Best Social Media Account: Archdiocese of Vancouver

Why did the Archdiocese of Vancouver receive First Place for Best Social Media Account and Honorable Mention for Best Use of Social Media at the 2025 Catholic Media Associations’ annual conference?

The Catholic Media Conference took place June 25–28 in Phoenix and awarded the archdiocese with a combined 21 awards, 2 of which were for social media.

The judges commented that, 

“The Archdiocese of Vancouver’s Facebook account effectively presents the archbishop’s voice with clarity and consistent engagement. The submission demonstrates strong visual branding and an established platform that fosters community dialogue.”

So, what’s so special about the archdiocese’s efforts?

In a word, faces!

You Can’t Be Successful on Social Without Personal Connections

Even clips of funny cats, disasters, and beautiful vistas have some sort of personal connection embedded in them, whether between the content creator and viewer, or within the story being told.

Anything successful on social media is social. The content carries meaning, has a hero, an obstacle, and a goal. Whether it’s the bond around beliefs, laughter, family, friends, experiences, successes, or relatable struggles, it’s all about connection to others.

What Vancouver is doing well is focusing on that personal connection. While many accounts, religious and secular, get stuck on faceless graphics, meaningless promo, and other wasted efforts, Vancouver is posting a lot of faces and personal connection.

The posts below emphasize connection in various ways. Every one of them features familiar places and faces paired with meaningful stories that eliminate the need for us, the viewers, to figure out what’s going on or why we should care.

Here’s a more detailed example. This carousel about the dedication of a chapel could have rested on the strength of the images and the story contained in the headline. But a better post tells the story of the religious order, the story of conceiving, funding, and building the chapel, the meaning of this moment, and the impact on the sisters and the people close to them.

What can we learn?

Instead of “we had a great time at our event,” explain why the event was important, who was there, the problem to be solved, and the inputs and outcomes. Invite comments.

Building personal connection forces us to be creative, too. There are posts about guessing the parish based on a photo, stimulating comments. Instead of generic feast day posts, the archdiocese wishes a happy feast to the specific parish whose patron saint is being celebrated, maintaining connections to those local communities. There are stories of converts and vocations that are more than a sentence or a generic “we celebrate,” but a detailed journey the audience can be entertained and inspired by.

The key is photography paired with storytelling in those photos. An album of 73 photos in late August is a perfect example of one event fueling many social interactions that then become tangible faith in real life.

Building a Digital Cathedral on Instagram

The archdiocese is building a beautiful space to connect and grow on Instagram, too.

A “digital cathedral” is not a building made of pixels. It is a beautiful space of worship where people want to gather, praise God, and be a community of faith. It mirrors a brick and mortar cathedral where the faithful cry, talk about their pain and frustrations, pray, seek guidance, lean on the strength of others, and bask in the beauty of God’s house.

The archdiocese’s Instagram is another great example of this approach. Scrolling through the feed, we find faces of clergy and laity. We find long detailed post descriptions telling stories, rather than short, flat statements or generic phrases.

We see smart uses of video and carousels, two of the most engaged formats across all social.

We Need the Church on YouTube!

We shouldn’t settle for the influencers, Catholic or otherwise, on YouTube. It’s great to see the archdiocese experimenting with Shorts, community posts, and storytelling.

So many dioceses stick to the Sunday Mass livestream, press statements, or promotional slow-motion videos with b-roll and a call to action. But YouTube is much more than a depository for campaigns and Mass.

It’s a place to entertain, go behind the scenes, and evangelize.

There are some great ideas on Vancouver’s YouTube that I’d encourage the comms team to reignite. “Ask Fr. Nick” engages the spirit of confusion of our age. People are hungry for answers to questions and concerns in the grittiness of life. Not abstract theological truth, but everyday problems. Who doesn’t like behind the scenes and personal testimony?

How Does the Archdiocese of Vancouver Take Digital to the Next Level?

The awards from the Catholic Media Association are rightly earned! The archdiocese has already planted the seeds and gone where other dioceses haven’t trod.

To improve social even further, here are three recommendations.

1. Evangelize

• This means posting more Q&A, cultural, and controversial topics, beginning with the question, problem, news story, misunderstanding, etc., and presenting the answer, correction, Church’s teaching, whatever is needed. Most Catholics are distant, lukewarm, and fallen away. They, like the devout, struggle with family conflict, hard teachings, God’s existence, suffering, God’s goodness, relating to the saints, politics, economic hardship, whom to trust, how to grow, how to pray, and so much more.
• This is the age of evangelization. We are post-Christian in North America and need the institutional Church to get into the cultural conversations that have the most influence on our lifestyles and habits.
• Use videos, Reels, and carousels with detailed personal storytelling to deliver the evangelization.

2. Know the Preferred Platforms of Catholic Personas

• Older, more devout Catholics likely use Facebook and YouTube, though YouTube has cross-generational appeal. Younger personas prefer Instagram. Teens like TikTok and Snapchat as well. X is for news, LinkedIn reaches leaders, while Pinterest reaches moms. If you know your audience and their preferences, you can better tailor your strategy and content to them.
• Don’t stop with the choir. Most Catholics blend into Protestant and secular audiences. The way to reach them is by mixing faith with sports, hobbies, influencers, politics, and culture, beginning with what the audience likes to look at and ending with how Christ is the only way to happiness.

3. Amplify Parishes

• Dioceses have the resources that many parishes do not. But the parish is the heart of Christian life because it is the home of the Eucharist. Influencers can earn awareness and point people in the right direction, but all roads lead back to the Mass at a local parish.
• Amplify parishes and ministries who find it difficult to maintain digital communication and marketing. Collaborate with influencers to fill pews and adoration chapels. The more the Church understands how to engage lukewarm audiences, build trust, and connect on a human level through laughter, service, and hard questions, the more people will come back to the divine and the profound.

Well done, Archdiocese of Vancouver!

Let’s be inspired to build digital cathedrals across North America.

How does a diocese get started on this path? Learn more about our Health Checks. Join the conversation! Shoot us an email at info@yellowlinedigital.com and follow us on LinkedIn.