This blogpost is based on a presentation made at EMDC.Online about paid and unpaid promotion of Scripture and Scripture-based resources through Facebook. The discussion of paid ads is focused on ads for specific geographic locations and includes a discussion of analytics from the ads. Unpaid promotion includes using the Facebook page directly and also personal accounts. The names of the presenters are not included due to security reasons.
Paid Scripture Promotion With Facebook
Digital media is one of the biggest revolutions in communications since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. During the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, the printing press was cutting-edge technology, and the skillful use of the printing press was a very important part of spreading the ideas of the Reformation.
With the digital media tools available today, we can reach more people with God’s Word at less cost than ever before in history. Social media is one of the most important components of digital media, and Facebook is by far the largest and most influential social media company. In addition to the Facebook social media platform (which is divided into two apps for mobile devices: Facebook and Messenger), Facebook also owns Instagram and WhatsApp.
The data collected by Facebook about Facebook users creates a unique opportunity for highly targeted advertising. In addition to gathering information about a user’s age, gender, and geographic location, Facebook attempts to gain insights into a wide range of demographic factors, including a user’s interests. These categories of information can allow advertisers to run ads for a very specific audience.
Unpaid Scripture Promotion With Facebook
Many unpaid options exist for promoting the use of the Scriptures in any given language via Facebook profiles, pages, and groups. A biblical passage can simply be typed or copied and pasted into a post. Putting a Bible text within an image can better catch the eye of the users and also avoids the issue of typing into Facebook special characters that are needed for writing many languages. Such graphics can be easily created in minutes through the YouVersion “Bible” app for any of the languages available on that platform and then immediately shared. Android apps built with Scripture App Builder (SAB) can also have a similar, enhanced video creation feature enabled.
It is often preferable to share Scripture videos, especially for language communities in which a high level of literacy is not the norm. They can be as simple as one image made into a video by incorporating the audio recording of the verse. It is now possible to make Android apps using Scripture App Builder that can assemble the graphic of a brief Scripture passage overlaid on an image of oneꞌs choice, meshing it with the corresponding audio in a matter of seconds! Multi-image slideshow videos can be created using programs like PhotoStage Slideshow Producer. For many languages, dozens of short Scripture slideshow videos, as well as some of the full-length Scripture movies broken down into segments, are already available on www.ScriptureEarth.org.
So invest some time and creativity and promote Godꞌs priceless, timeless, life-changing Word through Facebook and other social media platforms among the language communities that God has put on your heart!