Digital @ Leadership Network

how a church website can connect with social networks

Let's take a look at two churches that are connecting their website home page to existing social networks like Twitter or Facebook::

[1] Young Nak Celebration Church discreetly signals that it's fully integrated with today's social network technologies, notice the lower left corner of its home page:

[2] Here's another example, from a church in San Antonio called Imagine Fellowship:

What other websites have caught your attention of churches that are connecting their home page to social networks? What are other social networks that a church's website home page should connect to?

// DJ Chuang is a Director at Leadership Network, launching digital initiatives, and connecting multi-site churches and Asian American pastors.

how online and mobile technology connects us: SXSW Interactive

[this is cross-posted from Learnings @ Leadership Network]

I attended a part of the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin last week. An incredible time to get a preview of what the new world will be like with emerging technologies becoming more and more a part of our everyday life.

SXSW is like 3 conferences in 1 -- film, interactive (technology), and music. I think most people go to 1 of the 3, and I was most interested in the interactive part, though if I had more time, I'd love to go to all of it. I described it as the one place to hear from culture creatives and to get a pulse on technology and culture. There was no way to take it all in, with SXSW being such a big conference, with like 20 breakouts going at the same time. In the evenings, like 12 parties scattered all over downtown. I can only be one place at once. Good thing they record all the sessions.

Here's some of the ideas I picked up, with some thoughts on implications to the church:

• A lot of the buzz during SXSW Interactive revolved around Twitter and Facebook. SXSW was where Twitter really took off 2 years ago, long before it became mainstream. This year, 25,000 tweets were sent out on the peak day 3/15. Looks like both of these have some staying power.
• Why you should twitter? If you want to be a part of the converation, get on twitter. People will talk about relevant topics in near real time, and if you're left out of the conversation, you won't have your say. And if people aren't talking (twittering) about you and/or your church, you aren't going to connect (as well) with that group of people -- currently around 4 million.
• Why show your face on Facebook? This is the currently the most active social network, with around 150 million active users around the world. It seems to me that people use Facebook to maintain their connections with people they know, and sending out event announcements. The future has tons of potential using something called Facebook Connect. This will enable other web apps to connect with your circle of friends, so you could watch a sporting event online with your friends connected via chat room, play online games competing with your friends, or check movie ratings from your friends -- whose opinions probably matter more to you than total strangers.
• Susan Weinschenk, author of Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? described a compelling idea: 11 million sensory perceptions are coming at you every seccond, and only 40 are conscious. This means that our subconscience and emotions largely inform and influence our response to life happenings, and to websites. What provokes a response: trigger words that connote urgency, scarcity, and strong emotions. Plus, present fewer choices -- this helps people decide.
• More provocatively, content is (essentially) free in the online world. Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine and author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. He describes that with distribution cost essentially near zero, content can flow freely. Charging for something will have to be derived from other means, i.e. monitizing your celebrity status, providing premium service, creating experiences. He describes this more in his forthcoming book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Of course, the book's content will be made available free, probably via PDF, and the printed book will be for sale at market value.
• Listen to audio podcasts of SXSW sessions.

For my conclusions, click over for the rest of the post at Learnings @ Leadership Network >>

// DJ Chuang is a Director at Leadership Network, launching digital initiatives, and connecting multi-site churches and Asian American pastors.

Listening for Opportunities to Bless Others

Around my house, my husband and I represent the ying and yang of Twitter Attitudes.

He thinks it is a silly, narcissistic waste of time and will have none of it. He represents the "if they're a real friend, pick up your phone and just call them" world.... (a very funny current video circulating on YouTube perfectly captures his perspective on this). Our conversations are quite heated but humorous, given his attorney background and conviction of his own brilliance.

And he does have some valid points. But then I have small experiences which well, just confirm that I am, in fact, right. These involve Listening for Opportunities to Bless Others:

• Outreach: A few weeks ago at my weekly Moms Bible Study I witnessed two gals reach out to a newcomer who attends our church but was trying out our study for the first time. They made it a point to wait out front for her, make sure she was shown around and spread the word of her arrival... all because she'd sent a tweet out that morning.

• Real-time prayer: As Twitter friends share life events of joy or pain, it is an ongoing opportunity to stop what I'm doing and bring them before God. I use TweetDeck to sort out my Twitter friends into categories ("my home church" or "work friends") and that way I can serve them by praying and shooting them a quick encouragement. Whether it is a family member in surgery, sickness, losing a job or welcoming a new baby, hearing about this as it happens is such an opportunity to respond.

• Rallying the Church: Within the past week, I've witnessed a team of church planters in Lakewood, CO bring Forefront Church into existence. I'd only heard of this via a twitter connection with Josh Chapman their amazing Student / Online Ministries guy, but what a joy it was to follow their tweets of anticipation as their church opened its doors. I witnessed folks from around the country support these pioneers with words of encouragement and prayer. Then how awesome it was to read lead pastor Brett Crimmel share his good report tweet of God's work. None of this real-time encouragement could have happened without the connections via Twitter.

So, yes there are a reasons why Twitter can be annoying, silly and time-wasting. But like anything, God can redeem and use this communication tool to connect up His body, both locally and remotely, to do great things for His kingdom. Culling through the nonsense and noise on Twitter, you might be surprised at what opportunities to bless others may emerge.

And if you see my brilliant husband, tell him I'm right. At least on this one. ;-)

Getting your church on the top of Google

When you google "churches in [city]" several churches show up at the top results on a Google map.  

This is known as the Google One Box result.  Is your church already on the map?  I'm guessing that if its been in the yellow pages for a number of years, Google already has it on there.

If your church isn't listed, here are steps to get it there (I haven't tried this myself, let us know if you have)

- Joe from MyChurch

how to measure success at an Internet campus

This is an interview with Anthony Burns, the Campus Director of HighImpactChurch.tv, which is the Internet campus of Richmond Community Church in Virginia.

Please share how your church started its Internet campus, and describe how a worship experience looks like.

HighImpactChurch.tv, the Internet Campus of Richmond Community Church began in January 2008. We here at RCC, looked at the Internet Campus as an extension of our multi-site vision. The Internet Campus allowed us to leverage the Internet to bring a modern worship experience to people at their computer anywhere in the world. 

In the last year we have improved the streaming capability, overhauled the website and added many of our ministries to the campus. The Internet Campus is truly a campus; it has small groups, classes, and ministry happening on a daily/weekly basis. 

The HighImpactChurch.tv experience is captured live from the Glen Allen Campus service every Sunday morning. We do break away during announcements and closing for Internet Campus specific material. 

How has the Internet campus made a difference in someone's life?

HighImpactChurch.tv has changed my life for sure. As the Campus Director, I have been exposed to other cultures and countries that I may have not experienced if not for the Internet Campus. I have also met people from all around the world. The idea of connecting with someone from Europe or around the world through our Internet Campus is really exciting to me.

The Internet Campus has also changed other people’s lives too. We have had people attend classes where they learn about Jesus, the Church, and Faith. These classes help seekers and believers connect with God. We have also begun small groups where people from all around the world can connect on a weekly basis.

How do you define success? What results do you measure?

Evernote

While Evernote has been around for a year, many Mac and PC users are just finding this great tool.  Evernote is a great online collection bucket for everything you want to remember including web pages, reminders, blog posts, screenshots, even handwritten notes! If you can find it online, or take a picture of it with your webcam, you can save it in Evernote.  Just highlight parts you want to keep and save to your Notes with a simple click.  You can even take pictures of business cards, whiteboards and sticky notes to store.

Collections are nice, but the real functionality comes from Evernote’s ability to retrieve the information you want with a simple search function. Just type in a keyword on the page you saved and Evernote will pull up every note containing the keyword. Add more words and the search narrows until you arrive at the note you need.

Did I mention that you can access your notes from any web-enabled mobile phone?

The best part of Evernote is that it is free! Just go to Evernote.com and sign up today. Check out the video for a quick demo.

It Takes Zero (Dollars, That Is): Tatango

Jake Bouma, the director of youth and family ministries and contemporary worship leader at St. Mark Lutheran Church in West Des Moines, Iowa, has the scoop on Tatango, a “free and easy” group messaging service for both voice and SMS text.

As Jake explains on his blog,

Tatango lets you send out group text messages and voicemails for free, which for youth workers might as well be manna from heaven. Although the free version is supported by ads, they are unobtrusive and the message you send is still communicated, so who can complain.

One of my favorite things about Tatango is the different ways available for you to promote your group and get members to join. You can embed a widget in your website where users can type in their information, and every group you create has a unique web address where users can sign up as well. But the greatest tool, in my opinion, is using customizable keywords. For example, I set up a customized keyword of “EIKON” (the name of my high school ministry). All I have to do is tell students to text the word EIKON to a five-digit shortcode number, and they’re immediately subscribed to any updates I send out for that group.

Of course, Tatango isn’t just funding their free service through advertising—they also have paid subscriptions ranging from $5/month (“Basic”) to $100/month (“Enterprise”).

Jake has gone above the call of duty on this one: First, he got the CEO of Tatango to record a special video explaining how churches can take advantage of the free service. Second, he secured a 10% discount on any of Tatango’s paid subscriptions for readers of his blog (hint: type “Tango” in the Coupon Code box on the payment page).

While some churches are already using other services for group voice (your typical phone tree setup) and text messages (including Twitter for texting), Tatango may just be the service you need to get started in communicating more regularly with your mobile members.

—Steve Knight, Kingdom Journalist and International Communication Coordinator for SIM (Serving In Mission)