Today, social media has created a melting pot of conversations with our friends and family, as well as with brands, sports, news, and everything in between. On social media, we broadcast our conversations and, in general, businesses and organizations share promotional material. Needless to say, but this is a lot of content people are sharing. To organize all of this content, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter created news feeds.

Understanding how social media news feeds work is essential to ensuring you excel on social media. They influence the way we interact with our family, friends, and organizations. Instead of talking with someone one-on-one, news feeds lead us to scroll, scroll, and scroll endlessly through conversations.

To make social media work for your church, you must understand how people behave on social media. Now, I’m not talking about whether or not people are taking selfies, posting funny memes, or watching videos. What I’m talking about is how people interact with each other on social media. The key to this is understanding social media news feeds.

The way you get someone’s attention on social media

Think of it like this: When you want to drive from point A to point B, you will map out a route (or Google Maps will), get in your vehicle, and go. But, to make sure that you and other drivers on the road are driving well, there are rules you will need to follow. For instance, you will need to obey traffic lights, drive the speed limit, and wear a seatbelt among other things. To get from point A to point B in your vehicle, you must understand the rules of the road, how you need to drive, and then make your plan from there. The same holds true for social media.

When it comes to capturing someone’s attention on social media, you need to understand the rules of engagement. To do this, you need to get a feel for how the rest of the world is using social media, which means you must grasp the most essential behavior of all: scrolling.

As a local church, the most valuable commodity you can possess is attention. In your possession is the gospel, which is the greatest story ever told. A story everyone with an ear shot of your ministry needs to hear. For people to listen to what you have to say, you have to get their attention. And the way you get someone’s attention on social media is boiled down to these three words: stop the scroll.

3 ways you can stop the scroll!

So, how do we do this? How do we get people on social media to stop scrolling and pay attention to what we want to share with them?

I’ll admit: This is easier said than done. But, over the years, I have discovered three ways to get people to stop scrolling. Here are three ways you can stop the scroll.

1. Share faces

First, you want to share faces.

All of us are hardwired to be social beings. Some of us are more outgoing than others, but every single one of us has been made to connect with one another.

Graphics with cool fonts and textures can look nice, but there is nothing more powerful at stopping the scroll than someone seeing a smiling, grimacing, or funny-looking face of another person. These type of images invite people to stop and engage.

2. Share a variety of posts

Second, you need to share a variety of posts to stop the scroll.

People tend to see the same thing over and over again when they scroll through their social media news feed. Overall, everyone tends to share very similar updates throughout the day, which is why it is easy for your church’s updates to get lost in the mix.

To break through this monotony, you will not only need to publish content that stands out from the rest, but you will also need to post a variety of content every day.

To do this, change the dimensions of your visuals, change the medium, change the location, change the length of your post, and change the time of day you post. This will help you to alter the pace in how you share your content.

Routine is the enemy of stopping the scroll, so share a variety of content.

3. Share contrasting images

Finally, the third way you stop the scroll is with contrast.

To create contrast, pair bright with dark, fast with slow, and big with small. These differences in the visuals you share will go a long way in capturing someone’s attention.

This tactic can be as easy as zigging when someone else is zagging.

Conclusion

So, there you have it: A simple three-word social media strategy: stop the scroll.

What have you found effective in stopping the scroll? Share your advice in the comments below!

By Brady Shearer