Content Strategy for Religion and Spirituality Websites
Social media is a powerful marketing tool you can use to bring about a positive change in the world of religious and spiritual content — people are hard-wired for this kind of messaging. A successful social media content strategy has a few key components. In order to create a successful social media content strategy for your website, it’s important to use the right platforms and publish content in the right way to engage with people online. Here you'll discover what a successful social media content strategy looks like for a religion or spirituality website.
Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms
Not every social media platform has the same types of users. Each platform varies in terms of the age of its users, their interests, geography, and more. When choosing a social media platform, be sure to consider the demographics of your audience. If you want to reach new audiences or convert them to followers, choose a platform compatible with the demographics of your audience. You can use the PEW Research Center's Demographics of Social Media Users tool to assess which platforms make the most sense to invest your time and resources in for your site's social media content strategy.
For most religious and spiritual sites, the demographics on Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok may not match who you want to reach unless your site aims to reach a young demographic. In the case of evangelism sites, this might be an appropriate approach. However, the older and more religious demographic found on Facebook and Instagram is a good fit for most religious and spiritual sites.
By choosing the right social media platforms, you maximize your potential reach. This doesn't mean you can't have an account on all the social media platforms, just be cautious you're not investing too much into platforms that won't work as well.
The Social Media Content Strategy Your Site Needs
The most important part of your social media content strategy is the actual content you publish. You can't just put anything out in the world and hope for the best. Research and study which topics work — and those that don't — and learn how to use each platform effectively. For example, if you want people to follow you on Instagram, use hashtags that apply to potential followers. If you want to reach an older demographic on Facebook, consider the language and tone that attracts them.
Cultivate the Right Tone and Voice
Throughout all social media interactions and content marketing efforts, be intentional when it comes to the tone and the voice of your content. If you want to be serious, stay serious. If you want to come across as warm and contemplative, maintain it. Users should know that the content comes from your site based on its brand or how it comes across.
Create an Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar is simply your plan for the types of content you want to publish: blogs, social media posts, and emails. By adding your plans to a calendar, you can ensure that you continue to post consistent, high-quality content to all channels. Ideally, you would connect the themes from one platform to another. For example, if you post about a day of kindness on social media, your email and blog content should also reflect this campaign. All aspects of your content marketing plans should work together.
Decide on Monetization
If you plan on monetizing your site, you will need to decide on how to do it. You don’t want too much promotional content on your platforms that it reduces the value readers get from your content. A good rule of thumb is to limit promotional content to 20% of total content. This means if you want to monetize your site with sponsored posts or by selling a course on your site, make sure to post other types of content, too.
Create a Great Profile Description
Just as you need to have a good bio on your website, the same applies to social media platforms. You need a great profile description that will help you increase engagement and attract views. Try to avoid using too much text without a picture or video, as people are very unlikely to read it. Instead, use large beautiful images and short quotes that entice your followers to continue browsing your content.
Focus on Engagement to Create Value
Social media is valuable to your audience when they are engaged. Your goal is to provide as much engagement as possible so that your audience takes an active role in your online community. Here are several things to consider when working on your social media content.
Engage with Users As Much As Possible
It's crucial to engage with users as much as possible to build a strong following. This means replying to comments, posts, and more. Invest the time to connect with your followers, or they may easily lose interest in your site.
In order for your religious or spiritual social media content strategy to be successful, you need the right types of content that match the right platforms. You must also invest time and resources in engaging with your audience on social media. These are some of the important aspects of a successful social media content strategy for your site.
The Millennial Rabbi (Daniel Bortz) on Facebook is a great example of this. While not having access to people during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Rabbi Bortz expanded his social media influence. He did this by creating relatable content while also interacting with audience members as much as possible to establish a more human connection.
Try to choose the right type of content suitable for the demographics of your followers on each platform. Also, utilize the right engagement strategy that will draw users into sharing, liking, or commenting on posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and more.
Create Engaging Social Media Posts
It's important to create engaging social media posts for your religion or spirituality site. Not only are you reaching out to new audiences, but you're also creating a connection with the followers you already have. Here are some social media content ideas for your religion and spirituality site:
Ask Questions to Engage Your Audience
Not only can questions generate some great engagement, but they also encourage people to respond. Share a question related to your religion or spirituality on Facebook and use the comments section below posts on Instagram to discuss questions with your followers. You can also use photos or pictures of people to represent different faiths or cultures, which is a great way to engage with followers who are interested in your religion.
Share Quotes
Sharing quotes is a great way to create thought-provoking content. Here are several ideas to help you share quotes effectively.
Share a Quote From an Influential Figure in Your Faith or Tradition
Certain influential figures garner a lot of engagement. Think of the Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa. Use quotes and images from your religion's influential figure to inspire and create engagement among your followers. When people are inspired by someone, they are more likely to follow that influencer.
Share a Quote About Kindness or Love
Depending on the type of religion or spirituality you represent, you may share inspirational quotes or photos about love, kindness, and compassion. You can find quotes on the internet and add them to a post. Make sure you add a great image with the quote to really draw interest in your page.
Share Quotes From Your Spiritual Texts
Your followers are likely already familiar with the majority of the spiritual texts but may not be as familiar with religious quotes. Share quotes from spiritual texts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to encourage people to take part in your content. Use hashtags that are relevant to your audience to increase engagement.
Share Quotes About Inner Peace and Remaining Present
Share a quote about finding peace in the present moment. This means that you should always be fully present in your life and appreciate what you have instead of worrying about what you don't have. Create a post with this message on Facebook or Instagram and encourage your followers to share it far and wide to promote inner peace.
Add Photos and Videos
The most popular social media content formats are videos and photos, so create lots of them. Videos can be engaging and can also help you stay engaged with viewers and build a connection with them. For example, you could create a video about how to pray or meditate or use hashtags to increase the visibility of your video to more people who may be interested in your site's content.
Showcase Places of Worship
Share a beautiful photo of a place of worship on Instagram. Showcase a photo of a beautiful statue or quote on Twitter. Post beautiful artwork on Facebook to attract attention. You can also create memes using stunning photos of places of worship, which are an engaging way to keep your followers coming back for more.
Photograph Special Meals
Post photos of food that is part of religious tradition. Sharing food is another great way to promote engagement. People love to see delicious food photos, so share images of your religious foods on social media platforms. Easter dinner. Hanukkah latkes. There are so many different opportunities to share community through food on your site's related social media pages.
Incorporate Content Types
A religious or spiritual social media content strategy must balance between reaching new audiences and renewing its current audience. It must engage with users and build a relationship that is valuable for all involved. It should provide valuable resources that users can use to achieve their goals. However, your site doesn't need to be comprehensive in order to be successful on social media. There are many different types of content you can publish, depending on what your site is about.
Social Media As One Part of Your Strategy
Don't rely on social media to bring in new audience members or renew the current audience. Social media is an important part of your strategy, but you should also be focusing on your email list and blog content. You can add press releases and guest posts to the mix, too. Your entire content strategy should be well-rounded and include many different ways to reach audience members.
Social Media Is Not Just for Businesses
You can create a business page, but that does not mean that you need to just focus on promotion. You must provide value for your audience by providing resources and helping people achieve their goals.
Marketing Platforms for Religious and Spiritual Websites
To draw people to your site, leverage the available marketing platforms to get their attention. There are many social media platforms with built-in marketing systems. Your goal is to build an audience using those marketing systems and funnel them to your site. You can schedule posts directly through Facebook.
For a more robust solution, consider Buffer or Hootsuite. Both of these social media marketing platforms have free options for two or three social media accounts. In Hootsuite, you can even set up your blog to automatically publish posts on your Facebook page through the integrated RSS feed option.
Topics to Avoid
There are several topics to avoid in your social media posts. In essence, you want to avoid any content that is inflammatory or could lead to a fight with another group. This type of content can lead to ill-will from social media users, especially those who turn to your religious site for peace and inspiration. They don’t want to see any drama.
Partner with Scripted for Your Social Media Content Strategy
Social media and content marketing are important aspects of managing a religion and spirituality site. By leveraging these tips, you can create more interesting and consistent posts. Every social media site has its own best practices for posting. In general, you want to post relatively often. Some sites prefer several timers per week while others prefer once per week at the most. The length and makeup of each post vary as well. Check with the platforms that you want to use to see what the guidelines are. Every platform lists its specific requirements to help you create content the right way. If you're worried about creating this content, our writers can help.
Published by Ciara Antolini on Wednesday, December 8, 2021 in Content, Religion & Spirituality, Website.
