Summary: Meta's new limits on links from Facebook Pages are a timely reminder that we don't own social media. Here are five practical ways for church teams to keep sharing news well, stay connected with their church family and look after the fellowship we have, wherever people are.

⏱️ 3 min read

Beyond the Notice Board: Rethinking Your Church's Facebook Strategy
If you look after your church's social media accounts, you'll know the feeling. You finally get settled on how something works, and then the platform changes it.

The latest change comes from Meta. Organisation pages that aren't verified can now share only two feed posts a month that link out to another website, such as your church website. For a while, many of us got around this by putting the link into the first comment instead. That doesn't seem to be working for many now either. Plenty of pages are finding links in comments are either blocked or the links are deactivated.

It's not hard to see why. Facebook doesn't want to be a free advertising board for our events and it certainly doesn't want to send people off to other sites outside of it's platform.

Renting, not owning
This is a great moment to step back and think. We don't own our Facebook pages, we're borrowing space on someone else's platform and they can change the rules whenever they like. If the majority of our communication strategy relies on space we don't control, we're always one policy away from losing touch with people.

So it's probably a good time to stop treating Facebook like a noticeboard we own and point people somewhere else.

Here are a few ideas, not all of them will suit every church, so try a few and see what works for you.

1. Keep a weekly "links" page on your website. If your website has a news section, set up one post, something like "This Week's Links", and update it each week or whenever something new goes up. Put the link in your Page's bio or profile, so people always know where to find it.
2. Put short web addresses on your graphics. When you design an image for an event, add a short, memorable address straight onto it, such as "yourchurch.uk/easter". People can type it in themselves, and no link is needed in the post.
3. Write the whole thing on Facebook. Instead of a one-line teaser and a link to your site, put the full details in the post. Facebook tends to favour posts that keep people reading on the platform, so a longer post may well reach more people than a link would.
4. Use a Facebook Group. Groups seem to be treated differently from Pages when it comes to links. A group for your church family gives you a more direct line to people and feels more like a community than a broadcast. But remember, the difficulty with this approach is not everyone is on facebook, it may solve the Facebook problem but you are automatically limiting who will get details if its the only way you connect people on Social Media.
5. Think about a church app. If you want somewhere to share links and notices without worrying about the algorithm, a dedicated app is worth a look. We've been using Jovo, which works a lot like WhatsApp but is built for churches. It's designed with UK GDPR in mind, you can control who sees what, there's no private messaging, and people don't have to share their phone numbers. That makes it a safer space for everyone, including children and vulnerable adults. Check out jovoapp.com for more information.

Further reading
If you'd like to dig deeper, these are worth your time:

• The Facebook Page Link Limit and Your Church: 5 Moves to Make Now: Steve Fogg's practical guide to adapting to the new link limits.
• Facebook's Two Link Rule Explained: a clear explanation of how the rules affect charities and small organisations. Please note that the information about comments here is now out of date.
• Using Digital Outreach to Maximize Your Church's Impact - YouTube: a video interview about connecting with people online. It's focused on Easter, but most of the ideas work any time of year.