Texting is a great way to blast out quick bits of information and receive responses depending on your platform. It is an excellent tool for helping send reminders to your church to pray, request prayer, or even tell them about upcoming events. However, it can quickly become a nuisance when the tool isn’t used appropriately and quickly trigger the dreaded response of STOP.
General Best Practices
A general guideline is to empathize with your audience and ask the question if the message content is relevant to all the people who will receive it. Your goal should be to be respectful and keep the communication with your church members going for years to come.
Be respectful and send messages at optimal times.
Send direct messages or responses during working hours.
Most people are on social media during lunchtime (11 am to 1 pm) and after general work hours (5 pm - 7 pm). Think about sending a message then.
For weekends, after 9 am.
For reminders, an hour or two before the event.
Know your audience - is the message relevant to everyone on your send list? If not, remove people from that list.
Group your send list by attendees to specific ministries.
If you have a children’s ministry event, only send the message to parents of the age group.
Recovery - only those who attend the recovery group.
Senior Ministry - Depending on them, you may want to use a bulletin reminder.
Only use the entire congregation broadcast sparingly.
Send messages for upcoming holidays or events to encourage people to invite friends
Ask for prayer requests & close the loop with those requests.
Emergencies.
Be responsive - Respond to prayer requests or return messages promptly, especially if you ask for a response.
Empathize with the person receiving the message - If you were receiving the message, would you be annoyed?
Space your text messages - The larger the group of people, the more time is needed between messages. All congregation messages are generally a monthly text, whereas a small group may need weekly reminders.
Making This Simple with the Gloo App
Not all messaging platforms can create groups or even notify you if someone texts into a number. The Gloo App can streamline your church messaging by allowing you to develop specific message groups around ministries. You can also add Effects to notify your team members or group leaders about a signup or response. Best of all, texting with the Gloo App is completely unlimited and free!