Are you a youth pastor and wanting to spread the word about your ministry? Are you trying to engage teens and young adults in worship in fresh, new ways? Check out this helpful presentation from the United Church of Christ about how to use social media in youth ministry. (Bonus: A lot of these tips will work for other church social media too!) Presented by: Marchae Grair United Church of Christ Social Media Associate

1. SOCIAL
MEDIA &
YOUTH
MINISTRY
MARCHAE GRAIR
PUBLISHING, IDENTITY & COMMUNICATION
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

2. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
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The Parents: Generation X The Youth: Millennials (Gen Y)
Born between 1965-1980 Born between 1980-2000

3. MESSAGING MATTERS
GEN X/EARLY MILLENNIALS MILLENNIALS/GEN Z
• Most diverse
generation in
American history
• Want to find meaning
in career and life
• Likely to challenge
authority: “My voice
matters.”
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United Church of Christ
• Status means
visible wealth and
power
• More likely to find
comfort in
structure
• Access to
authority is limited
and must be
earned

4. SOME TEENS USE FACEBOOK…
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United Church of Christ
• To post photo albums of important events.
• To change profile pictures.
BUT LIKELY LEAVE FOR…
Instagram:
The top social media app for teens.
Users share pictures and short videos
with filters.
Twitter:
A popular way to share brief thoughts about
trending topics, in 140 characters or less.

5. TEENS ARE “OVER” FACEBOOK
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United Church of Christ
So what does that say about what teens want from social media?
Facebook usage dropped from 72% of teens to 45% of teens between Spring
2014 and Fall 2014.
• Teens don’t want to be on social media where they
will find adults, especially their parents.
• Teens want more anonymity online. If they can’t
have that anonymity, they don’t want to reveal as
much as Facebook asks them to share.
• Modern teens see long Facebook statuses as
“rants,” especially if they reflect a strong opinion.
• Brief is better for the teen audience.
• Facebook doesn’t have its own “language.” On
other social media, hashtags, emojis, and social
media slang rule.

6. 4Publishing, Identity & Communication
United Church of Christ
TEENS USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO…
STREAM
MAKE/WATCH VIDEOS
TELL SECRETS
MAKE STATEMENTS

7. CREATIVITY
• Use third-party apps to create collages before you upload
photos to give your page variety. Each collage could have a
theme and you could feature collages from different youth in the
church.
• Integrate Instagram into your Facebook page to highlight
certain events, campaigns, etc.
MINISTRY
• Add a digital element to Bible study or worship service. Have
your youth group take pictures based on a certain spiritual or
biblical theme from that week. Develop a hashtag for the
practice so it’s easy to follow.
• Have each young person select a “follower worth following.”
Someone who brings positivity and happiness into their social
media space.
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United Church of Christ
INSTAGRAM

8. Publishing, Identity & Communication
United Church of Christ
INSTAGRAM ON FACEBOOK

9. CREATIVITY
• USE APPS LIKE “HYPERLAPSE” TO CREATE LONGER,
MORE DETAILED VIDEOS, ESPECIALLY FOR TWITTER.
• EXPERIMENT WITH STOP-MOTION ANIMATION.
• VINES ARE GREAT FOR HUMOR!
MINISTRY
• HAVE THE YOUTH GROUP AT YOUR CHURCH
DEVELOP A VIDEO INTRODUCTION OR WELCOME
FOR VISITORS AND LINK IT TO A QR CODE ON
WELCOME MATERIALS.
• USE A YOUTH MEETING OR BIBLE STUDY TO HAVE A
VINE OR INSTAGRAM VIDEO FILM FESTIVAL. THE
VIDEOS ARE SO SHORT, THIS COULD BE MONTHLY!
INSTAGRAM VIDEO/VINE
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10. JUST IN CASE YOU’RE SLEEPING
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• Vine videos are a great
way to find humor in
simple experiences!
• Use Instagram and Vine
videos to chronicle
events in short form.
(Trips to amusements
parks, youth retreats,
etc.)

11. CREATIVITY
• Take advantage of the #FollowFriday hashtag and use it to
promote charities or causes your church supports.
• The youth minister should work closely with the church social
media coordinator (if it’s not the same person) to make sure all
hashtags are on all appropriate church marketing materials.
MINISTRY
• As part of the youth group meeting, ask each teen to provide a
hashtag they saw trending this week that is important to them.
This could serve as the opening or ice breaker at a meeting.
• Engage in photo petitions as a youth group and/or in line with
causes your congregation supports.
• Create “hashtag” lessons, using news and issues relevant to
teens to discuss during the youth meeting.
TWITTER
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United Church of Christ

12. PHOTO PETITIONS
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Make a statement with a hashtag, a white board, and a
worthy cause!

13. CREATIVITY
• Have the youth group create Snapchat stories to share with
each other during the week.
• Post inspirational quotes or scriptures for the youth group to
review during the week.
MINISTRY
• Snapchat stories are a great way to give instructions at
youth retreats or to give visual directions for attendees at an
event.
• Create materials for “Snapchat welcomes” for new youth
group members. When they become your church’s
Snapchat friend, send them a special hello!
SNAPCHAT
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14. WHAT’S A SNAPCHAT STORY?
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15. “THE STREAMERS”
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CREATIVITY
• Does your church have contemporary worship music?
Find it on Spotify and make a rotating list for your
congregation.
MINISTRY
• Take advantage of “binge watching” and develop
coordinated lessons or worship with music and videos on
streaming services and YouTube.
• Encourage your young people to watch one television
show or movie with their families and discuss it every
month. Now that the whole family has “gadgets,” family
dinners and television time are pretty infrequent.

16. EMAIL
COMMUNICATIONS
• An email with long text may be really informative, but most
families will be overwhelmed and/or bored if you pack your
emails with announcements.
• Use programs such as MailChimp and Constant Contact to
send formatted newsletters with links, sections, and brief posts.
• In your email, feature information about your youth team and/or
written or photographed by teens to encourage families to be
invested in the content of the email.
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17. “MAKE” YOUR EMAIL
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United Church of Christ

18. EVENTS
• Make sure your event has a hashtag IF you are going to
use it regularly. If not, use the “church” hashtag.
• Facebook may be “dying,” but it’s still the largest social
media network for families. Create a Facebook event for all
events.
• If you can’t maintain an Instagram for everything, use it for
“events only.” It’s a perfect time to connect the
congregation with social media.
• Download apps to repost posts from Instagram because
that feature is not native to the app. (Regram, etc.)
• Use the church newsletter to promote special photo
albums or event wrap-ups on social media.
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19. IS IT TIME FOR AN APP?
• Hear from your members digitally for prayer requests.
• Offer church announcements and event updates.
• Integrate social media.
• Provide inspirational verses and materials from spiritual blogs
and resources.
• Stream services or offer recorded song selections from the
service.
• Create digital Bible studies using the app and/or social media.
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20. ASK THE YOUTH IN YOUR CHURCH…
• What are your favorite and least favorite social media sites
to use and why?
• What ways should the church use social media during
worship?
• What ways would you like the youth leader to use social
media during youth Bible study and/or youth activities?
• What would make you engaged by social media when you
are not at worship service or at a youth group? (For
example, what could the church page post on Facebook
that would catch your attention?)
• Where do you watch TV and listen to music? (Spotify,
YouTube, Netflix, etc.)
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