Church Social Media and Technology Presentation Excerpt

In July I was in LA for the FICWFM conference and presented a session on Church Social Media and Technology. Here is a short excerpt from the session and as soon as the final version is edited and released I will have it here on The iChurch Method. [ylwm_vimeo height="400" width="600"]46858607[/ylwm_vimeo]

The Church website, a powerful ministry tool

I heard a stat recently that made me stop in my tracks and really think about it, the stat was that 60% - 75% of new visitors to churches check out the church’s website prior to visiting. Now let’s think about that for a second, the majority of new visitors to a church are first introduced to the church via the website. That means that the website immediately becomes one of the most important parts of the ministry. How many times have you seen a church’s website and just shook your head at the lack of quality that the website displayed. I understand that there are many churches that have limited budgets and are not able to invest thousands into a new website but there are low cost solutions to make sure the website delivers the same quality ministry that someone would receive if they stepped into the church building.

If churches understood how important a ministry tool that the website is and gave it the same attention they give ministry items such as church buildings, internal ministries and sanctuaries, then we would see more high quality websites that engage and connect with people prior to them coming to the actual church. Don’t pay attention to all the things you traditionally viewed as important within a church and negate the website because many people are looking at the website as an extension of the church.

Now let’s teach, if you would like to know some ways to enhance your website there here are some helpful tips.

When people come to your website they are usually looking for service times, directions and contact information. Also, if you are streaming weekend services then they are looking for that as well.
There are free services such as Google Sites (sites.google.com) and Wix (wix.com) that offer websites that churches can easily make and initially establish an online presence. But do not rely on free solutions for an extended period of time, start off on those sites and then graduate to your own website on your own server, something built by a web designer/developer and hosted on a service provider like GoDaddy (godaddy.com).
Make sure people can get anywhere on your website within 2 - 3 clicks.
Don’t try to cram everything about the ministry onto the homepage, it makes your ministry homepage look like an online hoarding location. Less is better on the homepage, stick to large banners, an online video, social media icons, and key links to things that people are looking for.
Purchase The iChurch Method and learn How to Advance Your Ministry Online.

Church Technology, bring the people in or take ministry to the people?

I was having a conversation with a childhood friend (who is now a pastor) about Church and Technology and we came to a crossroads about how we thought churches should utilize technology. We both agree that churches should use technology to reach people and expand the outreach of the ministry, but he asked me how often does technology result in additional people in the sanctuary. My approach to technology and the entire premise of The iChurch Method was to use technology to take the ministry to the people. I developed a strategy that would inform your local congregation and give them a way to connect with the ministry online, increase your online audience that is not local by providing them online tools to connect and providing information for future church supporters by positioning the ministry to be accessible in numerous ways via technology. To help churches make sure they were taking ministry to the people, a supplement to their base premise of creating a location for people to come, get healed, change their lives and participate in ministry.

It never occurred to me that there was a focus by pastors to utilize technology to get people into the sanctuary OVER building an online audience and increasing the supporters that may never set foot inside the church. It appears easy for pastors to understand tv ministries and using TBN or The Church Channel to broadcast their churches to millions around the world and look for donations from their tv supporters, whom may never step foot into the sanctuary. But there seems to be a disconnect by these same pastors when it comes to building an online ministry using video, social media, mobile devices and streaming to build an online audience that they may never see but will still support the ministry via online donations.

Therefore, I believe that churches, ministries, pastors and Christianity in general will need to embrace technology, invest in online ministries, websites, mobile solutions and social media. Churches will need to continue to take the ministry to the people and make sure whatever device a person picks up, their ministry is accessible from it and accept the fact that online audiences will continue to grow and the church will have supporters that they see every weekend for services and supporters that they don’t see but still embrace the church as well. What are your thoughts on Churches embracing technology?

FICWFM conference event (Updated with Presentation)

On Thursday, July 26, 2012 I taught at the FICWFM conference in Los Angeles, CA. It was a session on How Churches can best use Social Media and other aspects of the iChurch Method. The session was a great success and many churches were able to get a better grasp of how to use technology and social media to advance their ministry online.

Here is the PPT presentation from my session - FICWFM social media conference presenation (PDF file).

Mobile Websites vs. Mobile Apps

Most recently at a conference I was asked which mobile option should a church take, a mobile website or a mobile app? This question seemed to quickly get the attention of all the attendees at the conference because a strange hush came over the room in anticipation of my answer. Thus, I took a deep breath and said with all confidence, “Both...now let me explain”. I am a proponent of mobile apps, I thoroughly love my iphone and ipad and the numerous (128) apps that I have installed. I also have an Android phone with apps installed as well. The apps and their native integration into the operating system of the phone makes their usage much easier than a mobile website. Unfortunately, apps are phone specific and each app is limited to the phones that have that operating system, while mobile websites can be programmed for numerous phone because all of the latest smartphones have HTML5 Webkit enabled updated mobile web browsers.

A mobile website is the first step in a mobile web strategy therefore prior to a church investing in mobile apps, they should create a mobile website. One mobile website can encompass numerous mobile smartphones and that should be the focus of the mobile website, to reach as many mobile devices as possible. Initially, I used to say to only create a HTML Webkit enabled mobile website that will work with the latest mobile browsers but after attending the Biola Digital Ministry Conference, I learned that an even more scaled down mobile website should be created by the church to reach people in developing countries with limited mobile access. People in developing countries most often can only access the internet from mobile devices that have slow connections and therefore your church mobile website for this audience should load very quickly and not have too much going on. Remember, in order to do this you need to create a high level mobile website and a low level mobile website and program it to load either site depending on the connection and mobile device the user is on.

Therefore, let’s recap, if you are creating a mobile strategy for your church you first want to create a mobile website that can reach numerous mobile devices. Next, you want to create mobile apps for the iphone/ipad, next android, and finally windows mobile devices since those seem to be gaining attention as of the last few months. What’s your mobile strategy for your church or business?

Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Facebook Newsfeed Optimization

According to Wikipedia, Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural," or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic"), search results. For quite a few years I have been familiar with SEO and the benefits of appearing higher in search engine results, specifically Google. As I have continued to help websites with their SEO, I have dealt with Google changing the search engine algorithm and thus making my strategy obsolete as I have had to relearn the new steps to improve search engine results. It’s not the easiest thing to do but it has been quite a task for ministry and business websites. While reading http://allfacebook.com/news-feed-optimization-seo-facebook_b92006 last week I was introduced to a new term, Facebook Newsfeed Optimization. This is the approach to get stories and posts on facebook into as many people’s newsfeeds as possible. Facebook uses the EdgeRank formula to sort newsfeeds, the EdgeRank formula is based on how Facebook judges the closeness of two people (or a person and a brand), how valuable an activity is (sharing a photo is better than clicking “like,” for instance), and how long ago it took place. Precisely how these factors are measured is not revealed, and, like Google, Facebook is constantly making tweaks.

Therefore, when you are developing your online strategy, as you have your webmaster make sure your website is search engine optimized, make sure you have your social media manager make sure your facebook strategy is newsfeed optimized to your audience. To do this you need to go to edgerankchecker.com and connect via facebook and let them check your fanpage and analyze your audience, this will give you important data such as when to posts, what posts are most impactful and what the audience likes best.

Amazon Cloud Computing Outage? Cause for Concern?

I was just reading Managing risk in the wake of Amazon's cloud outage and it discussed the outage that occurred last week where the cloud servers at Amazon went down. The issues were said to occur due to bugs in the code or inclement weather, depending on which source you read. With that being stated, here are my thoughts on the dependability of cloud computing. In the early 2000s I was working in corporate america for a variety of companies because I was a web developer consultant. I had the opportunity to see a variety of organizations IT structure and how they reacted to the monthly and even weekly server issues that occurred within the company. Microsoft Outlook email would go down, Intranet server would go down, Internet connectivity would go down and every time a vital service went down, no one panicked or questioned the use of the service, they just waited until it was resolved. Yes, millions of dollars was being lost in man hours due to the lack of productivity during this downtime but there was never a mention of removing the Microsoft office servers or any other servers as our solutions.

Now, since the cloud is a viable solution to help small businesses compete with larger corporations and grow from a one man website into a fortune 500 company, it appears to come under attack more often than not. The cloud, and more specifically Amazon cloud solutions and even Google’s cloud solutions have a very successful uptime rate that is upwards of 95% - 98%, that’s extremely higher than what we dealt with in the early 2000s and for a fraction of the costs. When Netflix, Instagram and Pinterest went down last week, it wasn’t the cloud that we were upset with, it was the fact that these services that we depended on went down and someone had to take the blame. When in reality, we could’ve all been patient and waited a few hours or a day for Amazon to fix the issue and we go back to life as normal.

Companies need to make sure they have redundancy plans in place and backup sites available but the best lesson for working in the cloud was the title of this article - How to deal with cloud failure: Live, learn, fix, repeat.

Biola University Digital Ministry Conference

Last week I attended the Biola University Digital Ministry Conference (http://events.biola.edu/bioladigital/), and it was a very informative, innovative conference.  There were amazing speakers there and even though I didn’t get a chance to attend every session, I did attend some good ones and learned some very interesting things. Ranging from mobile ministry strategies, web content strategies and where digital ministry will be in 20 years, I think that overall the conference consisted of educated digital ministry specialists teaching other digital ministry specialists.  With that being stated, here are my notes from the conference.

• FaithVillage.com did a session on their christian social media platform.  This social media platform is the next step in the evolution of social media and a great place for christians and non-christians to network, interact, learn, shop and operate in a great online environment.  I am sure there is more to FaithVillage.com and I look forward to visiting their offices which are located near our offices.

• MobileMinistryMagazine.com founder Antoine Wright did a session on mobile ministry strategies and it was a great session indeed.  First and foremost, he taught the session from a mobile phone, the slides and entire presentation was from his Nokia phone.  Not my phone of choice (iPhone fan here) but the “practice what you preach” was in full effect for this session.  
• Coca Cola’s mobile strategy is 70/20/10 - 70% sms, 20% website, 10% apps.  Most people think that apps and mobile websites are the first steps in a mobile strategy but SMS was surprisingly the most effective approach.
• 52% of new phone purchases in the US are smart phones
• 70% of mobile web use is searching
• Before you get started develop a strategy that answers “what are my mobile goals” and “what are my mobile issues”.
• opera mini is the most used mobile website
• main questions of mobile users initially (and even non mobile users) is “where is the church located” and “what time is the service”
• mobify.me (web service that takes a website and makes it mobile) works with wordpress
• Develop a strategy for users that have less that smartphones, which is quite a few users of developing nations where bandwidth is at a premium.
• Going from a mobile website to a mobile app is whole bunch easier then going from app to website. Build the website and from there take the best parts of it and add that to an app.
• Dont add high res photos and anything that add unnecessary downloading
• Dont add complex features
• Dont limit your website to just high end mobile devices

• VisualStoryNetwork.org Clyde Taber gave a great explanation of Visual Ministry and the continuing transition of the entire online audience moving to a majority visual exprience online.  Also, there was a strong emphasis on telling a compelling story online.  Your ministry’s online properties should tell your story and not just try to push information.
• People are talking and reading less, viewing and social networking more
• A good book example is by Nicholas Carr - The Shallows - our brains are being reconfigured to consume information and push it out in small bursts
• The internet has gone visual
• Youtube is the second largest search engine
• People are becoming visual
• People love a story
• Know your audience
• Know your goals
• Know your technology

• Digital Ministry Trends session was about what trends are apparent in digital ministry today and what will be relevant in the next 20 years.  There was one consensus about anything digital, forecasting one year out is good, three years out is possible and five years out is just guessing, anything further than that really is pointless because technology will move faster than you think and the intangibles come into play.
• Social networks are integrated with everything online
• Everything will begin online, including ministry (85% of young people check out a website online before coming in and choose church based on website)
• The majority of churches ministry starts on the website.  
• 17% of searches now include a map or geographic feature
• Still many low-tech areas and people, billions are entering from the developing world and rural america
• For global reach you need low bandwidth sites and high bandwidth sites
• Your internet reputation is everything, you are being evaluated and researched online before people even come in the door.
• People are initially looking for location, service time, and children's ministry.
• Content needs to go from device to device
• Format wars (Apple, Android, Windows) will continue into near future but finally a universal format will win out
• Keep it simple
• Most people hate technology but use it because they have to.  They don’t want to feel confused, helpless or stupid.
• Live chat boxes will be helpful, people want instant interaction
• Customer service will be a winning factor
• Mobile devices have changed the entire landscape of the internet and they have been the fastest adopted technology in the history of mankind.
• Social Media will lead to a more customized internet experience and that is what people will come to expect.

• Web Content Strategy session with Drew Goodmanson from MonkDev.com. This was easily one of the best sessions of the conference.  Drew and his company Monk Development has been one that I have been following for quite a long time and I have went out to San Diego and met with them and talked about opportunities to further work with them.  Therefore, I was very much looking forward to Drew’s session and learning quite a bit from him.  
• There are 6 web strategy problems that most ministries have
1. Skymall syndrome - whatever the church sees it wants to do without thinking about strategy
2. Ministry schizophrenia - people more dedicated to their ministry within the church than the entire church vision
3. ministry narcissism - ministry web strategy is designed for internal people and not the normal world. They don’t know who is visiting their website, what they want and they expect people to figure out what the ministry is trying to say.
4. Blind men and the elephant - no one has experience building a website to reach the people. they believe that their previous experience is what makes them qualified to do this project.
5. Death by committees - technology moves fast, the decision process is extremely slow
6. Volunteer hostage situation - volunteer holds website hostage

• Discovery phase in developing website strategy consists of:
1. How are people using your ministry and website?
2. Survey members, do interviews. Use them for validation of what you are doing or want to do, not discover a whole bunch of new ways because you will lose focus of what you are trying to complete.
3. Use your previous website analytics
4. Plan your social media content calendar
5. Realize that your website is the first connection for people
• The church is a corporation, cause and a community

Overall, this was a great conference and I look forward to participating again next year.

Evolution of Digital Ministry

I was reading an article on the evolution of digital ministry and it gave a good explanation of where the church had been and where it was today. I spoke about this just last week at the Pastors and Leadership Conference in Orlando Florida. I explained to people that my job within the ministry was to make sure the ministry was able to utilize the most current technology that is available today as well as forecast where technology was going and make sure the ministry would be able to utilize that as well. As I read about where digital ministry had been, I started to see a more clear picture of how it got to where it is today and where it is going. Here is a recap: In 2000…Websites An increasing number of churches recognized the value of a church website. It was a digital land rush where most sites served as a digital billboard or brochures highlighting the church’s ministries. Unfortunately, this approach offered little value past the first visit. The website was a one way communication where churches broadcasted information to online users such as service time, location and church information.

In 2003…Multimedia As bandwidth access grew in homes, more churches saw the potential to distribute sermons and other media to a much broader audience than their brick and mortar congregations. Thus they started having archived multimedia on their website (audio and video) and using flash on their websites.

In 2006…Ecommerce Content management systems rose to popularity as churches took control of maintaining their own content through blogs, event calendars, and other features. Church websites transitioned from being a static brochure to a dynamic magazine. The arrival of e-commerce came with online donations and online stores.

In 2009…Social Media Many churches start implementing streaming sermons, social media (Twitter and Facebook), and some offer a church online experience (internet campus v1) complete with worship, sermons, instant chat, and online prayer.

In 2012…Mobile (and more social media) Due to smart phones, mobile web browsing is surging, but most church sites are clunky to navigate in a mobile browser. Church apps and mobile sites are becoming more interactive and facilitating a way to interact and communicate with the ministry. Social media integration is growing with a focus on social streams and social sharing of church content.

In 2015…Internet Campus/Internet TV/The Cloud With 4G and eventually 5G internet access the cloud will become a larger player in bringing technical costs down in online ministry. Online software such as Google Apps and Dropbox will be integrated into ministry technical solutions and work will not be limited to onsite at an office but be anywhere via a tablet or other mobile device. Sharing everything via social media will become more common with options such as seamless sharing via the social graph and facebook. Online Interactive Internet Campuses will become more common and triple in numbers. Church attendance will increase 50% but not in actual pew numbers, but due to online members who support churches from their computers and mobile devices. Internet TV will become more common with internet enabled televisions and internet tv devices becoming more powerful and common.

This evolution of digital ministry is the basis for The iChurch Method, as you can see each year highlighted above has a topic that was prevalent at the time next to it and these correspond to the chapters in the iChurch Method book, Websites, Multimedia, Ecommerce, Social Media and Mobile. This is the order we believe that your church online strategy should take. And of course the 2015 hot topics are what the next edition of the iChurch Method will focus on...stay tuned.

How Churches are using Technology, the interview by CW33 news

On Wednesday April 18, 2012, I was interviewed by CW33 about how Churches use Technology. The article was printed here. This whole story was based on a USA today article located here about "More congregations using online tools". The interview was shown on the Monday evening news at 9pm CST and here is the video. [ylwm_vimeo height="337" width="600"]40916919[/ylwm_vimeo]

Ministry and Social Media - Make it Easy to Share

In my book The iChurch Method I talk about how easy it is to setup sharing features on your website using addtoany.com or sharethis.com. Both of these sites have great sharing features that I have implemented on sites that I have created. For 2012, I have decided that my main teaching focus will be “share everything”. I want to make sure that every website, video, photo, graphic and important statement about the ministry is shared with the onilne members via social networks. Now, I already teach about what to post, when to post and who should post to social networks in my chapter on social networks in The iChurch Method, but I want to reiterate that providing sharing tools on your website makes it much easier to let online visitors do the sharing for you. The issue that I run across when I am teaching and consulting ministries is they don’t know how easy it is to turn website visitors into mini-marketers with these share features. Online marketing has a variety of different forms and with social media, and the sharing features, letting people share your site for you with their social media contacts is one of the best and free ways to market your ministry online. Now, let’s explain how easy this is to implement

First let’s look at addtoany.com, go to addtoany.com and click the big blue button that says “Get the Share Button.” Once you click on that, you will get the page below. Now, let’s input the information to get a code for your webpage. First, leave the type as “share/bookmark widget.” Click the share option in the second row as we did below (the one with the icons for Facebook, twitter and email). Next, input the name of your page such as “Ministry homepage.” Then input the URL of the page such as www.ministry.org. Finally, click the blue button “Get Button Code” and the code will popup below the button. Copy and paste that code into your webpage and you are done!!

Next, let’s look at the short process for sharethis.com. First, go to sharethis.com and choose one of the popular button styles. Based on where you want the buttons to go on your website, choose an option that will fit accordingly. I normally choose the third one because I don't need the number counts on the website. Then click the "Get the Code" button.

Next fill out the registration form with your email address, domain name, and password. Click the "Register Button".

This will give you the code for your webpage, copy and paste that code into you webpage and you are done!!

Find out more about social media sharing buy getting your copy of The iChurch Method today.

Can the cloud help the Church?

First and foremost, let’s make sure we clarify that the cloud is a technical term for hosted applications and not an actual cloud or heaven, LOL.  A few months ago I did a post about the cloud and how it could help ministries (http://thenewichurch.com/websites/can-the-cloud-help-ministries/). Today we are going to update that post and give a great explanation of applications that a ministry can use to go to the next level. I did first want to extract a few points from a great post that I read over at Mashable.com about the Pros and Cons of moving your Business to the Cloud http://mashable.com/2011/07/26/cloud-computing-business/ and how this topic can be applied from our church perspective.

First the main benefits of moving to the cloud according to the Mashable.com article are:
It’s scalable. If your business takes off, it’s easy to adjust your computing needs. Most cloud-computing is billed at a monthly rate, like a utility. So, if your business grows, you can just order more server space.

The initial costs is are very affordable. With the cloud, you don’t have to set up a server and spend all the man-hours it takes to get one up and running.

It can save money in other ways. Virtual Office apps located in the cloud make the administrative costs of running a business minimal.

There’s less IT infrastructure staff to manage. With cloud computing, you don’t need to hire a tech team, and a smaller team will save you money on payroll, benefits and more.  

Now let's look at the main drawback:
Your business is in the hands of another company.  If the servers go down of the online applications that you are using, then your business comes to a halt.  Even with SLAs (Service Level Agreements) that guarantee 99.9% uptime, you still have to account for the .1% change that your business is affected and have the appropriate redundancy plans in place.

Now, what are great applications that a ministry could use, that are located in the cloud?  Well here are some great ones to start with:

• File Storage - A central location where files for the ministry can be accessed from laptops, desktops and mobile devices.  Also a place where backups and versions of files are kept as well as a secure environment.
• Dropbox - http://dropbox.com
• Office Software - Email, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Scheduling, Intranet, Photo Management, Analytics and other administrative software that can be accessed from laptops, desktops and mobile devices.  Also, this software has real-time collaboration features where users can work on files simultaneously.
• Google Analytics - http://google.com/analytics/
• Google Apps - http://google.com/apps
• Gmail
• Docs
• Spreadsheets
• Presentations
• Calendar
• Sites
• Reader
• Picasa
• Project Management - Software that includes estimation and planning, scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication, quality management and documentation or administration systems, which are used to deal with the complexity of large projects. This software can be accessed from laptops, desktops and mobile devices.
• Basecamp - http://basecamphq.com/
• Intervals - http://www.myintervals.com/
• Phone and Video Conferencing
• Skype - http://skype.com
• Google Voice - http://www.google.com/voice
• Web Hosting and Content Management Systems
• GoDaddy - http://godaddy.com
• Wordpress - http://wordpress.com
• Social Media
• Hootsuite - http://www.hootsuite.com
• Facebook - http://facebook.com
• Twitter - http://twitter.com
• Youtube - http://youtube.com

Can the cloud help ministries?

With the announcement of iCloud by Apple, cloud computing seems to have gone mainstream.  What was once a topic reserved for tech geeks and IT debates, is now being discussed by soccer moms and middle age men.  Cloud computing has been around for years but not until Apple announced it, did mainstream media truly embrace it.  It seems that when Steve Jobs says “it just works” then it’s easy enough for commoners to embrace it.

I was reading the following article http://www.cringely.com/2011/06/iclouds-real-purpose-is-to-kill-windows/ and this was an interesting take on how iCloud’s real purpose is to kill windows.  Now I don’t necessarily agree with that but I do like the fact that iCloud now brings virtual office software to the forefront.  Google Docs has been around for quite a few years and is a great solution to online documents.  In my opinion, Google Docs is much better prepared to kill Microsoft Office than Apple iCloud, but with mainstream adoption, iCloud does open the conversation for the next generation’s Office software.

The strategy of Apple’s iCloud as well as Google Docs is that they are embraced by the younger generation.  Generation X, Y and I, have access to Google Docs via their google accounts as well as Google’s integration into schools/colleges by offering Google Apps for free.  Likewise, with over 100 million iOS devices being used by numerous young people, iCloud will be available to them on their devices and thus they will take full advantage.  Now, the best part of this strategy is that when you get the young adults and youth to embrace your technology, when they become adult workers, CEO’s and teachers, they will utilize and implement the technology they are comfortable with which will be Google and Apple technology.  

In terms of ministry, virtual office software can help ministries operate more efficiently by allowing them to conduct business anywhere.  If a ministry has a staff of 5 or 500, virtual office software allows them to have the infrastructure of a major corporation for a fraction of the costs.  Google Apps, iCloud and boxnet.com (online storage provider), lets a ministry have email, word processsing, spreadsheets, powerpoint, project management, contact management and a variety of other online software that can be accessed from any device (computer, laptop, tablet, phone) via the internet.  Now the ministry doesn’t have to be done from an office, but can be done anywhere.  If you add in skype video conferencing then you can actually have meetings online and each member can be anywhere in the world.  

I know this is alot to take in but we are in a time now where business is done 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from anywhere in the world and the ministry needs to be able to compete and operate as an efficient business and utilize these tools.  The best part about these tools is that about 10 years ago, a corporation would have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have these tools and it would all be connected to an office.  A company today can get them for a few hundred dollars and they can access it from any internet connected device, so instead of the employees coming to a location to do business, the business comes to them.  And that is the premise of iChurch, to take ministry to the people where they are at using technology.

Email Marketing is not Dead

I have been asked numerous times if "Email marketing is dead" and the answer is "absolutely not".  The best approach to email marketing now is to evolve it.  Take that e-blast and make it work on more levels now.  Integrate new media into the e-blast to make it more effective.  Repurpose that e-blast so that in addition to sending out a blast to people's email addresses, you also use that same content and send it out via social networks and other marketing methods to reach people that may not utilize their email.  Also, you want to make sure that your e-blasts incorporate text, images, video and links to make them much more engaging and interactive. Of course, keep in mind, e-blasts can not actually have video that plays in "all" email clients, but if you have a screen shot of the video inside the e-blast, then when people click the video screen shot, they will be taken to a landing page that should look identical to the e-blast, and they can play the video from there.

So, let's get specific, how should churches and ministries evolve their e-blast content? I'm glad you asked. First, as stated above, integrate optimized vivid images and videos into your e-blasts.  This form of content is very engaging and results in higher click thru's and response rate.  Next, in order to effectively evolve an e-blast you want to repurpose the e-blast content and send it out via other marketing channels such as social networks and blogs.  

So here is an example, ABC ministries has an e-blast for a monthly newsletter.  This newsletter is also located on their website at www.abcmin.org/newsletter/.  Therefore, here is what they can do:

1. E-blast the newsletter out using a service such as constant contact to their email list
2. Put up a new post on their Facebook Fan page saying that the monthly newsletter is out and put a link to it.
3. Send out a tweet from their twitter account saying that the monthly newsletter is out and put a link to it
4. Take the top articles from the newsletter and put blurbs from them on the ministry blog and then have a link back to the actual article in the newsletter from the blog.
5. If there are any videos in the newsletter they can be put on Youtube.com and the facebook fan page with a link back to the newsletter put in the description or on the actual video.

There are numerous other things that can be done to enhance the e-blast and market it but I just wanted to give a few examples to show that email marketing is alive and well, it’s just no longer the lone focus of a marketing strategy, it now has friends that can help market the ministry.

Great content is a necessity

I was watching TV this morning and this AT&T Uverse commercial came one, as I watching the commercial I was trying to figure out what exactly they were trying to sell. As the commercial progressed I noticed they kept saying the name "Marcel". Basically, this commercial was about all the shows, sporting events and anything on TV vying for our attention. They then showed a Uverse feature where you can watch four channels at one time, FOUR CHANNELS AT ONE TIME!

Four channels is a lot of content to consume by one consumer but it brings home a good point, if the content is good, people will not just want a little of it, they want a lot of it. With the advent of the internet (as well as cable) we have conditioned ourselves to consume a multitude of content. When I was young there were only about 13 total TV stations and no internet, thus I only consumed a small amount of content in a given day. On the other hand, today I will spend no less than 12 hours consuming content from the internet via my macbook, iphone, ipad, imac and at&t uverse cable. Therefore, as this commercial showcases, I can watch a channel that shows four channels at once and actually consume that content.

When it comes to your website, you have to offer a multitude of content. Not only do you need to offer content in quantity, but you have to offer it with quality. Therefore you need to offer relevant, informative and thought provoking content as well as update it often.

Content should be easy to understand and written in plain layman's terms in whatever language your ministry put its messages in. Your content should be free of spelling and grammatical errors so that the online reader can focus not the content and not get distracted by the errors.

Content should also be presented in variety and by that I mean in different formats. A good website should have text, images and video. When I was an instructional designer I learned something that I thought was common sense, people learn in different ways. Some people learn by reading, some learn by seeing and some learn by hearing. Thus if you present your content in multiple formats you can reach many more people.

Here are some examples of good content for ministries:

• Welcome video from Pastor
• Vibrant images of church, members and worship services
• Homepage text that details where the church is, service times, who the church is and what the church believes.
• Images of any products the pastor offers
• Video clips of services and sermons
• A detailed self help section for issues that church members or perspective members are facing or want to learn such as faith, finances, baptism, prayer and other topics.

What role should social media play in the church's web strategy

I was doing an interview for a conference I was speaking at and a great question was posed to me. The question was "What role should social media play in the church's web strategy?" As I took a second to think about the question, I came to this conclusion. I believe that social media is a great outreach tool for ministry and should be treated as such. The church should use Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Youtube as additional ways to reach people and expand the online congregation, but not as a main focus of the online outreach as the website is utilized. Social Media is a great free tool but it is controlled by outside companies and should be considered as such, an outside tool for ministry. On the other hand, the church's website is owned by the ministry and should be the focus of all online ministry efforts, very similar to how outreach ministries are extensions of the local church. Online ministry efforts should mimic offline ministry efforts and here are great examples. The church's website (online) should be likened to the church's local building. This is the main place where people gather and get the majority of their ministry and information from the church. The online store is similar to the church's bookstore, a source for products that the church creates as well as other products the church considers important. Social Media is similar to the numerous outreach ministries that the church supports and utilizes to reach the people outside the walls of the buliding. When outreach ministries go out and does ministry for members and non-members of the congregation, they are representing the church and attempting to bring people back to the church to join and support the ministry. Likewise, when content from the church is pushed out via social media, it should have links that go back to the church's website so that people that are on facebook, twitter, youtube or google+ can receive the updates and then click a link back to the church's website for more information.

Just as a church would not focus all it's efforts on a single outreach ministry, the church should not focus it's entire online ministry efforts on social networks, they are just extensions of the website and a way to get people back to the website. A good online strategy should be a website, social media, blog, online store, online donations, email blasts, online video, mobile and online learning. These areas are a good start and even though you may not be able to do them all, add in as many as you can and go from there. If you want a great book on how to take advantage of these online tool then check out The iChurch Method: How to Advance Your Ministry Online.

Ministries should utilize Internet TV

One of the best ways ministries reach large audiences is via television.  Many of the largest megachurches have a complimentary Television Ministry that usually puts their pastor in front of millions every week via television channels like TBN, BET, The Church Channel, ABC Family and The Word Network.  These channels as well as others had high entry fees and the production costs to create professional television show were also barriers to numerous churches establishing a television presence.

Fast forward to today and there are numerous online video options for ministries such as youtube.com, facebook.com, vimeo.com, ustream.tv and even creating your own online campus for archived video viewing.  While these options are great and can create a great online viewing experience for users via their laptops, desktops and mobile devices, they still don’t tap the builtin television audience that traditional channels reach.

Well the future is coming! I was reading an article at Zdnet on Apple TV, Google TV, Roku boxes and the entire Internet TV emerging market.  These new devices are setting up the framework for people to integrate the living room TV, which is prime real estate, with the internet.  The majority of people haven’t integrated the internet into their main viewing televisions but these devices are helping make the process a seamless transition.  Now, the question is, how can ministries take advantage of these emerging opportunities? I’m glad you asked...

Internet TV is mainly ran by apps and the open web, thus instead of ministries having to spend thousands of dollars weekly to keep their television show on the air in your local area, they can create apps for these Internet TV devices one time and update them with new shows for a fraction of the costs.  Google TV uses apps that are similar to the apps you can create for their android phones and tablets. Likewise, Apple TV will open their device up to apps that are similar to what’s created for their iPhone, iPod and iPad devices.  Lastly, Roku devices uses apps that are able to be created in a timely manner and not complex or overwhelming for a programmer.  Overall, the costs of making a ministry app for these devices that people can view from their televisions is vastly less than the cost of running a nationwide television campaign.  Of course, the technology has not reached maturity yet and the majority of people do not have Internet TV devices, but their audiences are growing and the future generations that churches are trying to reach are already familiar with this technology.

If your ministry or church is interested in learning more about Internet TV solutions and how they can take advantage of this upcoming opportunity, please contact us.

Internet Church is coming

Over the last few years I have been watching the Internet Church phenomenon and how it is evolving and taking shape.  Since I find Online Church/Internet Church as the inevitable next step in the evolution of The Church, I have been researching what new technologies and strategies are coming to the forefront and how churches can use these opportunities to advance their ministries online. What I am starting to see are more options for Online Church/Internet Church as well as younger people migrating towards digital ways of connecting to ministries instead of the traditional church interaction of weekly attendance.

Now don’t get me wrong, virtual church attendance will never supplant actual church attendance in terms of importance but I do believe that there are some churches that will need to address the fact that there will be people that will support their ministries, watch their streaming services and consider themselves members of the church and never step foot inside the church. I have seen churches address this with examples of Internet Churches setup by Lifechurch.tv, SaddlebackChurch.com and TDJakes.org.  Another great example of this was the Church on Facebook experiment conducted by Liberty University. I won’t recite the entire article but to sum it up, Liberty University conducted their weekly church service online because the location they were supposed to use was not available.  They used Facebook as the main tool of communication and streamed the services online and interacted with the online audience.  Here is a quote “What is Facebook, after all? It’s a community. What is church, after all? It’s a community. For us, doing church on Facebook isn’t innovative. It’s intuitive,” Moore wrote.  The experiment was a success and a great step for Liberty University to further develop their online church audience, which was more than 61,000 people last year.

There have been a few companies that have arisen to help churches take that next step and create their own online campuses.  Companies such as Streaming Faith and Streaming Church.tv have paid options that are available where a ministry can select a package and these companies provide the entire solution from streaming to social media integration.  But the best option may be coming January 9, 2011 when the most innovative and technologically advanced church, LifeChurch.tv releases their Online Church product for FREE.  This software will allow churches to utilize their own streaming software and integrate it into their online campus software and create that full online campus experience. The only addition that churches will have to supply on their own will be live streaming services and this can be done with FREE websites like www.ustream.tv or www.livestream.com.  

Overall, I believe that many of the larger churches with the resources will adopt these Internet Church/Online Church options within the next year or two but it will take up to five years for it to trickle down to the smaller churches.

What is The iChurch Method?

The iChurch Method is simple: a method to help ministries advance the Kingdom online and take the gospel to the world. It’s a five part approach to taking your ministry online and reaching the world: Part 1: Website – A Great Website that is Easy-to-Use. Part 2: Multimedia – Interactive Multimedia. Part 3: Ecommerce – Online Stores/Online Donations. Part 4: Social Media – Engage and Connect. Part 5: Mobile – The Future of Technology and Ministry.

With these five parts, a ministry can reach and change the world. The iChurch Method book is a MUST READ for every ministry leader who desires to have a global presence online. Caston Digital and CEO Jason Caston, created this method to help all ministries establish a global presence and utilize technology to the fullest, without having to worry about huge financial investments and hiring numerous technical specialists. As explained in the book, this method is as advanced enough for a technical expert to understand, but simple enough for a non-technical church leader to understand.

Order The iChurch Method Book today!!

Ministries Need to have great Customer Service

I have been a customer for about year or so at the local cleaners and have spent quite a bit of money there.  Unfortunately, this last time, the cleaners left numerous spots on my white Air Jordan basketball shorts and I was none to pleased.  I took the shorts back to the cleaners and let the owner know that they messed up my shorts and could she please get the numerous spots out.   Prior to picking my clothes up, I told my wife, if this lady charges me for the cleaners mistake, I will never take my clothes there again.  Well, as soon as she showed me the shorts, spots still there and all, she rang me up for $2.83, and with that I gave her $3.00, told her to keep the change and took my business elsewhere.  That was one of the worst cases of customer service I had ever seen.  That cleaners lost over $400 per month in cleaning services over $2.83, and she didn’t even notice.

Which leads me to my point, customer service is very important whether in business or in  ministry.  One of the main focal points of The iChurch Method is to use technology to provide better customer service for your members.  Whether it be through the website, social media, mobile or any of the numerous ways a member can communicate with the ministry, make sure your ministry acknowledges correspondence when they receive it from members as well as responds in a timely manner.

Here are three good examples your ministry can use to increase it’s customer service capabilities.  First, make sure when a user sends an email or request to the ministry online, use an autoresponder to show that you received the email.  Second, if you have a “contact us” form on your website, make sure you also have a “contact us” form on your mobile site so that people can reach out to the ministry even if they are away from their computer.  Finally, when online users reach out to your ministry using social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, acknowledge and respond to users and let them know that your social media channel is a two way, interactive, street.