Sharing Profile Photos on your Church’s Facebook Page

If you’re like me, your involvement in your church or organization is a big part of your life. And, if you’re active on Facebook, you’re likely to share much of that part of your life online. However, it can be a bit of a challenge to share pictures from your personal profile on your organization’s Facebook page, especially if you’ve made your personal Facebook settings restricted to friends or only certain groups of friends. Additionally, most people who like your church or organization’s page will not see the photos if you simply share them on your page’s wall. To increase chances that your photo will be seen by people who like your church or organization, you need to post the photo to your page as your page, not as yourself.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Make sure that the photo you wish to share has “public” sharing permissions. Find the photo you wish to share in the photos section of your profile, click on it, and then click the globe at the top right corner of the message box next to the photo. Make sure the permissions are set to “public.”
2. Next, go to your church/organization’s page. If you are the page’s administrator, near the top of the page a notice should tell you how you are “posting, commenting, and liking” – as your personal profile or as your page. For example, on my page it says, “You are posting, commenting, and liking as Chris Duckworth – Change to Grace Lutheran Church, St Paul.” You should click the highlighted text so that you can post to Facebook as your page. The page will re-load, and the notice will now let you know that you are interacting with Facebook as your page.
3. Now, return to your personal profile and find the picture you want to share. Click on the picture, and then click on “share” from the options that appear at the bottom of the photo. A dialog box will appear, with a drop-down menu at the top. The default setting for sharing photos is “On your own timeline.” Click that, and from the drop-down menu select “On your page.”
4. Above the message area the name of your page should be displayed. If you administer multiple pages, click to select the page to which you wish to post this picture. At the top right side of the dialog box, a notification reminds you that you are posting as the page. If that says “Posting as yourself,” you did not properly change to interacting with Facebook as your page. Go back and do Step #2 again.
   Write a brief message about the photo in the message area, and then press the Share Photo button.
5. Now, return to your page to re-set how you interact with Facebook. You are still posting, commenting, and liking as your page. Click the highlighted text to “Change to (Your Name).” The page will reload, and your settings will be back to normal.

Sharing photos on your Facebook page is a great way to share what is happening with your church or organization. And, sharing appropriate photos from your personal Facebook profile does not require that you have the photo on your church’s hard drive or saved on any church device. Use these steps to share your photos on your page, as your page, and you’ll have a more dynamic and lively Facebook page for people to interact with and share with their friends.