Your next new members are looking for you on the web

Facebook… twitter… LinkedIn… meetup.com… unitysocial.com…
 
On Wednesday, May 27, we can walk you through the basics of these social networks so that the people in your city who are using them can find you.
 
If you’ve already registered for our introduction to social networking webinar, congratulations on taking an easy but very important step to growing your ministry!
 
If not, please prayerfully consider whether you can join us for this webinar. There are only 5 days left to register and 10 remaining open spots for the online training.
 
We’ll show you how other churches are using Facebook and other social networks to promote concerts, workshops, services and more…
 
We’ll take a look at ministers’ profiles and the number of ministers and churches already using these free resources to share the Light on the web.
 
And we’ll give you written step-by-step instructions for getting started.
 
But you have to sign up! Here’s the link to register: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/Application.asp?app=Store&ID=13206
 
Background
 
Through social networks, the internet has provided very powerful new tools that churches and alternative ministries can use to gain greater insight into their members and reach out to people in their communities who are hungry for Unity but don’t know where to find it. 
 
For ministers, churches and alternative ministries not already using social networks to grow their ministries, we have scheduled an introduction to social networking webinar.
 
All you need to join the webinar is a computer with a high-speed internet connection and a phone.
 
In a two-hour session, we will cover the basics:
• How to sign up for Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, meetup and unitysocial.com
• How to set up a Facebook “fan club” for your ministry
• How to use all four networks to promote Sunday services, concerts, classes, workshops and more
• How thousands of churches (including dozens of Unity churches) already are using social networks as a key component of their outreach and marketing
 
We’ll also provide a “cheat sheet” you can use to get started, and we’ll have time for questions and answers.
 
The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, May 27 at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern, and will last two hours. You’ll need to be at your PC or Mac to access the webinar. If you do not have a microphone/headset that plugs into your computer, you’ll be able to participate by phone. (Long-distance charges will apply.)
 
Access to this webinar is limited, and advance registration is required. To ensure your spot, go to Friends of Ministry’s online store, here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/Application.asp?app=Store&ID=13206

Two days before the webinar, we will send you an email with a link for webinar access and specific instructions.
 
~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.
www.FriendsofMinistry.com
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Sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” at www.FriendsofMinistry.com.

Facebook, twitter & more for churches

Weekly Web Tip from Friends of Ministry

Twitter Your Way to a More Prosperous Ministry

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Facebook… twitter… LinkedIn… unitysocial.com… 

You hear about these online social networks nearly every day, and if you’re not using them you’re probably wondering if you should be.

 

The answer is an unqualified “yes.” Through social networks, the internet has provided very powerful new tools that churches and alternative ministries can use to gain greater insight into their members and reach out to people in their communities who are hungry for their message but don’t know where to find it. 

 

But where to start?

 

For ministers, churches and alternative ministries not already using social networks to grow their ministries, we have scheduled an introduction to social networking webinar.

 

All you need to join the webinar is a computer with a high-speed internet connection and a phone.

 

In a two-hour session, we will cover the basics:

• How to sign up for Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter and unitysocial.com

• How to set up a Facebook “fan club” for your ministry

• How to use all four networks to promote Sunday services, concerts, classes, workshops and more

• How thousands of churches (including dozens of Unity churches) already are using social networks as a key component of their outreach and marketing

 

We’ll also provide a “cheat sheet” you can use to get started, and we’ll have time for questions and answers.

 

The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, May 27 at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern, and will last two hours. You’ll need to be at your PC or Mac to access the webinar. If you do not have a microphone/headset that plugs into your computer, you’ll be able to participate by phone. (Long-distance charges will apply.)

 

Access to this webinar is limited, and advance registration is required. To guarantee your reservation, go to Friends of Ministry’s online store, here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/Application.asp?app=Store&ID=13206 and sign up.

 

Two days before the webinar, we will send you an email with a link for webinar access and specific instructions.

 

 

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director

Friends of Ministry, Inc.

www.FriendsofMinistry.com

 

Protect yourself from Conficker C

A worm that has infected the computers of millions of unsuspecting users will activate Wednesday, April Fool’s Day, allowing hackers to take control of all infected PCs.

This is not an April Fool’s joke; you can find CNN’s story about the Conficker C computer worm here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/24/conficker.computer.worm/index.html. 

Microsoft has offered a $250,000 award to experts who catch the authors of the malicious software.

If your virus protection is not up-to-date, now is the time to address that issue, and now is the time to back up your files.

Microsoft provides a free safety check for Windows users at http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm.

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.
www.FriendsofMinistry.com

Sign up for your subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” at www.FriendsofMinistry.com.

Being Social

Among internet gurus, 2008 has been dubbed “the year of the social network.”

Why should you care?

Google and other search engines are giving high rankings to social network web pages, affecting the way everything else (including your website) shows up in searches.

So if you want to hold or improve your website’s Google ranking, it’s (actually past) time to get social.

A great place to start: www.UnitySocial.com.

Create your own profile there, and add a Unity Social widget to your home page.

If you need or want help, contact me.

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.
www.FriendsofMinistry.com

P.S. The widget — that little logo that signifies your connection to Unity Social — is important; it tells younger visitors to your website that, if they join you, there’s a social place on the web for them.

Another tip: You can sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here.

Getting the Right Answers

Does your church need a blog?

Considering the cost, is it really worth it to offer podcasts on your church website?

How can you attract internet seekers — those cruising the internet for spiritual nourishment — to your church’s website?

Answers to questions like these are hard to come by. Finding the answers that are right for your ministry requires a lot of research and trial and error — in other words, time and money.

However, because of the internet, you do have easy access to resources that can help you decide what’s worth doing.

One of the best resources comes from The Barna Group, which offers a regular email bulletin with information about the latest studies related to ministry and Christian life. Some studies specifically address internet use by Christians and churches.

· Each Barna Update contains a brief description of new research currently featured at www.Barna.org.
· If you are interested in reading more about the research, just log on to www.Barna.org or use the link that is embedded in The Barna Update itself.
· It’s free. It’s convenient. There are absolutely no strings attached, and your e-mail address will never be sold or distributed to anyone else.
· And best of all, you can stay abreast of timely information from The Barna Group just by checking your e-mail.

To sign up for The Barna Update, visit this web page: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Subscribe

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.
www.FriendsofMinistry.com

You can sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here.

Finding the Help You Need

When I was the volunteer director for one of the larger Unity churches in the Southeast, I would have been thrilled to have LinkedIn.

We had a church full of people every Sunday morning and, over the course of an average year, 350 volunteers.

But we didn’t have a clue about the professional qualifications and abilities of most of our congregants.

LinkedIn could have helped us identify people in our church who had the skills needed to help us fulfill our mission.

Today, you can use LinkedIn to identify volunteer resources within your church. You also can use LinkedIn to connect with others in your city who can support your ministry — and to get in touch with former colleagues, classmates and friends who just may have the information or expertise you’re looking for to fulfill your mission.

Your profile on LinkedIn also can help drive traffic to your ministry’s website, so LinkedIn is one more way for your ministry to reach out to your community. (In “Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn,” Guy Kawasaki says, “LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you.”)

And LinkedIn is free!

To get started, go to www.LinkedIn.com and create your profile. (If you don’t have time to finish it, you can save your work and come back later.) Once your profile is set up, use the connections and contacts feature to find out how many of your congregants already are using LinkedIn (you may be pleasantly surprised). At LinkedIn you can view their profiles, complete with employment histories, areas of expertise, and ways they want to connect and serve.

Then say, “Thank you, God!”

~ Cheryl Harrison, Director
Friends of Ministry, Inc.

P.S. If you’d like to see my profile on LinkedIn, it’s here:
www.linkedin.com/in/cherylrharrison

Weekly Web Tips are delivered weekly (more or less) to subscribers. Tips are free, provided as a service by Friends of Ministry, Inc. Sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/page.asp?ID=31900

Roadmap to Healthy Church Growth

Nelson Searcy of The Journey Church in New York City is offering a free how-to report on healthy church growth.

The report covers:

• Why some churches grow and some don’t
• How to maximize the potential in your church to reach and engage more people, more effectively
• The eight areas you need to focus on for church health (it’s not what you think)
• How to get more results from the time you invest in your church
• How to reduce the resistance you experience in your ministry
• The secret to understanding the role of systems in your church (without this, all your planning will fail)
• The secret to keeping the wrong people from rising to far in the leadership of your church

To request a copy of the report, visit this web page.

Weekly Web Tips are delivered weekly (more or less) to subscribers. Tips are free, provided as a service by Friends of Ministry, Inc. Sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/page.asp?ID=31900

Branding 101

Before you pull Parade from the Sunday paper, you know who published it: Parade. All you have to do is glance at that section of newspaper, and you know its name, where it came from, and what you can expect if you take time to read it.

The same is true for most publications and most advertising. Publix ads have a certain look. So do Newsweek magazine and People. Anyone who spends any time at all in supermarket checkout lines never has to read a magazine’s name to know what it is. One would never mistake Time magazine for the National Enquirer, or vice versa.

How does that work?

In a word: branding.

Publications and advertisers consistently use the same graphic elements (fonts, colors, art and layout) every time to establish a brand, or graphic identity, for their products.

Larger companies have used branding for decades. Now everyone is catching on, and even smaller churches are using branding principles to improve communication with members, friends and web visitors.

For a little more about branding and how to use it on the web and in print to your ministry’s advantage, read “Branding is Smart Business” here.

Sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/page.asp?ID=31900

Keeping your company in mind

While a website can be a terrific internal communications tool — a great way to connect 24/7 with your members — its potential as an outreach effort for your church is even greater and much more important.

So when you write for your website, write not for your members, but for your visitors — people who are checking you out because they’re looking for a church home.
  
Here are three things you can do to make your site user-friendly and welcoming:

• Publish a detailed calendar that’s current and complete; give your visitors lots of ways and reasons to connect with your church, even if they’re not sure about coming Sunday mornings. Include groups that use your space but are not otherwise part of your ministry. If you rent or give away space for yoga classes, A Course in Miracles groups, AA meetings or Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) chapter meetings, put those on your web calendar, with all of the basic information about all groups. (Who are they? Include brief descriptions and links to their websites for more information.)

• Whenever you publish a notice about any service, meeting or event, provide clear and complete information. Use the journalist’s convention (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How? (plus How Much? and So What?) to answer all of the usual questions.
 
• Avoid using words and acronyms that are commonly understood in New Thought but not necessarily beyond (”Truth principles,” “SEE,” ACIM for A Course in Miracles). Insider language gives those who don’t understand it the impression that they don’t belong. So define “Truth principles” if you use the term. Spell out A Course in Miracles and briefly describe it.

When you express a warm welcome through clear, complete communication on your website and follow that up with a friendly and sincere personal greeting, you’ll find that those who found you on the web are coming back — not just for A Course in Miracles, but for Sunday services and, before long, for your new member class, too.

Was this tip forwarded to you? If so, you can sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/page.asp?ID=31900

Welcoming diversity

What does your church website say about diversity? Does it clearly communicate that you are open to people of all races and ages, male and female? Even if your church’s makeup is 80% white and 70% female, you can say through pictures that you welcome and value diversity. Here’s how:   

• When you photograph people to be featured on your website, keep diversity in mind. Use images of people of all ages and races, men as well as women. (Exception: Do not use photos of the children in your church.)

• In areas of your site where it’s appropriate or necessary to use stock photos, select photos of ethnically diverse people and groups. Stock photos can be featured on your pages about weddings, your youth ministry, Christenings, home blessings, and spiritual counseling.

• Purchase appropriate images at www.dreamstime.com and at www.fotolia.com for as little as $1 each.
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Was this tip forwarded to you? If so, you can sign up for your own subscription to “Weekly Web Tips” here: http://www.friendsofministry.com/tp40/page.asp?ID=31900