Every year, when the calendar turns from December to January, there is a new year filled with tons of possibilities. It is the perfect time to think through and implement all the things you wanted to do the previous year into this whole new year. While it may be easier to do this in your personal life or ministry world, figuring out how to analyze and implement change in your social media communication is not something most average Joe ministers know much about. But, with the importance of having an active ministry and personal social media presence these days, it is really important to analyze your social media data so you can make clear goals in order for you to be more effective reaching people for Christ in the new year.

So how do you perform a social media assessment of the past to help your social media impact for the future?

Read the Analytics

Each social media platform has their own analytics and provides them for you. If you don’t know where to find them simply Google search: “Twitter analytics,” “Instagram insights” or “Facebook insights” to find them. Once you find the analytics for each platform you are on, take time to look at each post you shared in each platform in order to find out how each of your posts did. As you look over them you will see ones that did well and ones that didn’t do so well.

Ask Questions

As you read the analytics, ask questions. For instance, what was the best performing post? Why did this post do so well? Was it because of the time of day, the specific day, the format or content in which you posted it? These are some of the questions you can ask that will help you determine what worked well, what didn’t and what changes you need to make for the new year.

Make Adjustments

After you read the analytics and answered the questions, make the adjustments. Simply put, post more of what did well and less of what didn’t. If a certain type of post or video did really well, post more of those. If a specific type of question you asked got a lot of engagement over the others, look to make more of those types of post.

Keep Testing and Trying

The crazy thing about social media is that there is no true rhythm or reason to what does well and what doesn’t. Everyone is so focused on going viral but so much of what we think is our best content goes unnoticed. Don’t let it phase you. Keep testing new ideas and trying new things. The more you test and try the more likely you are going to discover what works best for your community.

Social media is a vital part of your ministry strategy. You can reach countless people for Christ through social media connections. In order to be as effective in social media and on each particular platform, you need to look at the data and see what is being the most effective for your church or ministry. This is a very simplistic way to analyze data but it will help you get going as you discover what social media posts work best in reaching as many people for Christ as possible.

Read more on this topic:

https://orangeblogs.org/orangeleaders/2018/05/04/3-social-media-pain-points-churches/