{"id":768470,"date":"2022-01-21T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=768470"},"modified":"2022-01-20T06:45:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T12:45:44","slug":"three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church’s Online Reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re in an age where reputations are lost in a matter of moments. <\/span>One errant Instagram video or Facebook post and your audience can quickly abandon you.<\/span> Now, most churches don\u2019t have to worry about this because the online audience is typically made of their church members who are naturally loyal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, social media now allows for your church to grow its presence beyond your city and across the globe, making it much easier to reach people who may never enter your building on Sunday morning. While this is exciting, it also represents a challenge because <\/span>now you have to curate and manage your church\u2019s online reputation just like you would your church\u2019s reputation in the local community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So what should you avoid when trying to protect your church\u2019s online reputation? What are the areas that can turn into missteps and then later turn into disasters? Here are three quick ways to ruin your church\u2019s online reputation if you\u2019re not careful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your Church is Inconsistent<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the hallmarks of a great brand is consistency. Apple has a consistent brand look with white space and black typography. Home Depot\u2019s signature orange is consistent not just in their stores, but also in their online presence as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brand consistency isn\u2019t just about colors, it\u2019s about the tone of voice as well. The tone of the brand\u2019s voice should sound the same no matter what social media channel you\u2019re using. You use language that not only resonates with your audience but is familiar to who you are.<\/span><\/p>\n

Churches who are constantly trying to sound or look like another church have trouble gaining and maintaining an audience.<\/span> Sure, they may gain an initial following at first, but then over time, the audience can sense the lack of consistency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take some time to figure out your church\u2019s online voice. Are you reserved or upbeat? Do you lean more towards charismatic language or does your audience resonate with a style that\u2019s more plain spoken? Determine what that looks like and stick to it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your Church Loses Its Gospel-Focus<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s tempting to want to jump into the fray of the latest social media fight. Yes, your church can score quick points with the audience by weighing into political issues or commenting on the latest denominational disagreement. However, weighing into these social moments rarely pays off in the way you\u2019ve intended.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What does occur is \u201cmission-drift.\u201d Mission drift is when you and your church slowly veer off course. So instead of focusing on advancing the gospel, you find yourself fighting those battles that only advance someone else\u2019s agenda.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now there are moments when the issues of the day have gospel relevance and it makes sense to speak into those issues, however, those moments are rare and can require more effort than they\u2019re worth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your Church\u2019s Social Media is Focused Solely on Promotion<\/b><\/p>\n

I love social media ads. They are by far one of the most cost-effective ways to reach people. However, social media ads work because they\u2019re paid advertisements. Try posting a social media ad as a regular post on your church\u2019s social media account and you\u2019ll see the difference. You\u2019ll get little to zero engagement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, a lot of churches run their social media accounts this way. The majority of their content is designed to get people to come to their event, join a small group or attend on Sunday morning. The content is solely focused on promotion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Social media accounts that are run this way, typically never create a reach beyond a few loyal followers. There\u2019s no potential for growth because these churches’ social media accounts are communicating that the church only cares about itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, <\/span>social media accounts that focus on the people in the church and community fare much better in the long run.<\/span> These accounts naturally pull people in and create an online audience that grows over time. Yes, they still have social media ads to promote events, but the majority of their content is focused on people and their followers reward them by automatically sharing the church\u2019s content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all avoidable<\/b><\/p>\n

Everything I mentioned above is avoidable. The question is whether or not you\u2019ll take the time to evaluate your church\u2019s social media and mitigate. Yes, it will require some work and it will require you to be vigilant, but if you believe your church\u2019s online reputation is worth it, you\u2019ll be thankful you took the time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re in an age where reputations are lost in a matter of moments. One errant Instagram video or Facebook post and your audience can quickly abandon you. Now, most churches don\u2019t have to worry about this because the online audience is typically made of their church members who are naturally loyal.\u00a0 However, social media now…","protected":false},"author":8044,"featured_media":768475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,183,179,175,186,192,177,180,176,196],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-768470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-first-impressions","category-grow","category-health-and-metrics","category-how-to","category-lead","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-revitalize","category-staff-and-organizational-issues"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThree Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church's Online Reputation | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What should you avoid when trying to protect your church\u2019s online reputation? What are the areas that can turn into missteps and then later turn into disasters? Here are three quick ways to ruin your church\u2019s online reputation if you\u2019re not careful.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church's Online Reputation | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What should you avoid when trying to protect your church\u2019s online reputation? What are the areas that can turn into missteps and then later turn into disasters? Here are three quick ways to ruin your church\u2019s online reputation if you\u2019re not careful.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-21T11:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darrel Girardier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darrel Girardier\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darrel Girardier\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bc38b3791b2b875bb436d6d166233555\"},\"headline\":\"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church’s Online Reputation\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-21T11:00:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/\"},\"wordCount\":776,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Church Answers\",\"Communications\",\"First Impressions\",\"Grow\",\"Health & Metrics\",\"How To\",\"Lead\",\"Outreach & Evangelism\",\"Revitalize\",\"Staff & Organizational Issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/\",\"name\":\"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church's Online Reputation | Church Answers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-21T11:00:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bc38b3791b2b875bb436d6d166233555\"},\"description\":\"What should you avoid when trying to protect your church\u2019s online reputation? What are the areas that can turn into missteps and then later turn into disasters? Here are three quick ways to ruin your church\u2019s online reputation if you\u2019re not careful.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":628},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church’s Online Reputation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\",\"name\":\"Church Answers\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bc38b3791b2b875bb436d6d166233555\",\"name\":\"Darrel Girardier\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a212001af622a32ef79e5f6d2f7f7e92bd62cd1cc8636069b4fdd894999bf5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a212001af622a32ef79e5f6d2f7f7e92bd62cd1cc8636069b4fdd894999bf5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Darrel Girardier\"},\"description\":\"Darrel Girardier serves as the Communications Director at Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee where he oversees the digital, design and video production teams. Previously, he was a Creative Director at LifeWay Christian Resources.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/darrelgirardier\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church's Online Reputation | Church Answers","description":"What should you avoid when trying to protect your church\u2019s online reputation? What are the areas that can turn into missteps and then later turn into disasters? Here are three quick ways to ruin your church\u2019s online reputation if you\u2019re not careful.\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church's Online Reputation | Church Answers","og_description":"What should you avoid when trying to protect your church\u2019s online reputation? What are the areas that can turn into missteps and then later turn into disasters? Here are three quick ways to ruin your church\u2019s online reputation if you\u2019re not careful.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/","og_site_name":"Church Answers","article_published_time":"2022-01-21T11:00:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Darrel Girardier","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darrel Girardier","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/"},"author":{"name":"Darrel Girardier","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bc38b3791b2b875bb436d6d166233555"},"headline":"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church’s Online Reputation","datePublished":"2022-01-21T11:00:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/"},"wordCount":776,"commentCount":1,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png","articleSection":["Church Answers","Communications","First Impressions","Grow","Health & Metrics","How To","Lead","Outreach & Evangelism","Revitalize","Staff & Organizational Issues"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/","name":"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church's Online Reputation | Church Answers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png","datePublished":"2022-01-21T11:00:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bc38b3791b2b875bb436d6d166233555"},"description":"What should you avoid when trying to protect your church\u2019s online reputation? What are the areas that can turn into missteps and then later turn into disasters? Here are three quick ways to ruin your church\u2019s online reputation if you\u2019re not careful.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Blog-Article-Picture-14.png","width":1200,"height":628},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/three-quick-ways-to-ruin-your-churchs-online-reputation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Three Quick Ways to Ruin Your Church’s Online Reputation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bc38b3791b2b875bb436d6d166233555","name":"Darrel Girardier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a212001af622a32ef79e5f6d2f7f7e92bd62cd1cc8636069b4fdd894999bf5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a212001af622a32ef79e5f6d2f7f7e92bd62cd1cc8636069b4fdd894999bf5f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Darrel Girardier"},"description":"Darrel Girardier serves as the Communications Director at Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee where he oversees the digital, design and video production teams. Previously, he was a Creative Director at LifeWay Christian Resources.","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/darrelgirardier\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8044"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768470"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768476,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768470\/revisions\/768476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}