Is a Social Media Management Platform Right for your Parish?

Research is showing that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and the like boast 3.7 billion users worldwide, an increase of 5% from 2020. Clearly, social media is a vastly effective tool when it comes to reaching the public, especially as a Catholic parish looking to spread the Good News. These days, the internet really is the public square!

“Social media is fundamentally changing how people communicate,” writes the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on its website . “Our Church can not ignore it; in fact, it is our responsibility as Catholics to bring the Church’s teachings into what Pope Benedict XVI called the ‘digital continent.’”

But how each individual parish community embarks on that “digital continent” will look different. When deciding what kind of social media presence your parish wants to curate, there are important points to keep in mind that have to do with demographics, accountability, ease of use, and more. We outline these here in this article. For a more complete view of everything you need to know about social media management for Catholic churches, we have a more extensive, free guide.

Social Media Considerations — Who do You Want to Reach?

An important factor to consider is the average age of your parishioners — or the average age of people you want to reach. A Pew Research Center survey from 2021 indicates that 72% of Americans use some form of social media. It’s a number that does tend to drop with age, however — about 45% of adults age 65 and older report doing so.

Usage of social media by platform can also depend heavily on age. Older adults are more likely to use Facebook and less likely to use Instagram and YouTube; the younger crowd shows up for Facebook as well, but loves Instagram and Snapchat, tiktok, and WhatsApp, too.

Managing Your Online Presence

 If your parish is going to establish a social media account, it’s advisable that only a few people have posting privileges so that your online presence is clean and consistent. Many parishes who decided to take their evangelization efforts online feel that the use of a management tool like Hootsuite or Buffer is essential. Not only does it save staff time in posting, but additional resources are often included and posts can be easily scheduled ahead for certain times.

 If you’re looking for engaging and fresh content for your social media presence, be sure to check out all that is available on WeCreate , our Art & Media platform. Evangelize your community with the latest in stock photography, church clip art, Catholic prayers, weekly Gospel reflections, and more (psst, it’s also a FREE add-on to your bulletin subscription!).

What Social Media Management Platform is Right for You?

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most popular social media management tools:

• Hootsuite
  More than 18 million customers choose Hootsuite to manage their social media accounts, gaining access to a social analytics dashboard that shows top-performing content and offers personalized insight. Hootsuite also allows customers the opportunity to connect their social networks across apps, and offers courses taught by professionals.
  

• Sprout
  Sprout aims to get you “from overwhelmed to empowered” by streamlining your engagement with your social media channels. Sprout can publish content, evaluate the performance of your posts, help you respond to messages quickly and much more.
  

• Buffer
  Buffer allows customers an easy way to reach their audience through scheduled posting across networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest while providing analysis on engagement and resources for improving.
  

Your Parish Social Media Content Matters!

It doesn't matter what platform you go with if your content isn't engaging, Catholic, and professional-looking! Check out the Catholic Social Media Content Calendar inside WeCreate for images and caption ideas for your parish's daily posts.

Parish staff who subscribe to WeCreate have access to daily curated liturgical content that they can customize and use on their own social media profiles. WeCreate also offers new a-la-carte social media images and caption content ideas uploaded fresh every month.

Check out the " Web and Social Media " section of our weekly blog for more tips and tricks or dive into our FREE Complete Guide to Catholic Social Media Management.

Updated 10-17-2025