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Did you know that over 58% of the world’s population is on social media? That’s 4.62 billion people spending an average of 2.5 hours on social media every day! This makes social media the “digital town square” of today’s global society.
We’re also witnessing an unprecedented convergence of Big Tech and the Church. 73% of churches rely on social media to keep their communities connected, with platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram promising bigger reach, better communication, and more engagement.
At the end of the day, however, many pastors feel frustrated as their communities become more distracted by social media and less connected to their church. Let’s take a look at the potential pitfalls of using social media and how the Subsplash Platform does more to enhance your online presence, overcome these challenges, and better engage your online community.
Anyone who uses social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook knows what it’s like to be bombarded with ads. These companies have spent billions of dollars to create complex algorithms to learn what each person likes, and they make their profits by advertising to your community while they access your church’s content.
Unfortunately, churches have little to no control over the type of ads that appear alongside their content on social feeds. For example, a sermon on the topic of addiction could be adjacent to an ad promoting alcoholic beverages. On YouTube, only the most established content channels—which are required to meet strict requirements—may be allowed to filter out specific types of ads next to their videos.
Unlike Big Tech platforms, Subsplash Media hosts and delivers your church’s content without any annoying or inappropriate ads, allowing people to focus on your message.
Have you ever opened up social media to check on one thing but ended up scrolling through updates, pictures from friends, and watching videos instead? It’s easy to get lost in all of the noise of social media.
Imagine that it’s Sunday morning and someone wants to watch your church service’s live stream. As soon as they open their social media to visit your church’s account, they’re bombarded with notifications, videos, announcements, and so on. Even if they make it to your live stream, they can still receive messages and other notifications that can distract them from your message. All of these distractions can shrink the impact of what you’re sharing.
Subsplash provides your church community with a distraction-free environment on your church’s website, mobile app, and TV app. People can watch your live streams and on-demand videos, listen to podcasts, read the Bible and devotionals, and even share group messages and prayer requests—all without unwanted distractions.
Billions of people bring their own worldviews about religion, politics, and social issues to platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. While this provides the Church a unique opportunity to evangelize and share the Gospel to non-believers, the opposite is also true.
More than one third of Christians use social media for their spiritual formation, but on these same platforms they’re also faced with ideas and information that are contrary to biblical teachings. This can take your church members down a path that leads to confusion, misunderstanding, and even apostasy.
The Subsplash Platform provides your community with a safe place to watch, listen, and engage with gospel-centered media. Your church can determine exactly what kind of content is presented to your congregation.
Social media platforms are under pressure to block, silence, or throttle certain points of view that are unpopular or run counter to their cultural perspectives. Churches feel this most acutely when their content is blocked or removed after being deemed inappropriate or in violation of social media standards.
In fact, studies have found that on average one church or religious leader is being censored or deplatformed by Big Tech companies each week. This has a chilling effect on churches feeling free to share their messages that can lead to self-censorship.
Subsplash supports your church’s right to freely practice your faith and express your religious beliefs. We do this by providing a platform where you can minister without the fear of religious restrictions or censorship from outside people or groups.
Social media monitors content on their platforms that contains copyrighted material. For example, if your church live streams the music portion of your services, there is a chance that your stream will be muted, blocked, or removed for copyright infringement. While there are ways to reduce the risk of copyright violations, this issue is an ongoing frustration for many churches trying to engage their community through social media.
Churches choose Subsplash for hosting their media libraries and live streaming their services to their mobile app and website without worrying about being mistakenly flagged for copyright violations. Subsplash Live simultaneously streams to other platforms like YouTube and Facebook, so even if those feeds are blocked or interrupted, your community can continue watching your live streams on your mobile app and website.
When you upload your church’s content to a social platform, they take control over your content. This means that they can decide to block, mute, or delete your content, and unless you’ve backed it up somewhere else, it could be lost forever.
Subsplash provides a better alternative to social media because your church’s content stays in your control and always belongs to you, even if your content is blocked or deleted on other platforms.
Some social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook offer online giving for fundraising. However, their giving options are limited in scope and not specifically designed for churches. This can lead to confusion for your donors and frustration for your staff.
Subsplash Giving, on the other hand, offers church-friendly features like recurring giving, donor-covered fees, and text-to-give, while also integrating with your church’s website, mobile app, and live streaming.
If your church has become overly dependent on social media, it’s time to consider using a platform that respects your church and provides a distraction-free environment for engaging with your church.
Subsplash believes that churches deserve a platform with world-class digital tools that is built for them and respects their religious liberty. That’s why our platform allows churches to share their content without fear of censorship or other limitations.
To learn more how Subsplash can help your church freely share the gospel and build disciples without censorship, distractions, or other limitations, simply fill out the form below.
