When I first started as a Christian blogger, I was devasted to find that there was really no social media strategy tips specifically for the Christian blogging community. So I did what we all do. I went onto Pinterest and looked up social media strategies from other bloggers in other niches.
Some of the tips I learned were great, but some of the tips were actually detrimental to my blogging journey. A lot of the things other bloggers do are a bit different because there is not the same goal of connecting others with Jesus. Which is totally fine, that is not what their blog was made for. This just makes us need specific social media strategies when accomplishing success on our Christian blogs.
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Social Media Strategy Tips for Christian Bloggers
If you are a Christian blogger, I wanted to give you some starting social media strategy tips to make sure that what you are doing on social media is all helping to grow your Christian blog as well as spreading God’s message.
So here it is, 4 social media strategy tips to grow your Christian blog! Make sure to comment at the end about which one you like the most!
1. Create an Instagram community, not an audience.
When I first started using social media to grow my Christian blog, it was back before I was a social media manager. I didn’t really know what my purpose was on Instagram, let alone how to connect it with my blog.
I only had non-Christian bloggers to resort to when I wanted to learn about Instagram since no one was writing about Instagram from the Christian blog perspective. The posts I read about were all about growing followers to get sponsorships and other paid opportunities. So I started doing just that. I tried everything to grow my audience. All of my goals and processes were all focused on simply growing my Instagram audience. And that’s exactly what I got, an audience.
Related: 94 Jesus Hashtags to Grow Your Instagram Reach
What I realized later is that for Christian blogging, I actually don’t want an audience on Instagram. I want a community. I want a specific group of people that I wouldn’t find anywhere else and engage with them in a picture-type setting.
If you decide to make an Instagram for your Christian blog, or you already have one, focus on how you can grow your community. Specifically, seek out the people in your niche that are hanging out on Instagram. Find them either through hashtags or looking at other people’s followers. Connect with those people on a personal level and build your community. Once you do that, it will create a shift in your social media strategies for Instagram and give it a strong purpose.
2. Don’t overlook Twitter
Twitter is the secret sauce of blogging that a lot of people aren’t using. I don’t think I can ever speak about social media strategy tips without talking about Twitter.
Here’s the issue with Twitter though: A lot of people are avoiding it. There are also a lot of people that are using it are simply dumping their links then running. If either one of these is you, that is okay: I was there too. Once I dived into Twitter it changed everything.
I am here to tell you that your Twitter blogging community will be some of the people that look out for you the most. These are the people that go out of their way to promote you looking for nothing in return.
The best way to do Twitter is to look at it as a place of honoring bloggers. Go out of your way to find new bloggers as well as other Christian bloggers on Twitter. Leave them genuine comments and retweet as often as you can. If you go out seeking to build people up, you will be amazed at the community you find there.
3. LinkedIn
What?! LinkedIn? Yes, LinkedIn should be part of your social media strategy for your Christian blog.
There are a lot of reasons to use LinkedIn, but the biggest reason is: you never know where God is going to take you. Make sure to keep LinkedIn open for any opportunities that may arise by networking.
For example, my goal was to have a Christian blog that grew enough so it could get me to leave my job in a collections department and blog from home. God had different plans that were way beyond my imagination. Before I knew it, I was thrown so deep into the social media world. I was able to leave my job to be a freelance Christian writer and social media manager.
I now get to coach people on social media strategies specifically in Christian blogs and ministries. Since you now own a ministry and/or a business, having a LinkedIn is a great way to connect with others and build yourself there.
4. Consider making a Facebook group
Not getting the traction you were hoping for on your Facebook page? Consider adding a Facebook group surrounding your niche. Having a Facebook group is the essence of what social media is supposed to do: create a community.
If you are monetizing your blog, this is also a good beginning of a “funnel” to get people invested in your blog. You can give free advice, ask questions, and more. People tend to be more invested in groups than pages because there is a feeling of growing as a community instead of being “sold something.”
Related: The Importance of Facebook Evangelism
BONUS- Pinterest
Pinterest is not considered social media, it is considered a search engine. However, there have been times that Pinterest has tried to go social. They tried creating Pinterest communities, and they have tried liking and commenting on pins. Because of this, even though it is not social media it doesn’t mean you can’t be social on it! Go out of your way to comment on people’s pins you love- it surprises people so much that a lot of time you get an instant follower!
Now it’s your turn- Which social media do you think you need to develop strategies on first?
Be sure to also read:
Planning Saves Time and is More Effective!
The worst thing about social media is that it can quickly become an unproductive time-suck if you don’t have a good plan in place!
How much time should you be spending promoting your Christian blog on social media? The truth is that many new Christian bloggers spend WAY to much time on social media and end up with very little return on that time investment.
What if I told you that you could spend less than 3 hours each month creating a social media plan for the entire month?
The Social Media Content Creation for Christian Writers & Bloggers can help you do just that!
Instead of spending endless hours trying to figure out what to post, when to post, then the actual posting of said fretting – let me show you how to spend less than 3 hours each month planning and scheduling out all of your social media content for the entire month!
This is more than an e-book. It contains the nitty-gritty on how to create social media for Facebook and Instagram with ease (and as efficiently as possible!) in three hours or less each month.
It includes a video that gives you an “over the shoulder” look at me creating my own content so you understand how it is done. (unedited video so you can see how it really looks!)
There is also a FREE workbook on promoting new blog posts on Facebook (and Instagram)!
