What social media foundations can you lay at your church to make your online ministries more effective? By creating good processes and having the discipline to adhere to them, you will bolster interactions on your various platforms, and boost traffic to your websites. This article contains tips on creating and recycling content, defining and sticking to a schedule, as well as curating and automating your publishing process. The end result should be a vibrant and flourishing online church community.
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Tag: Tutorial
Church Social Media: Getting Started
Social media is a buzzword that has been circulating for a while now, and I think it is about time I write a series that really digs into how your church can harness its power. If your church dabbled in social media before and got no results, that singular and probably disjointed venture left a bad taste in your mouth. Perhaps you have yet to do anything because you are afraid to venture in. Many churches think it will consume too much time, and pastors and leadership shy away from it. The worst scenario is that you think it is a waste of time, with no measurable or tangible results. Regardless, please give church social media another glance as we look at it from a more integrated and strategic perspective.
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 32: Getting Started: From Clueless to Colors
In this episode, I walk you through some for getting started with your church website, or that next big re-design. This is good preparation regardless if you are using internal resources, or an external team to build your website. These steps do not need to be accomplished in this order, but this is what I consider to be the most efficient with the least amount of re-work.
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 29: SEO for Churches
Unlike the movie, if you build it, they do not always come. The novelty of the web has worn off and the fact that your church has a website will not make you unique anymore. You need to be easily found; and with all of the church websites out there, high rankings in a search engine is your best bet. So how can you bubble to the top of search engine rankings? Last episode I talked about some proactive measures you can take to get yourself known, however there are plenty of strategic decisions and tactical actions you can take that will give your site the high-ranking it deserves.
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 28: Get Your Church Known
Just having a church website is not enough today. You need to be proactive in your quest to get your church seen and heard on the internet. So what methods can you use to accomplish this? I propose you initially cove three primary bases; search engines, mapping services, and social media. These three are often very entangled, so spearheading efforts on all of them at once is often very easy and can generate awesome synergy to get your church known to the rest of the Internet.
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A Friendly Competitive Analysis
Churches often have more contention with popular culture than other churches. Yet there is something to be gained from looking at other church websites for sources of inspiration and encouragement. Corporate America often conducts regular competitive analysis studies on their largest competitors’ websites, using it as both a benchmark and management’s encouragement to fund projects. This practice can be utilized by the church to help assess where their strengths and weaknesses lie, as well as aid in illustrating the need for future projects.
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 20: Web Team Meetings (Part 2): What to Do
In the previous episode, I talked about who should be part of your church website team meetings. Yet what should you do once you all get in the same room together? The first few meetings will probably involve creating the church’s overall web strategy, connecting business goals with how the website will obtain them. Subsequent meetings will involve more tactical objectives, including breaking out your larger strategy into individual projects. But the key to obtaining and eventually measuring success will based on how disciplined you are with both your discussions and documentation.
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 18: Creating a Great Contact Us Page
Most service organization have two main conversion points, request for information and donations. I have articles on both, but this episode will deal with the first and undoubtedly easier problem. I believe that the majority of information funnels on your website ultimately lead to a conversion point where you ask the visitor to contact someone. From church events to membership; you want that personal contact to ensure they get all of their questions answered and hopefully move them on to that next step. I will outline the various contact methods, and provide tips on properly presenting each.
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Be A Better Web Professional: Education Sources
Many times the church website is only as good as the people making it. Even if you are stuck being the “web person” because nobody else wanted the job; I implore you to find time to sharpen your skills. Over the years I have found a multitude of education sources that will not only make you a better web professional, but will push you to create a higher quality website for your church.
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CWS Podcast – Ep. 11: Determining ROI (Part 2): An Unexpected Analytics Vocabulary Lesson
I this episode I originally wanted to delve into how you can more easily measure returns. The primary means of website tracking and measuring is an analytics package installed on your website. However I realized that I first needed to step back and give a short analytics vocabulary lesson to provide an overview of terms, jargon, and lingo. I apologize if you already know these terms, but I bear with me as not everyone is at the same level of familiarity with the web and its many technologies and niches.
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Site Analytics Basics: Language
Site analytics is the science of recording actions taken on your website; as well as the art of teasing out the meaning behind those actions. Before you try to understand this new craft, you first need to understand the language. In this article I will set a foundation of understanding by outlining a few key terms used in this field.
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Security Best Practices for Church Websites
It is not surprising that church websites are prime targets for hackers. They receive a fair amount of traffic, and are often made by volunteers with limited experience. This dangerous combination makes them easy mark. Here I will give you some security best practices for your church website.
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