that much easier to get people to the event.
Details
- Category: I would avoid the “Community: Religious” option unless this is an expressly spiritual event (i.e. community prayer night). To get the most attention and most excitement, I choose something like “Community: Family,” “Community: Festival,” or something more fitting. The point is this: downplay the “churchiness” and emphasize the fun.
- Description: Be clear but keep it concise. Try to answer as many questions as you can, but in the interest of brevity, don’t be afraid to offer a link to a website where more information can be displayed in a more organized way.
- Keywords: I always include things like the name of my town (Bethalto) and any other relevant information (ex. fun, family, party, music, etc.).
Don’t forget to check “Free Admission” and “Family Friendly,” assuming they apply!
Other
- Tickets: Unless you’re actually selling tickets to this event, leave this part blank.
- Co-hosts: This is fairly self-explanatory. I might use this option to tag the particular individual (staff or lay) who is helping to run this event.
- Posting: I always choose only hosts can post or anyone can post with host approval. Too many people want to vent frustrations or whine about the simplest things when it comes to public events. You don’t need that negativity.
- Guest List: Do what you think is appropriate for the event. My church holds a huge fireworks celebration every year, and I always display that guest list as a way to increase buzz and obvious friend connections. Anything to reduce barriers to attendance.
Conclusion
Once you’ve created your event, all that’s left is to make sure everyone knows about it. That’s what we’ll talk about in our next post. See you then!
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