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Church Website Best Practices - Entries tagged "Facebook"

MonMondayNovNovember15th2010

Social Media and My Ministry: Five Essential Management Tools

Posted Monday, November 15 2010 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Facebook Social Media Twitter 0 comments Add comment

Twitter posts, blog entries, Facebook updates ... managing your social media presence can be overwhelming to think about. Thankfully, there are tools available to help you. Below are a list of five free programs, websites, and applications to help you organize, manage, and develop your ministry's social media.

HowSociable?

Track your ministry's brand visibilty on social media websites
This website tracks your ministry's presence on the Web's many social media sites and produces a brand visibility score based on the amount of content and followers you have on these sites. Because of its many Vimeo videos, Facebook pages and followers, and Twitter tweets, a large church like Harvest Bible Chapel has a brand visibility score of 217.

HowSociable? is a good place to visit before you develop your social media strategy. You can see where your presence is strong and where you need to increase it. It's also a great way to track your efforts. Visiting this site regularly will give you a tangible way to see if your social media strategy is succeeding. Score increasing? Job well done.

HOWSOCIABLE.COM

HootSuite

Schedule tweets, track your followers, and see who's mentioning you
One of the most popular tools for managing social media accounts is this web-based application. This website allows you to manage multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wordpress, and other social media accounts. If you have more than one person managing your social media, HootSuite allows for multiple users to access and utilize your account.

You can schedule future updates for all or each account individually. HootSuite also provides you with tons of useful data like who's retweeting your posts, how many people click on the links in your tweets, and also integrates your website's Google Analytics. If you have many social media accounts, and many people managing them, HootSuite is a great place to organize and manage it all from one location.

HOOTSUITE.COM

TweetDeck

Manage your social media accounts and follow others'
This program is downloaded to your desktop, and offers much of the same features as HootSuite, like multiple Twitter and Facebook account management, update scheduling, and photo sharing.

TweetDeck makes it easy to see all updates on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media sites from your followers and those you follow. Seeing all these updates from one dashboard saves you the time and effort of visiting each site multiple times per day, and makes it easier to retweet or link to these posts. You can also download TweetDeck to your iPhone or iPad for following or updating on the go.

TWEETDECK.COM

IceRocket

Find Web content to link to and retweet
A common mistake when it comes to planning for social media is thinking you need to constantly create new content for posting. One of the easiest ways to find material for blogs and tweets is to link to other content on the Web. This website allows you to search and keyword, phrase, topic, or even your own church name to see what people are saying on blogs, Twitter, Facebook posts, news, or even images.

Retweet someone else's post and they may return the favor later, making you visible to their followers. Respond to a blogger's entry and they might link to your blog, driving more traffic to your website. Include a link to a news story on your Facebook site to keep your followers up-to-date on your ministry's happenings.

ICEROCKET.COM

LaterBro

Schedule tweets and Facebook updates for future dates and times
After signing into this web-based tool, you can add several Twitter accounts and one Facebook account to schedule future updates. Just enter in your tweet (limited to 140 characters), pick your future date from the calendar, and select a time and LaterBro does the updating for you. It even has a built in URL shortener.

Scheduling future updates help you plan ahead and allows for updates to go out even if you're not in the office. Already know your pastor's sermon schedule? Enter in a month's worth of updates on one day to work more efficiently.

LATERBRO.COM

MonMondayNovNovember8th2010

Facebook and Your Ministry: Creating a Like Page

Posted Monday, November 08 2010 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Facebook Social Media 0 comments Add comment

Unless you've been living under a rock the past few years, you've heard of Facebook. And unless you have a good reason not to, you have your own Facebook profile. But how can you utilize Facebook to spread the word about your ministry? We'll seek to answer that very question in this entry.

Facebook as a Supplement to Your Website

Facebook isn't just a website to post pictures, keep up with high school friends, and remember your uncle Donald's birthday. It is a powerful tool for mass communication. Over 400 million people worldwide are active users. Where else can you reach this large of an audience? And for free?

Facebook allows for you to create a "page" for your church or ministry. This page can be the host of updates by you like pictures, news items, and posts from your website blog. Other users can follow these updates and post their own messages on your page's wall. You can gain more followers by linking your page from your website, from your Twitter feed, or by sending invitations for users to "Like" your ministry.

Develop a Strategy

Before you create your Facebook page, it's important to develop a strategy for how you plan to use it. Here are popular ways for using Facebook:

Fostering and encouraging dialogue
Make more people aware of your blog or Twitter feed
Advertise latest news and events
Post photos and video of recent or upcoming events
Link to sermons on your website

Creating a Page

To create a page, navigate to the Create a Page section and follow these steps:

Select the "Brand, product, or organization" radio button and "Religious Organization" from the drop down menu.
Type in the name of your ministry next to "Page Name."
Check the box notifying Facebook that you are the official representative for you organization and review the terms.
Click "Create Official Page"
Edit your page setting by clicking "Edit Page." Here you can add or remove page applications like Photos, Discussion Boards, Links, Video, Notes, Events, and more. Use your strategy to determine which applications to add and which are not necessary. Only add the ones you will use.
Add a picture for your ministry by hovering over the picture and choosing "Upload Picture."
Click the Info tab and insert your address, hours (worship service times), phone number, website address and a little about yourself.
Finish customizing your page by adding photos, filling in the text box below your photo, and adding other application tabs.
Let your Facebook friends know about your page by clicking the Suggest to Friends button below your picture. Let others know by sending as an e-mail by clicking the Share button at the bottom of the page.

Incorporating Twitter and Your Website Updates

Facebook allows you to add applications into your page to make it easier to sync it with your other media. To do so, Edit Page, and search for applications under More Applications. Check out these detailed help documents to add your Twitter feed, blog, and other media to your page.

OTHER RESOURCES FOR FACEBOOK

How Do I Create a Facebook Page for My Ministry? - iMinistries Support Document
Facebook Page Help Center - Facebook.com
Facebook Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations

MonMondayOctOctober25th2010

5 Reasons Your Ministry Should Be On Facebook

Posted Monday, October 25 2010 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Facebook Social Media 1 comments Add comment

Facebook is a social networking website which allows users to create an account, personalize it with pictures and information, add friends, and comment on other people's profiles. With over 400 million active users worldwide, Facebook has become one of the most powerful tools for mass marketing out there.

Companies, organizations, and churches can create their own pages where users can congregate and keep up with news, videos, and picture posting, blog entries, and your Twitter feed. With Facebook's new integration with many of the most popular websites on the Internet, and the ability for users to customize their Web experience with its "Like" feature, the impact of Facebook on marketing and communication is substantial.

Why Should My Ministry Have a Facebook Page?

1. Audience

Where else can you potentially reach 400 million people? Facebook has user profiles from people across the globe. After making your own Facebook page, any user can "Like" you and follow your content updates. The demographic for the majority of users is people between the ages of 20-35, making Facebook the place to be for interacting with the current generation of Internet users.

2. Dialogue

Your website is mostly one way interaction. You post a news item or create an event, and your users read the information. Facebook pages allow for two-way interaction. Any of Facebook's users can post comments on your page's Wall. They can ask you direct questions, they can interact with other users or answer discussion questions you post, or they can give their reaction on your blog entries, photos, or videos.

3. It Drives Traffic to Your Website

By integrating your church website's RSS feeds for news, blogs, and other content onto your Facebook page, you have another avenue for posting links back to your primary Web presence. Want more people reading your blog? Post an excerpt or summary on your Facebook page and link back to the full post on your website.

4. Visibility and Relatability

Having a Facebook page gives you "street cred." Facebook has grown to be one of the most popular websites in the world, and its young demographic is ideal for sharing your ministry's media. Any place you can share your website's content is great. For free, even better. But displaying it where young people visit every day, that's ideal.

5. It's Free Advertising

Because of its huge potential audience, having a Facebook page is like having an ad on the largest billboard on the largest street in your area. And it's free!

In our next post, we'll talk about how to make your updates automated so that you'll rarely have to do more work than posting new content on your website.

MORE RESOURCES FOR FACEBOOK AND YOUR MINISTRY

Facebook Help Files - iMinistries Support
10 Reasons Your Church Should Be on Facebook - Frank Chiapperino.com

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