Church bulletins and social media are integral parts of a church’s communications, but space on a bulletin is limited, and social media posts need to be concise to keep followers’ attention. While many churches have church websites where they post information, they may not be utilizing them as effectively as they could. Websites should support their church bulletin and social media presence so that they all speak to one another. Here are three areas of your website you can use to support your church bulletin and social media.

News

News listings are a great way to provide additional context for items in your church’s bulletin to let church members know what is happening in your congregation. One way to connect your church website to your physical bulletins is to use QR codes, which church members can scan to read a full story related to a shorter headline or summary in a bulletin. That way, you can save paper while still providing an overview of what’s happening in your church, and if a headline is interesting to a church member, they can easily access more information hosted on your church website. You can use a free service such as https://qr.io/ to generate QR codes.

If you use a digital bulletin, connecting to your church website is even simpler as you can add call-to-action buttons and in-text links to send church members to the correct pages on your website for additional information.

News listings can also enhance your site’s search engine optimization (SEO) if updated regularly as it shows search engines that your site is up to date and well-maintained with relevant information. You can also add keywords to your news listings, which you can learn more about by reading our article on maintaining a successful blog.

Any time you post a news listing on your site, you should be sharing it on social media to make sure your followers are aware there is new content. Don’t just share it once: it may take a few tries for people to catch on, and that’s okay. Experiment with different post copy and visuals to accompany the news listing and see what works best for your audience.

Events

Events are always going to be a cornerstone of a church bulletin, but there isn’t always space to include every important detail beyond the names and times of the events. Details such as volunteers needed, a more specific location, links to register or even longer descriptions for more context can be important but lengthy for a printed piece. Adding a QR code to a bulletin can give church members a quick way to get to the event listing page of your church website to access further information for each event listed. You can even have QR codes for specific events that link to that event’s designated page on your website with all the information church members would need. Or, again, if using a digital bulletin, you can link directly to event pages from the bulletin itself.

As with news listings, new events should be shared to social media to keep followers updated on what’s going on at your church.

Sermons

Virtual service options are a necessity post-lockdown as churchgoers are used to having access to online sermons. Even if you don’t have the technology to livestream services, it’s a good idea to record sermons to post online afterwards for any church members who may have missed the service in-person, or even for prospective church members to explore past sermons to get a better feel of your church’s worship style.

Sermons can be shared to social media after being recorded, or many social media even have options to livestream directly to the medium. Experiment with what works best for your audience and what’s feasible given your church’s technology capabilities.

Creating synergy across your traditional and digital channels not only ensures that important content has a better chance of reaching your audience, no matter what their age, but also helps present your church as a modern and well-organized community.

The UCC Everywhere (UCCE) program is a state of the art church website builder for United Church of Christ churches that includes post types for all the listings above, which allows you to easily update them with all the relevant information you could need to communicate to church members and the greater community. Sign up now for a monthly or annual subscription fee.