Since October 2014, Schweitzer United Methodist Church has been a social media management client of Checkmate Consulting. We've had a fun but strategic growth mindset with the church's digital communications, working with church staff to efficiently amplify messages churchwide with a mix of church and Checkmate created content.

“Working together, Schweitzer has experienced significant gains to its audience and engagement on all of its social media platforms in the past two years, including quadrupling its engagement rates every year.”

In addition to successful social media management every day, Checkmate Consulting has also served as a true marketing consultant to the church. Checkmate has partnered with the church's talented media department to develop a variety of marketing materials for the church, including a promo video for a Christmas Eve service campaign designed with social media in mind that received nearly 100,000 organic views on Facebook.

That's why we were no strangers to Schweitzer's efforts to engage with Millennials within and outside the church's walls. In January, the director of young adults Jake Hotchkiss approached Checkmate to begin managing social media accounts for the Schweitzer Young Adults ministry. We were excited to take over totally dormant accounts and bring to life the digital communications of a ministry that needed a way to directly reach Millennials.

Over a couple of lunches, together we developed a strategy to reach out to Millennials in and outside the organization. Video announcements, GIF event reminders, a more conversational tone and consistent updates on strategic days were put into play. It was as if we turned the lights on for the ministry, and people who originally engaged on our platforms woke up with shining, bright new content. And wake up they did.

The numbers were staggering. In the first 30 days, reach for Schweitzer Young Adult's Facebook page increased by 1,420%. Post engagements went up by 439%. And my favorite number of all -- from zero video views to 1,477, an increase of 147,600% for the page. You can't make it up.

This was the difference in just 30 days with Checkmate Consulting's intentional and strategic social media management. But while our content shined and a lot of our targeted campaigns worked numbers wise for Schweitzer Young Adults, our first 30 day's success shows why it's so important to wake up your fans on social media. If you're not posting, start. Be intentional. Organizations have to develop a content strategy, even a simple one, and execute it consistently on social media.

You'd be surprised what happens if you turned on the lights.