by Bre Hallberg

The other day, I asked my friend’s 16-year-old daughter if she saw the picture I had posted on Facebook. She looked at me like I had three eyes. “Oh right,” I said, “Facebook is for old people, isn’t it?” She smiled.

We are in a fast-paced, ever evolving society, where the rules for social media are always changing. How often should I post on Facebook, do people want to know my every move on Twitter? Does FourSquare exist anymore? Insta-what? What exactly am I pinning? And did something “auto-post,” showing everyone that I spent an hour last night playing Candy Crush?

It’s worth figuring out.

In a recent article, “What’s the Endgame for Social Media?” from Harvard Business, 77 percent of Fortune 500 organizations now have an official social team and presence. Businesses recognize the importance of social media, and are continuing to create entire teams dedicated to communicating through social networks.

In the next few years, businesses “will move from enabling the few to mobilizing the many to authentically engage at a personal and local level. After all, people buy from people, not companies. People trust individuals, not corporations. It’s the way business has always been done, but now social business complements traditional methods and allows for companies and their employees to manage and measure this engagement at scale.”

If top businesses are making such concerted efforts to communicate with their people, how much more should the Church do the same?

What’s next?

So, how do you keep up with all that Social Media has to offer in order to remain relevant to your kids, parents, volunteers and overall ministry?

• Chances are, there is someone in your church who loves social media, I am guessing you may find them in your student ministry. Ask them if they would be willing to help you. You may not like keeping up with it, but they do. And the idea that they can do something significant for your ministry could be life-changing.

• Talk about it with your team. Come up with a plan on what you want to communicate through social media. Looking for an idea of what questions to consider, check out this post from Jeremy Smith on 10 Questions to Lead Your Church Social Media Strategy.

• We have a plan for you! If you are overwhelmed by it all, we have you covered. We have multiple plans to help you connect to your parents and volunteers. We have done all the work for you! We have created Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram photos, emails, and even Pinterest ideas to make you look good and to help you connect on a consistent basis with your parents and volunteers. You can find these plans for parents by visiting these blogs. For volunteers, you can find these plans by subscribing to Stuff Leaders Want.

Like it or not social media is here to stay, you may use it personally, but do you have a strategic plan to use it to communicate to those in your ministry. Our message is too important to not figure this out.

Developed by Orange, Stuff Leaders Want is a library of digital resources to improve what you do. These resources help to develop leadership skills for yourself, your team and your volunteers. The materials in SLW aim to answer three basic questions: What can I do to continue learning as a leader? How can I be intentional about connecting with my volunteers consistently? What can we do to stay on the same page as a team? These materials can be digested in 20 easy minutes—or less. Click here to learn more about a subscription to Stuff Leaders Want.