Can the Church Learn Social Media Lessons from a Pizza Place?

I saw this awesome article, How Promise Pizza made social media pay off, thanks to a tweet by Chris Cree.  The article is written by Suzanne Cordeiro, who owns and operates Promise Pizza along with her husband and 3 other partners.

In the article, Suzanne tells the story of how they started Promise Pizza 7 months ago, tried all the conventional marketing methods, but found that nothing could match the results they got with Twitter.

She gives 3 tips for getting value from social media:

1. Target your local audience
2. Get personal
3. Support other local businesses and charities in your community

Great advice!

The article also stresses the importance of building relationships and listening.

Comments made via Twitter and Facebook have resulted in

1. changes in pricing;
2. modifications in recipes;
3. adding/removing items from our menu;
4. adjusting our delivery radius; and many more factors.

Two other important lessons I pulled from the article, but are not explicitly stated:

1. For social media to be effective, you have to have a great product.  Nobody tweets about things that are poor or average whether that’s pizza or anything else.
2. For social media to be effective, you have to do creative activities.  The article lists a number of specials, events, and fundraisers Promise Pizza did.  Not many people will retweet (or even read tweets) that say “Get a large pizza for $9.99” but a lot of people will read & retweet “Autism Awareness Day where a % of our proceeds went to Autism Speaks”

Applying These Lessons to Church

While these lessons are great for local businesses who want to connect with customers via social media, what about local churches?

My observation is that most churches using Facebook & Twitter follow Suzanne’s first tip – target your local audience.  But “get personal” and “Support other local businesses and charities in your community?”  Not so much.  Does yours?

Have you ever heard of a church making changes because of comments left on Facebook or Twitter?  Has yours?

If you’re church is using Facebook & Twitter as a one-way communication channel to promote its agenda, it’s missing the point.  And missing out on a great opportunity.

Paul Steinbrueck

Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com

Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.

An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.

Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.