Communication between leaders and the parish community Communication between leaders and the parish community. Mary Macuga, CFRE Director, Resource Development Archdiocese of Brisbane

Data 2. Messaging 3. Ways to Communicate

Current parish census is vital! Data Current parish census is vital! See examples in handout Best practices Database - PACS

What is your Parish’s personality? Messaging. What is your Parish’s personality?

What are your target audiences?

The keys to good engagement What personality do you wish to portray? Who are you engaging with? What’s your platform?

Make your parish a place where people can engage 7 days a week. THE CHALLENGE: Make your parish a place where people can engage 7 days a week. You have a great story to tell Use the pride in your parish as good content Hit the best times to engage: 6-7am or 7-8pm Who can help you do this in your parish?

Forming a comms team for your parish A team of 4-5 people is ideal Which platforms do you want? E-newsletter (eg. Mailchimp) Facebook & Instagram recommended. Do a rough social media schedule for each month Decide on the control of each platform – who are made administrators / editors?

E-Newsletter: New Farm Parish . Plan: To reach parishioners through a regular email from the parish priest. The email will be short, succinct and cover the following topics: Thank you for being part of our parish community This Sunday the message in the gospel is… What’s on this weekend – eg Family Mass, School Mass, Children’s liturgy, children’s choir, healing masses, wiser people meetings etc. The people in our community who need our prayers this week… If you have any prayer requests please email us at… Share good news stories, for example: Did you know that your financial support this year / month has helped us as a parish: - celebrate X number of masses, - baptize X babies, - marry X couples, - provide sacraments to X young people, - help X members of our community become Catholic

Content ideas Your newsletter can be a weekly social media post Photos / videos are crucial but simple. Example: post photos of babies baptised Historical posts from the parish Content from the Archdiocesan comms team can be easily shared

What we’re seeing Commission fatigue for audiences but not for all media outlets Increase in traffic for key Archdiocesan indicators Divide in audience perception of the Church and its services

What we’re doing Raising the volume – this is not a time to be quiet Creating high quality content within the Archdiocese communications team

Important points You’re not alone We need your help Remember the value of pride.

Thank you! Mary Macuga, CFRE Director, Resource Development Archdiocese of Brisbane 07 3324 3212 macugam@bne.catholic.net.au