Your church members and visitors spend a lot of time online. Odds are, most of them probably have access to the internet right in their back pockets! It’s natural that we bring our faith community to the web, too. We hope your church website has brought your members closer to God while bringing more convenience to their busy lives. To build a strong presence online there are a few things your church needs to be aware of.
Even if you have a very influential church website, your congregation would like you to know these things about their habits, preferences, and how they handle tasks online.
1. The Most Popular Times to Find Information Online
With 1.65 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. According to some social media statistics, not only do 70% of Facebook users check their account every day, but 45% of them check it several times a day. Other popular social networking sites and their number of users are.
- Instagram (400 million)
- Twitter (320 million)
- LinkedIn (100 million)
Many studies have been done on the best times to post on social media. Since it's optimal to post when social media users are having downtime, this largely depends on who your “target audience” is. College students who might not have a strict schedule have different down times than professionals who work from 9 to 5. Other factors when it comes to finding the best times to post include: the platform that's being used, the targeted region, and the goal for your post (going for clicks as opposed to shares).
Keep all that in mind as you make your final plans, but we’ve got some recommendations for the optimal times to post on different social media platforms:
- Facebook - 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays
- Instagram - Mondays through Thursdays anytime but 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
- Twitter - 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays, 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays
- LinkedIn - 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. on Tuesdays
2. Who Spends Time Online?
When it comes to spending time online, once again Facebook is the most time-consuming media site. The average user spends about 20 minutes or more on Facebook per visit. Here are some other interesting statistics:
- 91% of the country's Millennials (age 15-34) use Facebook
- 53% of internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 use Instagram
- 56% of adults online who use Facebook are 65 years and older
- Internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 spend six hours a day online and 1.72 hours of that time on social platforms
- There are 2.6 billion smartphone users around the world
- 27% of seniors age 65 and older own a smartphone compared to 85% of 18 to 29-year-olds
- The average smartphone user checks their phone 46 times a day
3. What Are People Using Their Phones For?
Back in the day, many mobile phone users had one in cases of emergency only. Nowadays people don't even use their phones to actually call each other, instead they use it for many other reasons. Of the 3.3 hours a day they spend on their phones, they are using it for these reasons:
- 91% use it to access e-mail
- 90% use it for texting
- 76% use it to search the internet
- 75% use it for social networking
Other common uses for mobile phones include: getting news alerts, playing games, listening to music, reading, watching videos, and getting directions.
4. Use of GPS Services
The World Wide Web is about much more than utilizing search engines to look up all kinds of information. It can also be used to find out someone's name, IP address, and even their location. You can even find out if someone was near your church or within a certain radius. While this kind of information can be helpful to your staff, it can also come across as creepy to your congregation or visitors.
Using the Internet for this kind of thing should be done with discretion. Think about how you would feel if you were a few blocks away from your church and you received an automatic text from them? Or what if you were at church on Sunday and later in the week received a text saying, "Thanks for coming to church on Sunday, we look forward to seeing you next week!" It’s not a bad idea, but it can get downright weird in a big hurry. Privacy needs to be respected at all times. If you can get your congregation to “opt in” or somehow ask for the content you’d be providing, we recommend that as a first step.
5. When Comparing Churches, This is What They Value
If someone is on vacation or they are new to the community, the most likely source they'll turn to when looking for a church is the Internet. But they won't stop there. They'll check Google maps to see which churches are nearby and they'll probably read the Google and Facebook reviews too. Some people even place value on "Facebook check-ins." For instance if they see on Facebook that their friend Steve has checked into a particular church before, they'll most likely ask him how he liked it. Facebook check-ins are typically seen by at least 150 friends, if not more.
6. People Prefer to Give Online
Online giving provides many advantages to both church members and visitors. It's much easier to punch in a debit card number and have a recurring payment (or even a one-time gift) than carrying cash or writing a check. Some studies show that people are even more likely to give at a higher value if they can do it online.
