All types of organizations have embraced social, from political to corporate… and yes, even religious.

Churches across the US were surveyed on their social media use for this infographic from Christian-based digital marketing agency Buzzplant, and they revealed that even thousand-year-old institutions can get on the social media train.

Buzzplant surveyed 250 randomly selected churches across the United States on their stance towards social media.

One of the most surprising findings of this survey was that churches believe social media is the most effective form of outreach available. Over 46 percent of those surveyed say that they prefer social to other forms of outreach, such as newspapers (14 percent), knocking on doors (25 percent) and TV (6 percent).

And – probably unsurprisingly to most – Facebook is the social network of choice for US churches. About 45 percent say they update their Facebook Page once a day, and an additional 25 percent say they updated it once a week.

Twitter is the second-most-used social network by America’s churches, followed closely by Google+.

Try comparing this infographic to a recent study by FloatingSheep about the battle between “Church” and “Beer” on Twitter: Church wins, but not in every state!

Check out the infographic below for more on how churches use social media (click to enlarge):

(Infographic courtesy of BuzzPlant; San Agustin Church, Intramuros, Manila image via ~MVI~ on Flickr)