How To Get More People To Your Church

Recently, Twitter announced some new search functionality to its bag of tricks. Where did they make the news? Where else? (See below)

 

 

When I saw this, I thought immediately of churches. Why? I recognized how it could be leveraged to attract visitors.

In a nutshell…

1) Search Twitter for certain keywords or phrases.
2) Refine that search to people that are tweeting “near you.”
3) Engage said people and invite them to visit your church.

If you like this idea, download the Twitter app to your iPhone. (I imagine it would work the same on an Android phone, but I only have an iPhone.) Once you have the Twitter app open on your phone, look for the magnifying glass.

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Click the magnifying glass and do a search for the phrase, “pray for me.” Once the results are returned, click the filter icon. (See arrow in the picture below?)

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You are presented with several choices for refining your results. Click the “More options” link.

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You are taken to a “Refine results” page. Click the “Near you” option (at the bottom) and then, “Apply” (upper right corner).

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Now, all of the search results are from people in my area. For example…

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*(I distorted the person’s name and location for the sake of their privacy.)

What “my area” is exactly, I cannot say. When I scroll through my search results, I notice that some are shown as being in my state (Georgia), others were 20 miles away from where I presently am and a few much closer.

For the sake of imagination, consider these searches:

# bored and alone
# help me lord
# too much stress
# family fun
# need church home
# need somebody
# “listen to me”

So, what do you think? I had a few more ideas but, will save them for future posts. For now, I would like to know yours. What do you think of this idea?

Jim

P.S. Although this post is centered around the Twitter mobile app, look for this function to come to the desktop version very soon. By the way, are you following me on Twitter? Are we connected on LinkedIn?

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