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Don't Let Potential Visitors Play Where's Waldo with your Church

Why did this happen?

The application sent me to my church because I had taken the time to activate our Google Places account and claim our local listing. When activated, this also places the church in a Google Plus account.

What’s the big deal?

Even if a church or ministry doesn’t have a website (which you should at this point in time), please take the time to activate this. Without this activated, the only place your church has any Internet activity is either in white pages or a local church directory. Without having this activated, it makes it very hard for potential visitors to find the location of your church online. We shared a statistic earlier in the year via Twitter that says over 15% of all new church visitors will search online for your website before they even consider visiting.

It’s more than just a locator.

With the transition Google Places is making the transition to Google Plus pages, there will be more opportunities than simply being located in searches. This Google Plus account can act as an active profile for the ministry. It will be a place where the ministry can keep searchers updated about the events and activities happening every week or even on special occasions.

What must be realized?

1. It helps people find the physical location of the ministry.

2. It makes the ministry visible online for free.

3. It is a place where the ministry can have updated information about it and its activities.

4. It could help lead someone to the ministry.

5. The results after this are essentially endless.

We always are looking for opportunities like this for our ministries. When we have one more way to be visible as a ministry, we are putting ourselves out there just a little bit further to be found. Don’t hesitate to take the first step.

First Contact

These are the days that millions of school kids across the country are heading back from summer vacations and piling into the local schools by the busload. Quite literally.

For some, this is just another year among many to conduct this ritual. For other youngsters, the first few days of school are a completely new experience. Stepping into classrooms with freshly waxed floors and newly decorated bulletin boards is a world-changing experience. There are new faces and new expectations compounded with strange new schedules and social structures.

It’s probably a lot like going to a church for the first time.

The advantage teachers have is that there is a consistent day and time that those newcomers are going to walk in the door. There is always the first day of school.

Churches don’t have that luxury.

For churches, any day can be the first day. Whether it’s Sunday morning or Thursday afternoon, the first contact with a newcomer can make or break a potential community member. This can create all kinds of obstacles and opportunities for faith communities. There are all kinds of things that a church can do to communicate that they’re welcoming. They can have the right signs in the right places; they can run commercials that say they’re welcoming. But, if someone walks through the door looking for someone to talk to and a staff member who is late for a meeting blows them off, then you have a marketing problem. That one encounter successfully discredited your entire marketing campaign.

My advice. Before you spend 10s, 100s, or 1,000s of dollars on marketing, make sure you have hospitality down to an art. Because just like a warm smile from a kindergarten teacher can sooth the worry in a child’s soul, so can a warm smile from a member of your faith community relieve a weary traveler bringing a host of baggage with them.

Let's Go Viral! A look at how viral is taking the Internet by storm

Viral! It has become a popular word around the Internet world. Everyone is focused on what they can do to become “viral”. For something which typically carries a negative connotation, it is interesting how many people are dedicated to being the next viral sensation.

How does Viral Happen?

The interesting thing about the concept of “viral” is there is no blueprint. There is no guide on how a ministry can be viral. Just like all the plans in the world cannot bring people into our ministry, all the plans in the world cannot ensure content will go viral.

Viral happens when everything aligns in a way which content rises to popularity quickly. This means it has to be something which will be accepted and shared by a wide base of individuals. However, there has never been a set pattern to determine how this happens. Several have tried to put together patterns but none can be found.

Making Viral is a Myth

What it boils down to is the odds of creating something with the sole purpose being to go viral is almost zero to none. Viral is not something which can be forced. We must realize that we can produce content which will be popular, but producing content which will go viral is like a needle in a haystack.

What can we do?

Over the next two weeks we will look at reasons why “going viral” is not the best idea. Then we will look at how as ministries we can set ourselves up to go viral in a good way.

This week

Try to think of what you think viral is. How you would quantify it and what elements are needed for something to go viral. (Even though we have previously stated there really is no set pattern, it’s fun trying to figure one out.) Come back and leave those thoughts in the comments.

Also consider what your ministry could do to potentially make themselves go viral. This shouldn’t be anything which would go viral through bad press, but through good press. Leave those in the blog comments also, and we may feature them in the final blog article (with your permission of course).

We want to be a learning community. Do not hesitate to leave your thoughts in the comments about whether or not you feel viral is a myth or if it is an attainable action. We would love to create some learning and insightful dialogue!

Let's Go Viral! Or Not...

Here we are at our third week in our viral series. We have covered some interesting topics related to the subject. This week we will look at reasons why a ministry may not particularly want to go viral. First we will look at reasons why people want to go viral then we will fade into why that may or may not be a good idea.

Why go Viral?

Some want to go viral as a way to spread the word about their ministry. This would be in hopes they can reach more people because of the “viral” aspect to their communications and marketing campaign. They would be seeking to use the “viral” to reach more followers or simply just spread the message of what they are doing.

Other ministries want to go viral for the popularity. As humans we want to be accepted. People can use the popularity as a rally point to find new people who are interested in like-minded causes to push and make their ministry the focal point.

These can all be good goals to reach; however, are they what is best for the ministry?

What happens when a ministry goes Viral?

First, a ministry will see an influx in interested people. Is your ministry equipped to handle that? Will the servers for the computers crash or will the website withstand the barrage of new traffic? With this influx of people will also come media inquiries so the ministry must be prepared to handle the increase in inquiries.

Second, has the ministry planned how to maintain the new people? Are they equipped to put these new followers into action? This is essentially the largest outreach opportunity the ministry has ever had; they should be equipped to handle it effectively. These questions lead us to the third set of questions.

Third, is going viral really what the ministry is seeking? We have seen what happens when something goes viral. So we must step back and ask ourselves if going viral is really what the ministry is seeking.

What should we do?

As we move forward, ministries should sit down and actually consider what they would do should something of theirs go “viral.” Also they should consider if they really want to push something to go viral. It would seem that in most cases a ministry simply wants to reach out to their community, not actually “go viral” across the web.

Let's Go Viral! With a Purpose...

We have spent quite some time on the topic of “viral”. Hopefully this has begun your thinking about where viral fits into your ministry. We wanted to leave the subject of viral on a high note. So this week we will look at how a ministry might be able to go viral and succeed, fulfilling a predetermined purpose.

The key in going viral is that it should never be a numbers game. Viral is something which deals more with emotions than just people. So what happens is, indirectly through going viral a ministry may increase in numbers. Having a purpose helps prepare the ministry better should something go viral.

We will look at two examples where a ministry could go viral with a purpose. In the end they will build upon each other.

To Inspire Community

There are several ways in which a community may be inspired. We could spend an entire post talking about different communities that have been inspired. For the sake of time and explanation, we will look to a television commercial. A few years ago, Liberty Mutual ran an advertisement campaign that was all about paying it forward. The commercial was inspiring -- and something a ministry could learn from. A key way for a ministry to go viral is to do something which inspires people. When a community begins to be inspired great things can happen.

To Raise Awareness

One of the ways a community can be inspired is through raising awareness. Whether for a local or international ministry, raising awareness for a specific topic can really take a ministry places. One of the best examples of this would be KONY 2012. Regardless of how you feel about the subject, this was a viral campaign. It raised significant awareness about what is happening in Africa today. Since the current generation is such a social justice-minded people, when a ministry seeks to raise awareness, if people are inspired to do so, then things can go viral very quickly.

Remember This…

As we leave, there are several things to consider. First, remember viral cannot be forced. Viral happens. There are ways a ministry can prepare for viral, and we have done our best to help provide those. Second, should someone mention “Let's do something that will go viral” remember back to this article series. Think twice before attempting the practically impossible.

Love Thy Technical Team

For several years I was in charge of all the media for a statewide church conference. Each year I spent weeks preparing for the four-day event. I made videos. I created worship graphics. I created more videos and worship graphics. Weeks in advance I sent out e-mails requesting PowerPoint files and Media Shout files and videos in whatever form they happened to come. I established deadlines for all media elements to be turned in so that they all may be tested and loaded into the computer to ensure they ran correctly. I organized all the AV equipment for the event. I set up all the AV equipment.

At the conference I ran on coffee, chocolate, soda, beef jerky, more coffee, the occasional Iced Frappuccino and generally fours hours of sleep per night.

Inevitably, a few times during the conference some preacher/speaker would ignore my deadline and walk up to me five minutes before they were supposed to speak, hand me a scratched up CD and tell me “Here’s my PowerPoint”, and “Oh by-the-way, could you make a few changes that I wrote here on this napkin?” Without fail, the CD wouldn’t load or the file would be corrupted or something would happen to cause an epic fail on screen, leaving the speaker asking the guy behind the curtain to fix the problem. People would laugh. People would get angry. The guy behind the screen would catch the blame.

I could go on. Most days I just felt like the Wizard of Oz hiding behind a curtain, jacked up on caffeine.

Those days are past and that job now is in the hands of another. But it left a big impression on me. Because I’ve heard enough horror stories from others in the field to know that my story isn’t an isolated event. So I came up with this list of things to remember about your media team or person.

1.) Don’t hand them content at the last minute, especially if you’re asking them to build the media files. If you want it free from typos and running correctly, give them adequate time to put it together.

2.) It takes longer than you think to put multimedia presentations together. This time process can be technical, complicated and tedious. In many cases, these people are creating art and good art takes time.

3.) A good sound person is worth their weight in gold and just as hard to find. They can make the stage sound amazing or make the best band sound terrible. But if they tell you they need to do a sound check, give them that time.

4.) Don’t try to talk to them in the middle of a live event. A lot of what goes on in live events takes a lot of concentration. They don’t need someone trying to ask a bunch of questions or look at something else while they’re performing their duties.

5.) Say “Thank You.” Very often people running sound or media never hear a word from anyone unless something goes wrong. Then they tend to hear a lot of words.

6.) A big pile of snack food and a mini-fridge full of caffeine will go a long way to keeping the team happy. Extra points will be awarded for Mountain Dew and Red Bull.

The Quiet Types

I need quiet when I work. Dead silence, no music, no conversations. Anything else, Facebook, e-mail, phone are immediate distractions, and my productivity comes to a grinding halt. In the silence, I can stay focused for long periods of time (hours) writing or reading. It’s in these spans of time that I’m typically the most productive and content. But the moment music starts playing in the background is the same moment I find myself reading the same paragraph five times before I actually remember what it said. It’s always been this way for me. Going all the way back to elementary school, I vividly remember dreading the teacher turning on a radio while we worked.

There’s only one problem with this. It doesn’t mesh well with the ideal work environment with noise addicts. These are the folks who can’t stand silence and have to have a TV or music playing to be most effective. It isn’t a criticism; we just probably shouldn’t share the same cubical.

In my case, I shouldn’t be in a cubical at all. I actually changed my major in college when I realized that my career path was leading me to an open work environment. For me, a hermetic work existence is the ideal. Alone, I’m able to lose myself in my thoughts without any real worry of interruption. So I often work late at night, shut my door, or escape to my cabin for a few days to get stuff accomplished.

I bring this up because I’ve had job experiences in the past that weren’t conducive or friendly to this mindset. I’ve been accused of being anti-social and secretive because I kept my office door closed, and co-workers who didn’t really understand my frustration when they would pop in for some random question. The truth is, I (and others like me) just want to be able to focus.

So here’s my one request.

If you have someone who likes the quiet, respect that quiet. We don’t expect people to creep around us in socked feet, but if you see that we’re deep in thought and buried in our keyboards, that is not the time to ask one of us a question. No joke, it may take an hour for us to get back to that level of focus. We’re not being anti-social, we’re just trying to do the best job we can.

Now go be awesome.

Uniquely You

As schools across America head back into session, school buses snag morning commutes and students and teachers reluctantly head back into their classrooms, I’m reminded of a moment when my church lit up the sky like a beacon in the night.

Years ago, I attended a small church that had a parking lot that bordered the high school football field. Specifically, it bordered the scoreboard end zone. I realized this created an interesting marketing opportunity. At least four or five Friday nights of every fall, half of our small town was sitting in the bleachers staring at our church building.

So I did what any self-respecting communication person would do. I bought a 14-foot freestanding projection screen and started marketing like a madman at every home game. That effort paid off one night when due to an electrical problem in the stadium, half the lights and scoreboard went out. The game was paused until the coaches and refs decided to continue.

That’s when our phone rang. The press box called and asked if we could act as the scoreboard until they got the problem fixed. I’m not exaggerating when I say the stands went absolutely crazy when from a dimly lit end zone, our screen lit up with the score. It was a proud, proud moment. People were still talking about that night years later.

This is obviously a unique example, and that’s the point. There was something unique about the location of our ministry, and we leveraged it to our advantage. Which begs the question: What makes your ministry unique? Is there anything creative that you can do to allow that distinction to work in your favor? Let your creative juices flow out of the box, and I bet you can come up with something fantastic.

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