MerriLee Lindburg has been the creative media director for Missoula Alliance Church since 2020, mastering social media management, video production, photography, graphic design, print design and even helps with event planning and interior design. She enjoys the variety of her position, striving for excellence in all areas and helping other staff members achieve their goals through these creative lenses. When the twenty-six-year-old began, MAC’s goal was simply to make their social media look good again. Now, her goal is to connect, inform and encourage — reaching those who might not otherwise be reached. She covers all MAC events, which included traveling to Zambia in 2023 and 2024 with other members of the church to partner with Mercy Ministries, an organization that provides food, education and care to children and their families. By photographing and filming their stories she creates a bridge between the two communities and promotes partnership, and that content can continue to have an impact when shared.
University of Montana student Tessa Macklin interviewed Lindburg via email about her work, goals and how she uses social media. Below is their conversation, edited for clarity.
Q: What motivates your work?
A: I would say my work is motivated by the desire to effectively communicate to the church body not only what is happening in the life of the church, but ways they can engage in their relationship with Jesus and with the community. Whether that be promoting an event or sermon series, to creating topical videos for small group discussion, designing youth group merch, or photographing a Sunday service, visual media draws people into something greater than what it appears to be on the surface. I’m honored that I get to have a hand in being that connecting point that draws people in.
Q: How do you think social media is good for implementing the mission/goals? Do you think social media has a negative impact specifically relating to MAC?
A: Social media in a church context is often looked at as just a tool for communicating events and what’s happening in the church. I personally view it as so much more than that — social media is a ministry in itself! I think of how a sermon reel posted in the middle of the week can encourage someone who really needs to hear whatever the content of the reel was. Or maybe someone who is deciding whether or not to go to MAC looks at our profile and sees the smiling faces, relevant topics and our value of excellence and that could be what spurs them on to attend a service.
Q: How do you decide how and what to make when creating content? What inspires you? Photos you want to highlight? Valuable quotes from messages?
A: The driving forces behind what kind of content I share on our socials are engagement and purpose. Photos of people in our church get the most engagement, whether it be from a Christmas Eve service or our community Easter egg hunt, people love seeing the life of the church and they show it through engagement. Key points from Sunday messages is the other main source of content that I share, typically in the form of reels! I avoid sharing events or church news in post form and save those for stories only. One rule I try to abide by is that if it applies to more than 50% of the church body, then it qualifies for an in-feed photo post. Everything else gets shared to stories only. This prevents our profile from becoming a bulletin board of sorts, because who wants to follow that? I also try not to put so much pressure on the quantity of posting and focus more on quality. I often ask myself, “What would I personally want to see in my feed, and how often would I want to see this kind of content?”
Q: Are you motivated by engagement at all? Do you change your approach or content based on what “works”?
A: I would say yes, engagement definitely motivates me and changes my approach! You can see that by just looking back on the past few years of our social posts, how I shifted in the content I shared because of what was getting engagement. In the beginning, I did a lot of research on what I should be posting as a church social media manager and what I realized is a lot of it comes down to the culture of your church. Yes, you can challenge the culture, but not everything is going to work or “hit” with your congregation and/or followers, and that’s okay!
Q: Do the posts differ from platform to platform? If they do, why is that? What platforms does MAC use?
A: MAC uses Facebook and Instagram, with more emphasis on Instagram. Instagram just gets much better engagement, so that tends to be where more of my focus goes.
Q: Do you think about audience? Do you actively try to think about reaching outside of the established group?
A: Usually I think about reaching outside of the established group when we have a big event that we want people from the Missoula community to know about. That’s usually when I run ads!
Q: Do you abide by an aesthetic? Font type? Color? Music? Format? If so, do you think that helps promote or draw people MAC or the content?
A: In the early days of my job (I started in 2020), I highly valued having a consistent aesthetic. Now, I place higher value on the quality of content, followed by making it cohesively fit in on our profile grid. Since I focus more on photos of people and less on announcements, I worry about the overall aesthetic a lot less! I also lean toward more minimalist design if there are fonts/colors involved. I think people are drawn to authenticity, so I don’t feel the need anymore to try too hard to abide by a certain look. With that being said, I still really want it to look good! I use the same presets across all the photos I post and I try not to go crazy with fonts or design. I aim to make reel thumbnails generally match the overall vibe as well.
Q: How has social media changed and changed things for MAC? Has it impacted fundraising, attendance, reputation, etc?
A: I can’t say for sure if social media has made a noticeable impact on our fundraising, attendance, or reputation. I don’t currently have an effective way to gauge that. When I do hear of someone who started attending our church because they found us on Instagram, that’s so encouraging and super exciting! I think our online presence is very important. A lot of people refer to an organization’s online presence and make judgments with what they see. If I can honestly reflect the heart of MAC in the content I share, then hopefully I’m doing a good job!
Q: What, if anything, would you like to change? Is there something you’re working toward?
A: Honestly, since I do so much in my job, social media sometimes doesn’t get the attention it deserves and I don’t have the mental capacity to think about how I can make it better and try new things. I would love to pass it off to a young person who’s willing to do the trendy videos and have fun with it!
Q: What advice do you have for someone entering the world of content creation?
A: I would say to filter through all the advice and don’t feel the need to do everything all the “experts” say. Consistency is key, but so is quality. Don’t just post something to check it off your to-do list. Make sure your content is worth “stopping the scroll” for. Social media often gets a bad rap and can very easily turn into negative space, so make sure your contributions to it are positive and not divisive.
Tessa Macklin is a student in UM School of Journalism’s Social Media and Audience class, which conducted Q&A’s with journalists and content creators to learn about some best practices for these platforms. Macklin currently works for the University’s student newspaper, the Montana Kaimin.
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