I remember in the mid ’90s when the advertising agency I worked for got “internet service”. It was through the phone lines (think slow!) and essentially we purchased a modem that allowed one of our computers to attach to this world wide web. I remember thinking “so, what can we do on it?”. E-mail was explained to us and then this foreign idea that people can advertise and give information on it. I was spell-bound.

The agency sent me away to learn how other agencies were developing “websites” using a programming language called HTML. WHAM! That’s where the internet lost me. It became something that “others” were going to have to do. My brother consistently taught me that “creatives” can’t operate in the programming world.

It wasn’t until much later, when I would work with programmers, that I realized I could design for the internet. But, like most designers of that era, we took our “print” mentality onto the web. We essentially used the internet to post a brochure online.

At the time, the best thing about the internet was the way we could break our pages into categories and then segment them for organizational purpose. Sound familiar?

By the late 90’s and early 2000’s, everyone realized that the internet was not going away, and they needed a website. It would save money and help in the distribution of knowledge. Churches jumped on the bandwagon about this time.

In 2004 or 2005, programmers who took all their secondary education training in online tools (ultimately the first generation of internet geeks), figured out the inherent difference between web and print.

• They could integrate video and movement with words.
• They could ask questions and get answers.
• They could “hear” from their audience, rather than just “speak” to them.

Web 2.0 was born.

But sadly, the Church is slow catching up. Many are barely holding on to Web 1.0. They still have brochures online rather than interactive, engaging websites. Pages are too dense with copy as the average surfer will only spend a few seconds on a page before moving on. They will also only click 3 times to find information before losing interest.

Church websites have to change! You’re working on a website that isn’t working and you know it!

How? Well, there are many tools available if you want to do it yourself. Wordpress delivers a great foundation so you can update your content. But be careful! It’s not all about the tool, make sure you take the time to simplify your content. And be aware of eye-tracking technology that shows where people look on a web page.

No one comes to your website to see the mechanism — but rather, they come for your content. Think interactive; forms, polls, video, online giving, etc. Have fun with it — look what others are doing successfully.

We do projects like these every day and we’d like to help you. Especially if you’re a church. We’re content specialist — and we work with virtually any budget. We just want your church to look great and attract (and keep) an audience seeking a relationship with God! If we can help you, let me know!

There you have it!

The Roman Catholic church does not have the habit (no pun intended) of accepting or reacting to change or new things quickly. So when I saw the headline, I realized that Facebook must be huge to hit the cross hairs of “The Church”.

In fact, Facebook has 150 million accounts worldwide. So what’s the buzz?!?

God created us as social creatures. Remember the euphoria of being asked in elementary school if “you’d be my friend?”. And the excitement the first time you sent an email to someone and they responded? Well, cross those two lines of thinking and you have social networking online.

And you can choose your poison. MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. All of these sites allow you to interact with a chosen few (called friends or followers) or you can open it up to anyone. It’s all part of Web 2.0.

Part of this movement, where you INTERACT with your audience, is blogging. (Remember you’re reading one, so you must like the information in this format) It’s my way of speaking to the masses (not the same ones as the Pope’s audience, but I digress…) and allowing them (you) to respond (called “comments”).

Blogging is not for the faint at heart though. It takes time. And an opinion. And writing skills. However, various blogs take the tone of “sound-offs”, information gathering, what I did today and many other forms. They can be long or they can be 140 characters (like a tweet in Twitter; or a status update in Facebook).

A great book to read is Blogging Heroes if you want to understand more about this blogging world and why the great bloggers do what they do. That book confesses that you have to write your blog knowing that people are reading — however people rarely comment. Some studies say less than 1% of those who read blogs ever comment! (this is a subtle hint… start commenting and you’ll be exceptional!)

So, why blog? This is your way to interact with your congregation! You could do devotions with them each day, you could share a Bible verse and expound on it. Or you could share your heart and passion or world-view insights.

The best part of this is… it’s free! All you need to do is set up a blog area on your website (use Blogger or WordPress for templates) or create a free Facebook (or similar) username and start writing! Then link from your Church’s website to your social networks. Before you know it, you’ll have followers and friends everywhere!

Any words of warning? Well, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI (in the AP story), “But he [the Pope] also warns that ‘obsessive’ socializing can isolate people from real interaction and deepen the digital divide by excluding those already marginalized”.

But I dare say, he wasn’t talking about Pastors, who have regular face-to-face contact with your congregation. But perhaps it’s a good caution. Then again, he IS the Pope.

Let us know if you need help connecting your blog or networks to your Church website!