What is Your Ministry's Web Strategy?

The 2011 Echo conference in Dallas was a great one based on the articles and notes that I have seen come from there. I have no excuse for not being there since I am located in Dallas, but I will be there next year and the following years.

A great article I found from the Echo Conference came from Drew Goodmanson (CEO of Monk Development and the co-founder/pastor of Kaleo Church) and it was about an overall Web Strategy (http://churchjuice.com/blog/develop-a-powerful-web-strategy-echo-2011-notes/). Here are a few key points from the article:

• Skymall Syndrome. Someone in leadership sees something they think is cool and says we need to do that.
• Ministry schizophrenia. Every ministry within a church is trying to run the website and get prime placement.
• Enough about you let's talk about me. A website totally designed for the organization. Users look at it and say it's a waste of time because it's not for them. It wasn't designed with the user in mind.
• The blind leading the blind. No one has a clear vision.
• You have 43 seconds of someone's initial attention when they come to your website.
• 85% of people say their church website is important place for them to learn more about connecting with the church.
• What is the big idea of why your church exists? It doesn't have to be big, fancy language.
• What is your vision? In the next 18 months, what is that going to look like? Don't plan more than two years in advance because things are always changing.
• Who are your current people and who do you want to reach? Take a survey to see what they want. If you don't know your people, your tools won't be effective.
• How do you manage internet presence? How are you represented across different platforms? If you have a great website and no one visits, does it exist?
• How are you being found? Are you listed on MapQuest, Google local listing and Yelp?
• How do you choose content management solutions for web development? How do you control what people can put on the website? Are you helping people know the church's voice and style you use to communicate?
• Do you have a mobile site or apps? It can be expensive to build your own app. Mobile websites with all the information isn't as good as scaling it down to what people are probably looking for (directions, latest message, visitor info, etc.). Keep a click though where folks can go to the full site from their mobile device.

There is much more to this article, check it out - http://churchjuice.com/blog/develop-a-powerful-web-strategy-echo-2011-notes/

Five Key Social Media Strategy Points

The 2011 Echo conference in Dallas was a great one based on the articles and notes that I have seen come from there. I have no excuse for not being there since I am located in Dallas, but I will be there next year and the following years.

A great article I found from the Echo Conference came from Scott McClellan and it was about Social Media Content and Strategy (http://churchjuice.com/blog/more-than-a-profile-social-media-strategy-ech0-2011-notes/). Here are a few key points from the article:

Five verbs that should be a part of your social media strategy.

Listen. People are talking, but what if we started with listening? What if we used it like a grandma who just likes to look at pictures of the grandkids? As a church, you could follow people in your church to get a feel for what they care about. If there's a community you're trying to serve, follow and listen to them.

Converse. Social in social media implies that it's two way. Churches are good broadcasters and trying to port that to social media fails. It doesn't send the message you want. It says, "I'm important and you're only as important as the stuff of mine you click on." As organizations we love to broadcast. Conversing is different than what we do lots of time as a church.

Share. It sounds a lot like broadcasting, but it's different in mindset. Sharing is about giving gifts to people. Broadcasting is drawing eyeballs. Sharing is about saying here's something you might like even though we didn't create it. Or if you did make it, tell why you created something for someone.

Tell stories. This is difficult in 140 characters. short blog formats or short videos. Committing to telling stories commits you to observing stories. You start listening as you walk through the church, or as you follow people on twitter, in a different way because you're looking for a story to tell.

Invite. Social media gives us the power to invite people into the work God is doing and the stories God is telling. It allows the stories we tell to spread (when we're telling good stories).

These Five Verbs sum up social media strategy very well. There is much more to this article, check it out - http://churchjuice.com/blog/more-than-a-profile-social-media-strategy-ech0-2011-notes/

Online Church...Social Media...The Great Comission

The 2011 Echo conference in Dallas was a great one based on the articles and notes that I have seen come from there. I have no excuse for not being there since I am located in Dallas, but I will be there next year and the following years.

A great article I found from the Echo Conference came from Justin Wise and it was about Social Media Effectiveness (http://joshburns.net/2011/07/28/echo-11-justin-wise-social-media-effectiveness/). Here are a few key points from the article:

• Internet now leads television as 'most essential' medium
• This is culture in which we are doing ministry
• 61% of respondents said that the church website was very important as to whether they would attend the church
• 88% of 18-27 year olds said that the church should use social media
• The stats go down as the age goes up.
• Regardless of age, we're all social networking.
• Top three social sites people are using – Facebook, Video site, Twitter. The rest are blog, private community, photo site
• How are you using social media to create awareness? To get people connected in community? To foster engagement with your online community?
• What is most effective in creating awareness?
• Engaging your online community – 2 different types
• What is least effective? Engaging a broad, public audience (everything to everyone)
• Google analytics just pulled in social analytics
• How often should you update your status on Facebook or twitter, and when should you post?
• Craft your content not just for your community, but for your platform, Facebook, twitter, etc.

These key points emphasize the fact that the internet and social media will play a key role in the future of ministry. Yes, we will continue to do traditional ministry as we have before with the church and the four walls and the pulpit, but there is another facet of ministry that is emerging where an online audience is the recipient of the ministerial tools of the church. Young adults that are online will start to identify themselves with ministries and churches that they have never set foot in, they will start to create an online community that will be an online extension of the church. The church should embrace this transition and embrace online ministry, it's one of the best ways to take the gospel to the four corners of the earth and fulfill the Great Commission.

Social Media Strategy

Our good friends over at Vocus have provided a great social media development strategy worksheet that ministries can utilize to help create an effective social media strategy. This interactive module asks specific questions to help formulate a social media strategy that would be beneficial to the ministry. If you are in a hurry you can click on the PDF option at the bottom of the module and download the social media strategy worksheet and complete it at your leisure.

http://www.vocus.com/social-media-strategy/index.asp