NYA youth reps – Social Media
NYA youth reps – Social Media
Introduction This document has been compiled as a handy guide to creating a personal Facebook page and also how to create a page for your church etc. It also gives ideas on what you can post on your church’s page and people to follow.
Setting up a personal Facebook account To be able to interact with your church’s Facebook posts, create pages and follow other people’s posts you need to have your own account.
The First thing to do is open Facebook by searching for it on Google or by typing facebook.com into your search bar. You will be taken to the following page.
You want to type your details into the boxes shown below to register for a free account. You will require an email address or mobile number to create an account.
NYA youth reps – Social Media
You will then be brought to this page where you can upload a profile picture, search for people you know and adjust your privacy settings. You can then write posts, interact with other people’s posts and create pages for organisations.
Setting up a page for your church To create a page for your church the person who is going to be the admin needs a personal Facebook page. Once on your personal page you are going to select the drop down arrow and then create page (shown in red box below).
You will then be taken to the following page where you can set up a business page or a page for a community. You want to select the community page option and input your church details.
NYA youth reps – Social Media
You will need to create a page name, ideally the name of your church. The category with be a church or the appropriate option. You then need to input the address of your church, you can choose to show the full address on your page or just the region it is in. Then hit continue.
You are then presented with some set up steps where you can choose a profile picture for your page, we would suggest a picture of the outside of your building as it is easy to identify your church and is something people will recognise. You will also be allowed to select a cover picture, this could be a picture of the inside of your building, a favourite bible verse image or an image of your service times.
Your page will look like the following and you can personalise the page to your church’s needs and requirements. You can add a short description about your church, write posts, post pictures, add extra information about your church, share other people’s posts to your page and answer private messages from people trying to contact you.
NYA youth reps – Social Media
A completed page The image shows what a completed page looks like to a visitor. It has a profile and cover picture and active posts.
How to create a post on your page Once your page is up and running it is important you know how to post to engage with your followers. The area highlighted is your go to zone for creating posts.
To write a post to your followers you just click in the box and begin to type, it is best to keep text brief. Hit publish and your post will become visible on your page. People who follow your page can then interact with the post by liking on commenting.
NYA youth reps – Social Media
The small coloured/patterned boxes along the bottom allow you to give your text a background to grab people’s attention. There are many options of background to choose from to fit the nature of your post.
You may want to post a picture to your page of your church, events within your church, and adverts for upcoming events. You would go to the same box as you would to type a post but click the photo/video button. This then provides you with the options you see in the image adjacent. You can upload photos, videos, slideshows etc.
You can upload multiple pictures and add a description. Images are a good way to show what has been happening in your church. It is also a great way to get posters for your events online so people know of upcoming events.
NYA youth reps – Social Media
Scheduling Posts
You can schedule posts to go onto your page at a later time and date. When you have typed your post or input your image select the drop down arrow next to the publish button and you can select schedule.
A pop up box will appear allowing you to select the date and time you wish your post to appear on your page, ensure to hit the schedule button.
NYA youth reps – Social Media
How to share a post from another page to yours You may see a good story, event or bible quote on another page which you wish to share with the people that view your page. You can share posts from other pages to your own by following these simple steps.
When you see a post you want to share look out for the arrow that says share. Select Share to Page
A pop up will then appear allowing you to share the post to your page with an option of adding a note. Sharing others posts is a great way to connect with other churches and the wider church.
NYA youth reps – Social Media
How to add other people to your Facebook team It can sometimes be a bit hectic for one person to be in complete control of your Facebook page, it is therefore helpful to have a couple of people on the team. To add members to your team they need to have their own Facebook page. You need to click on settings which will take you to this page where you can alter multiple settings. To add people to your team you need to click on Page roles.
On this page you can assign people to page roles and edit existing page roles. You can add other admins who can edit any aspect of your page and editors who can only answer messages and add posts to the page.
NYA youth reps – Social Media
People to follow for posts to share We have added in this section to give you some ideas of pages to follow, who post church related content that you may wish to share on your page.
Church of Scotland National Youth Assembly Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Church of Scotland Guild Church of Scotland World Mission Council Christian Aid Scotland Bible verse of the day Your presbyteries page Other local churches in your area
Things to post on your page Your page will be very much personalised to your church and what they want to display. We would always recommend keeping posts short, snappy, bright and eye catching. Things you could post: Service times Special services Church events Images of bible quotes Church Intimations Community information and events Events being held by other local churches Pictures and videos of events in your church Information about organisations in your church