Website and Social Media for Ministry Online Course

I have had the great opportunity to work with Christian Leadership Alliance and Azusa Pacific University in creating as well as facilitating the Website and Social Media Ministry Course using The iChurch Method. This 10 week course is designed to provide church leadership and tech staff with a better understanding of how to implement an effective online ministry presence. Give them a better understanding of how to create an effective ministry website and the benefits of it. The best ways to integrate multimedia into the church website and how to keep users engaged. How to implement online stores and online donation modules that create secure online transactions. How to provide inspiration, information and communication within the context of social media and take ministry to the people.

This online course can help your ministry go to the next level and better utilize your websites and social media networks. Sign up TODAY

The iChurch Method - Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Since I have released The iChurch Method Vol. 2, I have been getting the same question, what’s the difference between the two books? And, which one should you buy?

First and foremost, the two books is that they are continuations of each other. They both focus on the five areas of The iChurch Method, which is websites, multimedia, eCommerce, social media and mobile. The difference between them is that vol. 1, How to Advance Your Ministry Online is the basics of The iChurch Method and vol. 2, Changing the World When You Login, is the advanced version of The iChurch Method.

Here is a breakdown

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Vol. 1 - How to Advance Your Ministry Online Websites Objectives of a Website Using a CMS (Content Mgmt System) Website Layout Multimedia Podcasting Live Streaming for FREE Archived Video Adding media to websites eCommerce Basic Online giving setup Basic Online store setup Social Media Social Media Strategy - Part 1 Sharing content from website Facebook/Twitter basics Mobile Mobile Websites

Vol. 2 - Changing the World When You Login Websites Advanced websites with Responsive design. Search Engine Optimization Analytics Multimedia Internet Church Campus Google Hangouts eCommerce Online giving forms Offline Commerce Social Media Social Media Strategy - Part 2 Visual Social Media Mobile Social Media Mobile Mobile Apps

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The reason I have two books is that technology is always evolving and changing, therefore in order for organizations to keep up, they need books and trainings that are always evolving and changing. I will continue to publish The iChurch Method volumes as long as necessary to keep ministries updated on current technologies.

The Nines Leadership Conference

This year I have the great opportunity to speak at The Nines Leadership Conference. I will be speaking on Social Media and "What's Working" for us at The Potter's House of Dallas. I have had the great opportunity to see the social media at TPH grow from a few hundred fans to over three million social media fans. Thus, I look forward to sharing about what worked, what didn't and how your organization can achieve those results. My speaking time is below and as you can see it's Wednesday, November 13 at 12:19pm EST or 11:19am CST, so make sure you REGISTER TODAY.

How to Quickly Analyze and Optimize Your Website

Here are a few key tips to analyze and optimize your website...

Measure and Compare How many visitors does your website receive each day? Which pages do they visit? How long do they stay? Web analytics answers these questions. It is like having someone tell you how close your ball is on the green after you have hit it from the fairway. With information from web analytics, you can make adjustments on your site and improve the user's experience. Web analytics can be obtained for free by using software such as Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Once you have your website up and running, there are two ways users can find you: knowledge and search. Knowledge happens several ways. The user may come to your church and receive literature with your website on it. Later, they access the site and begin exploring. As I hopefully hammered home above, social media is a big way users find your church. When their friend shares something and links your church, the user now knows about it. Knowledge of your church is great but the best way to reach folks who don’t know you exist or have friends who don’t know you exist is through search. When I type “Nondenominational Church in Dallas” in the Google search bar, The Potters House church pulls up twice. If I was looking for a church, I have a 20% chance of checking out their website. Another example is “divorce recovery in Dallas.” Both Watermark Community Church and Fellowship Church show up in the front page. So how did these churches land there? SEO.

SEO is a strategy that you can implement to bring your site up to the first page of key searches. It uses a combination of key words on your site and in your content and linking of your site to other sites. No one knows the exact mathematical formula for how Google, Bing and Yahoo! rank each site but programmers who specialize in SEO know how to increase the visibility of your website and get it up in rankings. And the higher it goes, the more traffic your website gets.

For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of "The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online." or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.

The iChurch Method TV - Ep. 12 - Developing Online Content Strategies

Continuing The iChurch Method TV series, I was asked a question about helping a church develop online content strategies. Here is the transcript of the video above:

First I would ask them what you consider an ideal membership for you right now. If you’re trying to get a million members for your church then we can look at that. If you just want 1000 people and that’s as many as you feel you can handle then we can look at that as well.

Once we establish that then we start looking at the content that the ministry is putting out; how often are you preaching, what other content do you have such as announcements, what other leadership in your ministry is pushing out content. We start gathering all that content together. Once we look at all the content that the ministry is putting out, then we start figuring out how we can distribute it—whether it be social media—we look at the website and what information is on there, and we just start looking at how many different ways we can distribute that information. Continuing with that, we look at multimedia because we want to look at the online video aspect. Do you want to have live online streaming services or would you rather just record your services and archive it and let people watch it later? We ask those questions.

Then we look at online donations; is that something that you want to do. With the content that we were looking at before, do you have enough to start creating digital products? You may not have the resources to create DVDs and CDs but you can create digital products if we’re recording the sermons.

Then we look at, again, social media; is your church ready for that and do you have the resources. I’m not trying to put everything on the pastor. The pastor is gifted at ministering to the people and preaching to the people, so I’m not trying to make the pastor “Mr. Everything” for the church. So, do you have the resources and possibly volunteers to utilize social media? Maybe some young people that are very enthusiastic about it and that are also very enthusiastic about your ministry.

Finally with mobile, I want to help them understand that aspect. When I tell them about just anything with digital ministry they immediately think computer ministry, but I’m trying to help them understand it’s internet ministry, online ministry, so you have to include mobile devices, tablets, and anything that’s going to be internet enabled well into the future. We’re getting into the era of the Jetsons now, so people have to understand, and churches have to understand, that everything is going to be internet enabled.

For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of “The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online.” or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.

The iChurch Method TV - Ep 15 - Ministry Growth Online

Continuing The iChurch Method TV series about ministry growth online, here's the transcript from the video above.

I would tell a minister that basically you could continue to do ministry as you do it for your local and regional reach. Continue to push out the content that you already are; preaching your sermons and ministering the people in the way that you do. But, understand that now it’s going to be packaged and distributed to an international audience.

I’m not trying to tell them to change the way that they do ministry, I’m just letting them know that I’m giving you a larger distribution of the content and of the ministry and taking the gospel to the four corners of the earth.

For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of “The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online.” or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.

Introducing The iChurch Academy

Truly understand and absorb The iChurch Method messages and concepts through our Online School - The iChurch Academy!

Enroll Today at www.ichurchacademy.com

Participants in The iChurch Method online school will enjoy a unique and informative set of courses that delve deep into the concepts presented in both volumes of The iChurch Method books (available for purchase online here – Vol. 1 – Vol. 2).

Although the books will give you the insights and information you need to help take your ministry online and global, many people prefer a more in-depth discussion to answer questions that may come up throughout the course of reading the book.

Each chapter of both Volume 1 and Volume 2 is broken down into a week-long course incorporating videos and additional concepts that will be examined in detail. The courses include not only a chapter by chapter review from an interactive book module, a PDF version of the book for viewing as well and instructional videos that walk participants through a more in-depth, detailed discussion of each concept that will really drive the message home! Of course, a quality course wouldn’t be complete without some Q & A, interactive webinars, group discussions and brief quizzes to be certain that everyone understands the concepts to assure there is no stone unturned.

Courses are at YOUR OWN PACE, there is no set time that they begin or end, it's entirely up to you. We suggest that each course take a week but if you want to move faster or slower, it's entirely up to you.

Get more from The iChurch Method volumes 1 and 2 by signing up for our Online Training Courses today! Dive into the concepts and prepare yourself to head down the path of building your ministry online with a global mindset and get your message out there today!

Join Me at #iMinistry2013 [Updated]

UPDATE: There are two major updates that have occurred since I first published this blog back in September 2013. First and foremost, I will be speaking at the conference on Wednesday, Oct 16 during the Social Media and Online Advertising sessions. Second, the conference will be streaming live at http://go.mediasocial.tv/iMinistry starting at 1pm CST on Tuesday, Oct 15. These two great new happenings have made me even more excited about the conference and look forward to you joining me there or online!! (follow the conversation on social media as well using #iministry2013

Original Post below Last year I was searching for any conferences that incorporated Church and Technology. For some reason, there weren't many (Biola Digital Ministry Conference, iMinistry Conference, TDJ Pastors and Leadership Conference, Echo Conference, Christian Leadership Alliance Conference) and it seems that the church continues to show a blind eye to the advancements in technology and how the church can use technology to reach the masses. But in late August, I found out about the inaugural iMinistry Conference, so I figured I would check it out and I was amazed.

Now, let me preface these next lines by saying, it takes a lot for a conference to impress me, not because it has to be a grand production, but because I am very good at what I do so I need to see quality content being taught in addition to people who are very good at what they are teaching. This was definitely the case at iMinistry Conference, people such as Seth Farrior, Nils Smith (who seems to think just like me, we must be twins), Jason Morris, Jan Touchberry, Nate Merril and a score of others. Many of these aforementioned people I connect with on Facebook/Twitter daily and in the case of Nils, have even traveled with.

This year they are continuing to teach a variety of topics such as Social Media for Ministry (a panel that I will be participating in), Online Church Campuses, Connecting with users online for ministry and much much more. I enjoy a conference like this because in addition to learning from these very gifted and talented individuals, I enjoy the camaraderie of being around like minds and people with visions to reach the world online for the kingdom.

You should join us this year, register today and get $50 off using the discount code FACEBOOK.

Objectives of an Effective Church Website

When designing a website for your church or ministry, you should start with your basic objectives. Ask yourself some hard questions, and take copious notes. What do you hope to accomplish with your website? Who is your target audience? With some exceptions, a church's website has three basic objectives: • To assist those who are looking for a church to attend, whether in person or online; • To keep members up to date on current events, church activities and so forth; • To provide spiritual content to help members grow in their faith.

Depending on your ministry, you may have slightly different objectives. Consider how the ones listed above apply to your own ministry, and write down different ones if need be. You will want to refer back to this in designing your website.

Website Design Criteria

Next you should consider some basic design criteria. This applies to all websites, whether for a church, a business or any other venture. Unfortunately, too many people disregard these factors and create websites that are entirely too busy, cluttered and difficult to use. If your website is not visually pleasing, easy to navigate and above all, useful and informative, potential visitors will leave and not return.

Build your website following these five design criteria, and you will have an electronic showplace that invites visitors to come on in and stay awhile:

• Clean and uncluttered. You should have a good mix of content and imagery, easy to read navigation buttons and one or two eye-catching banners to achieve just the right balance between simplicity and variety of content and options; • Informative and full of helpful content; • Interactive, causing the user to engage with the website; • Interesting and engaging; • Provide solutions, through content, multimedia and/or products.

Keep in mind that even though you are a spiritual organization, your basic goals are not altogether different than that of a business; you want to sell your product, to bring in customers, and grow your business. Your website needs to be fresh, informative, and provide some sort of take away value in order to attract visitors. That takes us back to your three main objectives.

If your website provides information about worship services, it is providing a useful service and will attract visitors who are looking for this information. If your website provides information about church activities, it will attract visitors who are already members of your congregation, who are looking for schedules, times and dates.

Finally, if your website is rich in spiritual content, it will bring in visitors who may not yet be members of your congregation but are searching for guidance. Consider posting videos of services or particularly engaging portions of sermons, written transcripts of sermons, helpful advice columns and evangelical blogs, to give visitors a real taste of your ministry.

For more information on this and other topics, get your copy of "The iChurch Method Volume 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online." or The iChurch Method Volume 2: Changing the World When You Login or even sign up for the iChurch Method Online School.