If you have a few minutes, read this eye-opening (and troubling) post on Church Marketing Sucks: Churches Aren’t Paying Attention On Twitter. Post author Mickey Mellen’s findings ought to bother you, and they ought to prompt you to evaluate your entire communication strategy, not just your approach to Twitter.
My suspicion is that most churches prefer broadcasting to interacting. Think about it — our preferred communication mediums are one-way channels. We love sermons, direct mail, podcasts, billboards, email blasts, punny church signs, static websites, text message alerts, and worship bulletins. No response required, and if we’re being honest, no response desired. We wanna preach, but we don’t wanna listen. We like to broadcast our message, but we don’t like to hear what you think about it.
As the CMS post suggests, we even have a knack for turning two-way channels into one-way channels. Churches don’t pay attention on Twitter even though regular folks do, which suggests that while we want others to care about what we have to say, we’re not willing to show an equal measure of attention or respect. Doesn’t that seem like a shame?
Take a look at the one-way/two-way nature of your church’s communication. Is there balance? Are you broadcasting and interacting? Are you preaching and conversing? If not, what does that say to people about how you value your message and your agenda more than their questions and concerns?