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We just had to repost this great article by Paul Steinbrueck from churchmarketingsucks.com! Meet your audience where they already are - on Facebook!

September 22, 2010 by Paul Steinbrueck

What started as a platform for connecting friends has become one of the hottest marketing platforms for companies, non-profits and… churches. With 500 million active users, it’s no wonder everyone is talking about Facebook.

Many people have been strongly encouraging churches to connect to people with Facebook pages (myself included). Much has also been written about the general principles of social media (it’s not another broadcast channel, it’s a platform for engagement, connections and conversations). But very little is known about how churches are actually using Facebook or how people would like to engage with their church in Facebook.

So, recently, in an effort to gain more information about church Facebook use, OurChurch.Com conducted an extensive survey.

Most respondents indicated they don’t think their church is doing a particularly good job with Facebook. While those results could be perceived as negative, a closer look reveals some big opportunities for those churches willing to embrace the world’s largest social network.

Communicate More – Clearly people would like to see their church do more on Facebook.

Ministry Pages – A second opportunity for churches is for individual ministries to engage with people through Facebook pages.

Facilitate Connections – A third opportunity for churches is to help their people connect with one another.

Evangelism – A fourth opportunity for churches is to encourage and train their people to develop relationships with those who are not Christians and show God’s grace and love to them.

Facebook Ads – A fifth opportunity for churches is to use Facebook ads to reach out to people in their community.

A detailed report on the survey results including lots of pretty charts and additional analysis is available at OurChurch.com.