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social media ministry

Bloggers Block Checklist

There is tremendous potential and power behind church blogging, but a blog is a hungry beast and feeding it can be a challenge. We periodically publish idea-starters.

Here is a checklist to help you with bloggers block. Remember to first look at every idea from the standpoint of readers and that includes your community who do not attend your church.

1. Scripture

Scripture readings in most mainline churches have a form called the Common Lectionary. You can look them up in advance, ponder the meaning and relate it to a topic of interest to your community or congregation. Our Social Media Editorial Calendar includes Sunday readings — but there are weekly readings as well and alternate readings for special days. (If your church is named after a saint — there’s something to write about).

2. Church Year

Church life rotates unendingly around the key events in the life of Christ — Advent to Christ the King, followed by a long summer and fall of Pentecost, post-Pentecost or Ordinary Time, depending on your tradition. Whatever it is called, it is a period not directly related to any of the festivals associated with the life of Christ and is often viewed as a period to explore Christ’s teachings. So explore them!

Look ahead at the Church Year and relate seasonal topics to community and congregational life.

3. Community Events

Is your community involved in an election with significant issues? You can address these topics without becoming partisan. Examine the effects of issues and point out facts. Example: How will a tax hike impact the poor? How will failure to provide new revenue hurt the poor? Regardless of outcome of an election, how will the Church respond? How has your church responded?

Is your community working together on a common problem? Tell how your congregation is part of the solution.

Is there an event coming up — not sponsored by your congregation — that your church intends to support? Write about why you care.

Yes, you can write about your church events as well! Just remember that you want to grow readership beyond your immediate community.

4.  Community Calendars

Back to school, community celebrations (Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, popular festivals) are all things churches can and should talk about. Make sure your church weighs in on Easter and Christmas! Mention school activities. Are your youth involved in the high school play or do they play on the football team? Interview them on a video.

5. Church Life

What has happened in your church that might interest the community? Was there a great “takeaway” from a sermon that might make a two-minute video? Was there a fund-raiser to report? Tell how the effort benefits the community.

6. Ideas

Blogs are great places to explore ideas. The more viewpoints the better. Keep your ear to the ground for topics that might be interesting to others. What was discussed at the last coffee fellowship? What did you overhear in the diner? Allow for different viewpoints.

7. Action

Last, talk about the actions your church community takes in regards to all topics.

10 Jan 2012

How Do You Measure “Church” in A Digital Age?

The things we measure are not always the things that count.

Churches have vital statistics. Most people in the pew pay little attention to them. Pastors often pay little attention, too. Denominations have a hard time collecting parish data and sometimes they make up their own statistics.

Maybe it’s too depressing. Maybe we measure the wrong things.

Typical parish statistics include:

  • Worship attendance
  • Number of baptized/confirmed members
  • Percentage of members attending worship
  • Number of members involved in Sunday Schools and VBS programs
  • Regular giving by members
  • Endowments and property assets
  • Operating expenses and debt
  • Contributions to benevolence (what the local parish sends to the denomination)
  • Contributions to mission
  • Ethnic and racial makeup of a congregation
Little of this says anything about what a congregation does or is capable of doing in the modern world!

In most congregations, at least in the ELCA, most traditional statistics are dropping dramatically.

Some of these statistics are rather old fashioned.

Once upon a time, a parish had to give money to centralized authority to be dispersed for mission. Today, congregations can and do choose mission efforts in the community and bypass their denominations, which skews that statistic.

Operating expenses assume a pastor’s salary and property as foundational expenses. Neither may be necessary anymore.

There are many other things in a congregation that can be measured (but aren’t) and there are even more things that are difficult to measure.

If we start looking at other sources of data, our view of parish ministry might change.

Internet ministries are very measurable and can be very helpful in directing church ministry. Very few congregations bother or work only half-heartedly in a self-focused way.

2×2 concentrates on internet outreach — and we’ve only begun!

Here are some statistics on our first 10 months of internet ministry.

2×2 published its first post in February 2011. We had practically no traffic for six months. In mid-summer, we began publishing daily and the site has grown since. There was a slight dip at Christmas time but we have already recorded our most traffic ever only four days into 2012, so we expect the statistics to continue to grow — as long as we continue to work at it.

We have recorded 2100 site visits. For the last two months, 2×2 has consistently registered 100-150 views each week. We have about 70 subscribers/followers who receive our posts by email and so are not counted in site visits data. Our average daily on site readership is about 25. So it is fair to say that 2×2 has 100 daily readers.

2×2 has been visited by someone in all but three states with regular viewership in several states. We have viewers around the world with regular readership in several European countries, Canada and Australia.

We can follow our reader’s interests and provide content accordingly. 2×2 readers are most interested in Social Media and the Church and Children’s Sermons. Our articles on Multicultural Ministry were republished by a reader in Texas. The Editorial Calendar we created to correspond to the Lectionary has been downloaded dozens of times.

2×2 has a presence beyond its online ministry that is more difficult to measure (like most ministries), but in 2×2’s case, it is made all the more difficult to measure because the members of 2×2, who are also members of Redeemer, East Falls, have been excommunicated from the ELCA — without discussion or congregational vote — with the denomination claiming our property and financial assets against their own denominational rules.

Imagine what might have been accomplished if our abilities had been measured!

The church needs to take a fresh look at how they measure ministry.

04 Jan 2012

How to Choose A Community Manager for Your Congregation

Community Manager? What’s that?

Community Managers coordinate the various Social Media used by your church, whether it be the blog, Facebook, Twitter or the web site. It’s a new job description even within the corporate world. Churches using the internet will need to address this new societal role as well. Within a decade, this may be one of the standard church positions along with pastor, sexton, music director, organist, or youth leader.

Social Media is a powerful ministry tool which must be managed to be effective. It is not enough to simply advertise that you are on the web or have a Facebook page. These are tools that must be used in real time!

Our Ambassadors have explored the Facebook presence of a number of churches we visited. Most have very little interaction on their Facebook pages. We were surprised to see that one of the smallest churches had a much higher “edge rank” than larger churches. It was not surprising to us that this church had impressed us with their connectedness to their neighborhood even before we saw their internet stats.

In contrast, a denominational internet presence can reveal very little interaction with readers — typically a few posts in the months after the site was announced and not much but announcements from the denomination since.

We are all learning to use this new tool.

As you develop your internet usage, think about the day when you might need someone to coordinate  things. Social Media must be managed. It is a role which is important enough to fund and can promise a measurable return on investment (to borrow a business term).

  • A Community Manager must be a social person. Look for a person who would be interacting with members and visitors even without the internet.
  • A Community Manager must have good communication skills. He or she will be writing a lot and the ability to express your church values clearly and accurately is paramount.
  • A Community Manager must be nice. People won’t interact with an authoritarian, judgmental, didactic or sarcastic moderator. The church forum is not a place to show cleverness but concern.
  • A Community Manager must care and be prepared to act on their concern. If people pose a problem to your church on its internet forums, they are looking for more than offers of prayer. A Community Manager must be prepared to channel important inquiries to appropriate leaders for action. Some action must be taken or your internet presence will become dormant.
  • A Community Manager must be able to work with many people. The information gleaned from the internet must be channeled to others.
  • A Community Manager must be flexible. This is territory where the best planning can go out the window at any time. Planning is important, but the ability to respond to the realities of the present is also vital.
  • A Community Manager must like technology. They don’t have to come into the role as an expert on all the resources and techniques available (no one in this field knows it all!), but they must embrace learning, be willing to become engaged with online experts and communities and adapt as things change…and that is often! They must be willing to try ideas an honestly measure their effect. They cannot be tied to one medium. Facebook might work best with one community. Twitter might be more effective in another. Blogging might work with all.
  • A Community Manager must reflect the values of your church.  He or she may be the first person outsiders come to know. Of course, every member is a face of the church, but the Community Manager will be in the spotlight.
07 Dec 2011

6 Reasons for Pastors and Congregations to Blog


Our Ambassadors study web sites as we prepare for visits. A few have snappy web sites or adequate, static sites. Some have barely functioning web sites. A surprising number have no internet presence whatsoever.

Now and then we come across a web site that features a Pastor’s Blog. This raises our interest. Blogging is a passion of 2×2’s. We have come to expect disappointment. The blogs are often no more than a few posts, months apart, and the most recent post is often years old. The blog posts tend to be personal musings aimed at the congregation’s existing community. No wonder they ran out of steam!

Ministry opportunity is being lost! Pastors should blog. Congregations should blog. Here’s why:

  1. Blogging is team work. Maintaining and growing a blog is work that should be shared. Working together on developing a good congregational blog will help your members and leaders bond, build community, and find ministry and mission opportunities.
  2. Blogging provides direction. Blogging is a tool to help your congregation stay connected with the people you serve. Posting content several times a week is good lubrication to keep your ministry from getting rusty. You will be looking constantly for issues to address. You will meet new people and organizations. Who knows how this could impact your ministry?
  3. Blogging builds trust. Bloggers wear their hearts on their sleeves. Publishing daily in a forum where your thinking can be challenged as easily as applauded keeps your thinking grounded. Readers will notice, respect and trust that you have others’ interests at heart.
  4. Blogging helps you reach out. Blogs help seekers find you. This won’t happen with four posts a year though! You need to treat your blog with the same importance you treat the preparation of a sermon or worship service. It is likely that it will be read by many times the number of people who attend worship! (2×2 started our blog nine months ago. We now have 100-150 new readers every week!)
  5. Blogging expands your point of view. Blogs allow for interaction. Your readers can comment on the ideas you present. Commenters influence the dialogue. They may applaud your efforts; they may point you in a different direction. Good bloggers listen and respond to all legitimate comments whether they agree or not.
  6. Blogging returns us to Christ’s approach to outreach. Congregations often exist with a fairly narrow focus on the world, fashioning ministries around tradition and doctrine. Outreach efforts often focus on trying to find people who fit into the community culture as it already exists, with thinking that mirrors their own. In contrast, Christ’s approach was to build upon encounters with the least likely prospects. With disciples grumbling in the background, Christ approached lepers, the possessed, children, women, criminals, rulers, church authorities and outcasts.

There is power and momentum in blogging. It takes work, but it is work that can  bear fruit and multiply.

04 Dec 2011

Categories Give Blogs Structure and Direction

Categories are collections of content that relate to a designated topic.

A previous post explored how “categories” help readers wade through pages of valuable content. They can also be a valuable tool for you as author.

If you are like most people, you started your blog with just a couple of posts in mind. Categories were the last thing you were thinking about. Now, several months later, you have a blog with a dozen or more posts and your interests are beginning to broaden.

Scroll through your posts. You are probably finding some of your best content buried, requiring a dedicated reader to scroll for seconds to find them. Placing them in a category is the fastest and easiest way to make your older posts more prominent.

Look again through your blog posts. Do you see any recurring themes? Make a list. These are your categories.

You do not want to create a category for only one post. In your mind you are just starting to write on the topic. To readers it looks like you have no passion or authority on that topic. So hold off until you are sure you can offer your readers more than a fleeting opinion.

Creating categories becomes a useful planning tool. You will begin to understand your blog and its structure. This may give you insights about your blogs future and help you plan future posts.

Here are the steps to take when creating categories and developing your blog into a useful resource.

  • Review your content.
  • List the topics you are writing about.
  • If you see a topic that is of great interest to you, but you’ve posted only one article, pull out your editorial calendar and brainstorm more topics for that category. Hold off on creating a category until you have at least five posts to add.
  • Your review of categories might identify a dominant topic. This could lead you to create a separate page for that topic or even to create a separate blog.
  • Once you’ve identified a few categories, plan for how you will continue to address each topic. You might want to address each topic every week. Soon you may find a structure. Write about topic A on Mondays and Topic B on Wednesdays, for example. You might want to add a special feature such as a poll on Fridays. Soon you will have a PLAN!
  • Review your editorial calendar and make sure each category is regularly represented.
  • While you are at it, brainstorm new content ideas for each category you’ve identified.

As you develop your blog, you will want to start publishing newsletters, white papers and perhaps even ebooks. If you’ve carefully maintained your blog categories, you’ll be able to easily identify content to adapt to other purposes. A good bit of the organizational work for larger ventures will be done!

28 Nov 2011

14 Reasons Congregations Should Avoid Social Media Ministry

Maybe Social Media Ministry isn’t right for you. There are plenty of good reasons to avoid it. :-)

  1. Religion is a mystery. Let’s keep it that way!
  2. Let people form their opinions about our religion from the popular media. They do a pretty good job!
  3. Social media allows for too much interaction between clergy and laity. It’s best to maintain boundaries.
  4. We do not want to be known by our works. It’s a theological thing.
  5. Why monitor our image? We have a great reputation. No one could possibly have a beef with us.
  6. What if people who don’t know anything about us take cheap shots online? So what! Everybody knows the truth. No one will pay any attention to them.
  7. We want the people who join our church to know as little as possible when they join. That way we can tell them what’s what! We don’t want their ideas to mess up something good.
  8. Our congregation is a close-knit family. We are busy helping each other and don’t have time for other people’s problems.
  9. Pen and ink were good enough for St. Paul. No need to make any changes there.
  10. We think it is a bad idea to reach more people with the message of God’s love. What’s in it for us?
  11. If we start writing with other people in mind, they may get the idea that we care more than we really do.
  12. We can’t afford to serve any more people than we already serve. It’s just not in the budget!
  13. Who has time for this Social Media nonsense? Our current members keep us plenty busy as it is.
  14. Everything is great just the way it is.
18 Nov 2011

Calls to Action Are Nothing New to Christianity

A Call to Action helps your reader take the next step.

As you get comfortable with blogging you will want to start creating more interactivity with your readers. If you want interaction, you’ll have to ask for it. That’s where the Call to Action comes in.

Calls to Action are so important to the business world that they have their own acronym (CTAs).

You see them every day in advertising: “Call 1-800 . .,” “Send $24.95 to  . . . .” 

Typically, advertisers try to create a sense of urgency — a reason for people to take action NOW! They know that people need incentive to get off their backsides and do something. And so you see the warnings! “Act now. Offer ends July 4.” “Supply is limited.” 

This is not new thinking to Christians. Our whole faith is built on Calls to Action: “Follow me,” “Come and see,” “Do Unto Others . . . ,” “Love one another.” The challenge to the modern church is to translate biblical Calls to Action to reach modern Christians or seekers.

How do you create Calls to Action on your web site or blog?

Again, you see CTAs on web sites every day. “Click here,” “Download,” “Submit,” or “Enter.”

Churches can use the same tools. The goal is engagement with others and growth in Christian community.

Pace yourself as you build your community’s engagement and trust. 

Your CTAs should be stepping stones to involvement in your community. Help people move from the anonymity of cyberspace to “what’s in it for me?” participation to “how can I help?” commitment. In other words, watch your interactions with your readers grow from anonymous participation to sharing an email, to providing a name and eventually a physical presence.

Here’s a plan described in tiers or levels of engagement:

Your first-tier or introductory Call to Action might simply be to pose a question at the end of your blog article.

  • “What do you think?”
  • “Can you recommend a resource?”
  • “Share your experience.”
  • “Do you know anyone who can benefit from this idea?”
At this level of engagement, your only goal is to get people thinking about their involvement.

A second-tier Call to Action might be to provide a way for people to answer those questions on line with a comment box. Another possibility is to engage readers in a simple poll. Blogging software makes this easy. Limit your poll to one question and suggest just a few possible answers. It allows your readers to test the water. There is no risk. They are not sharing any personal information with you. Keep it fun. Everyone wants to know how their ideas stack up to others. Report the results of the poll in an entertaining way.

A third-tier Call to Action might be to offer something for download. 2×2 offers the Editorial Calendar for example. You can have this information offered freely (as 2×2 does) or you can ask for information when they download and begin to create an opt-in email relationship.

A fourth-tier Call to Action might be to interest readers in some action that requires a bit more initiative from your readers. Tele-evangelists, for example, often ask for prayer requests.

  • Sign up for our Walk for Hunger.
  • Volunteer to work in the Food Pantry or Thrift Shop.
  • Join our Prayer Chain.
  • Join our youth on their Mission Trip to New Orleans.
  • Attend our workshop on Autism.

A fifth-tier Call to Action asks for information and offers something of value in return for the information (an incentive). Do not ask for more information than you need. An email address may be enough. A physical address might be desirable. Keep in mind that the less information you require, the more comfortable it is for readers to participate and the higher the response. If all you need is a name and email address — that’s all you should ask for.

  • RSVP for Our Community Thanksgiving Dinner by November 1 and receive a beautiful Advent Calendar. (Blogging software will allow you to create the form.)
  • Sign up for Hunger Walk by October 15 and receive a free T-Shirt at the starting line.
We’ll explore the nuts and bolts of how to create and use CTAs in a future post.
16 Nov 2011

Evangelists Can Learn from Marketers

Have you noticed that the business world has adopted words commonly used in the religious world? Companies once hired spokespeople. Now the job title is “evangelist” (for example, Guy Kawasaki, former evangelist for Apple).

The business world also talks about a successful sale as a “conversion.”

Church evangelists can learn a great deal from modern marketing. Marketing and evangelism share many of the same goals. They can also share the same strategies.

The hottest trend in marketing goes by several names: Inbound Marketing, Relationship Marketing and Content Marketing are just a few. These three emphases fit beautifully into any church’s evangelism program.

INBOUND MARKETING

In a nutshell, Inbound Marketers make lots of helpful information available to everyone for FREE, using blogs and websites, coupled with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn networking tools. While sharing their expertise, they gain authority. When people are ready to buy, they think of the people who were so helpful to them on the web. This marketing technique is tailor-made for Church Evangelists. Help people and they will come to you.

This marketing specialty grew from the modern challenge salespeople faced. As a people, we once were amenable to the knock on the door, the cold call, or chatting it up with visiting sales reps in the company cafeteria. Today we are security conscience. We ban solicitation, check Caller ID before answering the phone, and we do not allow anyone to enter our work space without passing security.

Marketers looked for new ways to get their message/product before potential customers. They used modern tools and technology to attract interest. It is a breath of fresh air for the business world. They no longer feel like nags. They refer to the old days (just a few years ago) as the days of “Interruption Marketing.” They are glad they are no longer distracting irritants. They know that the people they talk to are already interested in their message.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

Companies don’t want to work harder than they have to. Finding new customers is more work than keeping old ones. Businesses look for ways to stay in contact with their customers and continue to serve them long after the initial transaction. This can begin on the web. Some of it will rely on other strategies which we will discuss in later posts. Churches must learn from relationship marketers. It will help them be better Christian witnesses.

CONTENT MARKETING

Content Marketing is related to both Inbound Marketing and Relationship Marketing. Content is the helpful information you provide for FREE that attracts people to your message or product. Churches of any size can do this. It is a redirection of energy, but it is a potentially powerful evangelism tool. Provide helpful advice, meaningful thoughts, valuable information, and show that you care. People will notice and begin to build a relationship with you.

Churches must consider implementing these outreach techniques. It requires work and retooling ministry concepts, but these new methods can be very effective. It is not enough for congregations to be witnesses for Christ. They must be effective witnesses for Christ. That means looking for strategies that will make a difference in people’s lives and in the life of your congregation.

The above chart reveals 2×2’s web site’s pattern of growth. This is a project of a very small congregation. We began using Inbound Marketing techniques in February when we launched this blog. We took a few months to learn the ropes. In mid-summer we began following best marketing practices. We slowly started adding content more regularly (now daily). We monitored the statistics. Weekly, we saw interest growing. Today we expect to welcome our 1000th site visitor (almost all within the last four months!). We are averaging close to 30 new visitors every day. We’re not sure where we are going, but we are following a plan that seems to be appreciated. Thanks to all readers. We encourage you to start your own web ministry. We’ll be glad to help.

06 Nov 2011

How to Prepare Content for Your Church Social Media Blog

How long should your blog posts be?

Social Media experts have differing ideas on this. Most say that content posts should be short and recommend 250 to 500 words. 

This is good advice for many topics. How-to Articles tend to be longer since detailed directions are what your audience is seeking.

The correct answer may be that it depends on what you have to say and the urgency of your need to say it. Do your readers need to know everything now or can you spoon-feed information over a few days without frustrating them?

The best yardstick is to ask yourself, “If I were looking for information about this topic, would I appreciate the content (whether it be 250 or 1000 words)?

2×2 posts tend to be about 800 words on average — too long according to the experts. We violated the rule because we wanted to post thorough content that would be helpful to our audience quickly. This approach has been successful. Our audience has grown steadily.

Nevertheless, as we move forward, we will begin to keep a closer eye on the length of our posts. Here are some ways bloggers can divide content into shorter, more palatable doses.

Journalist’s Formula

Long topics can be divided using the standard journalistic formula. WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW. One post could then become a six-part series.

Chronological Approach

Other topics might lend themselves to chronolgical subdivision. Detail topics in formative steps. We used this approach in our Social Media Ministry Series, starting with the concept of Social Media Ministry and forming a committee. Later posts covered the work of the committee, etc.

Geographic or Cultural Focus

Some topics might lend themselves to geographic or cultural subdivisions. Many of our topics address small churches in general. We could talk about small urban churches or small rural churches. We might contrast Southern churches with New England churches.

If your posts are longer, look for ways to break up your words or copy so that there are focal points that lead you through the post.

Studies show that web readers scan a page in the shape of the letter F. They read across the top, then skip down. They hit the next topic sentence, and read across and continue down the left side of the page, occasionally drifting to the right as things attract interest.

Tools for breaking up text

There are several tools built into blogging software that you can use to lead your readers’ eyes.

  • Headlines
  • Subheads
  • Bulleted Lists
  • Numbered Lists
  • Photos or Art (with or without captions)
  • Quote Callouts
  • Boldface/Italic Text
  • Indented Text
  • Use of color

Pay attention to your own habits as you read web sites and blog posts to understand how others read your pages.

Thus ends this post of 458 words!

04 Nov 2011

Budgeting for Social Media Ministry

Social Media Ministry can be run on a shoestring, but if you want to develop your ministry faster you may want to allow some money to give you some options. Here are some costs you can anticipate.

  • Hosting and registration of a domain name (web address): $25
    This is the only cost on this list that is absolutely necessary.
  • Purchase of a theme: $50 (Themes are templates designed to look good, add functionality and make blogging easy and accessible to anyone. There are many FREE themes available.)
  • Purchase of a digital camera: $100
  • Purchase of a video camera: $250
  • An allowance for occasional guest bloggers: $50 per post ($100 per month ought to be enough). If you build good relationships, many will offer to contribute freely. Barter! It works! Be sure to give proper credit and a link.
  • You might want to allow $500-1000 per year for some design and programming expertise. A designer could make sure you have an attractive header and give you some guidance on the use of colors and fonts. A programmer can help you over some of the interactivity hurdles as you get more sophisticated with your Social Media Outreach.
  • It is helpful to allow a small budget for the purchase of stock photography which is proven to increase readership. Istock.com is a good source and very inexpensive. You buy bundles of points which cost about $1.50 per point. Many photos (the size you need for the web) cost just one point. $20 per month is ample. (You can take your own photos!)

Adding all of these items together, a starting annual budget of $3000 is more than adequate. You can get started for much less!

2×2 started this site in February 2011 for $25. We’ve purchased about $10 worth of stock photography. We purchased two guidebooks for about $25 each. We use cameras our members already own. That is our total investment so far — eight months later.

Training

You can pay for training and how-to books, but there is abundant help available for free on the web. This is a reliable avenue. Information can become outdated faster than books can be published.

There is some comfort in having a book nearby. Teach Yourself Visually WordPress gave us a jumpstart. It’s step-by-step illustrated approach is very helpful. WordPress for Dummies is the other book we have on hand. We found an ancient guide to html that is useful, but lately we’ve just googled what we want to know and found answers easily. Cut and paste the code and eliminate typos!

Don’t let this talk about code scare you. Most code is built into the blogging platform and you won’t need to know any code. There are times when it is helpful, but it is not necessary.

Online webinars are very helpful. We’ve referred you to socialmediaexaminer.com and hubspot.com before. They are great places to start learning Social Media. Both provide much information for free. SocialMediaExaminer runs quarterly webinar series which cost between $200-$400. Hours of trainings are available for a full calendar year. An online community grows around these trainings which is very helpful. Hubspot sells analytical software but makes TONS of information available for free. Visit their site and look for ebooks and recorded webinars. Both sites will point you to other good resources as well. They practice what they preach and are models for what you will be trying to do with your web site!

Hiring a Social Media Manager

As your Social Media Ministry takes off, you may want to hire a Social Media Manager, but don’t worry about that to start. A manager would help maintain the editorial calendar, see that blog posts were written and coordinated with Facebook and Twitter, analyze your Social Media’s performance, and (with your committee) strategize to maximize your site’s success. This is a strength of Social Media Ministry. You can measure results, and what you can measure, you can improve.

A Social Media Ministry Manager is foreign to most church budgets, but the addition of these skills to your leadership team could mean as much to a congregation’s ministry as an organist, choir director, youth minister or other church professional. Aim for it! (But don’t wait until you can afford it to get started!) This is a topic which deserves its own post. Watch for it!

Using Analytics

Another potential budget consideration is to subscribe to a metrics program, which will give you real time reports on the effectiveness of your site. (It is interesting that people in this field talk about web sites leading to conversion. While they mean purchases of services/products, churches have used this language for decades.)

Using the internet makes it possible to analyze the effectiveness of your ministry and lead you toward measurable ministry solutions. No more sitting around at committee meetings and guessing what might work. You’ll have answers.

2×2 is looking into this now! We’ll share our experience in later posts.

31 Oct 2011