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What is Your Web Strategy?

January 19th, 2010

Many com­pa­nies (churches and minis­tries inc­lu­ded) are anxious to build a great web­site, but have not thought about stra­tegy. They have gran­diose ideas about what their web­site will look like, but they have not thought about the pur­pose behind the web­site.
I have been thin­king about this sub­ject a lot lately, and I want to start wri­ting some thoughts here about ministry web stra­tegy.

Here are a few ques­tions bre­wing in my head that I hope to explore through this blog:

  • What ele­ments should be part of a church web­site (pod­cast, blog, forums, etc).
  • How can we effec­ti­vely com­mu­ni­cate our church cul­ture through the web?
  • What role does social media play in ministry websites?
  • What tools can we use to gauge the effec­ti­ve­ness of our stra­tegy (Analy­tics, User Tes­ting, etc)?
  • What role does iden­tity and bran­ding play in web strategy?
  • How should the church be inves­ting in the web?
  • What tools are avai­la­ble to help build a more effec­tive ministry web­site (CMSs, Media Tools, Pod­cas­ting Ser­vi­ces, etc)?

Does your orga­ni­za­tion have a web stra­tegy? Or are you just flai­ling around the web like a fish out of water?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 and is filed under Strategy.

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12 Responses to “What is Your Web Strategy?”

  1. Jim said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    There are a ton of small to mid size churches in the north­west that are low-tech and who want to stay that way or want to change, but don’t know how. For me, I look at Goal » Objec­ti­ves » Stra­te­gies » Tac­tics…
    My recent post Video:MLK,JR

  2. Tom said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    I don’t work in ministry or even build things for minis­tries; howe­ver, one thing that I think church mis­ta­kes make is not pre­sen­ting them­sel­ves as acces­si­ble to people that are simply inte­res­ted in coming to church or seeing what it’s about.

    As a com­mu­nity, Chris­tians can be so bad about attemp­ting to focus only on our­sel­ves that it’s like we forget anything about the Great Commission.

    I’m not saying what you’ve sug­ges­ted is wrong by any means. I like ‘em all. I just wanted to toss this out there.
    My recent post If God exists, why would He bother crea­ting us?

  3. Tom said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    I don’t work in ministry or even build things for minis­tries; howe­ver, one thing that I think church mis­ta­kes make is not pre­sen­ting them­sel­ves as acces­si­ble to people that are simply inte­res­ted in coming to church or seeing what it’s about.

    As a com­mu­nity, Chris­tians can be so bad about attemp­ting to focus only on our­sel­ves that it’s like we forget anything about the Great Commission.

    I’m not saying what you’ve sug­ges­ted is wrong by any means. I like ‘em all. I just wanted to toss this out there.
    My recent post If God exists, why would He bother crea­ting us?

  4. Tweets that mention What is Your Web Strategy? - VINTOM Custom Designs, Web Design, Salem Oregon -- Topsy.com said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 9:10 am

    […] This post was men­tio­ned on Twit­ter by Vin Thomas, Jim Gray. Jim Gray said: What is Your Web-Strategy? http://bit.ly/8gT4eW from @vinthomas blog […]

  5. John Fehlen said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 5:11 pm

    This is a great teaser article Vin. Oddly, just this mor­ning I was spen­ding a few hours con­si­de­ring the pur­pose of the web­site that you’re making for us. As I’m get­ting ready to film some video clips for the home­page I’ve been rac­king my brain to make sure that what we are doing on our web­site has reason, flow, objec­ti­ves, etc.

    This is tough when there is so much pres­sure to LOOK good. For exam­ple, when I look at the Mars Hill Church site I see a really clean, impres­sive site. Recently though I had a chance to spend some time with their lead web deve­lo­per and, honestly, the whole deal about look never came up. His com­ments to me were all about func­tio­na­lity, pur­pose, etc. I was blown away because I thought he would sing it’s “cool­ness” prai­ses but he didn’t.

    At the end of the day, what is the site for? I don’t have all those ans­wers but Vin is asking some good questions.

    thanks.
    John

  6. Vin Thomas said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 5:16 pm

    Great truth Tom! I agree. What are some ways you think the church can be better about doing this?

    I have seen many churches that are great at being \“rele­vant\”, but suck at sha­ring the gospel. Shouldn’t the gospel be the heart of our com­mu­ni­ca­tions? We do have a goal don’t we?

  7. Vin Thomas said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    I am really loo­king for­ward to the launch of the WSFC site. I hope to see it become a great exam­ple of what church web stra­tegy can be. Design is impor­tant, but that is NOT the end goal.

    I am pumped to see the video you guys create for the front page of the site.

    I’m exci­ted to do ministry with you John. Let’s keep thin­king on these ques­tions in the months and years to come.

  8. Tom said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    The number one thing that sticks out in my mind is the lan­guage. I really don’t wanna refe­rence my own blog here (I’m not a fan of that, believe me) but (read: I’m gonna do it anyway) last week I talked about actually tal­king about all the Jesus-stuff.

    Chris­tians — at least here in the South — use all this lan­guage and jargon that people just don’t use in every day speak. We’ve gotta get passed that. People find it really hard to con­nect with a person, with people, or with ins­ti­tu­tions if they talk in a way that just sounds weird.

    And Chris­tia­nese can sound weird (even to some of us Christians).

  9. Vin Thomas said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    I can’t agree more. The lan­guage we use some­ti­mes is a barrier to com­mu­ni­ca­tion with those who haven’t been expo­sed to Christianity.

    I remem­ber when I was saved at 16 having to over­come that a lot. Even in simple things I thought Chris­tians talked strange. One time while pra­ying my friend said “Lord, draw us closer to your­self”. I thought it was so strange that he used the word “your­self”. Why didn’t he just say “you”? Chris­tia­nese at its best!

    Very good thoughts Tom. Thanks for sha­ring. I would love to hear more of your thoughts on this as we explore this topic.

  10. Tom said...

    January 20th, 2010 at 2:25 am

    Keep this kinda stuff coming and I’ll do what I can to voice my meager opinions ;)

  11. Kara Brooks said...

    January 19th, 2010 at 11:07 pm

    @vinthomas It’s a great subject,

    If a church does decide to branch out into the web all their social media (if used) web­si­tes, ban­ners, and prin­ted mate­rial should be the same or very simi­lar. This allows people to know who they are and follow them accor­dingly (basic Mar­ke­ting). I think many churches get lost in bran­ding (non exis­tent). In my expe­rience, churches don’t have a desig­ner on staff, so they use what little resour­ces avai­la­ble, and create a logo, but then everything else falls to the way­side as far as unity…

    I have always liked it when churches inc­lu­ded Videos on their web­si­tes.. But I am get­ting ahead of myself… I agree with ever­yone that a stra­tegy is a must.

    It’s impor­tant that they first orga­nize their thoughts, Just thro­wing a bunch of stuff on a page and pos­ting it won’t work (my churches web­site is a good exam­ple of this). Once a stra­tegy is deci­ded, the rest should flow.

    As far as trying to find out the gospel of a church; I feel like video post are a great way for poten­tial new follo­wers to see what the church is about. Many people today run on inter­net and video, they crave the imme­diate res­ponse. I have had seve­ral con­ver­sa­tions with people who tell me that they first search for a web­site when trying to attend a new church.

    Social media (i.e. Twit­ter) may be used in a way that helps a church out… I could see it being used as a way to announce upco­ming events, or chan­ges in sche­dule, and maybe pos­ting a verse a day. I’d recom­mend sta­ying away from being preachy on twitter.

    I admit, I have not built a web­site, howe­ver, I have used plenty to know that tes­ting a web­site and its con­tent is always a plus. I think within a church it would be easy to do so, I could be wrong. Though it would seem that gathe­ring a group of people to test out the fea­tu­res wouldn’t be that hard of a task, espe­cially if there is a youth group (kids are always online).

    Long expla­na­tion short, I believe that churches would bene­fit greatly from unif­ying them­sel­ves and making their con­tent easily acces­si­ble to their con­gre­ga­tion and poten­tial new members.

    –Kara Brooks

  12. BoLane said...

    January 22nd, 2010 at 10:16 pm

    I’m loo­king for­ward to the launch of the WSFC site as well. It’s star­ting to come together quite nicely.

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