10 Church Social Media Ideas That Will Help Struggling Youth Groups

Boost your youth group’s attendance, funding, and general enthusiasm with these church social media ideas

Youth groups have long been important to the fabric of church communities, but they’re truly becoming essential for many churches now. Active youth groups can play a critical role in attracting and retaining new young people and families.

In fact, one research study points out that 61% of senior pastors say youth ministry is “one of the top priorities” in their church; 7% says it’s the single highest priority. At the same time, nearly 6 in 10 young people who grow up in Christian churches eventually leave, and 52% of millennials do not go to church.

Are you trying to make your youth group a top priority, but you’re struggling with attendance, funding, and general enthusiasm? These church social media ideas may be a great way to start boosting all of the above.

Increase donations online by promoting a catchy hashtag, then keep track of your efforts by displaying everyone’s social posts in your church and on your website.

Build your youth group using these church social media ideas

Youth groups have in-person gatherings, so why would you want to use social media? Because when your young church members aren’t with you, they’re on social media.

While Facebook remains the most popular social media platform for any age group, you can’t ignore other forms of social media that young people are flocking to. For example, the Pew Research Center says Americans ages 18 to 24 are substantially more likely to use Instagram and Twitter. If you want to catch the attention of your current members and try to attract new ones, you need to be on those platforms. Here are a few church social media ideas to help you get started:

1. Go in with a plan.

If you want positive results from your social media efforts, you need to be strategic and plan your campaigns in advance. Abandoned social media pages (or ones that barely post) give the impression that the youth group is also a bummer.

2. Variety is key.

Mix up the types of things you post—videos, photos, questions, and quotes. Avoid the temptation to do fundraising posts all the time, sometimes the most effective fundraising takes place in your passive posts. Have a donation button on your pages in case someone feels inspired.

3. Create a hashtag.

Hashtags, especially on Instagram and Twitter, are extremely helpful in categorizing, finding, and branding content. Use your hashtag on all your posts and encourage your members to do the same. If your church has a hashtag, use that to expand your audience.

4. Mount a social media wall.

One of the best ways to show how active your church and youth group are on social media is to give it space in your church. A social wall can pull in posts that use your hashtag in real-time so everyone can see the discussions going on. There’s also a polling option you can use to your advantage. For example, take a live poll of the young people at your next service and ask what would make them want to join the church’s youth group.

5. Feature members.

Each member of your youth group brings something unique to the table. Do a quick (under 1 minute) video interview or post a photo with a short bio. With these posts, you’ll find that their relatives and friends will share on their social pages, you’ll get more engagement, and donations may increase because they’re able to connect their contributions to real people.

6. Do a daily prayer tweet.

Various #prayer hashtags are very popular on Twitter. Post your own daily inspirational prayer—you may even see total strangers retweeting your message.

7. Use Facebook fundraising.

Facebook has a fundraising feature that can help your youth group get the funding it needs to expand and do good in the world. This is one of those church social media ideas that’s so easy, but many forget it exists. Register as a nonprofit on Facebook and your members, parishioners—anyone—can run a short campaign raising money for your group.

8. Start a matching gift campaign

Find a corporate sponsor to team up with you for a matching gift campaign—for every one dollar someone donates, the sponsor will also give a dollar. Social media is the perfect place to spread the news about this campaign because you can tag the corporate sponsor (tapping into their follower base that may not be aware of your church) and ask them to use a unique hashtag in their communications.

9. Encourage the kids to get involved.

If social media isn’t your strong suit, you don’t need to take it all on yourself. Brainstorm creative church social media ideas with them once a month—you’ll be amazed by what they come up with. It also helps your members take more ownership of their group and motivates them to share more content on social media.

10. Post photos of everything.

You know your youth group is doing great things, but you need not just to tell, but show everyone else. Photos create connections between people that words often cannot. For example, while on a mission trip, encourage your kids to share photos on Instagram with your youth group’s hashtag. The images will be pulled into the church’s social media wall feed, and members can watch what’s going on in real time (and parents can see that their kids are okay while they’re away from home).

These are just a handful of church social media ideas to kickstart your youth group’s efforts. As you build your strategy, remember that you can use and adapt these ideas for your entire church’s social media strategy and fundraising efforts. You can even get every decision-maker in your church onboard with social media and plan out your digital strategy together.