I have had dozens of Missionaries ask me for advice on how thy can use Facebook effectively. I’ve even had members of Mission Presidencies ask me about tips for harnessing the power of social media for missionary work. When Elder S. Gifford Nielsen came to my mission he charged us to become “franchise owners” in our areas. He explained that means to be proactive in learning the best way to share the gospel in our unique areas. He said too many missionaries don’t try new things out.
Facebook provides many ways we can become franchise owners. Yet most missionaries share a quote/Mormon message/article from LDS.org once or twice a week and call it good. This is the beginning of using social media to share the gospel. But, is there a more excellent and effective way? The answer is yes. Here are 5 ways you can harness the strengths of Facebook to share the gospel.
*NOTE: Every mission has different rules, make sure you always follow those rules. But also have the courage to ask permission.
1st. Add Everyone In Your Ward/Branch As Friends.
On Facebook, everything is based on your friends. Once someone is your friend it is very unlikely they will unfriend. And once they are your friends they will be able to see all you post. Therefore one of the most important things you can do is to add everyone in your area as friends. But there is a smart way of doing this. I recommend a two-step approach. First, add all the active members. They know you and will quickly accept your friend request.
Second, once you are friends with active members add less active members and any investigators you are teaching. The reason for this is simple, even if less active members don’t know you, once they see you’ve got mutual friends, they’ll often accept your friend request.
I have people from my mission who are my friends on Facebook that see all the gospel related stuff I post yet we’ve never met in real life. There are also dozens of investigators who are my friends on Facebook who also see my posts! That is the power of social media missionary work!
2nd. Add People To Your Ward/Branch Group.
Communication is one of the biggest keys and Facebook groups are ideal for that. If your unit doesn’t already have a Facebook group, ask the Ward/Branch Council to start one. If it already has one, often it will only have the active members on it. Change that! Add all of your friends (see above point) to the group! Once your group actually contains less actives, and your investigators you’re leveraging Facebook to empower members to easily invite everyone to events they otherwise wouldn’t even known about!
3rd. Share your Testimony/Teach the Gospel on Facebook Live.
Facebook has algorithms that shares what you post to a small group of your friends. They only see what you post if they interact with it. Since Facebook competes with YouTube, they heavily favor video content, especially live videos. They are shown to far more friends. Use this to your advantage in sharing the gospel. Create videos, and hold Facebook lives.
Can you imagine if you had 75,000 missionaries sharing their testimonies every Fast Sunday? With how the Facebook algorithms work, millions would be reached monthly!
Some other video ideas are
– Record parts of a lesson, musical numbers, your conversion story.
– Talk about Church history in your area.
– Interview different people. Ask them questions (and tag them in the video). Think of members of influence in the community, or in the ward IE: Bishop, Relief Society President, Business owners, etc.
4th. Share A Verse/Quote Of The Day.
Facebook loves consistency. Every day you study the gospel, pick your favorite verse or quote to share on your page. I do this daily and some of my verses and testimonies have gone viral with 100,000+ people seeing them!
You never know the power of a short sweet testimony about a verse or quote! Plus, as your less active and non-members friends read your daily verse that might be their only interaction with the Book of Mormon. So help them get into the book daily! Also, check those who are liking your post/the shares to find people who you can potentially share more with!
5th. Spotlight And Publically Thank Members.
One of the most powerful missionary tools on Facebook is tagging. This is where you tag another member (by using the @ and typing in their name). When you tag someone all their friends to see it. By sharing a picture of you with the members it will allow them to do missionary work simply by allowing you to tag them!
Take a picture after a meal with the family and say how much you enjoyed it and are thankful for them. This will go miles to build member trust, but to also potentially start gospel conversations with their friends. Other ideas, include
-Take pictures after/during lessons, of food at member meals, of the ward activities, of baptisms. There is so much untapped potential power when we don’t tag others. Before posting pictures of others always ask permission.
Challenge: Choose a few ideas you like and try them out.
How have you seen people effectively use social media to do missionary work? Please share how it’s gone for you, in the comments.
If you liked this, you might like these ideas for how members can utilize Facebook to share the gospel also!
