Social Networks Allow You to Share Your Mission

Social media is a powerful tool that helps members of the community learn about you and it helps members of your parish become ambassadors in the community by liking and sharing your posts and tweets so they are seen by more people. Here are some tips to help you implement a social media strategy (also view tips here). Also, to view our Facebook Top Ten Tips, click here. To view diocesan Social Communications Policy, click here.

  • Identify your audience. Who are you trying to reach and what is the best way to reach them?  Currently, Facebook is popular among older adults and women. Twitter is more popular with men and young adults. Instagram is popular among millennials
  • Create a content strategy.  This means planning out what information you will share such as: Mass times, upcoming events, profiles, saint quotes, pope quotes and Scripture quotes. How will the content be presented? Ideas include videos (including live video), podcasting, blog posts, photos and graphics.
  • Photos, graphics, short videos (around :30) and visuals increase engagement and reach, and they align with the increasingly visual nature of social network and apps.
  • As a Catholic organization, your content should always teach the faith and communicate God’s love. Prayer is a great way to stay centered on your faith.
  • Posts about people are more popular. Make it personal! Tell more stories. People remember stories. A story can be a great image. It can be clever text. Or it can be a combination of both.
  • Bring about a feeling that is positive and uplifting.
  • Show beauty and tender moments, compassion, a masterpiece, faith in action.
  • Be timely. The more topical and relevant, the more engagement you will receive.
  • Keep it simple and short. Less text is more.
  • Posts with emoticons receive more engagement.
  • Ask questions to engage more and have your post seen by more people.
  • To be most relevant, it’s helpful to tie into trending topics if they align with your mission. Consider joining the conversation by using a hashtag. A hashtag is identified by the # symbol and is used within Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. When the # symbol is placed in front of a word or phrase, it becomes a clickable and searchable term and if used widely enough they can actually become a popular trending topic.
  • The Diocese of St. Petersburg encourages parishes to use the hashtag #DOSP with timely topics so that we can find and share your social media posts. Here are some examples of topics and their related hashtags:
    • #DOSPAdvent, #DOSPLent, #DOSPChristmas, #DOSPashtag; #DOSPEaster; #DOSPseminarians, #DOSPschools, #DOSPpriests, #DOSPdeacons, , # #DOSPmarch4life, #DOSP50, #DOSPPriests; #courageouslyliving
  • Also, any post that is tagged with our handle: @diostpete will be brought to our attention so we can circulate the post to a diocesan-wide audience if appropriate.

Resource: Shareable Faith Graphics