How to Maximize Your Parish's Reach Through BOTH Print & Digital Communications

While definitely not going anywhere, the parish bulletin is no longer the only way to share news of your parish while also offering a teaching tool for members. Your parish website, the social media channels you use, email blasts, and even text messages are now fair game in the parish communication strategy.

To reach people, we need to meet them where they’re at. Some are all about messaging on the go, scrolling on their phones as they wait for doctor appointments or during a lunch break, while others prefer to pick up the printed Sunday bulletin and read it religiously (pun intended) each week.

While the ways to communicate with parishioners are plentiful, your staff time, unfortunately, is not. Luckily, there are ways you can utilize the content you have to reach its maximum potential in order to get it to the people who need to hear it.



How to Maximize Your Parish Communications

Reuse and Recycle Valuable Content

Remember that there is no reason to reinvent the wheel when it comes to your parish's news and other content! An easy way to begin the process of distributing similar content across different platforms to start with auditing your Sunday bulletin. Collect from it what information you would like to share and then decide on what digital avenues you'd like to share each piece.

For example, if you have a parish retreat coming up, you may want to share the announcement that was originally printed in your bulletin for it as a social media post and/or include it in a parish email.

Consider Your Audience on Social Media

If you truly want to maximize your reach, keep in mind that not all social media channels are equal. From X's (formally Twitter’s) character count of 280 max, to Instagram’s focus on quality images, video, and captions, different demographics use different platforms due to differences in personal preference and accessibility.

While you COULD add a whole Gospel reflection to the caption fo an Instagram post, more likely people will scroll on by because Instagram is more of a visual platform. Or you could post nothing but a single image on Facebook, but your followers might be confused without a caption, explanation, or a link. Make sure that with whatever channel you share your content on, you are mindful of the format and how best to get seen. We dive much deeper into this and more in our free, complete guide to Catholic church social media management.

If you’re looking for an easy explanation about the differences between social media channels, what they are mostly used for and what age group gravitates to each, we found a great infographic to explain it all.

The main takeaway? Don’t overthink how your church can accommodate each social media channel by reinventing your content. Rather, consider ways that you can capture the attention of followers by using pieces and parts of your main content and segmenting it.

Make It Personal

One goal for sharing your news is to help parishioners become familiar with who you are as a church. You’re not just a place to come to each week in obligation, but a community filled with vibrant and welcoming people all living their faith together! Make this known in the content you choose to share.

In addition to your weekly digital and print bulletin, considering sending out a weekly email from the pastor, associate pastor, director of faith formation or other ministry leader to your parishioners. Not only do you help parishioners put a face to a name, but it helps make your parish news more personal when it comes from a persona instead of an entity. It doesn’t have to be 2,500 words of faith reflections or multiple invitations to upcoming events. Sometimes, all you need is a quick weekly check-in to remind your members what your church is all about.

Quality images with a short sentence and a link to read your bulletin is a great way to share on Instagram. For Facebook, consider links to individual articles or event landing pages over a period of a few days.

Use Quality Catholic Art and Graphics

If you need more Catholic content and imagery to make your communications shine, look no further than WeCreate, LPi’s Catholic art and content library. Available free for parishes with an LPi bulletin contract or, for those who don’t have a bulletin contract with LPi, WeCreate can be accessed through a simple yearly subscription. WeCreate gives parish staff 24/7 access to stock images, clipart, Sunday content, Gospel reflections, children’s Gospel activities, and more that will allow you to form and engage your faith community.

Pro tip: Get a sneak peek of the thousands of art and content options inside WeCreate and download some for free to use in your own parish communications, visit our monthly collection of freebie Catholic content on our website today!

Updated 10-17-2025

Dive deeper into the topic of social media, Catholicism, and your church by checking out  the " Web and Social Media" section of our weekly blog.

Updated 06-18-2025