Basics of Content Creation and Strategy

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

Social media is the ultimate equalizer. It gives a voice and a platform to anyone willing to engage.  ―Amy Jo Martin

Before we get started, we must first answer the question, “Who is a content creator?” The ultimate source of creative content and inspiration will always be the Bible and God. Therefore, those of us who answer the call to share the gospel online must always look first to Jesus Christ and His word for guidance.
Social media and modern technologies have eased entry into the world of telling stories, sharing ideas, and expressing thoughts through creative visual content to a wide audience. We can all be writers, creatives, and publishers now. This means that when it comes to creating content for evangelism and discipleship, the role is no longer restricted to pastors, theologians, and other trained professionals. Church leaders can organize teams of content creators within their churches and ministries by empowering professionals or aspiring young people with expertise in design, video, communications, writing, technology, etc. Many congregations have yet to tap into the potential of tech savvy members and their modern-day spiritual gifts. Greater collaboration across multiple generations can be fostered by investing in young people and giving them space to utilize their skills in this area for the Church. 

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Organize Your Team

There’s no single way to organize your team(s), given that every ministry is unique. Start by taking an inventory of your church’s human resources and individuals’ personal interests and skills. Then organize accordingly to best accomplish your goals and utilize your church body’s strengths and talents. Determine roles and responsibilities, set up a multi-channel content calendar that can be shared with everyone on the team, and map out your content strategy, being sure to take an integrative approach that incorporates both traditional and digital methods of communication.

Download a content calendar template (be sure to customize it to reflect your channels). We recommend using Google Docs for sharing the content planning calendar with your team.

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Remember the “Rule of 7”

If you recall from the “Strong Foundations” section, the “Rule of 7” states that a person needs to be exposed to a message at least seven times before they’ll take a desired action. Develop a comprehensive content strategy that incorporates both traditional media and digital, working together to maximize impact. In most cases, digital media is not used in place of traditional forms of communication, but in addition, as a means of amplifying your message to a larger community. Implementing an effective content strategy requires repeated, consistent messaging from multiple communication channels. Plan to repackage your content for different platforms and channels. If we view evangelism holistically, every touchpoint matters, as your target audience is likely to come in contact with several.

These touchpoints may include, but are not limited to:

• Traditional: printed outreach materials, presentations, events, classes, seminars, wearables/flare, ephemera, print/radio advertising, direct mail pieces, billboards, flyers, bulletins, print newsletters, print publications/literature, other handouts, signage, posters, branded vehicles, letterhead, business cards, general resources, radio ministry
• Digital: digital advertising messages and design, digital newsletters/emails, digital publications/blogs, digital flyers, website(s), social media content, videos, online resources, podcasts
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With this in mind, try utilizing a diversity of content, touchpoints, and channels that are relevant to your mission to help reinforce the same “story” or message in unique ways to maximize effectiveness.

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​The 20/80 Rule

Whether you realize it or not, your communications and content (or lack thereof) are telling a story, and that story is key to giving your audience a sense of why your ministry is valuable. When your audience values what you’re doing, they are more likely to respond to your call-to-actions and actively participate in other ways. Social media is popular because it speaks to a basic human need: to connect and share. We must use digital media to tell our “story” all day, every day, and build a connection with our community that ultimately motivates them to draw closer to Christ.

Along with the “Rule of 7,” you’ll want to incorporate the 20/80 principle in your content planning. The ideal ratio of posts on an organization’s digital media should be 20% direct appeals (calls-to-action to get involved, donate, register, etc.), 80% engagement. In other words, 80% of the content posted by your ministry should:

• demonstrate the need your organization fulfills through services it provides,
• share what initiatives your ministry is implementing to satisfy the felt needs of your community,
• update your audience on your various goals and efforts,
• showcase impact through testimonials and results,
• and engage and connect with your followers.
  
  

Think of social media as a potluck with friends during which you share your desire to go on a mission trip, or your excitement about an upcoming event you’re organizing. You wouldn’t hard sell them or ask them for their involvement with no context, but you might talk about your goals, ambitions, why it’s important, and why you’re excited about what you have planned. Once your friends understand how important this mission trip or event is, they will naturally be more inclined to help you when you mention that you haven’t yet reached your fundraising goal, or they may even accept your invitation to attend with you.
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The same principle is true for an organization’s social media channels. If you spend most of your efforts telling the story behind your ministry and creating value, your followers will gradually become more emotionally invested. Then, when you make direct appeals for action (the 20%), you will have better results because your supporters feel like they understand the importance of your mission, know what to expect, and know how the money will be used. This is especially important for millennial givers, who demand transparency and accountability when it comes to use of funds.

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Plan Efficiently

Social media can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. For most Adventist entities, social media manager is just one of many hats an employee or volunteer might wear. If you happen to be a full-time digital strategist, you’re likely managing multiple campaigns and projects at once. Regardless of your level of expertise, there never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish everything you need to do in order to stay on top of the ever-growing evangelistic influence of digital media. Streamlining your approach will help you and your team tackle a large workload. 

Here are our top three tried-and-true time-saving tips for developing your content and/or campaign strategy:
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1. Schedule your content in batches. Scheduling your content (and ads) in advance helps you focus on big picture items without the urgency of consistent posting. Plan out regular content in advance and make time to schedule it in monthly or bi-weekly chunks. Then you can focus your attention on engagement, community building, data analysis, strategic planning, and other projects. Staying on top of performance analytics enables you to better evaluate and optimize your strategy, ultimately helping you reach your campaign goals. This technique empowers you to be more proactive in your digital strategy, as opposed to reactive. You’ll also have more flexibility to respond quickly to comments or address any unexpected issues or changes.
   
   
2. Create evergreen content and repurpose posts. Just because you posted a piece of content once doesn’t mean your entire audience has seen it or had the time to react. Remember the “Rule of 7” states that a person must see a message at least seven times before they take action. Consequently, it’s a good idea to use one post multiple times to ensure greater exposure. Over the course of several months, you can schedule pieces of evergreen content with slightly different wording and images, and post at different times of day and different days of the week to reach different groups of people. Evergreen content is content that maintains it’s relevancy indefinitely, without losing its usefulness after a certain time period.
   
   This enables your team to invest more time into creating compelling posts and strong resources, videos, and images that could be used multiple times, instead of constantly seeking to create new original content. Then, weave new content around these evergreen posts as it becomes available. This technique helps guarantee a consistent posting schedule and continuous flow of content. 
   
   For event-specific campaigns, you can leverage the technique of repurposing to build urgency towards deadlines. For example, as the last day for an early-bird registration approaches, you can rework the same message and call-to-action using key buzzwords to attract attention.
   
   Messaging example:
   - 2 weeks until the early-bird discount ends!
   - Early-bird registration ends THIS Friday. Register today!
   - Don’t miss out! The discount price for registration ends tomorrow. Sign up now!
   
   ​Then utilize the scheduling in advance technique and set up the posts ahead of time, as well as any targeted social ads you have planned.
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3. Build off previous campaign plans for reoccurring events. This is possibly our biggest hack for annual or repeating conferences and programs. Always keep your strategy outline and performance report from the previous campaign. For the next project, simply reuse what worked, change what didn’t, update/tweak the content and timing for the new event, and freshen up the images. Systematically building off the previous campaign improves campaign performance and results each time you make adjustments that strengthen it. By tracking each campaign performance and studying the results, you not only continue to reach your audience more effectively, but lower overall costs. Why reinvent the wheel, when you can just improve it?  

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Repurpose What You Already Produce

​No need to start from scratch; your team is probably already doing a good job generating content related to newsworthy events or outreach. Packaging it for the digital space and publishing online enables you to grow your potential audience exponentially beyond the worship service. A great amount of what your team may already produce for your local church ministries is content, for example: sermons and live-streams each week, studies for small groups, messages from the pastor in newsletters, videos, pictures from events, testimonials, etc. Always look for content you are already creating, then consider how it can be repackaged and weaved into your overall digital content strategy. This can be inexpensive and have long-term value as the content stays in place and is relevant for people to discover far into the future. Prioritize content that will help your audience in a tangible way, either emotionally, physically, spiritually, or psychologically.

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Finding Relevant Content Ideas For Your Target Audience

If you’re like many content creators, you’ve hit a creative roadblock at some point. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pastor, Christian vlogger, or a digital disciple; we have all run out of content ideas and sat staring at our laptops at some point. As digital evangelists, we want to create relevant content, but may not always be sure what people are searching for online. Our purpose is to meet the needs of people in the digital space, and luckily, the inspiration we need lies in tools many of us use every day. Being strategic and intentional with the content we create, can help us provide people with the answers and connection they are searching for.
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I’ve said this before: people are literally Googling for God, and I don’t expect this to change anytime soon.
Each year there are millions of Google searches for answers to questions like:

• Is God real?
• What happens when we die?
• How do I know I’m saved?
• Why is there so much suffering in the world?

There is a great need for our message of hope and wholeness. Additionally, many people are hurting emotionally, entertaining suicidal thoughts, or feel there is no hope for their situation. They turn to the internet for companionship, understanding, information, anonymity, and more. It’s easier for them to pour out their heartfelt searching to Google or on social media than it is to talk to a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or family member. Consequently, this is where we, as disciples, need to cast our net. We need to provide the kind of spiritual food the fish are looking to feed on.


Here is an easy tip for a wealth of content ideas:
Find content, write content, and curate content related to top Google searches. Frame your posts to pique curiosity and answer people’s questions, addressing their deepest longings. You can get top search data from any search engine, YouTube, and other social media trend tracking sites. Try it. Start typing in a question and let the search engine auto-finish. The top results represent the most popular search queries. In other words, you will see what large numbers of people are searching for online. It gives you a sneak peek into their needs, worries, nagging questions, and often hidden yearnings. 

These trends allow us to predict what topics audiences may find interesting, and we can use this predictability to speak to the masses in a relevant way. When we make content that speaks to people’s spiritual needs and seeks to address their deepest longings, we can change lives through digital evangelism. Being strategic and intentional with the content we create allows us to provide people with the answers and connection they are looking for online.

Bonus Tips:

1. Explore ​Google Trends for more ideas that can be specific to your location.
   
2. Name your blog post, video, etc. the same as the search result you’re basing your content on, so the search engines match it to that specific query. This helps your content appear higher in the search results and receive greater visibility. For example, you could start typing “Does God…” into the Google search box and choose the top-ranking query in the example above: “…test us.” Then create a blog post and/or video named “Does God test us?”

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Jesus Spent Time with People

You must come close to those for whom you labor, that they may not only hear your voice, but shake your hand, learn your principles, feel your sympathy.
​—Ellen White, Ministry of Healing

​I cannot stress this enough: while data and research can be a huge asset when trying to find relevant content to create and issues to address, nothing replaces quality time with those you are seeking to reach. The best thing you can do in order to understand the needs and interests of your audience is to engage with them in person. Talk to them, ask questions, show them you care, and dig deep into their perspectives and challenges. This kind of relationship-building can also take place in the digital space when necessary. 

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Additional Content Tips & Ideas:

• Try new things and see how your audience responds.
• Crowd-source content from your church community (members’ content as well as conference, union, and division resources) to help when you have limited time or manpower. You don't have to create everything.
• Break the scroll, think differently, and allow creativity in your team.
• Build predictability/expectations for when new content will be released (like a new blog post every week or new podcast episode released on the first of each month) but don't be so predictable it's boring.
• Develop a multi-generational creative team with room to innovate and fail.
• Lower the barrier to entry by demonstrating what it's like to be a part of your church community. Peel back the corporate-ness of a brand to reveal humanity by featuring behind the scenes videos and live streams.
• Put your church culture on display. Give your audience a glimpse of the events, spiritual life, and friends they might make.
• Champion your ministries, team, and member achievements online.
• Find ways to showcase how non-members could fit in and be welcomed in your church.
• Tell stories, and share experiences and testimonies online.
• Offer digital bible studies, live-streamed prayer sessions, webinars, etc.
• Share inspirational passages, health nuggets, practical advice for day-to-day challenges, marriage and parenting tips, community alerts, resources relevant to community issues, etc.  

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Content Tips for Personal Digital Discipleship:

• Start slow, if sharing spiritual content online is new to you and your friends. However, continue to be your authentic, unique self, who is also in a public relationship with Jesus. Share your interests but find natural ways to weave in your faith. Over time, it will get easier.
  
  
• Share practical content that is relevant to you and helps “prepare the soil” for future conversations with people within your sphere of influence. 
  
  Some examples, as described by Communications Executive Rachel Lemons Aitken, could include:
  • Relationship articles
  • Lifestyle content
  • Healthy living headlines
  • Videos showing healthy food being prepared
  • Recipes
  • Workout tips
  • How you’re making health changes in your life
  • Mental and emotional health tips
    

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The Purpose of Content

​Digital media grants the community the immediate ability to sense what your church is about by seeing its:

• Content
• Personalities
• Culture
• Environments
• Beliefs
• Services to the community
  
  

However, in order for your digital content to be effective, your online visitors must actually feel welcomed to attend in person, transforming online engagements and conversations into an on-site, in-person experience. Remember those brand touchpoints discussed earlier. A person’s perception of your church and faith will be based almost entirely on experiences they’ve had interacting with your organization (brand).  
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Your digital strategy must go beyond “content out, bodies in.” Strive to create content that moves people through their spiritual journey. Find ways to feed your community’s spiritual needs beyond the few hours they spend in a church service each week. Provide spiritual guidance to those people who may never come to a church service. Afterall, the kingdom of God is an all-day, every-day pursuit. His Church and teachings should be available 24/7.  

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Done is Better Than Perfect

People are drawn to authenticity in communications, not perfection. This trend is likely to hold true over the next decade, and this is good news for content creators. There is a place for highly produced professional content, but don’t let resource or skill-set limitations prevent you from attempting to create valuable content. Remember:

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. 

Keep learning and keep trying. You and your team will improve with time and practice. Your videos and content do not always have to be produced pieces, nor should they be, in order to optimize relatability and impact. In fact, overly produced content can turn people away. That doesn’t mean be sloppy or allow for typos, but understand that you’re not competing with Fortune 500 advertising campaigns or mega-church branding. Local churches and ministries have the advantage when it comes to showcasing real people, authenticity, and community in a way that doesn’t feel contrived. Don’t hesitate to go live on your mission trip, post your event pictures, and share your in-the-moment thoughts online.

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Fail Productively

​It’s fine to fail, just make sure you learn. Not every idea will be a winner, but each piece of content you produce enables you and your team to see in real-time what resonates with people and what doesn’t. Your team, through trial and error, can steer toward content that is most impactful to your target audience. Digital media allows us to test, change, and update our content and messages until we get it right, without the burden of high costs. Remember, you’re not in this alone. The Holy Spirit is working alongside you. Your message might only reach a limited number of eyes at first, but it could be the exact message those people needed to hear. Small impact doesn’t necessarily mean no impact. 

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