Catholic Apostolate Center

​When Social Media Is Only Part of Your Job

We’ve all been there – the pastor says, “Let’s get on social media. Can you take care of it?” Never mind your already-overflowing to-do list.
Social media outreach is important, and it can also be time-consuming. If there’s no budget for help and you’re unable to find the right volunteer, here’s what you can do:
​Budget Your Time
  • Set aside a specific time at the beginning and end of the day to check messages and comments. Disable your notifications to prevent any temptation to check the account outside of these times
  • Try to dedicate at least 5 hours each week to manage the pages. Busy seasons like Fall, Advent, and Lent could require more time, but even on a slow week, expect to spend at least an hour each day.
  • Create a content calendar in advance. This can be as vague or as detailed as you want. Planning the calendar in advance will help cut down on time spent wondering “what should I post?” day-to-day. It helps to schedule a monthly or bi-monthly time to do this.
Pro Tip: When you get a request from anyone to post something, unless it’s urgent, leave it for your next already-scheduled social media time.
Sample Schedule Daily:
  • 30 minutes in the morning: Check and respond to comments, share items from your trusted sources, add any urgent posts that may have shown up in your email overnight.
  • 30 minutes in the afternoon: Plan/schedule posts for the upcoming week or review/add to your content calendar.
Weekly:
  • 1 hour: Review, edit, add to your content calendar. Make sure you’re happy with the immediate week ahead, and work on the next 30 days. The farther ahead you can get, the better.
Monthly:
  • 1 hour (or less): Check in with the Pastor, DRE, and other interested parties to ensure the content calendar reflects ongoing parish priorities.
  • 1 to 2 hours: Plan your content calendar. These tools can help.
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