Marketing and Management Thoughts

The Vatican has received much praise from the international media (BBC, Inquirer of the Philippines, LA Times, Time Magazine, CNN Int. to list a few) with the launch of their You Tube channel this last week (on the 23rd).

Currently it only holds just over a dozen videos (mostly address by Pope Benedict XV). This is a great way for them to reach and interact with an audience that has been, in my opinion, widely ignored by the Church as a whole (Protestant and Catholic).

Make sure to swing on over to their page and give it a once over, maybe watch a video or two. I must also comment that they are doing this page in four languages (Italian, English, Spanish, and Dutch).

In terms of building community this is probably the least effective method of those listed in the original post for the series. I make this statement because the main purpose of these sites is entertainment. For this purpose I’m going to break this down into three sections; Promotional Videos, Follow-up Videos, and Documentaries.

I would first post all of these video on your churches website for your members before heading over to a site like You Tube. If you’re interested in posting to multiple video sharing sites at once check out our post on tube mogul. (more…)

Photo Sharing sites abound on the Internet. The majority of them interweave a combination of user uploaded photos with a community aspect (mainly through groups and comments on photos). These sites allow you to create an account, most for free, and then allocate all of your shared photographs into one location.

There is little people love more than photos (and photos of themselves). These sites allow for great access of your members to full galleries. After retreats, mission trips, confirmation services, and any other event you can think of. With so many people loving photography this provides a way for them to serve as a ‘Church Photographer’ and you create a valuable new role in your church.

Within your churches account you can upload all your photos and place them into sets/groups for specific events. This allows way more pictures to be posted and archived than makes sense to do on your churches public website.

Below is a list of sites you can use to host these photos (more…)