Outreach & Evangelism Tip / Idea #3 - Pay to "Boost" Facebook Posts of Church Gatherings and Events

Tonight we had one of our "Coffee House" events at our church--a night of music (sung and played), art (painted by our members and displayed at our gathering), and spoken word (poetry, short readings--even a rap from our interns back in the summer). We are doing this once a month on Wednesday nights, and it has been well received.

Over the last year, we have been "boosting" our church's Facebook posts each week of church gatherings, events, service opportunities, videos, etc. This boosting places the post in the newsfeeds of those who are targeted for this advertisement/sponsored posts. There are two basic ways to boost Facebook posts: 1) send out the post to people for whom you specify their demographics (age, sex, city/town, interests, etc.); or 2) send out the post to those who like your Facebook page already, and their friends.

We have done a combination of both of these types of targeting. We have emphasized the demographic/area targeting to expand our church's potential reach and put us into contact with new people, but have also done the second type of targeting to reach friends of friends. Both are valuable and helpful in reaching people.

Over the past year, our church's Facebook page has gone from around 500-600 likes to nearly 8000. While Facebook has limited the number of people who have "liked" a page who can see a natural (non-boosted post), the increase in likes of a page is helpful, because when you pay to boost a post with the second type of targeting, you are reaching more and more people who have already shown a predisposition to your church by liking your church's Facebook page.

Also over the past year, we have had several new members and new Bible studies that have started through this Facebook targeting. This has included people, for instance, who saw and liked our Son of God movie outreach, people who saw and liked our seeker Bible study/Story of Redemption study, and this week, people who saw and liked our Coffee Shop gathering.


As you can see from the above screen capture of our church's Facebook page, a family saw the Coffee Shop Facebook promotion and said, "Hi, we are the Gorman family. We recently moved and are looking for a good church to attend in the community. May we attend this event?" And we quickly replied, Of course you can! I followed up with introducing myself on Facebook and sending a friend request.

Well, tonight, this family came and joined us for Coffee House! We were singing and playing when they came in, but I was greatly pleased to see that a number of our members had noticed them and were talking to them and making connections. When I came up to them, I did not recognize their faces. But because of our interaction on Facebook, I already knew their family name and remembered it!

There were several work connections among our members. He was from Iowa (where my wife is from), and she is from Korea. She spoke English fairly well, but when she found out that we had an ESL program, she was very interested in this. We introduced her to the person who runs our ESL/FriendSpeak program, and this family talked to members and other ESL students and teachers well into the evening. In fact, they were still there talking when I left--which is very rare, as we are usually the last to leave. 

So, boosting Facebook posts can be an effective way to reach out, make new connections, and expand the church's relational circle. It really is an amazing tool that is a very cost effective means of advertising. Of course, as the above story relates, this advertising must be combined with personal interaction, monitoring the church's Facebook page for inquiries and likes, and a friendly church that is open and receptive to guests when they visit.

I hope that this outreach and evangelism tip is helpful for you!

How have you used Facebook to reach out and share the gospel?

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