Marketing and Management Thoughts

I recently read the article ‘Managing an Online Reputation‘ by Kermit Pattison in the NYT. It was a great article and we recommend that you check it out online.  The three keys are to Monitor, Manage, and Promote. Below are some of the highlights:

To monitor your online reputation check out some Web tools that do just that. We use Google Alerts here at nineteen05 and simply subscribe in our RSS reader to get updates daily. We have several set up for our business name, staff member names, and some key terms related to our business. Some of the tools in that review are free, others can get quite expensive. For churches I would recommend the free options.

Free Automatic Alert Options

• Google Alerts – Searches blogs and more
• technorati.com – Blog Search Engine
• keotag.com – very simple, but lacked ability to search all sources at once
• monitorthis.info – Blog Search Engine (found out of date entries)

One of the most burdensome tasks with running a website is keeping it up to date with fresh content. So how can we get more out of the content we do create?

Often content creators initially fall under the misunderstanding that everything needs to be made new and this quickly becomes overwhelming. Now enter a phrase that will save the day…
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If you are in the least bit responsible for design at/for your church make sure to check out this link.

30 Essential PDF Documents ever designer should download

You can never have enough references, resources, and samples to look to for help or inspiration.

The western world is undergoing a dramatic shift as we leave the era spurred on by the industrial revolution and we enter into a world spurred on by the microchip. Just as with every previous shift in eras we don’t leave behind the previous technologies, only adapt their uses and move into newer technologies.

This raises the question, How do we, as the church, stay relevant in the info age?

I understand some people have strong theological opposition to the Internet and the progression of technology. If that’s you, the rest of this post will just upset you. If not, keep reading.

First we have to embrace technology, and quickly. The church has gotten into the habit of letting technological things blow past us until its obvious we need to get on board with them.

So what does this embracing look like?

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You might have heard about this net neutrality issue, or you might not. It’s a topic of grave concern for web-developers. In a nutshell this is net neutrality.

I bring this up today because the FCC is in the process of defending Net Neutrality against Comcast this Friday. We’ll post the results of their ruling them.

Currently every bit of information sent over the Internet is treated the exact same, no priority is given to anything. The email the US President goes just the same as one I send. Some congressmen/women in D.C. believe in-correctly that the volume of traffic currently experiencing is causing massive delays in the deliver of some of these information bits.

To be far, there is more traffic on the Internet than ever (thanks to video sharing sites like you-tube). Yet everything is still clipping along just fine.

So why the problem here?

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It can happen in an instant, the whole world can know about you and your Church. Reading through the news yesterday reminded me of this reality as  I was read about a pastor that i had never met before. His name is Jeff Harlow and he’s the senior pastor at Crossroad Community Church in Kokomo, Indiana (whose website is overwhelmed with text and content).

I found his name because Sunday he broke his wrist after a sermon illustration went wrong involving a motorcycle. (sermon video here)

Many reasons propel churches into the spotlight, many not so innocent as Pastor Harlow’s. In the past year there have been multiple occasions where churches and/or pastors have made headlines (most notably Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity UCC in Chicago).

Anyone looking for information on your church will visit your website.

This, along with hoping to attract visitors, should be reason enough to be proactive about the content and design of your website. It is an opportunity to expose many people outside your traditional sphere of influance to your mission and purpose.

The more exposure you get the more likely someone who resonates with your mission/purpose will discover your Church and become a champion of your cause.

The information age is here and we need to be prepare for the expectations placed upon us by those we desire to serve.

Photo Credits: Harley Davidson by ** Maurice **

The first page of your website is the only page a vast majority of people visiting your website will ever see. It should receive the bulk of our attention as designers and site maintainers. While we like to believe that our visitors will spend a fraction of the time reading our content as we spend creating it (like the faith statement pages…), the truth is that they don’t.

While looking over some site statistics for clients this week I was reminded of a often forgotten web truth.

Most users spend under 10 seconds at your site.

This means we have only an instant to communicate our message to our end users.

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