Our director, John, recently had an interesting conversation with a Catholic Social Media subscriber in Nebraska. Her question was this: How can our parish return to old posts or initiatives and provide updates in the best possible way? It’s a great question. Returning to old posts is a great idea. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Social media platforms reward originality: Even if your update is, “This elevator we started installing is in the exact same position it was in two months ago,” you want to get a new photo of it or alter the graphic you used originally (even by a few pixels). Posts that contain the exact same images or wording as a prior post from the same page are penalized on social media platforms. This can often result in warnings, penalties, or even shadow bans.
- Pin items frequently, then unpin them, then pin them again: Especially in the last few months of the pandemic, everyone had a “freak out, unplug, and walk away” phase at a slightly different time. So if you pinned the “support our parish with an online gift ” post way back in March but unpinned it later, maybe it’s time to re-pin it. Or see below for an updated graphic about online giving.
- Attention spans are short, and it’s okay to go back to old news: A short updated post about a longstanding initiative at your parish is perfectly acceptable. Just as most people don’t read the bulletin cover to cover, most people don’t catch every single Facebook post from your parish.
- In general, act like a human being, not a ‘bot: To re-iterate the importance of Facebook awarding originality, the more you act like a human (scheduling posts at slightly different times, using new graphics and text on every post, responding to comments, and so on), the healthier your page will be. You don’t want to do anything in a robotic fashion.
Follow these few tips, and your parish’s posts will start to perform a bit better – all because you’re “acting like a human” and working to assist your community. Returning to old posts, especially with updates, is a great way of serving your community.