How to Connect with Non-Social Media Parents

Written by Mike Sheley

Ministering to junior high students requires good communication skills with their parents. In this digitally connected world, we work hard to make sure we are effectively using the most popular social media platforms.

However, if you’re like me, you run into a few types of parents that can make this challenging.

They either use only social media like Facebook and Twitter and never check their email.

Or, they only use email and never check or use social media like Facebook and Twitter.

In an ideal world, they would use each consistently.

However, since we live in the real world here are a few tips to help you stay connected to ALL the parents of junior high students.

Link Email to Social Media

I use MailChimp to send out weekly emails to parents.

Whether you use this or another tool, there are two features I have found helpful that I recommend to you for those people who only check email on their smart phone or never use email but are always on social media.

Only Use Social Media

For the parents who are on Twitter and Facebook but don’t read your emails, utilize your email service’s social media integration.

In other words, there is usually a way to link your social media accounts to your email service so that when you send an email, a link is posted on your social media accounts so that people can view your emails that way.

As a bonus, I have found some parents find the email this way and then subscribe so they can get it automatically to their inbox when I send it in the future.

For those who never check email, just make sure they are following one of your accounts so that they see the link when it gets posted. Here is how MailChimp and Constant Contact do it.

Mobile Friendly Email

A growing and significant number of people view their email on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet instead of their desktop or laptop computer.

This is a big deal when it comes to email.

Why?

Because an email you send that looks great on a regular computer looks totally different, and sometimes illegible, on a smaller screen.

What you need is an email that adapts to what screen it is on.

This is called a “responsive” design.

It looks good and is easy to read no matter how a person views the message.

Check to see if the email service you use is automatically responsive or has responsive themes or templates you can use.

Here is what MailChimp and Constant Contact have to say about being mobile friendly with their services.

Link to Social Media in Email

On the other end of the tech savvy spectrum, you have people who don’t regularly use social media or may not even have an account at all.

You don’t have to exclude them!

In your emails, instead of just saying, “Follow us…” or “Like us…” – which are meaningless terms to those not on social media – you can also say, “Check out this link!” Then you paste in the url of your social media account.

Whether you use Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, there are usually public views where anyone can see the account with the web address.

There will be some options like Facebook Groups or other private features like being able to comment, that are only available to those on that social media platform.

However, if people want to see information, pictures and links, they can do so without having to have a social media account thanks to the link you share!

Following Twitter via Text Message

Throughout its history, Twitter has had a close relationship with SMS or text messaging.

If you have people who want the instant access that following your Twitter account provides without being on Twitter, there is a great method called “SMS follow.”

You can check out the instructions and details on Twitter’s page here.

The short version of the instructions is this. The person wanting to follow via text message sends Follow [username] to 40404 (in the United States).

They will then start receiving Tweets from your account as texts on their phone.

For example, sending Follow PTMinistry to 40404 on a US-based phone would mean you would start getting SMS updates whenever @ptministry posts a Tweet.

There are limits to the number of messages allowed daily this way and other details you can check out on Twitter’s page. But this is an easy way to connect people by simply using their mobile phone.

The bottom line is this, you don’t have to go crazy trying to use every tool available to communicate with parents.

You can use the main tools the way you want to use them and then make some small tweaks to reach those outside of your target platform.

Happy communicating!

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