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Apple reported that over three million iPhone 4s smart phones were sold in the first two weeks after its release. That's just one more piece of evidence telling us that the world has gone crazy over smart phones. And rightfully so, the utility of the devices helps us navigate busy lives and connect with friends and family at a moment's notice.

 

But, what about your ministries? How can these little pocket wonders help share a little peace and love in the world of faith? Here are five ways to consider:

 

1 Never forget that at least half (if not more) of your community is carrying around a digital camera 24/7. Don't rely on one or two people to always be the ones to capture what's going on. Having a big event? Encourage community members to snap a picture or shoot some video of activity going on around the church and upload it to your ministry's web page and/or social media sites.

 

2 Edit that video! There are great apps available for editing mobile media. Our recommendation for iPhone users is Reel Director. Reel Director gives amazing editing options that will satisfy the snootiest of techies.

 

3 Document quick thoughts and questions. Your mobile video recorder is not best utilized to spout off your entire sermon while sitting at Starbucks. But it is a great place to pose a question to the community or document a quick thought about something you see (which you can also document and edit) then upload it to your site.

 

4 Get organized. Let's remember that smart phones aren't just about multimedia. Blackberry took over the business industry by incorporating text, calendars and e-mail into a mobile device. Make sure your staff and volunteers are on the same page by sharing calendars and using apps like Evernote.

 

5 Get out of the office and into the community. There's hardly anything that's at the office that can't be pushed to your phone. Don't forget, one of the best ways to hear the story of your ministry is in person. Don't feel like you have to stay in the office to get the business of the church done. Get out and hit the streets!

As a church leader, you know the feeling of Monday. You’re just coming off of a busy and very often exhausting Sunday, and being proactive typically isn’t very high on your to-do list. But there’s a problem there. You need to follow up Sunday’s message with something that not only reminds the congregation of what was said, but also gives them a way to engage with each other during that week. But if you wait too long, the window closes, and your audience is too far removed from the message. Your chance of getting them to respond falls off a cliff.

 

This is why you need to remember Monday. Monday is important. Say it with me… Monday is not a day to slack off. And this is a great place to use your web presence. (Specifically your FANTASTIC E-zekiel website.) So here are 5 tips to engage your community’s heads, hearts and hands for your Monday morning communication strategy.

 

1Create follow up and expanded information about the message. Don’t just drop a PDF file of the sermon notes. Give them something more. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You can simply provide a link to an article of historical significance relating to your topic or photos relating to the subject. There are a million different things to do here, depending on the topic.
 

2Ask them questions. Just like a professor in class, the lesson shouldn’t always be the pastor telling them what to think. Pose questions to get their minds cranking rather than a test to see if they were paying attention on Sunday.
 

3Give them something to reflect on -- anything from a scripture to a question to artwork. Offer them something to invade the quiet places of their hearts and ignite the complacent neurons in their minds.

 

4Give them something to do. Offer opportunities that can help bring the issue into reality. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but rather things people can do as individuals and on their own time.  An example might be calling an old friend or sharing some deliberate act of kindness with a stranger during the week. Just make sure you gear the activity around the message. With a little creativity, the possibilities are endless.

 

5Give them a reason to come back. Monday isn’t the only day you should be working your online community. Make sure they know that there’s more to come during the rest of the week. Just make sure you’re there as well to field any questions or comments they may have. If you want them to be engaged, you have to be engaged.

 

This isn’t something you have to wait until Monday to create. In fact, it would be better if you didn’t. Create it ahead of time and just wait to publish it on Monday. Incidentally, if you have an awesome website (like our E-zekiel sites) you can upload everything the week before and simply set your content manager to hold off publishing until the proper date and time. 

 

Make Mondays amazing.

With the latest round of Facebook updates, the largely unpublicized Edgerank Algorithm is gaining more attention. For those of you wondering what I'm talking about, Edgerank is the system that Facebook uses to decide what content gets pushed to a user's News Feed and Top News Feed. Though there's nothing particularly complicated about the algorithm, there have been more than a few social media managers lying awake at night trying to figure out how to stay on top of it.

 

Edgerank is broken down into three categories: affinity, edge weight and recency. Each category is given a certain "weight" depending on the content and on the user's Facebook behavior. The higher the cumulative score, the higher the probability that the content will show up on a particular person's News Feed and Top News Feed. Even though the specific weight of each category's elements isn't immediately known, a basic understanding of its consideration will go a long way toward increasing your effectiveness.

 

AffinityAffinity is essentially your affection ranking. Have you ever noticed that when you click on a friend's profile you haven't looked up in a while that suddenly their status updates start populating your News Feed? This is because you've essentially told Facebook that you're interested in this person's content. Pages and profiles work the same way. The more often you click on content coming out of a page, the more you're increasing the probability of seeing their content show up in your Top News Feed.

 

Edge WeightEdge Weight can be understood by knowing that Facebook wants content to go viral. Because of this, the algorithm rewards content that is either getting a lot of attention or has a higher probability of getting shared. By default, posts with hyperlinks, photos or videos will have a higher Edge Weight than a post that is simply text. However, if a post is getting a lot of likes, comments and/or shares, it's going to push up the ranking up further. Now, for a moment imagine that three Facebook friends "like" the same page. Two of the three friends have a higher affinity for the page and the third rarely checks the page out. Because of their higher affinity, a post about a contest on the page shows up on the Top News in two of the three friends' news feeds. And let's say both of those friends either shared or "liked" the post. Facebook will recognize the connection between the three friends and that two of the three friends liked the content. Consequently, the algorithm will understand (in a computer logic sort of way) that there is a higher than average probability that the third friend with a lower affinity for the page will also want to see the content. As a result, the chance of the post showing up in their Top News Feed is increased by a factor. Incidentally, this is why some pages' managers will make posts that are simply "Like this post if you think (insert local favorite ball team) is going to win tonight!" The managers are playing with their communities, and whether they realize it or not, they're working to increase their Edge Rank and Affinity score among their followers.

 

RecencyRecency is all about a clock ticking down. The newer the post, the higher its score. This is why you very seldom, if ever, see a post that's more than 24 hours old in a Top News Feed. A post with a low Edge Weight will hang around for a shorter period of time than a post with a higher weight. Incidentally, if you have a text-only post that's more than eight hours old, with no likes, comments or shares, you can pretty much guarantee that nobody besides you and the random person who actually comes to your page are actually seeing it. It's time to press reset and try again. This is also why it's important to pay attention to what time your primary audience is interacting with Facebook. Depending on the group, it may be better to post at 8 o'clock in the morning or maybe at 8 o'clock at night. (If you're trying to reach teens go with the latter.) Test out different times to see when posts get better traction. This may vary by day. Rinse and repeat.

 

Now that you have a better understanding of the Edgerank Algorithm, you may want to make some modifications to your content strategy. Just keep in mind, much of this is user controlled, and it makes it close to impossible to completely beat the system. This is why it's important to be strategic with your posts to push your Edgerank score as high as possible and hopefully keep your community engaged. But if you think you've got it figured out, don't get too comfortable. People are fickle and tastes change. Be ready to adapt with them.

Several years ago we received a note from one of our clients that reminded us of why we do what we do. The note spoke of a family that had found the client’s church through their E-zekiel website. That family, who had been plagued by drug addiction and hardship, found a loving church community through that connection. And it was God’s love that worked its way through the family, and through His grace every single one of them broke their drug addictions and gave their hearts to Jesus Christ.

 

This is why we do this. This is why we get up every single morning and go to work. This is how we know that every phone call we answer and every key-stroke of our computers is an act of worship. Because we know that with every new connection and every new site, there is another path created that may lead another prodigal child home. This may be our job, but it goes much deeper than that for us. 

 

It is with that in mind that we launch this blog as the first of some great new things for 2012. We don’t simply want clients to use our products. We want all of the ministries across our Axletree family to have access to as many resources as possible to help them spread the grace of God across their communities.

 

So from the very beginning, we want to say thank you. If you’ve been with us on this journey for a while, we offer our gratitude. If you’re just joining us, welcome to the family. We’re truly blessed to have you with us.  

 

Let's do something amazing.