Online Sentiment and How to Track It
Did you know that the comments you receive on posts impact how the online community views your church?
While it’s nice to believe that everyone gets a fair chance and no one judges a book by its cover, this is far from accurate. Our online presence is how we choose to represent ourselves to the world, so it reflects our values, goals, and personality. Having a negative online presence might stop a newcomer from attending.
What you post online influences the kind of sentiment your ministry attracts through the words people use and their tone of voice. It varies hugely depending on how they feel, and an emotional shift occurs depending on whether they are impressed with an event you threw or angry at a controversial post.
These small comments might not seem like much, but when viewed together, they create your church’s online sentiment. To get ahead of the game, you need to make sure there are no holes in your online presence and build a church social media plan that appeals to your audience.
Feeling out of your depth? Keep reading for a breakdown of how to nurture your online ministry presence, from your website to social media to sentiment.
Clear and User-Friendly Website
First things first – the church website. Not all of your members will be social media savvy, but most will need to access the website at some point. Having a clear and concise website is essential so that none of your congregants are left in the dark.
Keeping your community clued up is a must, whether they are looking for updates on events or contact information. The best church websites are updated regularly, informative, and have a user-friendly format.
Church Social Media Strategy
Nowadays, most churches are on board with social media accounts like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. When used correctly, social media is a tool to reach more people than ever before while letting your creativity shine through church social media posts.
Having a church social media plan is the best way to ensure you are posting a variety of interesting content regularly. Read our blog on creating a church social media strategy to help you maximize your online presence through engaging content.
Track Your Social Media
Make sure you track the success of each post alongside your social media plan to assess what works and what doesn’t. Fortunately, this is incredibly easy to do, as most apps already have an engagement tracker inbuilt!
Keep tabs on the numbers to assess what appeals to your audience most, then do more of it! Assigning a group of volunteers to the role of social media management is a smart way to ensure you monitor every angle.
What is Online Sentiment?
Tracking church social media trends is useful when it comes to steering your content, but keeping an eye on your sentiment is a different story. While you might get hundreds of comments on a post, those numbers don’t tell how people felt about it.
Sentiment analysis involves taking a deeper look at the words people use and their tone of voice to assess the emotions that are present. Do people feel frustrated at an outdated viewpoint? Or do they feel excited about an event? To find out, you need to assess the sentiment.
Online Sentiment Analysis
If you want to save time manually scrolling through your Twitter mentions and TikTok comments, an online sentiment analysis tool will do it for you. It can be difficult to assess the emotions behind a post, so why not use software that does it for you?
Many options out there will compound the data and visually present it to you in the form of charts or graphs, so it’s easier to understand. Following trends in your community feedback will become a breeze. Click here for 12 online sentiment analysis tools.
Improving Online Sentiment
No one wants to read negative comments about their church online. But did you know that in order to improve your sentiment levels, you need to close the gaps in your online presence? This means getting online and creating profiles on as many mediums as possible.
Knowing what is being said and being able to give your church’s side of the story will do wonders for the sentiment. If you are clueless about what’s bothering your community, you won’t be in a position to change it. That’s why all churches should be on social media.
Embrace Negative Feedback
When your church's social media accounts are active, people can send their negative feedback directly to you. Believe it or not, this is a blessing in disguise. It empowers you to remedy whatever happened and engage in meaningful conversation that could change the sentiment.
You won’t always agree with what’s been said. But remaining cool, calm, and collected will boost your sentiment while keeping your dignity in place. Responding to negative comments with hostility will end up in an embarrassing online argument that will crush your reputation online.
Have Fun!
It's easy to get stuck with number crunching and strategizing. But the last thing you want is a soulless page that follows a rigid church social media plan. People notice when a page is genuine, and they feel drawn to your page when you let the heart of your community shine through.
Get creative, give your congregation the opportunity to get involved, but most importantly, have fun with it!