Setting up your account

1. Think of a username for your account. Choose one that’s as near to the name of the church or organisation you’re setting the account up for so people think to search for it on Instagram.

The name of your account is what appears in your account’s Instagram address. For example, the United Reformed Church’s Instagram account is .

You may find the name you want is already taken. Don’t let this put you off.

For example, St John’s United Reformed Church in York wants to use the username /stjohnsurc but finds it’s already taken. One way to make their username more unique unique could be to include the area that they are located, e.g. stjohnsurcyork.

2. To set up your account, you can either install the Instagram app to your iPhone or Android or visit  and do it from your computer.

If you’ve downloaded the app to your phone, tap it and follow the instructions you’re given to create an account. You can choose to sign in with an email address, mobile phone number or your Facebook account if you already have one.

If you’re joining via a computer you will need to create an account using your email address or your Facebook account.

When it comes to creating a password remember to use upper and lower case letters, digits and symbols in order to make your account as secure as possible.

3. Once you’ve created your account you should add a profile image to your account. This is the round image on the right-hand side of your Instagram page.

When choosing your account’s profile pic opt for an image that identifies your church. If you have a church logo use it as your profile picture as it helps people identify your online brand.

Instagram posts

Aim for a minimum of one but a maximum of three Instagram posts a day. But find whatever suits you and your audience. Too few posts and your followers will think the account is unused and too many posts can end up with your account being unfollowed as you’re taking over your followers’ Instagram feed and preventing them from seeing other posts.

As always, think about what you want to post and why. You can be more creative about what you post on Instagram. In fact the platform lends itself to this type of post more than the informative posts you tend to see on Facebook or Twitter.

Be more creative

Perhaps more than other social media platform, Instagram lends itself to creative posts rather than posts about upcoming events or report launches.

This means your posts can be about the every day joys of life in the parish, community or the church organisation you run, to give an insight into what it’s like. This can also help people see the role your church plays in the immediate community.

You can also share pictures from events you’ve held. There’s a gallery option in Instagram that means you can post more than one photo at a time and you can use this to let your followers know how well an event went.

If your church has a unique or unusual architectural style, post photos of it with information about the architect and/or the history of the building. There is a huge interest in design and architecture on Instagram. Hashtag the design period, the architect, etc, to help garner interest.

Even simple occurrences that put smiles on followers’ faces work. For example, perhaps there’s a cat that likes to visit and spend time in your church grounds. Take a photo or video of it and post it. There’s a very popular hashtag for cat pics and videos and that’s #catsofinstagram so use that hashtag if you post content like this.

Limitations to Instagram

Instagram doesn’t really lend itself to promoting upcoming events or things you might want people to join, especially if this requires a link to another website for more information or to complete an action. This is because Instagram doesn’t allow your posts to include links to other websites and so forces you to include all the information in one post.

If there’s a lot of information this can cause problems as people tend to scroll past posts with that much text. People may also fail to follow the ‘more info’ link when the text gets cut off on their news feed.

One way of getting around this is for your post to say: “For further information see link in bio”. However, if you’ve got another post about a different event that needs a different link for further information, this might not be the right workaround for you.

You can get around this issue by using Linktree. Linktree allows you to create a personalised and easily customisable page, that houses all the important links you want to share with your followers on social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Once you’ve setup your Linktree and added all your links, you simply copy your unique Linktree URL and paste it into the ‘Website’ field of your Instagram or Twitter bio – you never have to change the link in your bio again.

So for example, if the links you’ve added to Linktree are to your main website, and then you’ve added other links to direct people to your events, news, and calendar pages, when you say “for further information, see link in bio” people will click on the Linktree link in your bio and be directed to the relevant page your post refers to. Check out the United Reformed Church’s Instagram bio for an example.

Don’t forget to use #Hashtags

Whenever you post, don’t forget to use #hashtags as people use them to search for content they’re interested in. Don’t add too many hashtags, otherwise those viewing your Instagram posts may not remember your key message! Some say three hashtags are enough, but see what looks right. A short Bible verse followed by 30 hashtags will look odd.

Remember to moderate your posts and interact with followers and other accounts

Keep an eye on responses to your posts. Many will be positive replies expressing how they liked it or found the information useful.

However, some may be critical. If it’s a sincere criticism you should respond and see how you can resolve the issue. You may want to ask the account to call your church as in some cases it can be quicker to sort things out in person.

If it’s vindictive don’t feel that you have to reply. Unfortunately there are accounts out there that do this. If an account is persistently vindictive you could think about muting them or reporting them to Instagram. The latter option should only be used as a last resort.

If you like a post from another account like it and write a positive comment if you have time. As well as making Instagram a more positive platform it also helps make people aware of your account.

Find accounts to follow

Think of what accounts you want to follow. These may be members of your congregation who you know are on Instagram, other churches, local councillors, food banks. Think of organisations that play a role in your local community and/or that you have dealings with in real life. Often accounts like these will follow you back and so will add to your list of followers.

You may want to follow accounts that are known as ‘Influencers’ on Instagram. These are popular accounts often posting updates on a niche area – beauty, exercise, mindfulness, etc. Follow verified news accounts so you can get information you can trust.

Help people find your Instagram account

Once your account is created you can help promote it outside of Instagram. Add it to your website, put the account address on printed materials and posters in your church, email your congregation about it. Share it on your other social media platforms.

Do everything you can do to help people find you on Instagram, but most importantly enjoy your time on the platform. There are lovely accounts and lovely people using it.

Download this guidance

• Using Instagram for your church (PDF | 4mb)

Facebook groups vs Facebook pages

We recommend you set up a group and invite people to join it which is why this guide focuses on setting up groups rather than pages.

Although you can set up a Facebook group or a Facebook page for your church, people who have joined your Facebook group are more likely to see posts from it when they log on as the way groups are set up is more geared towards community/grassroots interaction.

Setting up your group

In order to set up a Facebook group you need to have a Facebook account. If you do not want to share your personal details with Facebook, consider setting up a Gmail account.

Think of a name for your Facebook group

Choose a name that’s as near to the name of the church or organisation you’re setting the account up for as this is the name people are likely to search. You can change the name later if you’re not happy with it.

You may find the name you want is already taken. Don’t let this put you off. For example, your church is based in Barnet and is called St John’s United Reformed Church and you discover there’s already a Facebook group with the same name.

To get around this you could set up a group using the church name and parish or local area. Calling the group St John’s United Reformed Church Barnet would make it easier for people to identify your group with your church.

Creating your group

To create your group, log in to Facebook using your own account. If you’re accessing Facebook using a web browser you’ll need to scroll down to the groups menu on the left-hand side of your page.

Follow the groups link and you’ll arrive at this page:  and at the bottom of the left-hand side menu you’ll see a button inviting you to create a group. Select this option and fill in the required fields:

1. name the group
2. invite your friends to join the group
3. select the privacy option for the group – visit Facebook to find out more about this options
4. hide group – select how visible you want the group to be. You can opt to make it possible for anyone to find the group or only members to find it. If you want to make it possible for members of the wider Facebook community to find the group select ‘Visible’
5. create the group

If you’re creating a group via the Facebook app you navigate to groups via the menu button on the top right-hand side of the app and follow the steps outlined above.

Adding a cover image to your group

Once you’ve created your group you should add a header/cover image.

When choosing your group’s header pic opt for an image that identifies your church. If your church has a brand make sure your Facebook group reflects it as this will help users identify you.

Adding an About Us description

This is important as it helps people who have been invited to join the group understand that it’s about and what type of posts to expect.

It’s also where you can put rules for the group. For example, you may want to say use of swear words will not be tolerated, that posts will be deleted and members posting such content could be removed from the group.

You may not want to include information like this but it can help when you’re trying to deal with difficult and/or abusive posts if you list the type of behaviour that won’t be accepted by the group.

Adding other group administrators and moderators

As the creator of the group you’re the group administrator. However, you can make other members administrators or moderators of the group and this can help you share the workload, especially if the group becomes popular or is busy.

What content to post and when 

People often use Facebook in the morning, lunchtime or evening. Its use goes up when most people have downtime from work or when they’re relaxing after looking after their family. This is when it’s good to publish a group post as it means members are more likely to see it.

If you have something important to announce or an important event coming up you can post twice a day. Any more than that and members may feel you’re spamming their timelines and they may opt to leave the group.

Tell people about upcoming events, let them know that you’re streaming a service or that you can watch another church stream one.

You may even want to think about asking a question to get advice from your community or to encourage debate. The recent emergence of COVID19 community groups are a good example of this interaction.

Don’t just stick to written content. Good photos, graphics, images and video work well and are more eye-catching than text. There are some limitations on image sizes and the most optimum size to use on Facebook. The link below is a useful guide.

Verified sources

As with all social media only share information you know is from verified sources like the BBC or the government. Don’t use your group to help spread fake news.

You may find some of your posts are criticised by members of the group. If it’s a fair comment then do reply. You may find it easier to ask them to call the church to sort out an issue. However, if a comment is abusive you may want to hide it from the rest of the group and you should only consider removing consistently abusive members from the group as a last resort.

Help people find your Facebook group

Once your account is created you can help promote it outside of Facebook. Add the address of it to your website (e.g. ) put the account address on printed materials and posters in your church, email and tell your congregation about it.

Do everything you can do to help people find you on Facebook.

But most importantly enjoy your time on Facebook. There are lovely people using this platform. Don’t let any bad ones put you off using it.

Download this guidance

• How to use Facebook for your church (PDF | 1mb)

Setting up your account

Think of a Twitter name for your account. Choose one that’s as near to the name of the church or organisation you’re setting the account up for so people think to search for it on Twitter.

The name of your account is what appears in your account’s Twitter address. For example, the United Reformed Church’s Twitter account is www.twitter.com/UnitedReformed

You may find the name you want is already taken. Don’t let this put you off. For example, St John’s United Reformed Church in York wants to use the Twitter handle @stjohnsurc but finds it’s already taken. One way to make their Twitter handle more unique to them and where they’re based would be to see if the account name @stjohnsurcyork is free.

It’s better to think about the name of your Twitter account before setting it up so you can get the name you want and the name you’re happy for your church and organisation to be known by as changing it at a later point can cause problems.

Email address

To set up your account you will need an email address that you have access to the inbox. You can either set up your account via the Twitter website or download the Twitter app to a device such as a mobile phone.

When you visit the website or open the app you will see two options – to log in or sign up to Twitter. Choose sign in and enter the information that’s requested. When it comes to creating a password remember to use upper and lower case letters, digits and symbols in order to make your account as secure as possible.

Profile image

Once you’ve created your account you should add a profile image and header image to your account. Your header image is the rectangle image that can be seen at the top of your Twitter page and your profile image is the smaller image on the left-hand side of it.

You can find out what image sizes to use for Twitter header and profile pictures on this website

When choosing your account’s header and profile pic opt for images that identify your church. If you have a church logo use it as your profile pic and if you have a photo of your church use it on the header. If your church has a brand make sure your Twitter account reflects it as this will help Twitter users identify you.

Getting started on Twitter

Find accounts to follow

Think of what accounts you want to follow. These may be members of your congregation you know are on Twitter, other churches, local councillors, food banks. Think of organisations that play a role in your local community and/or that you have dealings with in real life.

Often accounts like these will follow you back and so add to your list of followers on Twitter.

Follow verified news accounts so you can get information you can trust.

Posting tweets

Think about what you want to tweet and why. If you’re telling followers about an event make sure you’re clear about when and where it is and who it’s for. There’s a character limit so put as much useful information as you can in the tweet and link to a web page or further information if one exists.

It’s best to avoid doing lots of consecutive tweets as this can create the impression that you’re a spam account sending out false information with undesirable links.

Three or four tweets a day should be the number of posts to aim for but if you find you don’t have anything relevant or useful to post don’t feel you have to post.

If you can, make your tweets eye-catching by including an image, graphic, photo or video. This content helps your tweets stand out. You may find this helpful.

Keep an eye on responses to your posts. Many will be positive replies and thank the accounts that send these.

However, some may be critical. If it’s a sincere criticism of your church or a tweet you should respond and see how you can resolve the issue. You may want to ask the account to call your church as in some cases it can be quicker to sort things out in person.

If it’s a vindictive tweet don’t feel that you have to reply. Unfortunately there are accounts out there that do this. If an account is persistently vindictive you could think about muting them, blocking them or reporting them to Twitter. The latter option should only be used as a last resort.

Using #Hashtags and other tweeting tips

Whenever you’re posting a tweet look out for what hashtag is trending on Twitter. You can find this information on the right-hand side of the page when you log on to your account.

If there’s a hashtag that’s pertinent to your tweet then incorporate it into the post. This means people following that hashtag filter will see what you’re saying. You can use more than one if it’s relevant.

See this tweet for example:

Are you on ? The govt is planning to cut £20 a week from payments this Oct – we need to show why they must choose to instead. Do you want to share your story to help build pressure for this to change? >

— The Trussell Trust (@TrussellTrust)

The tweet mentions the need, uses hashtags to highlight recognised twitter campaign trends, and includes a link for people to follow to take action.

If you feel a post you’ve written is particularly important and you really want people to retweet it you can also write ‘PLS RT’ at the end of your tweet. This stands for ‘Please retweet’ and it encourages users to do so.

Retweeting tweets

If you see a tweet about a local event that you’re involved with or your church supports you should retweet it. You can retweet and add a comment and you could say something like ‘Looking forward to attending this’, etc.

Tweets like this help support organisations and people in your local community by helping amplify what’s happening.

If there’s a news story or piece of important information you think you should retweet you must make sure it comes from a verified source like a BBC News or government account. Don’t use your account to help spread rumours or misinformation. It’s easily done on Twitter and you don’t want your account to add to the spread of fake news.

Help people find your Twitter account

Once your account is created you can help promote it outside of Twitter. Add it to your website, put the account address on print materials and posters in your church, email your congregation about it.

Do everything you can do to help people find you on Twitter. But most importantly enjoy your time on Twitter. There are lovely accounts and lovely people using this platform. Don’t let the few bad ones put you off the experience of using it.

Download this guidance

• How to use Twitter for your church (PDF | 683kb)

Your profile

You will then be asked to add your name, and whether you want to add a photo of yourself – that’s optional. If you’ve used WhatsApp before, you’ll be asked if you want your previous chats restored (WhatsApp call messages Chats). You can change your Profile information from Hey there! I am using WhatsApp which is the default, to something such as Fan of food, Wham! and Strictly, or Church Secretary of Anytown URC, Anytown.

In big groups of messages it can be helpful to add some identifiable information. There are also some ready-made statuses, such as At work, At the gym, Sleeping, which are good if you’re updating your status regularly! You can always edit your profile by pressing Settings, which is a cog icon on the right hand side of the five icons which appear at the bottom of the app.

Chatting and contacts

Because you’ve allowed WhatsApp permission to access your contacts, you should be able to message anyone else who also uses WhatsApp.

To start a chat, tap on the Chats icons and press the New Chat icon, which is a square with a pencil (on the iPhone this can be found in the top right corner), and then select from your Contacts the person you want to send a message to, or add in a New Contact.

This will add the name and number of the person to your contacts so you can use their details on other apps or to call them. Once a name and number has been selected or added, you can type your message as you would a text message or email. And when you get a reply, that will appear under your original message.

Your messages appear on the right of the screen and have a light green background colour, and replies appear on the left in a white speech bubble. If you are unable to contact someone by WhatsApp, they may not be using it. You can send them an SMS message or an email to invite them, and send them this information guide too!

Setting up a new group

If you want to set up a group of people to chat with at the same time, press the New icon (the square with the pencil in it) and select New group.

You’ll need to select the names of those you want in the group, and, after selecting Next, add a name for the group, such as Anytown URC Elders.

Once this group has been set up, your messages and replies will go to all members of the group. If you want to message someone individually, press the New icon and select their name from your Contacts list.

Making phone calls

Making a phone call on WhatsApp is free if you are connected to WiFi. Simply press the phone icon on the top right of the app and select the person you wish to call from your list of contacts.

Video calls

As above, but press the camera icon instead of the phone icon. This will only work if you have a strong wifi signal. This option makes a video call using your phone’s/device’s camera and that of the recipient. You can also make group calls too.

Once you have made the first video call, press Add Participant. You can find out more about using WhatsApp by visiting faq.whatsapp.com.

Topics include changing languages, changing notifications, changing the background on the app, how to use WhatsApp on a desktop computer and troubleshooting.

Apps change regularly and so if you come across any errors in this article, please contact communications.pa@urc.org.uk���ǰ���info@urc.org.uk

Download this guidance

• How to use WhatsApp (PDF | 2mb)

Platforms, audience and equipment

Choose from Facebook, YouTube or Zoom. Others are available, but these are used by billions of people around the world and very easy to use.

Ask your members what platform they prefer to use. Do they mostly use Facebook, and/or watch films on YouTube? That will help shape your decision about which platform is best for your church.

You will need a tripod, and/or a mobile phone holder attached to a gimbel, if you are wanting to use your phone to pan around the church. Remember that your arm will get tired if holding a phone or camera attached to a laptop for a length of time!

Mobile phone microphones aren’t the best and so it’s worth investing £30 in a microphone that can plug into your phone or device that can be placed closely to the person or people speaking. It’s also best to get all those taking part to use central point, such as the same lectern, to save having to move the microphone around during the recording or broadcast.

Facebook

Anyone with a smartphone and the Facebook app can click Live when creating a new post and be broadcasting in less than a minute. The first thing to do is to practice. Don’t make 10.29am the first time you’ve tried using Facebook Live when the Bible study starts at 10.30!

Have a go – you can always delete any accidental live recordings.

When you press Live, you may see yourself! This is because some apps think you want to record yourself rather than anyone else. Use the camera icon with the two circular arrows in the top of the screen to switch cameras.

Turn your phone 90° so it’s horizontal rather than vertical. Imagine your phone as a small TV and record your service this way so that it’s easier for people to watch.

You also see some bright graphics across the bottom of the screen. Choose Live Video.

Add a description

You can add a description by tapping the area on the bottom of the screen. Remember that this video may be seen by those who don’t know the church and so don’t be exclusive.

A description such as Anytown URC’s Family Worship from Sunday 15 March, 2020 will not only help to explain your video to those who stumble across it, but also help with people finding your church using search engines such as Google.

Once you’re ready, press the blue camera button and you’ll have around three seconds before you’re live.Remember not to cough, laugh or make small talk close to the camera as all who are watching will hear you.

Once the service is ended, press Finish and wait a few seconds. You’ll then get the option to Delete the film or Share it. Delete it if you don’t want to keep what you’ve recorded in the videos area of your Facebook page.

Warning – this will mean that no one else can watch your film at a later time. Share the film to add it as a post to your Facebook page.

Once you are live, those watching it can Like or Love the video, in the same way that you can any other post on Facebook, and can also send messages. It might be good to have a second person to help in case you want to be as interactive as possible, such as asking for prayer requests which you can pass to the minister or worship leader.

Zooming in and out

You can also zoom in and out using your phone or device by using two fingers, in same way you would zoom in and out when taking a photo. Practice this on the camera mode, if you’ve not tried it before.

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To record an act of worship on YouTube, you will need to set up an account, if you don’t already have one. As with all social media platforms, YouTube will ask you for an email address so that it can verify who you are and so it can send you notifications if you choose to receive those.

If you have more than 1,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel, then you can Go Live. Otherwise, you can record the act of worship, Bible study group or other even that you wish to share, and publish it onto YouTube when it has been finished.

Once you’ve logged into your account, press the video icon and select the Record button. (The Go Live option still appears, which is odd seeing as you’ve logged in and as soon as you press Go Live, you get a message saying that you can’t!).

Once you press Record, you’ll see a camera switch icon, for you to change the camera you’re using, a big red record button and a stopwatch at the top of the screen. When ready, press the red button.

Once you’re recording is over, YouTube will quickly run through the film, and you have the option to trim it. For example, if you want to delete the first few seconds or last few, then you can drag the left or right side of the blue box on the bottom of your film and remove.

A white pair of scissors underneath the film signifies that you’re in the edit mode. Please test this out before using it on a film you want to keep. You could remove something you don’t want to!

Enhance your recording

If you want to enhance your recording, press the magic wand icon, to the right of the scissors, and select one of the options to age or enhance your film. Swipe left to see the full range of options. If you try a few and don’t want to change it, swipe right and select Normal.

Click the blue NEXT in the top right of the screen and you’ll then be asked to add a title, description, privacy options: Public means you don’t mind who sees it, Unlisted means only those with the web address of the film can view it, and Private means only you can view it.

This is better if you intend to amend the video, but remember to change the setting back once you’ve finished editing it. You can access  these options by pressing Public, which is the default option. You can also add a location, which is good if it’s a film from your church as that will help the church’s search engine rankings.

Then click Upload and YouTube will process the film. This may take a few minutes depending on Wifi or 3G/4G/5G signal. Once uploaded, you can see it by pressing your initial in the top right corner, and selecting Your Channel.

Once you see the video, press the three vertical dots to the right of the title of the film, where you can share it, add it to a Playlist, delete it or edit it.

Sharing it will give you a short URL for the film for you to send out by email, text message, WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter.

Zoom

Zoom provides services for video conferencing and online meetings, People can access it via an app on their smartphone or tablet, or via a browser on their laptop or desktop computer. Landlines can also be used, for those without access to the above.

Zoom costs around £12 a month but there is also a free option that enables you to host up to 100 participants, for up to 40 minutes.

A full video tutorial from The Church Media Guys is available on .

Download this guidance

• Using Facebook, YouTube and Zoom to record acts of worship (PDF | 2mb)