How to set up a church Twitter account

Many people who view my blog might be surprised at this post, considering Twitter is such a mainstream daily application now that one would assume its as trivial as asking ‘How should I microwave this frozen pizza?’.

However, just like there are still people out there who have opposing tech thumbs for microwaves and prefer putting the pizza in the oven instead, there are people who need to know NOT how to set up a Twitter account, but how to set one up for a higher purpose, for e.g. their Church or ministry.

That’s where it gets tricky. For when you start creating a social identity for something that deals with spirituality – esp in organised religion or organised Spirit-led faith gatherings – there are many aspects to consider, including the most ignored one: ‘do we even NEED a Twitter account for our church?’.

So here goes:

1. Purpose

• Write down on a piece of paper the approximate number of members your church or ministry has.
• Then take a guess at the percentage by age, as in are 50% over the age of 40?

Once you’ve established this, ask yourself what is the purpose of your intended Twitter account?

• Is it to stay in constant communication with these existing members?
• Is it to gain a virtual member-base by having many new people not necessarily in your area ‘follow’ you on Twitter?
• Is it to share your daily or weekly services or sermons online with everyone?

Every church account has a different purpose, and some have all these purposes together.

2. Prepare
Have you decided on a name for your Twitter account? A common mistake people make both for personal accounts on Twitter as well as professional ones is they fail to realise the difference between your Account Name and your User Name. Here’s the difference:

Account name: The name of the person or entity who owns the account. This can be your name as the pastor or ministry leader, the name of your church or a generic SEO (search engine optimisation) name. E.g. Pastor Bob, Father Michael, Sister Anne, Saint Paul’s.

User Name: The visible name of your Twitter account, usually known as a Twitter Handle. This is what appears as your URL (web address people type into the internet browser) e.g. www.twitter.com/digitalchrist where digitalchrist is the User Name/Twitter Handle.

What happens normally is that when people view your Tweets in the stream of tweets as shown below, they see the Twitter Handle as the main name of the tweeter, and right next to it appears the actual Account Name (look at ‘grattonboy’ below for e.g.:

Hence, you need to decide whether you want your personal name to appear next to it or something else.

How do I decide?
Well, think about it in terms of people searching for you. Is your name as pastor or ministry leader remembered more than the church or ministry? If yes, then use your name. If the other way around, then use the other. The whole point is, when people google you or your church/ministry, your Twitter account will show up depending on what you’ve chosen, and it should ring a bell with them when they see it.

How do I choose a good enough User Name?
Aah, the all-important question. Many people when embarking on creating a Twitter account want something that stands out, that people will ‘obviously’ look for. That’s why for people starting a Christian Twitter account the first thing they always check if available is the handle /jesus or /christ or even /God. Sorry folks, too late.

The best thing to do when thinking up a handle is what will people search you by. Keep it SEO friendly, and memory friendly. Something like ‘Saint Mary’s Church’ or ‘Pastor Bob’s Daily’, or even ‘Daily Bread’ if available.

3. Profile
So you’ve decided on the name. Now you need to establish who you are when people visit your Twitter profile. Don’t be too elaborate. When people use the search option in Twitter, Twitter searches for people based on keywords, not on phrases. People look up words like God, Jesus, Christ, SEGA, Nintendo, rock, metal, jazz. Not many people type in ‘church dedicated to the word’. 

Choose a name that is easy to remember but most importantly, SHORT. People will hopefully be re-tweeting (sharing your tweets with others, while including your handle in the tweet) your tweets, and if you have a very long handle, it will take up valuable character space limits which can be used by them to add other handles or hash tags (hash tags are like favourites, or social bookmarks which others on Twitter follow).

While a profile that says ‘A church ministry which develops personal relationships with its members to allow the Spirit of God to manifest itself in the collective lives of the community’ sounds very good in conversation and on the ministry’s website, this won’t bode well in the Twitter profile. For that, ‘Ministry dedicated to building Jesus’ relationship in the community, using Scripture, relationships & fellowship’ has better keywords and will show up more often in searches.

Once you’re up and running and have started tweeting a bit, its a good idea to get your profile’s background image done. Its fairly simple if you want to keep it simple, and the options are under ‘Profile, Edit Profile Settings, Design’. When you click on design, Twitter gives you preset designs you may choose from and allows you to upload your own background images. If you have a good designer among your ministry members, they can easily create a personalised background for you based on your member’s photos, image of the church etc. Have a look at Rick Warren’s background, for e.g. by clicking here.  

4. Produce:
So you’ve got your design all set up, and you’re raring to go. Whatever you share on twitter, always be sure to stick to the following rules of thumb and you’ll be gaining followers in no time:

• Always tweet no more than 120 characters. Some say 140 is the limit on Twitter so its good to us it, but the problem with that is you hinder people from re-tweeting your tweets. If you tweet only 120 characters, that leaves 20 characters for them to retweet, add your @userid and other hashtags
• Always add hash tags. Hash tags are the symbol # followed by a keyword which people will follow e.g. #jesus. For e.g. when you tweet ‘Our God is a God of love #jesus’ then everyone who follows the #jesus #tag will receive your tweet, whether they’re following you or not. How do you follow a #tag? Simply do a search for the #tag you want e.g. #jesus or #church and save that (the option is given).
• Always retweet someone else’s tweets if you like them and always include their profile address e.g. RT @mychurch ‘Our God is a God of love #jesus
• Always follow someone back when they follow you. Its not just courtesy, you help grow each others’ Twitter following.
• Always tweet something at least once or twice a day. It’ll be difficult at first, but if you are shepherding a ministry, surely you have more than enough material to share. It can be a great Scripture reference or the link to an online version of your last sermon. The more regularly you tweet, the more respected your Twitter account becomes.

Tomorrow I’ll post a continuation of this so that you can take full advantage of your new Twitter account.

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