What could you be sharing online this Advent and Christmas? The season provides rich opportunities to create interesting content that can educate, inspire and entertain your community. Here’s some ideas for what you could be creating for different platforms. This is not an exhaustive or prescriptive list, it’s just to get your ideas started!
Who are you talking to?
The first thing you want to consider, before diving into the creative work, is who your target audience is. Who are the people you want to reach, and where do they spend most of their time online? What are the challenges they face, and how could you help solve those challenges? Perhaps your target audience is parents who need to entertain and engage their kids over Christmas, or perhaps it’s newcomers in your church community and you’d like to give them insight about the meaning of Christmas and how they can get involved. Of course, you could have multiple audiences in mind, but you’ll probably have the best success when sharing online if you aim at a specific group and what would resonate with them.
With your audience in mind, you can start thinking about the right platforms to use – where do the people you want to reach spend their time? Would they be checking Facebook, or is it best to think about more youth-oriented platforms like Instagram or TikTok?
You’ll also want to consider the best media to use: is it photos, videos, illustrated graphics or text-based posts? You don’t have to just pick one but it’s worth considering which medium might be best and when. You can read a blog about choosing between image and video sharing here.
With all that considered, here’s some specific ideas to get your imagination going. We’ve suggested different ones for different platforms, but of course one idea or piece of content could be reused or reshaped for different platforms,
Ideas for Facebook and Instagram
Daily Advent reflections with relevant Bible verses. You could highlight different aspects of the Christmas story over the Advent period.
Share festive photos and videos of your church decorations/ activities.
Events promotion: showcase the events you have coming up.
Meet your members: Do a series of posts introducing different members of your community: they could share their Christmas traditions or a favourite Bible verse.
Ideas for Instagram stories or TikTok
Run a photo challenge, encouraging followers to share their own photos/videos with a specific hashtag. E.g. ‘What’s your favourite Advent decoration?’
Live Q&A with church leaders e.g. ‘Ask your vicar anything about Christmas’
Short video testimonies from members: ‘What does Christmas mean to you?’
Behind-the-scenes glimpses of Christmas preparations at your church.
Share a poll e.g. ‘What’s the best thing about Christmas?’
Reels/short videos
Reflections on the ‘Calm and Bright’ theme e.g. ‘How can we be less stressed at Christmas?’
Christmas carol singalong with members of the congregation or church choir
‘Day in the life’ video: e.g. follow leaders/members of the congregation as they go about their Advent/Christmas activities
Long-Form Videos (ideal for Facebook and YouTube):
A trailer for your Christmas services and events: text, images and voiceover/music could combine to get people excited about what’s coming up at your church
An Advent Bible study series exploring the themes of ‘Calm and Bright’ and the Christmas story
Filming the behind the scenes of your Christmas crib service
‘Christmas Storytime’: Read-aloud videos for children to watch
Show the church's community outreach work with different groups e.g. food banks, homeless shelters
Livestream and record services and events so people can catch up if they miss them
Blog ideas (e.g. to share on your church website or the ‘news’ section of AChurchNearYou.com)
Explainers e.g. ‘The Meaning of Advent: A Guide to the Season’ or ‘Christmas debunked? What actually happened at the Nativity’
‘5 ways you can get involved with our church this Christmas’ or ‘4 key Christmas dates for your diary’
Draw on the Calm and Bright theme e.g. ‘4 ways to have a less stressful Christmas’
Talk about ‘Blue Christmas’: how to support those who find this a difficult time of year
Fun ideas for families e.g. ‘A Guide to Family Advent Activities’
Hopefully the above gives you some ideas for what you could be sharing. If you’re feeling daunted, remember it doesn’t need to be complicated or fancy: just ask yourself ‘what would provide value to our followers?’ and ‘what would I want to see shared online?’ as starting points. Remember you can make use of our Digital Planner to help you plan and schedule your digital content over the festive period – you can download it here.
- Joe Hartropp, Digital Labs Officer
