Social Media: Taking the Time to Respond

Social Media: Taking the Time to Respond

May 3, 2016 by

Social media is all about conversation. When churches fail to keep up with the conversation that’s happening, whether on Twitter or Facebook, their followers can feel neglected or unimportant. Watch as Gerry True offers advice on responding consistently and engaging followers. Gerry True is a church communicator and instructor at our Certification Lab.

Heartfelt things are shared on social media and if we’re not listening, people translate that into ‘You don’t care.’

“There’s not much that we’re cautious about. Our goal is about the inspiration and the conversation. It’s about generating and asking questions. So, our goal is to shape the things that we’re saying, the questions we’re asking. In all of our posts, we want to try to bring a question to that that initiates a response, and then our goal is to respond within 30 minutes of anything that comes in… whether that’s a Like, whether that’s actually typing a response back. Of the 8,400 followers we have, I typically get about 150-200 notifications a day on my phone. And I have two other people watching it as well, so if I’m at a meeting and I can’t respond to it, then someone else can. We take that conversation very seriously. A lot of really heartfelt things are going to be shared on social media, and if we’re not listening to that, people translate that into ‘You really don’t care about me.’ I guess if we’re to be cautious, it’s cautious about not responding when someone reaches out to us. It’s not uncommon for 50 notifications to come in in one hour on my phone. And it gets mind-numbing at times, but the reality is every one of those notifications says something about a connection and relationship to the kingdom work that God is doing through Oak Hills Church, and that elevates that conversation.” -Gerry True

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Ruthie Flaa


Ruthie Flaa is a college student trying very hard to survive her final semester before graduating in the spring. She enjoys writing so much that she’s majoring in it.
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One Response to “Social Media: Taking the Time to Respond”

  • Mark Steinbrueck
    May 4, 2016

    This is great information. I have many conversations with pastors and leaders at small churches who are just starting to get into social media. 30 minute turnaround time for a church where there is someone dedicated to social media is great, however, if the the church is small and they have only a couple of people on staff, what is a reasonable response time?


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