Jonathan Herron

Beat the Bots: Latest on Facebook Algorithms

I have a simple agenda: I want to make Heaven more crowded!

Social media is a tremendous tool in reaching people far from God.

Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, the robot algorithms that determine what Facebook content you see and don't see are always changing.

For what it's worth, here are the latest tips & tricks to beating Facebook's algorithms and getting YOUR content seen:

• Remember the 80/20 Rule: Always make your post 80% Image and 20% Text (this includes any text on your image), otherwise your post will NOT be seen!
  
  
• Personal Pages must have MEANINGFUL POSTS that spark positive interaction.
  
  
• NO.  CLICK.  BAITING!  Facebook's bots are cracking down on your old dirty tricks like, 'Comment Here' or 'Post a _______ if you agree!'
  
  
  
  
  
• LIVE VIDEOS always WIN!  Post a live video like you are talking to a friend.  Over-produced = Ignored.
  
  

• Do NOT post more than 3 times per day or your posts will get dinged down by the bots.  Your posts must also be at least 90 minutes or more apart.
  
  
• If you have traction with lots of comments/interaction on a post, Facebook values your content as HOT! This will mean that it's okay to post MORE than 3 times that day without your content getting demoted.
  
  
• THINK UNIQUE!  Valuable content resonates with audiences and boosts your eyeball counts.
  
  
• Bots like: admiration, amazement, curiosity, sharing studies, facts, and quotes.
  
  
  
  
  
• POST PHOTOS w/ARTICLES -- Make it PERSONAL!  Bots and people prefer PERSONAL > Highly Produced.
  
  
• Do NOT ask people to share or vote.
  
  
• Video is King!  Nearly 90% of people scroll through Facebook with the volume turned OFF.  If you add CAPTIONS, your post engagement JUMPS to 367%!
  
  
• Best times to post: Thursday - Sunday evenings.
  
  
• Live Video is 6 times more likely to be seen.  Best length is 7-10 minutes.
  
  
• BONUS: Want to see examples of awesome Facebook content?  Follow me on Facebook now!

Free Downloads & Resources for 2020

I love encouraging and equipping Church Leaders like you with insanely-practical resources.

Leadership is hard but the load gets a bit lighter when you have friends cheering you on!

That's why I started FearlessLeaders.net.

It is an honor and a joy to be a small part of God's larger Kingdom advancement!

Here are some we gave away in 2019 that you can have to use right now in 2020:

• Download my new e-book: How to Increase Giving by 15% This Year in 4 Easy Steps
  
  
•  Download 2020 Strategic Staff Growth Plan (via our friends at Lead On Monday)
  
  
• Breaking 200 Master Class Video Series
  
  
• Fearless Leadership Weekly Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or our personal fav: YouTube
  
  
• EMAIL ME  (jon@lifechurchmichigan.com) for Free Access to our next Fearless Leaders Online Coaching Livestream on Wednesday, January 8th at 8:15am EST

Steve Jobs' Secret to Being More Creative

Creativity is just connecting things.

When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem.

The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”

(Steve Jobs in Wired, February, 1995)

Making Heaven Crowded

Every church leader longs for their people to not just buy into the unique vision God has for their church, but to actually own the vision personally. 

When volunteers choose to make the ministry their ministry, when ordinary people attempt extraordinary steps of faith for the Lord, and when the hearts of people in your church beat faster dreaming about what could be and what should be, the Kingdom of God moves forward faster!

At Life Church, the vision is to Reach the Lost at Any Cost.

We are all about Jesus - dangerously, obsessively, undeniably Jesus.

Our tribe is willing to do the things nobody else is doing in order to reach the people nobody else is reaching!

Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 

(Matthew 13:34)

Jesus always taught using stories that people could understand.

The Son of God connected spiritual truths with sticky stories that anyone could remember and connect with.

Since God created us with minds that are hungry for stories, I say why not reach people far from God by leveraging the Star Wars stories with the Christmas story?!

For example, our current outreach series is Star Wars Christmas - We're sharing the story from a long time ago in a Bethlehem far, far away!

When we first attempted this ambitious approach to sharing the message of Christ back in 2015, God gave us favor with the Associated Press and our reach was extended as far away as Time Magazine's Money, USA Today, and The Washington Times!

When D.L. Moody was attempting to reach street orphans in Chicago with the Gospel back in the 1800's, he did something extraordinary: He rented a Saloon for Sunday School on Sunday nights!  To get children in the door, he offered free candy, pony rides, and pennies.  And his outreach methods worked! 

The only pushback Moody received was from religious people.  Moody's response is my motto:

"I prefer the way I do evangelism to the way you don't."

What excites me most is seeing our Lifers own the outreach and running with it!

Nothing brings a bigger smile to my face than hearing stories of Lifers texting friends and talking about Star Wars at work as a bridge toward a Sunday invite.

Every invitation is an opportunity.

Every opportunity is one step closer toward the Gospel.

And making heaven crowded is our endgame!

CUT THE CHEESE: 3 STEPS TOWARD CREATING A NON-CHEESY RADIO SPOT FOR YOUR CHURCH

I’m a big believer in leveraging all media by all means to reach all people for the gospel. There’s just one thing that drives me crazy… Cheesy Christian Media.

Let’s be honest: if Christians excel in one area of media, it’s the cheese. We try to clumsily lump theological doctrine into 30 second church ads thinking that the goal is information-transfer.

Nope, sorry.

Effective advertising is more about connecting emotionally and relationally.
If you can touch the heart (or funny bone), you earn permission to invite people into your story.

 

First, here’s our latest spot:

Three steps we’ve learned in cutting the cheese:

1) KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE! This radio spot is not designed for deeply theological, life-long Christians.  In fact, I’ve already taken heat from over-saved Christians on the internet.  And I don’t care, because I’m not called to make men happy but instead to obey the Lord.

The message in this radio spot is aimed toward people who wouldn’t normally darken a church door.  When you know exactly who you are communicating to, it won’t bother you when the rocks come flying from outsiders.

2) CONSISTENCY BREEDS TRUST! When I lived in north-east Ohio, I was impressed by the media strategy of Knute Larson, a now-retired pastor of The Chapel. Over the course of many years, by consistently lending his own voice and personality to church radio and tv ads, people throughout the region began to trust Knute. Even people who never attended church began to naturally think of Knute as “their pastor.”

If they ever encountered a crisis in their lives, they knew Knute Larson and The Chapel were a safe place to go to for help. That’s my heart for Life Church in the Great Lakes Bay Region.  Consistency breeds trust.

Proverbs 22 says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches.”  Life Church has a strong reputation and name recognition among unchurched Millennials and Gen Xers in our region of Michigan as a safe, non-judgemental place to ask real questions about faith.  That is important to me as our church continues moving forward.

3) EXAGGERATE THE TABOO!  We were told by the radio station that we couldn’t say the full title of the movie in our radio ad for legal reasons.

What could have been a hurdle was instead turned into an opportunity.  

In my improv-comedy training, I learned about the power of exaggerating the taboo. I talk more about this in my first book, Comedy-Driven Leadership: there are no mistakes, only opportunities.

In this case, we thought it would be hilarious for our 60 second radio ad for a church to have words that are being beeped out.  It would actually make the radio spot more interesting, like playing a little game with the audience!

The result is a fresh and fun radio spot that is gaining traction in the Great Lakes Bay Region.  More people will feel welcomed at Life Church and the story of God’s love will echo into more hearts this holiday season.