Twitter is growing in popularity right along with Facebook.  So, why should the church care?  Here’s my top ten reasons for churches to Twitter:

1. You can connect to cell phones via text messaging.  So, any member with a cell phone would be connected.

2. Twitter is faster than email, easier than phone calls, and more manageable than group text.  You can notify people instantly because it’s a cell phone text (or at least can be) as opposed to email which people may not check regularly.  It’s especially helpful for urgent messages (“The youth group will be a little late getting back from the concert”) and last minute reminders.

3. Twitter can give visitors a personal insight into your ministry.  Non-church members can get a very good idea of what the people and ministry are like just from viewing the tweets.

4. You can include links in tweets such as links to more info, signup forms, or just a link to your church website.  This can improve responsiveness from congregants and increase traffic to your website.

5. You can put feeds on your website. This is extremely helpful in keeping the pages of your church website up to date with the latest news while informing your members at the same time.

6. You can use twitter to develop relationships between staff and members as well as members and members.  While there are many reasons people may visit or join a church, relationships tend to be what keep members.  Twitter gives another way for members to develop more personal relationships with each other.  Twitter also gives a way for members to be more personally connected with the pastor and other church staff.  This is especially good for larger congregations when the pastor and staff don’t have enough time to show individual personal attention to all the church members in the meaningful way.

7. You can send sermon point reminders during the week so members keep the sermon message in mind.  Do the same for Bible studies, youth group messages and Sunday school memory verses.

8. You can have multiple Twitter accounts so you have one for each ministry.  This allows communication with your members to be targeted so people are only receiving messages related to them.

9. Twitter is world wide.  Anywhere people have their cell phone or internet access they can receive your church’s Tweets or post Tweets themselves.

10. Twitter is free and simple enough that most anyone can use it.

What do you think are the best features of Twitter for churches?

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Tags: church marketing, social media, Social Networking, twitter