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    Church Website Best Practices - Entries tagged "Twitter"

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    MonMondayAprApril16th2012 British Pastor Uses Twitter During Services [VIDEO]
    Posted Monday, April 16 2012 @ 7 AM byBryan Young Tagged Social Media Twitter 0 comments Add comment

    While I was on vacation in Ireland, I caught a story on Sky News about a pastor in Somerset, England who uses Twitter feeds during services to interact with his audience.


    [The pastor] said: "I think churches across the nation struggle to reach particularly young adults in the 18-30 age range.

    "Social media - that's their normal form of communication and so I think to use those forms as a way of targeting our audience." Watch the full video on the Sky News website >

    This "Twitter Vicar" certainly got the attention of secular news agencies -- what kind of impact do you think this had on potential church attendees?

    Does this inspire you to incorporate social media into your services?

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    MonMondayMarMarch7th2011 The Art of ReTweet
    Posted Monday, March 07 2011 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Social Media Twitter 0 comments Add comment
    “Retweets are the new currency on the Web” – Michael Arrington, Techcrunch.com
    The spreading of ideas is what Twitter, social media, and the Internet is all about.

    With so many people posting tweets with links to interesting content, blog entries, and news updates, retweeting these posts can be beneficial to you.

    iMinistries retweet

    Retweeting can be a great source of content

    One of the biggest challenges that comes maintaining a relevant Twitter feed is developing content to post. Retweeting takes the work out of content development. All you have to do is find interesting tweets to repost.

    Retweeting others gives your followers incentive to retweet you

    Seeing the "RT" on your feed makes your followers take notice. It tells them this content was so interesting, you want to share it. It also encourages them to share it with their followers, since you took the time to do so.

    How to properly retweet

    1. Always give credit to the source by including their twitter username
      (e.g. @author)
    2. Shorten URLs in your tweets
      (URL shortening website bit.ly is excellent; We like using Hootsuite.)
    3. If there are remaining characters at the end of a retweet, consider adding your own point of view.
    4. Think twice before retweeting sensitive material or something that might be untrue.
    5. Only retweet stuff that you think will be relevant to your followers.

    MORE RESOURCES ON RETWEETING

    Science of Retweets (PDF) - DanZarella.com
    Twitter Survey Results - A Closer Look at the Retweet Button - SimplyZesty.com
    Retweeting: 'Followers' look to 'leaders' as social networks grow     - CNN.com
    13 Ways to Get Your Blog Posts Retweeted     - Twitip.com
    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
    MonMondaySepSeptember20th2010 19 Twitter Icons
    Posted Monday, September 20 2010 @ 9 AM byTravis Hickox Tagged Twitter 0 comments Add comment

    Since we have been talking about Twitter, we thought that this article from One Extra Pixel might be helpful. In it, they provide 55 Twitter Buttons & Icon Sets. We paired it down to a more manageable 19 sets.


    404creative
    404creative

    Graphic Leftovers Buttons
    Graphic Leftovers Buttons

    Graphic Leftovers Grunge Badge
    Graphic Leftovers Grunge Badge

    Janko At Warp Speed
    Jankoat Warp Speed

    Kurumizawa
    Kurumizawa

    Marchari
    Marchari

    Matthamm
    Matthamm

    Pasqualedsilva
    Pasqualedsilva

    Pixey
    Pixey

    Poeticpixel
    Poeticpixel

    Productive Dream Vector Twitter
    Productive Dream Vector Twitter

    Productive Dreams Twitter Bird
    Productive Dreams Twitter Bird

    Smashing Freebies
    Smashing Freebies

    Splashnology
    Splashnology

    Stock Graphic Designs
    Stock Graphic Designs

    Web Design
    Web Design

    weFunction
    weFunction

    weFunction 2
    weFunction

    Wurstgott
    Wurstgott

    Free Trial

    We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.

    Create Your Free Trial Account
    MonMondaySepSeptember13th2010 Twitter and Your Ministry
    Posted Monday, September 13 2010 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Social Media Twitter 0 comments Add comment
    In our last blog entry, we wrote the 5 Reasons Your Ministry Should Be on Twitter. If you've determined that you want to join the rapidly growing micro-blogging and social networking website, you'll want to develop a strategy, create your account, and embed your tweets on your ministry website.

    Develop Your Twitter Strategy

    Before you start posting tweets, you need to determine what you will post. Your ultimate goals for Twitter should be
    1. Embedding links to your website and getting people to click them
    2. Adding followers
    So you'll need to develop a strategy for accomplishing these goals. Here is what your weekly strategy might look like:
    • Monday: tweet a link to your latest sermon podcast
    • Wednesday: tweet a preview and link to your blog post or a Bible verse of the week
    • Thursday or Friday: retweet from your favorite pastor, thinker, or follower; tweet about an upcoming event or news item and link to your website
    • Saturday: tweet an invitation to join your Sunday services and provide your sermon series title
    You may not feel the need to tweet this often, but this gives you an idea of how a strategy built upon the days of the week can remove the "What to tweet" guessing game.

    Tips for tweeting:
    • Links, links, links: the most important part of any tweet is a link to other content--news, events, blogs, sermons, pictures--and the text of the tweet should "sell" this content
    • Retweeting is a great way for other Twitter users to notice you and possibly convert into followers. People love it when you repeat what they have to say. Having your posts retweeted by others means you've succeeded.
    • Word count: Each tweet is limited to 140 characters, so each word is important. Don't waste them.
    • URL Compression: URLs can be long and nasty. Use Tiny URL to compress them to only a few characters. Just paste in your long one, and it'll make it shorter.

    Create Your Twitter Account

    Creating your account on Twitter is as simple as coming up with a username (one that's easy to remember and makes sense for your ministry) and adding some followers.
    1. Go to Twitter.com and click on the Let me in button.
    2. Fill in your account information, including your username. Create.
    3. Click through the three steps to add people to follow.
    4. After your account is created, edit your picture and profile by clicking Profile on the home page.
    5. Add a thumbnail (your ministry logo), your location, bio, and your ministry website.
    6. Click Design and edit your background. You can even upload a custom background.
    Now you're ready to post your first tweet.

    Add Your Twitter Feed to Your iMinistries Website

    A good way to let your website visitors know they can follow you on Twitter is to embed your feed on your ministry website. This is also an effective way to build in advertisement for content on your website into your homepage. How to embed your feed as an ad on your website.

    Free Trial

    We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.

    Create Your Free Trial Account

    MORE RESOURCES FOR TWITTER

    Twitter 101 - Twitter.com
    Twitter for Ministry Strategy 101 - ChurchCrunch.com
    Twitter for Churches - ebook and blog
    The Reason Your Church Must NOT Twitter - ChurchCrunch.com
    Twitter for Ministry and Church – A Business Perspective - ChurchCrunch.com
    Why I Love Twitter - Tim O'Reilly
    MonMondayAugAugust30th2010 5 Reasons Your Ministry Should Be On Twitter
    Posted Monday, August 30 2010 @ 9 AM byBryan Young Tagged Best Practices for Church Websites Social Media Twitter 0 comments Add comment

    Twitter is a social networking service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Followers can visit the author's Twitter page or use one of many tools to follow feeds, or their computer or phone.

    So what does this have to do with your ministry? Twitter can be used as a tool to connect with your users, to promote the content on your website, and possibly gain more interest in what your ministry is doing. Here are five reasons why your ministry should consider joining Twitter.

    1. Audience

    Twitter has over 100 million active users. Many are young (between 18-48) and come from all over the country and the world. Like Facebook and YouTube, Twitter is a tool that allows you to expand your ministry's reach. In addition to your followers, your tweets can also be found by adding topic tags and by retweeting posts from other Twitter accounts.

    2. Links, links, links

    One of the biggest benefits of Twitter is as an avenue for posting links back to your website. By using hyperlink abbreviating programs, you can create convert your long links into shorter ones. Twitter is all about driving traffic to your main Web presence, your ministry website.

    3. Networking

    "It's not what you know, it's who you know." We've all heard this saying and found it to be overwhelmingly true. By gaining followers and by following others yourself, you can develop a list of diverse contacts who share your beliefs, have a common mission, and may work in different areas of ministry. If you are interested in collaborating with other ministries, Twitter is a good place to develop relationships.

    4. It's easy, interactive, and viral

    Twitter is like a blog in that it initiates dialogue between you and your readers. Your followers can retweet your posts, or post your tweets from their profiles, they can respond to your tweets, and they can comment on the pictures you post. And its much less complicated than blogs. Users can read a tweet in 20 seconds and pass it on to others with an extra 5 seconds. They can follow much more people at once from mobile applications, desktop programs, and other utilities.

    5. It's Free Advertising

    Having a Twitter profile and posting tweets costs you nothing. Nothing except time and a tweeting strategy.

    That being said, Twitter is not for everyone. Above are just reasons why your church should consider it. Concentrate on the content of your ministry first, your ministry's website second, and advertising last.

    Reasons why you may not need Twitter

    • You don't know what a "blog" is, nevermind a "micro-blog"
    • You don't have enough content to link to on your ministry website
    • You can't devote any time to tweet, or you'd rather spend your time doing ministry work
    • You aren't interested in learning how to maximize its potential

    MORE RESOURCES FOR TWITTER

    The Reason Your Church Must NOT Twitter - ChurchCrunch.com
    Twitter for Ministry and Church – A Business Perspective - ChurchCrunch.com
    Why I Love Twitter - Tim O'Reilly

    Free Trial

    We believe the best way to describe our tools is for you to try them out yourself. We offer a 15-day free trial account which will give you a few days to use all of the features available to our paying clients. There's no risk and no obligation. Who knows, you might even enjoy the new control you have over your very own website.

    Create Your Free Trial Account
    Follow iMinistries on Twitter



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