Evangel: PTCA Communications Blog

Evangel is a blog from the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area. It's designed to offer tips from accross the wider church on effective communication for your congregation. Think of it as a social media toolbox designed to give you the tools you need to get the good news of Christ to others.

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How Churches Are Using Pinterest

I have to admit that I'm still getting used to Pinterest and seeing how it can benefit churches.  But Pinterest is popular and churches are getting into the act.  This article shares 8 ways that faith communities can use the visual social media platform to share church happenings. 

PS: The Presbytery does have a Pinterest page.  Let us know how we're doing.

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Social Justice Through Social Media

Say you're passionate about specific issue like Immigration Reform.  You also have a passion for social media, posting things to Facebook and sending out Tweets to your friends and acquaintences.

Can these two things be brought together to make a difference in the world? 

The answer according to the folks at the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition is, yes.

JRLC is an interfaith coalition that deals with public policy here in Minnesota. JRLC Bonner Fellow Angela Butel  recently wrote a blog post on how to best use social media to pursue social justice.

First off, Butel notes it's important to note what social media platforms like Facebook or Pinterest do best.:

To capitalize on the popularity of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest, you need to understand why people use them. Research has shown that people mainly use social media for four reasons: connecting with friends and family, entertainment, productivity, and communicating their identity. If you can use your social media presence to tap into these reasons, you can make a big impact.

She then tells people that social media is not the best way to get someone to DO something, but it is a good way to CONNECT:

It’s important to realize that social media sites are not good platforms for actually getting people to do things. If someone logs in to Facebook to catch up on what their friends were up to last weekend, to watch funny cat videos, or to share a recent news story, they will not be in the right frame of mind to commit to coming to a rally or to donating to a cause. What social media is good at doing is building ongoing relationships with your audience. If you can post things that your supporters will be interested in reading or watching--a news article about something related to the issue you are working on, a picture illustrating the success of your recent event, a funny cat video that is somehow relevant to your cause--they will keep coming back to your page and will feel more connected to you as a result. Then, they will be more likely to commit to taking action when you reach out to them by some other means of communication.

Of course, these rules don't just apply to community organizing; they also apply to congregations as they use social media.  You may not get someone to go feed the homeless through Facebook, but if you post a picture of the event it will connect people to your church or cause and gives them a "door" into further connection and maybe action.

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The Church, Communications and Same Sex Marriage

Same-sex marriage has become a major if not the political issue of 2013.  This week, Rhode Island became the 10th state in the nation to legalize same sex marriage.  There are bills in the Minnesota legislature that if passed and signed by Governor Mark Dayton, would make Minnesota the 11th state to make same sex marriage equal to heterosexual marriage.

Churches are of course involved in this debate with people on both sides of the issue.  How do churches comport themselves while these debates happen?  How can followers of Christ communicate a message of love even with those they don't happen to agree with?

The religious communication website Church Marketing Sucks recently did a two-part blog series with Andrew Marin.  Through his foundation, Marin has sought to foster dialogue among the LGBT community and primarily evangelical churches.  Please read Part One and Part Two.

Note: Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina is using Marin Foundation's Living in the Tension Gatherings.  The gatherings are designed to foster dialogue with people on opposite sides of the issue.  The Marin Foundation describes Living In the Tension as:

Culture wants to resolve conflict. Living in the Tension Gatherings want to use each of the different communities’ filtration systems to elevate the conversation through the tension. Get past the stereotypes. Practice what it means to listen to and dignify your political or theological enemy. Actively learn to live and love in real-time. Seek reconciliation not based on a change of belief system but rather living out your current beliefs differently.

Living in the Tension Gatherings are intentional spaces created to shift our paradigms away from the pervasively dominant success or failure model of life and faith to one that turns hearts, souls and minds onto what it means to establish Kingdom.

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From United Methodist Communications, here are eight ways you can engage young adults, especially during the summer months:

Great Ways for Young People to Help the Church:

1. Revamp the Welcome Packet: Your church might have a welcome packet and brochures. However, if the materials are outdated or you have no packet, this is the perfect project for a young person who is building a graphic-design portfolio. Invite him or her to transform the existing resources into something new, with a cohesive and appealing look and brand. Visitors will respond more favorably to your information. The young person will be able to add the project to his or her portfolio, maybe also sharing your church’s name and brand with their network.

2. Sermon Series Marketing Packs: If you do sermon series throughout the year, ask young people interested in marketing and design to develop a marketing plan and promotional materials. Let them help you come up with the names of series and then develop themes and design posters, publicity materials and social media campaign options to promote the church and the sermon series. They will build great relationships with church leaders and take pride in their contributions.

3. Get-It-Done Summer: Many young people are familiar with short-term missions. Why not develop a to-do list of local mission projects? Start with members of the congregation, and then extend into the community with online submission forms. Invite retirees in the congregation to mentor the young people.

4. Local Midday Missions: Almost every community has mission agencies that can use help during the week. Ask staff members of soup kitchens, homeless shelters and at-risk youth centers about their needs. Young adults will enrich their lives as they work with friends and help their community. Keep a list of places for youth and young adults to volunteer. Let them contact the ministry.

5. Story Archive Project: If you have some budding historians, sociologists or journalists, ask them to build a story archive for the church. All churches, no matter the age or size, have a history, and the people of the church have stories to tell. The young people might compile a history of the church and produce a book. Another option is collecting a series of audio and video interviews with church members. They can tell stories of the church, of the people of the church and of their own spiritual life. When members are gone, you will have a library full of interviews, providing memorable connections. More modern telling of these stories could be captured in infographics about the church or a person – or use them to accompany the audio or video interviews. Use a site like Piktochart to begin.

6. Young People’s Studies and Small Groups: While college students are home for the summer, encourage one or two of them to start a small-group study for their peers. Support them by providing the books and space, picking up a coffee tab and giving contact information for leaders. Charge these young organizers with leading others in studying the Bible, discussing a book or developing an accountability group. The results may surprise you. This can blossom into a seasonal ministry that bears real and visible fruit of keeping young adults connected to the church as they search spiritually. Not sure what resources to offer? Check out EcuFilm's small-group multimedia studies for youth. “Lord, Save Us from Your Followers” and “When Christians Get It Wrong” are sure to get them talking about their faith.

7. House Worship Band: Summer is a perfect time to try some new ideas in worship. Gather a few of your young musicians, give them space to practice as a band and ask them to lead Sunday worship during the summer. Most congregations will OK changes in worship when they know they are for a specific period. For the young people, the time can be life changing and open them to new callings.

8. Artists in Residence: Commission a visual artist (painter, sculptor or photographer) to create a gallery of works to display in the church. Commit some money to this project. The results will be a fresh, new look in those areas of the church that people frequent. It will also give new glimpses into your church and community. When the gallery opens, the church can host a party. For more ideas about incorporating art in church, read "Art needs the church: How to create artisan communities."

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Google Analytics in real life: Here's a video that explains what Google Analytics does by using a real life site search.  It's pretty good.

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How to Use Google Analytics to Track Your Church Web Site Traffic

Okay, so you've built your church website and it looks great.  You love to marvel at all the clean graphics and wonderful text that describes your faith community.  You can't wait until people start going to the site to learn about your church.

But then you start hearing from some of the visitors that arrive that it was hard to find what they were looking for.  Even long time members could find things like how to download the newsletter.  The Clerk of Session is wondering why the website is such a burden after spending so much on a professional website.

Wouldn't it nice to have a tool that allows you to find out who is visiting the site, what pages they are visiting and how long they are staying on the site?

Well, there is such a tool; it's called Google Analytics.  This free featured from the folks at Google is a great way to get information on what is working on your website and what might not be working.  United Methodist Communications describes some of the information that can be gleaned:

Hit—A request for a file from the Web server. The number of hits received by a website is frequently cited to assert its popularity, but this number is extremely misleading and dramatically over-estimates popularity. A single webpage typically consists of multiple (often dozens) of discrete files, each of which is counted as a hit as the page is downloaded, so the number of hits is really an arbitrary number more reflective of the complexity of individual pages on the website than the website's actual popularity. The total number of visitors or page views provides a more realistic and accurate assessment of popularity.  

Page view—A request for a file whose type is defined as a page. A single page view may generate multiple hits as all the resources required to view the page (images, .js and .css files) are also requested from the Web server.  

Visit / Session—A series of requests from the same uniquely identified client with a set timeout, often 30 minutes. A visit contains one or more page views.  

First Visit / First Session / New Visitor—A visit from a visitor who has not made any previous visits.  

Visitor / Unique Visitor / Unique User—The uniquely identified client generating requests on the Web server or viewing pages within a defined time period (i.e. day, week or month). A unique visitor counts once within the timescale. Identification is made to the visitor's computer, not the person, usually via cookie and/or IP+User Agent. Thus the same person visiting from two different computers will count as two unique visitors.  

Repeat Visitor—A visitor that has made at least one previous visit. The period between the last and current visit is called visitor recency and is measured in days.  

Bounce Rate—The percentage of visits where the visitor enters and exits at the same page without visiting any other pages on the site in between. Also referred to as “Singletons.”  

% Exit—The percentage of users who exit from a page.

I've used GA to track the Presbytery's website and it gives me good info on what's working and what isn't.  Installation is fairly easy, but depending on your website, you can follow these instructions to get GA on your site.

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Instagram Tips for Churches

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A number of larger churches can afford a staff person that deals with communication and social media. Most churches, however don't have a communications specialist that they can rely on to take care of the church website. So, how about creating an IT Ministry Team that can handle the communications for your local church?

Darby Jones of United Methodist Communications shares some ideas that an IT Ministry Team can do to further their church's mission:

Help church leaders connect to social media so they can listen to the communityand communicate news, prayer requests and inspirational messages. This will further connect leaders to the church family. Consider adding the following pages to your church’s website:

Sunday sermons for congregants and community

Google calendar to post events

Store section for books and related items

  Jones was just getting started, so read the rest of the post for ideas that you IT Team could take on. Does your church have an IT Team? If so, let us know by sending an email to [email protected].

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Communication In the "Wee Kirks"

When it comes to social media and the small church, many tend to think that these "wee kirks" don't have to worry about having a good website or Facebook page. After all, that's something for megachurches that can afford communications staff. Not so, says a blogger at the church communications blog Church Juice. Here's what Jarod has to say to small churches:

It’s not uncommon for someone to tell me they appreciate reading about church communications but don’t think it really applies to them in their small church setting. Or they’ll say the advice we give is good, but it assumes there’s a full time staff member working on communications. The wording is usually different from person to person, but the sentiment is the same: small churches with small staffs are exempt from being intentional communicators. Friends, you’re using your size as an excuse to not make the tough decisions that come with creating a communications strategy. The truth is in our current society every organization, regardless of size or sector, has to think strategically. Your members live in a world where they interact with other companies and organizations that have coordinated marketing, branding and communications efforts. They can tell the difference between that and something that’s randomly thrown together. Will they give their church some leeway? Probably. But think about how much more engaged they could be if you were being more intentional in planning how you communicate? If you’re not communicating effectively, people will eventually give up on trying to find the information they need if it’s not easy for them to access.

Read the whole thing. Because we live in a connected world, small churches are going to have enter into the media age. That said, it's not as scary as one might think and you just might start getting folks to visit that would have never thought of your church before. Sometimes, size doesn't matter.

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Everybody knows Facebook as a way to connect with people, but did you know that you can also use it for advertising? If you look at the right hand side of your Facebook page you will see a number of small ads that people can choose to click. Companies and non-profits use these ads to highlight an upcoming event or a service. Here's how one church in Texas used it to astonishing results:

At the start of the school year, Trinity Episcopal Church in The Woodlands planned a blessing of the backpacks. In order to spread the word, the church’s new member ministry coordinator, Nick Earl, deployed a new strategy: Facebook ads. When the day arrived, the church reported one of their largest attendance numbers for the year and many new faces for a total cost of just $127.62.

Has your PTCA church used Facebook ads? Does it have a Facebook Page? How are you using both to talk about events? Let us know, [email protected].

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Recent Social Media Articles-Oct 13, 2011

Welcome to the first posting of Evangel, an occasional posting of social media articles to help you and your congregation become more effective in communications. I need to give thanks to Aaron Willet, the Communications Specialist for Seattle Presbytery for giving me the idea (he started something similar) to do something for folks here in Minnesota-Wisconsin. So here are some tips for this week:

Eight Church Communication Faux Pas: Don't think your congregation needs a marketing plan? Darby Jones of United Methodist Communications says, think again.

How to Use Facebook Pages Effectively: There are around 700 million users of Facebook, which means that this is a good way to introduce people about your faith community. Methodist Communicators Diane Degnan and Ben Rhodes help you get your church on Facebook and do it well.

Help for Technically-Challenged Churches: Twitter. Facebook. Internet. HTML. PHP. If these words strike fear in your heart or if you don't even know what these words mean, then you might want to read this article from Internet Toolbox for Churches. It's a good tool for churches that don't have a lot of experience getting on the web, but are ready to learn.

When a Church Website Isn't Enough: So, your church has a website. Great! But you aren't done yet! Getting your church online is only the first step in having an effective web presence. This article will help you learn how to keep your website freshly updated.