Digital @ Leadership Network

eBible vs. YouVersion: Web Bible 2.0 Smackdown

YouVersion (project from LifeChurch.tv) just announced that its Beta is public. So I decided to do a quick review of it and compare it to eBible which launched early 2006.

Getting started

The sign up and registration process was pretty standard, no real problems. Except that when I clicked on the Privacy and Terms of Service links my registration for was wiped out and I had to start over. Most people do not click on those, but address that I will might help conversions.

Searching the Bible

I know its kinda unfair to compare YouVersion with eBible, but the biggest problem with it is that only offers the King James Version. But its a will be a big deal if you want me to use it (missed this in the interface).

My first observation is why start with Genesis 1? I do not think I've ever opened my Bible to the first page, unless that is what I wanted to read. I like eBible's approach of the initial view being a search box. Plus, I think this begs the question of all Bible search, all of them seem to assume some knowledge of the Scriptures to start. This is probably a mistaken assumption unless your search is intended for current Bible readers.

One bug I noticed is that I typed Timothy into the search box. The results gave me text results, that's fine (except you'd think it should mention that there is an entire book named Timothy and eBible performs the same).

The results are fine -- except that the result shown above for 1 Timothy 6:2 is not right. I point it out not to make fun (I'm a developer I know how it goes).

Verse View

I clicked on 1 Timothy 6:2. And saw this. It is the correct version (although the search blurb showed me something different). I'm still confused. Where am I? It just tells me that I'm on the King James Version, no Book, no verse. Opps.



This is where YouVersion is different than all other Bible search. It allows you to do more than tag or share a verse. You can add content and connect it with a specific verse: text, photos or video. I was a bit disappointed here -- because the photos and videos are basically just links to YouTube or Picasa.

So my question is, why would I spend my time adding  content to YouVersion rather than just creating a blog and doing it there.

I do not see non-Bible readers doing this at all. How would they start? First they'd need to know a verse (unlikely) and then add content. If you don't know a verse, you don't add content. Then its just a search tool like all the others.

For active Bible readers or users, what does YouVersion give back to me in exchange for my time and wisdom? I can see other people links, photos or video. But really is that worth my time? It searches. No does eBible and Bible Gateway. There are no Bible tools that help prep for a sermon or help real Bible study.

My Conclusion

I know its just a beta. So I'm not concerned about the bugs. However, my assuption is that there are 2 audiences for Bible search: current Bible users who are looking for more information about something and non-Bible users wanting to find something interesting.

• I do not see YouVersion appealing to pastors or students because it really does not do anything that isn't already done better by online and desktop software.
• I do not see it appealing to non Bible users because there is no path of sucking me into the Bible or the user generated content.

Admittedly, this is a chicken and the egg problem. You need Bible users to user-generated content (because the have knowledge), but I don't see who they benefit from creating this content. And you can not feature user generated content until it is created (which it won't).

Please correct me in the comments if I'm wrong...

by Tim Bednar
founder of Plaid: ministry communication and tracking software

10 Tips to get Google to Like Your Church Website

There are some structural frameworks to keep in mind for your church website that can curry favor among the search engines.  There are professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms that can help.  But here are the basics:

1) Identify the right keywords - must-haves are your church name and city. You may also want to include your denomination (ex. Presbyterian) and demographic (ex. Korean) if appropriate.  You can use tools like Wordtracker or Overture to guesstimate how often certain keywords or phrases are searched.

2) Avoid heavy use of frames, graphics, or flash - especially on the front page.  Google doesn't crawl the text embedded in flash files, images, or java applets.  If you're going to get fancy, realize you're taking a hit in search-engine friendliness.

3) Use 301-redirects to point churchname.com to www.churchname.com. This consolidates any links that might go to either URL, and it clarifies the "right" home page for Google who might be confused with duplicate content on different URL's.  This should also be done to default pages like churchname.com/index or churchname.com/home

4) Clean URL's.  Keep your URL's descriptive yet brief.  Try to use keywords in the actual URL, and show the file structure and hierarchy in the URL.  For example, churchname.org/media/sermons/the-prodigal-son/ instead of churchname.org/m=040507&s=9am&mode=short

4a) Keep URL's limited to no more than 2 dynamic parameters.  For example, in the bad URL above, there are 3 dynamic parameters (m=040507&s=9am&mode=short)

5) Optimize your <title> tag.  Google uses the title tag as one of the most important pieces of info to judge the page's content.  The <title> is also displayed on the search engine result page. 

           a) Use Title Case in <title>
           b) Each unique page should have a unique <title>
           c) Use the keywords identified from #1.  Put the most important words in the beginning.
           d) Keep the <title> short and sweet (Google only displays 66 characters of your title in its results)

6) Optimize your <meta> description.  <meta name="description" content="Description goes here."> Your meta description (or snippets of it) is what gets displayed under the title on a search result page.  Use 1 or 2 sentences that contain some of your keywords and elicit a call-to-action (to entice people to actually click-through to your site)

7) Create a sitemap for Google to easily crawl all your pages.  The ideal sitemap should link to all of the internal pages in your site.  If there are more than 100 links on the sitemap, create a hierarchy of sitemaps through categories.  And then put the top-level sitemap on the homepage so that every internal page is at most 3 clicks away from the homepage.

8) Use H1 header tags to make a keyword-rich headline for your pages.

9) Use the <alt> tag to describe pictures with the appropriate keywords identified in #1.

10) Keep text on a page between 200-400 words.  Write naturally, but put your most important keywords identified in #3 at the top.  The pros intentionally sprinkle the keywords a couple more times further down the body, and bold keyword phrases.

This is a technical checklist that is aimed for your webmaster.  In a future post, I might follow-up with some tips aimed more towards the marketing and promotion of your church website.  I should note that I'm not an SEO expert by any stretch of the imagination.  If you're looking for SEO consulting services, I can recommend some very knowledgeable folks in the industry.

Question for church webmasters - what keywords and phrases are folks typing into search engines to find your church website?  Are there any non-obvious long-tail keyword gems that you can share?

Question for everyone - what keywords and phrases do you want your church to rank for?  Is my list in #1 missing anything important?

Saving a Generation through MySpace

I may be late to the party on reading Barna Groups latest findings on 16-29 year olds (could someone please tell Barna to write better <title> tags -- every page is titled the same).

As a member of gen-x (one of the most maligned generations in the history of the North American church), I chuckled to read that 16-29 years olds are even more pessimistic about Christianity and specifically Evangelicals,

Currently, however, just 16% of non-Christians in their late teens and twenties said they have a "good impression" of Christianity. [...] The new study shows that only 3% of 16-to 29-year-old non-Christians express favorable views of evangelicals. This means that today’s young non-Christians are eight times less likely to experience positive associations toward evangelicals than were non-Christians of the Boomer generation (25%).

I just had an interesting call from someone who was just starting to work on another Christian social network. Often I hear how these apps will help "save a generation". I can see how this is an appealing mission...However, building a social network is really hard and that also applies to building ANY community online:

• social network
• email newsletter
• blog or RSS feed
• podcast (video or audio)
• church intranet (hooking into back-office features of church management software)

So if you are considering embarking on a project where you intend to build community, here are a few lessons I've learned...

I'm tired of setting up and maintaining profiles

Brad Fitzpatrick (who is rumored to be working on the mysterious Google social network set to launch November 5, 2007) said this about what he calls the social graph,

People are getting sick of registering and re-declaring their friends on every site., but also: Developing "Social Applications" is too much work.'

I'm sick of this. I'm an early adopter. But how many profiles do we think people are going to maintain. So if you are building community and it depends on people providing lots of profile information -- you better be able to answer the question "Why should I spend an hour doing this, when I already did this on Facebook?"

Okay, that is my one lesson learned. If you are building community online (either as a social network, church intranet (lots of churches want to integrate there back-office software with their web site), email newsletter or even a blog. How do you answer that question? Or why should users help your site succeed (for social or economic reasons)?

Price of crowd sourcing

All social networks or online communities ask a lot of users; we ask them to spend their time with our applications. Even if our application is free, it costs me time (some call it digital sharecropping). If you don't you will fail. I know I failed.

For example, I spent 9 years on e-Church (view the Internet archive from 1998 to 2006) developing it as a "spiritual blogging platform". I had thousands of people register; about one third logged on; and less than 1% ever posted a blog; and even fewer actually used the application regularly.

It failed. But at its best, we got 1,500 visitors a day and generated about $150/mo in Google Adsense revenue.

I was never able to give a good answer as to why someone would use e-Church rather than WordPress, Blogger, TypePad or LiveJournal. Adding features like verse of the day or other "spiritual" features did not provide enough value compared with the value of my users time.

How to build community

So I do not sound all pessimistic, here is my best advice on building online communities:

• Exploit a niche "market". Make it people you really, really understand and who are like you. Do not save a generation. Save
• Spend time every day interacting with your community. If you don't use it everyday, why should anyone else. It also keeps it under control and away from trolls and spam.
• Find something that ONLY YOU can provide and that people need (not just want). You must have an exclusive service or product and people that NEED it. If people can go anywhere at get something similar, you lose. If people just want it, you lose.

So dream on, but ANSWER the question.

by Tim Bednar, founder of Plaid: ministry communication and tracking software

7 Helps for Pastors Who Hate Technology

The internet continues to redefine global society on both micro and macro levels.  In wired nations, like ours, web-based media influences are becoming more apparent in the political landscape, in changing business paradigms, in the ways we access information, shop, form relationships, etc.  As social institutions evolve in dynamic response to the many dimensions of everyday life that are now impacted by our digital world, the Church has an unparalleled communication opportunity.  Thus, the point of this blog.

As a Christian leader, I wonder what your perspective is on web-based communications?  Are you apathetic, jaded, underwhelmed?

For Christians to fully steward the days ahead, we, as church leadership, will be challenged to change.  Whatever our personal impressions are of cyberspace, our world is rapidly evolving.  Today's computers put more knowledge in our hands than any generation has previously possessed.  It's obvious, however, that knowledge and information, however, don't transform lives.  But, encounters with the Living God do.  The challenge put before us, as believers, is to see the internet and it's web as our net, a place for transmitting our faith.

Although it's worth acknowledging that there are an overwhelming array of choices and options when it comes to web-based ministry, we must remain faithful to our commission to "go and make disciples" and so bear the responsibility for pursuing all available avenues for doing so.  Pastors and church staff take note; resisting communication technologies only minimizes our opportunities to fulfill our assignments and callings.  Being overwhelmed or undereducated aren't worthy excuses for rejecting the web.  In order to steward the next generation, we are compelled to speak in a way they can understand. And what they understand is increasingly digitally enhanced.

New Testament Christianity was transmitted at a grassroots level and was viral in it's spread.  Similarly, current web capabilities, from blogging to wiki authoring, from podcasting to social networking, from self-publishing to participating in virtual worlds, can facilitate viral communication and transfers of faith.  The internet as a platform, unlike any medium we've seen in history, is instantly interactive, often collaborative, and basically, well, disruptive. 

Unfortunately, sometimes the Internet's potential is buried in an avalanche of options.  How can we begin to harness the communication value of the web?

It all starts with redeeming our thinking.  Here are seven mentalities Christian leaders can embrace if they've missed the boat, or in this case, the ocean:

1. Welcome communication technologies with a positive attitude. (Disregarding web innovations means you miss your opportunity to reach the iGeneration.)
2. Apply the "how will they know unless someone tells them" posture to your internet usage; capitalize on opportunities to proclaim the Good News. 
3. Seek out web-based ministry instruction; take responsibility for educating yourself in internet advantages.  (Don't know enough about SEO?  Join the club, it's time we learn.)
4. Know your spiritual gift-mix and callings so you can employ them in your online endeavors (See A Gifted Blog, for a shameless plug, I mean, example.) 
5. Pursue others with knowledge from within your own congregation or sphere of influence. (This will force you to talk to people under 30.)
6. Commit yourself to regular web-based growth and expansion.  (Add a Web 2.0 app, create a Facebook page, put up a Flickr photostream, Podcast a message, etc.)
7. Use it, don't lose it.  Why should we complain that cyberspace is a "bad place" if we're not there? 

Obviously, with any spiritual seasoning, you've learned not to chase after every new ministry idea that comes down the pike.  And yes, the scriptures say that "unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers work is in vain" so no reason to embark on anything not orchestrated by the Lord.  That said, and given balance, do you really think we have any excuse for neglecting our "other" flock.  You know, the one on the internet.   And you thought your church wasn't multi-site.

Technology Shaping Culture

Last week, I had the privilege to speak at Gospel Communications's Internet Ministry Conference. During one of my sessions, I discussed how technology, specifically communications, shapes culture. The short version is that communications technology:

1. Controls how fast culture is spread.
2. Controls how much culture is spread.

It is a self-feeding cycle that is building momentum.

Culture leads to breakthrough insights which lead to technological advances that enable us to spread culture at an even faster rate. All along the way, information and new cultures are being created.

Why is this important to ministries?

The more cultures that exist, the more difficult it is to understand the cultures that you are called to reach. It becomes more difficult to be culturally relevant. The number of cultures that exist are growing. At the same time, the rate at which cultures are evolving and changing is also increasing.

Being culturally relevant requires much more effort than it used to need. However, keeping current on technology and other areas that shape culture will help you better understand the cultures that you are trying to reach and how they will change in the future.

10 Things an Effective Church Website can do for You

A problem I find with many church websites is vision, that those responsible for delivering the goods don't really see their site as much more than an online color brochure. As a result, more often than not, very little staff and/or funds are allocated to the church's web presence past the server, the domain name and perhaps a content management service.

In no particular order, I'd like to offer 10 real-world examples you can expand your church and/or charity's impact by expanding your vision past mere 'brochureware.' A list that perhaps will come in useful the next time individuals in the ways and means committee seek to slash your web site's funding.

1. Reach New Residents

   I actually like new resident door hanger campaigns, especially those that offer a slice of pie and/or a free Wednesday night dinner. An ideas I got from my last church who had such a program entitled 'People Involved in Evangelism' or P.I.E. ... hmmmm ... pie .... but I digress.
   
   Having a well-indexed, search-engine friendly website goes one step further in bringing those new residents to your doorstep ... in some cases, even before they move to town.
   

2. Convert Seekers

   Perhaps one the strongest arguments I can make for providing the text of your sermons online is how such materials can draw-in those seeking God's answers to life's questions.
   
   Even in cases where said individual came in casually and unintentionally through something of relevance that caught their eye while primarily searching for something else.
   

3. Build the Body Online

   By adopting a blog-centric approach to sermons and events you can easily and electronically inform the right hand of what the left hand is doing; and visa-versa.
   

4. Maximize Press and Ad Campaigns

   Sometimes you only have a six second soundbite to get your church's name, slogan and/or domain out into a newspaper, magazine or radio station.
   
   In those cases, leverage your website to provide all the additional fun, times, maps & directions, costs and pictures that can't be printed in a single line of newsprint.
   

5. Save on Printing and Postage

   By utilizing email lists, RSS deeds and other online tools, your church and/or charity can become better stewards of congregational contributions by dispensing such information online.
   

6. Minimize Dead Ends

   By having an informative and complete church website that clearly represents your organization's purpose and personality - you can reduce and/or eliminate time spent on leads whose interests are better served within the arms of some other congregation.
   

7. Communicate Across Boundaries

   By taking advantage of both an effective website and a variety of web-based office and/or presentation applications - boundaries such as differing operating systems and/or geography are easily overcome.
   
   Similarly, there are mind-mapping and crowdsourcing tools that can be leveraged to encourage thinking that's not only outside-the-box, but also doesn't all have to happen within the 4 walls of your brick-n-mortar buildings.

8. Reduce Staff Support Loads

   While I believe that every church website should make it easy and inviting to call anytime - having an up-to-date calendar of events can help minimize the number of 'just calling to are what time it starts' calls that can nickle and dime away your church staff's effective work hours.
   

9. Support Lay Ministries

   Consider utilizing class curriculum tools such as Moodle to support Bible studies. Along with that, give that hard-working 20% a break from having to physically attend each and every meeting by using cool communication tools such as WiPeer to hold web-based meetings and/or webinars.
   

10. Gauge Relevant Interests

    By implementing and monitoring statistical tools such as google analytics and the now free FeedBurner you can track which aspects of your church website are effective and which require a but more healing.
    
    I'd also suggest adding a separate site tracking mechanism to content-rich areas of your website so you can easily which sermons and/or Bible studies are hot versus those that are not. 

Point isn't to freak-out already overwhelmed church webmasters, pastors and laypersons by enumerating all the things your church website doesn't have ...

... but rather to get churches and ministries of all sizes to realize that our ministries have been provided several new tools over the past couple of years that properly leveraged can enhance our efforts and enable our volunteers to better fulfill the Great Commission to which we are all called.

IHS/IYS
Dean

Toward a New Model of Leadership Development, part 2

• Toward a New Model of Leadership Development, part 1

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some thoughts about a new model of leadership development in light of our new technological situation.  It occurred to me that it might be helpful to highlight one church that's been moving in this direction with some good results. 

Last year, I had the opportunity to interview Mac Lake, the Leadership Development Pastor of Seacoast Church in SC, while doing research for a Leadership Network article updating the latest strategies of multi-site churches.  Mac told me about Next Steps, which is the online component of Seacoast's leadership development strategy.  At that time Mac shared with me, "So instead of a handful of us teaching classes, we're going to look at our small group leaders and say, 'You are our leadership development strategy to raise up new small group leaders.  We want you to find somebody and raise them up by mentoring them through this online course.'"  Those going through the online training watch videos, review case studies, and answer questions in a forum where others in the same course of study can share answers.  Then after each session, the new leaders schedule a time with their mentor to discuss what they've learned and schedule their next session.  When I asked Mac about the frequency of the face-to-face mentor-protégé meetings, he answered with a phrase I could tell he'd said a million times:  "any time, any place, at any pace." 

In light of what we've been discussing here, I thought it would be good to get an update from Mac and so last week I gave him a call. 

Mac reported that so far in 2007 over 270 people have finished the small group leader training class.  Over 70 folks have completed the coaches' class.  And 30 leaders are currently going through their advanced leader training class which is designed to prepare people for pastoral ministry.  One of their West Campus pastors, in fact, prepared for his position by going through Next Steps.

I asked Mac what they've learned since the last time we had spoken.  He told me that Seacoast is now partnering with Aspire One to redesign their site and also with Jim Galvin to develop even better online curriculum.  They've wanted to make the online experience even more user-friendly and to provide each person logging on with their own personalized page that will display their customized growth plan, list the classes they're taking, etc.  Seacoast has been using Moodle, which is a free open source package for online learning, but found that it had some limitations that they'll be able to address through their partnership with Aspire One. 

Seacoast is maintaining a focus on the personal relationship between the mentor and the new leader.  Mac says, "In order for someone to get into one of our leadership courses, they have to be recommended by a mentor.  So the person that recommends them has to agree that they are going to mentor them through this particular course."  Mac also tells his coaches, "Your job description is to be relational with your small group leaders."

The obvious advantage of Seacoast's approach is that it's more convenient in terms of time and place for both the mentors and the new leaders.  This flexibility allows Seacoast to develop more leaders at a faster pace. 

"We believe," Mac says, "that this can start a Leadership Development revolution around the country.  If people can catch the Ephesians 4:11,12 vision that He's given leaders to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry and we release lay people to begin to do leadership development in our churches by providing them with the right tools and the right resources, then there will be just an exponential impact in leadership development."

Mac also let me know that their goal is that sometime in 2008 Seacoast will be able to share the software they're developing with other churches.  Churches will also have the ability to add their own content and even customize their own online training website. 

Local Church-based leadership development has the potential to expand the capacity of local churches to duplicate themselves either by adding new campus sites or by launching new church plants.   In addition, new models of forming new leaders can enable churches to do a even better job at raising up leaders for all of their various ministry groups.  The technology exists today to empower local church leaders as they seek to expand God's kingdom through the raising up of new leaders. 

15 ways to get your Facebook app discovered

With all this interest in Facebook apps for churches, I thought I'd post some notes on best practices for getting your app to spread. These are notes I compiled from making 10 apps for clients and for myself on Facebook - from Fantasy Football to Daily Bible Verses. 

There are (at least) 15 channels for your app to be discovered on Facebook.  Each channel has its own optimization strategy.

1) The Application Directory

Your description should be treated like ad copy - it needs to be short and sweet, and include calls-to-action.  2 short sentences at most to describe your app.  And pack it with lots of action verbs.

2) Application Invites

An application can send out 10 invites per user per day.  I've seen a couple clever tactics to maximize this.  Some apps ask you to invite immediately upon installation.  And they randomly pre-pick 10 of your friends so that you have to put in some effort to deselect 10 friends.

3) The mini-feed update when an action is taken within the app

You can spam update the mini-feed when the user does something within the app.  An eye-catching 75x75 image makes the update stand out in a crowded sea of mini-feed updates.  Include a little note on the update along with a clear call-to-action (in this case, a question).

4) The left-hand link under a profile picture

Put a clear call-to-action link pertaining to your app.  This link can be different for the host versus the visitor.  Deliver an enticing CTA depending on perspective.

5) Profile view from a visitor's perspective who doesn't have the app

Developers can control how an app looks on a profile depending on host versus visitor.  For the visitor's perspective, provide a clear a call-to-action to add the app.

6) Profile view from a visitor's perspective who has the app

Developers can even vary the profile view for a visitor depending on whether he already has the app or not.  Most Facebook users look at their friends' profiles more than they look at their own.  So put a call-to-action to remind them that they can interact with an app they've already installed.

To recap #5 and #6, an app can have 3 different views on a profile depending on perspective.  Host; visitor who has the app; and visitor who doesn't have the app.  Tailor the CTA's to the viewer's perspective.

7) Cross-promotion on another app's canvas page

I can't count how many inquiries I've gotten from other application developers trying to get a link to their application on one of my popular app's canvas pages.  Find another app that has your target audience, and get that app's owner to link to yours.  Ad networks are forming to facilitate this process.

8) Cross-promotion on another app's profile space

Advertisements aren't allowed on an application space within a profile.  But apparently links to other apps are allowed.  Same ideas as #7 - leverage another application's audience

9) Cross-promotion on another app's installation process

If you ever install an app like Top Friends, the end of the installation process is yet another app installation.  Another example of leveraging another popular app.

To recap tactics 7, 8, and 9 - cross-promotion is why just a handful of companies own all the apps that have more than 1M users.  They use their portfolio of apps to cross-promote new apps.  You can actually buy your way into these networks of applications, and pay per install.

10) The app logo on the left-side of your profile

Pick a catchy icon that will stand out in a crowd.  16x16 isn't much to work with.  But if it's recognizable and distinguishable, you've got a chance of catching a visitor's eye.

11) The mini-feed update when adding an app

Again your logo has little real estate to work with.  So pick a good one from the start and stick with it.  You can't change the text in this feed item.  So the only text to be creative with is the name of your app itself... but don't get too creative!

12) The mini-feed update when the Share button is used

Facebook's share button is great.  Make it easy for users to share any piece of content that they come across in your app.  Shared items are prominent in a crowded mini-feed.

13) The Facebook email attachment

Facebook's got a great email messaging system.  Applications can let emailers include a piece of their content in the message itself

14) The Search Button

The ubiquitous search button within Facebook searches not just people and groups.  It searches applications as well, looking at both the application name field and the developer's name field.  So take advantage of this by including keywords that your target audience might be looking for in both fields.

15) The SuperWall API

RockYou's SuperWall application has 9 million users.  They released an API for it that allows other developers to integrate and leverage SuperWall functionality (yes, this is an API inside another API).  This means your app's users can post your app's content on all their friends' walls at once. 

Look for other popular apps to offer API's in the future.  We'll see a more creating mash-ups and integration between Facebook apps.  They're not just cool, they allow for massive distribution of your app.

This may seem like a ton of info (it is!).  But I'm only scratching the surface, and I'm sure I've missed some tactics.  If you're really interested in creating highly viral applications, there are 2 awesome upcoming conferences: CommunityNext and GraphingSocial.  They're both in Oct in the Bay Area, and I'll be attending at least one of these.

Churches on Facebook, part 2

Several churches are using Facebook to spread the word about recent sermons and upcoming events. I recently found a church called Vox Veniae in Austin, Texas that's using a custom-built Facebook app to connect its own members and attenders and streamline their internal communications. I interviewed the Facebook app developer Yeeland Chen to get an inside look at how they're using Facebook --

DJ: What inspired you to build this Facebook app for your church?

Yeeland: The biggest inspiration to get the Vox Facebook app built was to find or create a tool that is flexible enough to help with everything that Vox does.  We've been through a number of social networking tools the last few years and none have been exceptionally useful, both for our staff as well as for people in our community.  When it came time to pick a new social networking tool a few months ago, we found that just about everything out there required people to create yet another user account on our servers, which means yet another username/password to remember and yet another site to log into if they cared to see what's going on.  None integrated social networking services that were already out there and were already used by people in our community.

Then along came the Facebook Platform. At the time, I estimated that our community is roughly 60% college students, of which roughly 99% already had a Facebook account.  The remaining 40% were postgrads, of which roughly half already had an account.  Most people who had Facebook accounts were already using it on a daily basis, too, so it quickly became clear that going this route was the best option.  Rather than asking people to create a new account on our server, we simply asked people to either use the account they were already using (the vast majority) or create a new account on Facebook.

Not only that, but developing our own application gave us the flexibility to use a feature set that fit our needs.  All other solutions restricted us to whatever feature set was offered.

DJ: What kind of functionality does this Facebook app provide? What issues did you want to solve or improve?

Yeeland: Right now, there are two main features.  People in our community are able to sign up for ministry teams and neighborhoods [Vox Veniae's version of small groups].  Leaders for those groups are able to set meeting times, access contact information, and get in touch with their respective groups.

I saw these two features as the most important if Vox were to really be a church that's more than just a gathering at a certain time and place on Sunday.

I do think that there is value in knowing when our Sunday services are and getting there (being able to offer or ask for rides is in the development plan) and that there is value in people being able to conveniently stream sermons (also in the development plan), but getting people plugged into smaller communities and applying their talents took higher priority.

In addition, I plan on adding functionality for our staff to send out a newsletter to help with keeping people in the loop as well as some sort of prayer request system.

DJ: How do you get your attenders to get connected into this Facebook app?

Yeeland: The last few Sundays, we've made a few announcements and had laptops set up next to booths where people can talk to our leaders about the ways they can serve.

DJ: How well has it worked for your church so far?

Yeeland: It's hard to say because the application only had its debut about three weeks ago.  The response for its usability and familiarity seems to be fairly positive so far.

DJ: How can another church use your Facebook app? Does it cost anything?

Yeeland: I'd say the best thing to do is contact me [email yeeland(at)gmail.com].  It's too early to offer it to other churches as it is today because some things are still experimental and we're still trying to figure out what is useful and what is not.  I'd prefer to add more functionality that we've thoroughly tested before we open it up to everyone because I want to ensure that we're offering a robust, stable solution with a solid feature set.  It will take some time, but I can see this happening several months from now. Since we're not ready to offer it to everyone, I think it's too early to talk about costs yet.

DJ: Yeeland, thanks for taking the time to respond to this interview! Thrilled to hear how Facebook is better connecting those in your community!

Understand web analytics in one hour

The author, Avinash Kaushik, recently spoke at a Authors@Google event. He is the author of Web Analytics: An Hour A Day. In this video presentation he explains what he means by analytics 2.0,

Web Analytics 2.0 is:

(1) the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from your website and the competition,
(2) to drive a continual improvement of the online experience that your customers, and potential customers have,
(3) which translates into your desired outcomes

By Tim Bednar
Founder of Plaid: ministry tracking and communication software