Steve Fogg: Clear and Simple.

What I Learnt From The First Church Marketing Twitter Chat

I had a great time this morning (Australian time) hosting the first Church Marketing Sucks Twitter Chat. We had a group of around 12 people commenting, more probably watching the stream. 

Here are just a few of the highlights, feel free to add your comments below:

@ChrisWardYoung: :Context , content, knowing your market and being clear are what works for any comms - church or not" #cmsucks

Measuring radio ROI is nearly impossible IMO, but you can gauge increased web traffic or inquiries #cmsucks

@burks:  in a media saturated society, and advertising by a church needs to have a ton of thought behind it #cmsucks

@brittneydanne: we empower & enable by not making it a mission but a way of life. Give them tools & knowledge of what u stand for & they will... ..spread the mission/vision/values in a way that is PERSONAL to them & their story of faith. It's all about owning it! #cmsucks

On the practical side of holding a Twitter chat, here are some of my takeaways:

• The Twitter chat is a perfect place to meet new people (not in an awkward speed dating kind of way).

• I'm not sure if the time works globally, we may change this so that we don't hit dinner time in the US and midnight in the UK. How would Aussies/NZ'ers feel about a night time chat to include those other groups?

• Twitter chat is a great place to ask questions and get some informed group think going.

• The hastag feed can feel a bit disjointed at times as various conversations move at different pace

• It's a very easy way to connect globally with people who are passionately engaged in their respective roles in churches and not for profits. 

Here is an idea I have:

1) Move to a Google hangout. The 1st twelve can participate and the rest can ask questions via Twitter or Google hangouts if it lets you. I need to check this out to see if its a viable option.

What do you think? Comment below!

You're Invited To Twitter Chat

This idea has been brewing around for a while now in my head. I'd like to start a twitter chat where we can collectively get together on Twitter and talk about communications, creativity and anything else that you can think of!

Who is it for?: Pastors, Not for profit leaders, communications peeps, designers, creatives, web designers

Date: THIS Friday in Australia, THIS Thursday everywhere else!

Time:

Australia
Melbourne: Friday 9am; 

USA
Los Angeles: Thursday 4pm;
New York: Thursday 7pm,

Europe
London: Thursday 12am (sorry!)

The conversation will be 1/2 hour in length, feel free to hang out afterwards.

Topic: I want to know what you would like us all to talk about, comment below! Once I get the feeback I'll host the chat and the questions. 

Hashtag: #cmsucks

Got topics you think we should cover? Comment below

 

 

Church and Google+

I've been away on a six week holiday and in that time Google had the audacity to release a new social media product without telling me.They obviously made a mistake and didn't realise I was on holiday.

I feel like I'm late to the ball game on this one and while I've signed up yesterday, I'm yet to figure out IF it will be a useful social media tool for my church. I feel like I've well and truely got my L plates on.

I need your help. Do you think Google+ can help churches?(I've found Mashable's complete guide to google+)

Drop a comment below share your opinion about how google+ can help churches communicate.

 

Communicating Christmas In 140 Characters Or Less

While the message of Christmas stays the same I'm always interested in seeing how different people communicate the message in a fresh and original way. 

@natwivity is one such example. It communicates the timeless message of Christmas in 140 characters or less. Here is a sample tweet:

#Mary I am under so much pressure. It’s frightening Joseph, terrifying. Don’t make me do this by myself. #stressed

The Natwivity is a Share Creative project in association with the Evangelical Alliance and is part of BibleFresh based in England (You can find out more at the website).

What examples have you seen of churches or para-church organisations communicating the message of Christmas in a fresh way?

Follow me on Twitter, come and say G'day on Facebook, get regular updates via my RSS feed or stalk me in person in Melbourne (you'll have to do the leg work on that one).

 

21 Ways Your Church Can Leverage Social Media

Found this great post from the Social Media Examiner. I've amended the list (slightly) specifically for churches. I had never heard of number 21 and I'm chasing it down to see how I can leverage it for my church.

21 Ways Your Church Can Leverage Social Media

1. Use a blog to tell your story.

2. Make your stories are shareable.

3. Make it easy to subscribe to your stories.

4. Use video to tell your story.

5. Create a Facebook page for your church.

6. Get into the Facebook news feed.

7. Post photos or videos, and "tag" volunteers.

8. Create a Facebook group for your church.

9. Use Facebook ads to raise awareness.

10. Use Facebook Events and LinkedIn Events to spread the word. I've never used LinkedIn for church. I'm going to check this out.

11. Use Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places to promote your events.

12. Go local with Twitter's advances search. I love this idea, especially for Christmas.

13. Start conversations around hashtags.

14. Ask for a retweet.

15. Create a banner that your church congregation can add to their avatars.

16. Use Eventbrite to handle registration and money collection.

17. Find potential board members on LinkedIn. Interesting idea!

18. Improve conversations and collaboration with a wiki.

19. Use Slideshare to put your presentations online. You could you put up sermon note slides online?

20. Get more out of your photos with Flickr for Good. Your church could be eligible for a free pro account. I never knew that. Cool. I'm going to have a look at that.

21. Use Google Grants to drive traffic to your website, blog and other social media presences. (It's like advertising without spending any money)

Question: Have you used any of the above tools and how effective have you found them?

Want more Social Media tips? Follow me on Twitter, come and say G'day on Facebook, get regular updates via my RSS feed or stalk me in person in Melbourne (you'll have to do the leg work on that one).

 

 

How To Quickly Create Custom Facebook Landing Tabs For Your Church

A couple of months ago I wrote a post about how to create a custom landing Facebook page for your church. I honestly was blown away by the massive interest in it. To this day it's one of the highest traffic pages on my blog. Which is kind of surprising because I normally focus and write about the strategy rather than write about how to do it.

Yesterday I read this post from Social Media Examiner which shares how you can create your own custom landing tabs for whatever organisation you represent.

The first comment stood out to me was:

'Using a custom tab increases conversions by 100% or more in almost every case'

Seond comment that stood out was:

'Custom landing tabs are inexpensive and easy to create'

My thought is:

What church wouldn't want better conversion rate which is easy and cheap to create?

While I'm on the social media topic I recently found some other cool stuff like 10 best practice tips for churches using Facebook and 13 social media campaigns and what churches can learn from them. I also learnt heaps from this short video from Darren Rowse (Problogger) when he recently spoke to a church conference about social media. The muppets video about social media which is a complete giggle as well as poignant is also well worth a look. Here are 9 tips I wish I knew about social media before I started using it for my church. If you want to know how Saddleback trains it's congregation to use social media check this out.

Follow me on Twitter, come and say G'day on Facebook, get regular updates via my RSS feed or stalk me in person in Melbourne (you'll have to do the leg work on that one).

What The Muppets Can Teach Your Church About Social Media

 

This is a semi-serious post, the video is funny, but I like the underlying story, that we are living in a interactive social on line age. When churches create sucky marketing pieces or social media content, unlike our muppet friend we better listen and act.

Can you Digg it? (watch the end of video)

13 Social Media Campaigns & What Churches Can Learn From Them

I love seeing how companies use social media to drive new and existing business to them. I've a advocate that churches can do exactly the same (obviously for different kinds of results). In Australia Facebook is the new market place where people meet (Twitter is lagging behind). I been blogging a bit about Facebook recently because of this. A week or so ago I blogged about 10 best practice tips for churches using Facebook (from the best of the best).

The goal in all of these campaigns is to foster interaction with the brand through an offer of some kind. Which eventually leads to a sale, or to a lesser extent an increase in brand awareness. I especially like the Nandos campaign. Here are the 13 social media campaigns.

Churches and many high profile Pastors can learn from these campaigns. Social media communication is about interaction, not transmission. The high street is now a two way communication street. If someone:

1. Comments or asks you a question on your Facebook page - interact.
2. Follows your church or your Pastor on Twitter - follow them back.
3. Asks you a question on Twitter - respond.

It shows that you are just as interested in them as they are you. Oh, and actually BE interested. Authenticity rocks in social media.

What social media tips do you have for others? We an all learn from each other! Get commenting below.

Follow me on Twitter, come and say G'day on Facebook, get regular updates via my RSS feed or stalk me in person in Melbourne (you'll have to do the leg work on that one).

10 Best Practice Tips For Churches Using Facebook (From The Best Of The Best)

I don't claim to be a guru at social media, but I'm constantly looking to learn what the best practices are as Facebook is an evolving communications channel for my church. I especially liked the advice the best blogger in the world gave churches about improving their social media presence. I learnt so much from him and used his advice to build Crossway's custom Facebook page and blogged how your church can do the same. I've also posted on how Saddleback trains its congregations to use social media (Really good stuff). I've also talked about what I wish I knew about social media before I started. There are nine very practical tips in that post if you are starting out or have recently started. 

Another really great blog article that I saw this week is the best of the best 10 Facebook pages. There is some stunning work here. I'd highly recommend you take some time to soak it in. I have. Here are 10 best practice tips which I'll be looking at implementing:

1) Stick to one BIG call to action when they first visit your page. Get the user to like your page.

2) Incorporate video or images to stand out from the usual Facebook pages.

3) Think of creative ways to get people to visit your church.

4) Consider including a contact button so people can connect with you.

5) Keep your fans inside Facebook as much as possible.

6) If you are creating content, make it easy to spread and where possible make it fun! Your content may spread virally as a result.

7) Ask your fans to share something about themselves or get their opinion.and feedback.

8) Think of different ways to get your fans to interact with you.

9) Start some discussion streams to get people talking.

10) Incorporate Facebook stories into your page.

I'm sure these aren't the only best practice tips out there. Do you have any tips you want to share? Comment below and share your tips.

Follow me on Twitter, come and say G'day on Facebook, get regular updates via my RSS feed or stalk me in person in Melbourne (you'll have to do the leg work on that one).

How To Create A Facebook Landing Page For Your Church

My Church has been on Facebook for sometime now. One of the things I've been wanting to do for some time now is to create a custom Facebook landing page for those visiting our page for the first time. The reason why I've wanted to do this is to so that our Facebook page will be another opportunity for someone to take their next step at Crossway.

Instead of giving you a step by step 'how to' on this post, below are some links which we used as our tour guide to getting it done and also getting started on Facebook.

Darren Rowse from Problogger gives the clearest step by step instructions for creating a Facebook landing page here.

Brandon Knight provides an another excellent step by step guide.

If your church isn't on Facebook yet. Get on. ChurchCrunch provides 4 tips to help you get started.

We've just finished our landing page. It took only one day for myself and my web developer Dave to put together. Our landing page isn't perfect, in fact it's very much a version 1.0. But we are happy with it as a starting point. Here are some great Facebook landing pages:

Gary Vaynerchuk

Park Community Church

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit

Have you created any custom functionality in Facebook? What tips do you have to share?

Follow me on Twitter, come and say G'day on Facebook, get regular updates via my RSS feed or stalk me in person in Melbourne (you'll have to do the leg work on that one).