The God of Social Media (1)

Christian Missions with Social Media and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Strategic Social Media Solutions for Pastors and Ministry Leaders

The scripture has this to say about the sons of Issachar “of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do…”(1 Chronicles 12:32) NKJV. The sons of Issachar were part of the men that worked alongside David when King Saul was after his life. They offered him support with the consciousness of time and knowing what was required to do, when to do it and how to achieve their God-given aims, carrying out their mission, even as part of David’s army.

With the current global dynamics of events in digital communications, there is an urgent need for leaders of Christian missions, churches and ministries to begin to respond to this consciousness. It is extremely crucial to recognise the trends at which the world is responding to the media now, especially the social media, compared to the way it was decades ago. The time is here for Christian missions and churches to intensify effort to improve their approach, and be highly strategic in re-focusing on leveraging the digital media (social media), and other integrated new media communications mix as tools for propagating the gospel and spreading the truth of God’s word.

The Apostle Paul Could have Used Social Media

With the magnitude of his pastoral and leadership responsibilities over the churches he planted and led, the Apostle Paul could have used social media if he had access to any. The Apostle Paul travelled widely with the overall mission of planting churches and overseeing them and their welfare. He was shipwrecked and left stranded on some of these mission trips. Whenever a new church was planted and growing, after a short while, he would travel back again to see how they were doing and he was always writing letters of encouragement to church leadership and church families / communities.

“Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and build relationships.” — David Alston, author

The Apostle Paul encouraged the Ephesians “Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.” (Ephesians 1:15-17). As he sent these words of encouragement and prayers, he also sent warnings and a call to order in his epistles to churches in Corinth and Galatia and a few of the other churches he planted.

“Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up…” (2 Corinthians 4:1) NLT.

After Covod-19: Things Might no Longer be Normal

The human mind is so used to doing things the normal way, (ways we are used to), but with the advent of the new media, coupled with the effects of Covid-19, God is calling us to wake up and be conscious of the time that we are in “The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11). This is the digital age and every minister of the gospel must not look back, seeking the comfort of Egypt anymore. When the Israelites were faced with troubles including starvation and being deprived of the comfort they enjoyed in Egypt, they yelled at Moses; “Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?” (Exodus 14:11) NKJV. It is high time all Christian ministries shifted their attention from Egypt which signifies “Normal” and begin to migrate towards a new season of God’s plan to expose us to a digital world in order to create a more responsive, engaging and interactive relationship within our church, mission communities and the world.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic, Covid-19, a good number of pastors and ministry leaders were of the opinion that their presence online was unnecessary because they were not born in the digital age. They actually ignored anything that has to do with online communications, therefore their ministries could not be found on any search engine. Some did not even have an active social media page and therefore their online visibility was at the zero level. With government regulations on social distancing and other related protective measures which were put together to reduce the spread of the virus, it is time the church rose up to this challenge by advancing towards developing some strategically-planned goals of consistent online activities.

It may not be what we want now or even what we are used to, but it’s what God wants and therefore we cannot stop due to the current situation . The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians and encouraged them; “Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up…” (2 Corinthians 4:1) NLT.

Social Media Search Engine Optimisation for Missions

Social media SEO is an intentional plan to leverage social media activities with the aim of boosting a ministry or church’s website’s organic traffic on search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Aol. etc). This is highly needed at this time in order for churches and Christian missions to reach out to their desired audience with the true gospel of Jesus. The reason is simple; social media is a great channel with which the online profile and mission activities can be made visible on the search engines. It not only makes our SEO activities effective but also productive and easy when it is consistently carried out. Though social media and SEO are not the same, there’s no doubt it is more credible to drive SEO with the social media, as search engines recognise its effects and therefore has a more profitable impact in the long run.

Growing your Ministry and Church Visibility on Search Engines

Create content that meets the needs of your desired audience:

Regardless of your background, your preference and what you feel good about, if your current practices are not meeting the needs of your audience, your website or social media platform will not grow and the search engine optimisation will be curtailed. It is however crucial that each ministry and church recognises their overall vision and mission, and then focus all their strength on consistently ministering on a string of similar and logically linked messages. Then it is more likely that the required and targeted audience will be attracted to your ministry, and this will have an impactful effect on your overall search engine rating. At that point, the search engine will automatically recognise these strings of activities and pick your online brand (ministry / church) based on the recorded algorithms following the above process as planned and followed-up by your consistent online activities.

Though it requires time and patience, the trend would grow gradually and your website will become more visible online as you create content needed by your target audience on your site or blog. If you are consistent with this process, you’ll keep the visitors coming back for more. Also, the quality of your content determines how engaged your visitors and audience would be. Your content would not even stop at them, it would be shared amongst their online networks and this in turn, promotes your overall visibility online.