Looking after your chaplaincies social media channels is an exciting opportunity, helping your chaplaincy support its community and reach new people. We know there will be a lot for you to consider, especially if you are new to the role, so we have put together a list to get you started in the best possible way.

Create a plan

A simple and clear plan will look at want you want to achieve, and how you are doing to do it. Your chaplaincy may already have a digital plan in place, however if you don’t have one, this is one of the first things you will want to do.

Take a look at this Church of England blog on how to create a social media strategy

Understand your digital audience

It’s important to have a defined audience in mind when you are creating your content, as this will help you create relevant, helpful and interesting content for your social media platforms.

Take a read of this Church of England blog on understanding your audiences on social media. 

Track your progress

Your analytics will provide valuable insights to help you to create an online presence that is responsive to your audience, and able to adapt and grow as the social media landscape changes.

Some of the key analytics that you can track across your channels are:

• Reach – the number of individual accounts your content reached
• Impressions – the total number of times your content was seen by anyone
• Engagements – Likes and reactions, comments, replies, shares, retweets and video views.

In each of these areas look for the posts that performed the best, and the ones that did not. Refine your plan by looking for trends that may be emerging from month to month and look at how can this help you going forward.

Track these statistics on a monthly basis to help build a picture of how your online presence is growing.

Writing for the web

The words we use are important to help us communicate effectively with our online audience, and they will need to adapt depending on whether you are writing a social media post or something for your website.

The Church of England have written a blog on how to tell your church’s story through short-form social media copy

Keep up to date with social media developments and trends

As the social media landscape changes frequently, keeping up to date will help you maintain a successful online presence to serve your community and raise the profile of your chaplaincy.

The Church of England have a few resources to help you with this:

• Digital Labs blogs are updated frequently, covering topics from social media planning to creating content.
• Join the Digital Labs mailing list to get monthly updates on all things digital.
• Our Communications team are on hand to answer your questions so please get in touch by contacting us

Policies you will need to know

Safeguarding Policy

It is the responsibility of everyone to ensure the protection of children and vulnerable adults online and offline and spot the warning signs for those who may be experiencing abuse or online bullying.  Familiarise yourself with the Diocese in Europe Safeguarding Policy and who to contact if you have questions or concerns.