What is Your Web Strategy?
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?
12 Responses to “What is Your Web Strategy?”
Leave a Reply
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
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?
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?
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?
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).
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.
Keep this kinda stuff coming and I’ll do what I can to voice my meager opinions ;)
[…] 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 […]
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
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.
I’m looking forward to the launch of the WSFC site as well. It’s starting to come together quite nicely.
@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