When was the last time you collaborated on a project with someone outside of your organization? Or when was the last time your church collaborated with another church?

If you’re like me, you have a natural tendency to “do it yourself”. For me, the reasons are many and varied, but chief among them are my excuses:

I can do it faster by myself.

I don’t want to have to explain it to someone.

I must have total control over my project.

I don’t have the money to hire an outsider

I believe strongly in this project, so I must be the one to get it done.

These may all actually be true statements, but are they the right reasons?

It Takes More Than You

Even if you can do it by yourself, is that best? What if you brought in others for creative input? How would you receive critical feedback? Are you withholding the blessing of allowing someone to serve with their gifts because you won’t let it out of your hands?

Though not everything can or should be shared, I would submit that much of what we do could be better if we did share our projects. Here are some examples of where collaboration could be a game-changer for your church:

• What would happen if a group of churches did a billboard campaign – as one – in your city?

• Could your sermon be better if you used a creative team to plan months in advance on sermon series?

• What would happen if you shared musicians and vocalists with smaller churches each month?

• How many more volunteers would you have if you offered to include them beyond weekend services?

• Where else could you make an impact in your church and community if you collaborated?

Facebook page? Check.

Twitter account? Check.

Doing more than posting status updates or re-tweeting the pastor? Uhhhhmm…

Those are all good actions and activities, but as checklists go, they’re simply tactical. That’s motion without progress; or, if there is progress, how can you know if it’s in the right direction or getting the right results?

The 30/50/20 Rule I outlined for pastors in my previous post is partially tactical, but it’s built around the idea that pastors will start to see value (ROtI – return on their time investment, which is minimal) through conversations. However, to fully take advantage of Social Media is to see beyond the actions and tasks and engage the individuals using these near real-time technologies.

7 Crucial Elements of Social Media ROI for Churches

I will briefly touch on these, as it’s too much information to put into a single blog post.

1) Know How Social Media Integrates the Vision of Your Church

2) Decide What’s Measureable – and What’s Not

3) Define ROM (Return On Ministry)

4) Which Metrics Matter?

5) Empower Every Ministry with Tools & Training

6) Drive People to Decisions

7) Share Success Stories

Having a strategy for your church’s social media efforts goes beyond the tactical and produces a plan to do something with the opportunity. Deciding to measure the return on investment (mostly, time, since churches are not selling product or service) will take time, effort and above all, consistency. However, the results can be very impressive when a strategy is employed.

Learning from the business world helps give context to this kind of dedication, consistency and effort. The folks over at MarketingSherpa polled 3,342 consumer and B2B (Business-to-Business) marketers, giving us valuable insights about how these firms are using social media to engage audience, build brand, generate leads and drive sales. Based on the survey results, the overall average ROI reported by those who are measuring it is 95 percent. One-quarter said they have achieved 100 percent ROI. Higher percentages were reported, too. Twelve percent said they have achieved 200 percent ROI; two percent reported 1,000 percent ROI.

While local churches aren’t looking to generate sales, they are interested in connecting with their communities (loosely translated as “leads” in the business world). The principle here is the point: a consistent social media strategy will yield results.

How is your church approaching social media? With a more tactical or strategic mindset? What have been your success stories and learnings?

There have only been a handful of technologies that fundamentally changed how churches function on a day-to-day basis: Electricity, Central A/C & Heat, Telephones, the Internet, Email and, most recently, mobile technologies. I believe that mobile technologies will eventually force churches to change from a “come to us on our terms and our location” mindset to one that says “we’re available to meet you wherever you are”. In order to help churches embrace this change, I’ve outlined some of the reasons why I believe this change is coming – and coming faster than most realize.

More Than a Phone

Some would argue that mobile- and smart-phones are merely an extension of the telephone, but I believe the familiarity of the phone aspects cloud the bigger, and inherently better, value of mobile technology. A telephone was only ever a phone, though it did act as a transport medium for faxes and dial-up Internet connections.

Mobile devices, on the other hand, have redefined nearly every communication and transactional interaction of our lives.

The research firm comScore released their 2010 Mobile Year in Review report and revealed some very interesting and telling trends that, I believe, will bring a tidal wave of change upon nearly every local church. The report highlighted the increasing functionality in mobile phones. One of the fastest-growing uses of mobile devices? Online banking & online giving. “The U.S. mobile market displayed the most mature mobile banking market reaching 11.4% of mobile users,” cited the report. In addition, mobile wallet capabilities – using mobile phones in place of debit or credit cards for in-person purchases – are beginning to come onto the scene. The report cited the example of Starbucks, which, in early 2011, announced that “customers in thousands of locations can pay for items with their phones via an application that can be scanned across a reader at check out.”

People are using the near-constant availability of their mobile devices to connect and share instantly; a facet of digital life that the local church must embrace.

For example, 24.7% of U.S. mobile users access social networking sites or blogs on their mobile device, showing the continued rise of online connectivity. With 93% penetration in the U.S., mobile reach has connected the vast majority of Americans, with 2.26 trillion (yep, with a ‘t’) minutes of cell phone calls logged and 1.81 trillion text messages sent in 2010 alone. Further, 24.5% of U.S. households are now wireless-only.

This kind of saturation leads to one obvious conclusion: we have the ability to find, connect, communicate, share and purchase from anywhere at anytime.

Mobile Usage Intersects with Life in Churches

As mobile devices continue to sell at unprecedented rates, the increasing usage to an ever-widening user group has certain categories showing massive double-digit growth.

In the not-too-distant past, churches could pretty much get by with a “build-it-and-they-will-come” mentality. Today, churches can’t assume their venues, activities and events will be the hub of people’s spiritual lives. Remember when:

• New to town & looking for a church? Go to the street with all the church signs & try one.
• Want to share life with those who share your belief? Join a church Bible study class or small group.
• Need to tithe? Drop it in the offering plate at church.
• Desire to be in a mid-week discipleship class? Go to church.
• Need to share a prayer request? Go to church & post it on the prayer wall or meet with a pastor.
• Want to serve in a community outreach event? Go to church and sign up (on a piece of paper).

Today, every single one of those can be done through online technologies, all of which can be accessed on a mobile device. It is because of this near-limitless functionality, and the fact that it’s almost always on their body, that people are finding so many ways to use their mobile devices. Take a look at the top mobile activities over just a three month average:

What’s more, social media continues to expand into a larger audience, fueled by the handy accessibility of their connected mobile devices. The number of U.S. users accessing the Facebook site via mobile reached roughly 44 million as of December 2010, while YouTube and Twitter held the second and third position in the U.S., growing 74% and 71%, respectively.

Mobile is Now, Churches

In much the same way that building a website was a critical component for churches in the 1990′s, developing and using mobile applications will be one of the biggest needs (and challenges) for local churches. In fact, starting with a new website design today is probably a great starting point, as a mobile version of the site not only makes viewing it on a mobile device easier to read, the site navigation decisions that drive mobile design are excellent ways to trim the fat off of church websites.

Other mobile applications are readily available, many of them free, for churches to equip their staff & members. Some of my favorites include:

• YouVersion
• TruthCasting
• Planning Center Online
• F1Touch (iPhone version)
• Foursquare
• Facebook
• Twitter

Mobile will continue to grow and make church attendees more acutely aware of how much your churches does NOT have available (or at least visible). In time, I believe that mobile technology will be leveraged to make some percent of a church’s experience location independent. Anytime, anywhere is where people’s lives are moving and church should be an active, mobile part of life.

Do you think churches will change because they want to or because they’ll have to?

* Sources include CITA & comScore

Every church leader should make a trip to Disney Land/World as a business expense. The insights about creating a great experience result in such a significant return on ministry that the costs are more than justified.

Disney has everything about the experience locked up tight. They seemingly think of everything, even the things you probably wouldn’t think of but appreciate upon discovery. The lessons for churches are simply huge and don’t require the budgets of Disney to accomplish!

HOW THEY FIND YOU

Word of mouth and web are the two main methods people will use to investigate something they’re interested in. They’ll ask their friends if they’ve experienced it and they’ll look online at the website to determine if it seems like a good fit.

Nothing speaks about success like a happy person/family talking about their great experiences, so Disney has taken user-submitted home movies (from way back in the 60′s to today) and created short stories that showcase the experience (joy, happiness, fulfillment, excitement, enjoyment, etc.). They don’t have to tell us it’s going to be great – their satisfied customers already did.

Churches also benefit (or suffer) from word of mouth and their website. Capturing short, compelling stories of joy, happiness, fulfillment, excitement, enjoyment and life change from a variety of people in the demographic range of the church help people decide if they want to take the next step.

AMAZING ARRIVALS

Once we arrived at the airport, the Disney Magical Express made it super easy to enjoy the trip to DisneyWorld. 30 minutes in the bus went by quickly with a video showing more of the experience videos and things we can expect. If you drive into Disneyland, the large signage and easy-to-understand navigation and a small army of people in the parking lot wearing bright vests make it easy to know where to park and, once there, how to get to where you’ll need to go next.

This experience (minus the shuttle) can be applied on a smaller scale at just about any church with a number of smiling volunteers clad in bright vests making it easy to know where to park. In fact, I’ve been to several churches where signs alert first-time visitors to put on their hazard lights so they’re easily identified and given priority, up-front parking for first-time guests. Similarly, there are churches that focus on their demographic with parking near the children’s building for parents of small kids, with some churches going so far as to create single-parent parking and a smiling volunteer to help them with an umbrella on rainy days so they don’t get soaked while unbuckling their little ones from the back seat.

SMOKE WHAT YOU’RE SELLING (NO BAIT-AND-SWITCH)

When Disney says it’s a “Magical Experience”, they deliver. From their staff (called “Cast Members”) with smiles EVERYWHERE, to well thought-out way-finding/signage to promotional content, they consistently set an expectation and then meet it. When they don’t (my bags didn’t ‘magically’ appear in my room after the bus trip – a promise they’d made), they fix it and go above and beyond to apologize and help you get right back into a great experience. Attention to detail is the norm, with impeccably clean facilities to tiny, short sinks in the bathroom for little kids to wash up, to an obvious emphasis on customer service – Disney is smokin’ what they’re sellin’.

Too often, a church website promises “cutting edge” or “contemporary” or “relevant” something-or-other, only to end up offering what most other churches are offering: pretty good, but not-even-close-to-what-they-promised services/experiences. It’s easy to use fun adjectives and stock photography of actors having a great time, but it is a disconnect when I show up for an event, activity or service and am underwhelmed.

Don’t confuse what I’m saying. Not everything has to be top-dollar at church; it simply has to be top-effort.

NOT ONLY FIRST IMPRESSIONS – CONSISTENT IMPRESSIONS

Every day at Disney, I get more of the same – and that’s a very good thing. I appreciate that they don’t just make a show of first impressions; everyday their Cast Members greet, offer help and smile and welcome me. This kind of friendliness doesn’t just happen because they used Strengths Finder 2.0 to staff with the happiest people; this is a culture of making it about the experience. When intentionality is reinforced, people will rise to the occasion. Yes, I know they’re paid staff and not volunteers, but every other secular place also pays staff and doesn’t get this kind of result. Do you see the difference? That they pay staff is true but irrelevant. It’s simply expected that to work at Disney, you’re going to focus on making everything “magical” (and they even say at the end of phone calls: “Have a magical day!”).

They even highlight their best Cast Members (click on the image).

Volunteers that are public-facing (parking, greeters, hospitality, kids workers, ushers, etc.) need leaders that reinforce creating great experiences. Like Disney, setting the expectation along with the example goes a long way. Plus, I would submit that our volunteers would find more joy in being joyful and helpful than standing at a door and saying “Good morning” or “hello”.

Have your volunteer exceed expectations with greetings such as: “Have a fantastical day!” “We are so blessed to see you today!” “How can I serve you?” or even “Let me know if I can help with getting your kids checked in!”

HAVE A HEART

Finally, if we share the heart of our church and consistently remind our volunteers and staff that this may be the ONLY chance to meet someone in need or help them when they’re nervous about attending for the first time, the role suddenly shifts from a “job” to a joy. I do recommend using Strengths-Finders and spiritual gifts assessments to help people plug into roles where they’ll be most comfortable, but when we put teams of people together and encourage each other, the experience becomes more consistent and, most likely, far better than our attendees anticipate.

THIS MIGHT BE HARD TO DO…

How does your church make great experiences for all of your services, activities and events? What would you add or change from what I’ve described about Disney? What are the opportunities? What are the challenges? I’ve outlined my experiences and shared them; now it’s your turn. Comment below or link back to your blog where you’ve explored this in other ways!

“I used to think the government was the employer of last resort. I now think it has become the local church.”

That’s a quote from my a friend, who sums up a generalization about what I see as an unfortunate truth. Many, many churches hire from a place of sympathy or empathy rather than from a position of wisdom and discernment.

It’s not hard to see why so many churches make this choice. After all, if we have friends and neighbors who have a heart for our church and community, who also have a need for a job, we look to fulfill their need with our desire.

The net result is generally a very sweet and kind person who loves the church but doesn’t have the capability or gifting to accomplish the goals for the position. In the end, the church leadership is forced to: A) do nothing, because change is hard; B) move the person to another position, hoping for a better fit; or C) fire a friend/church member. If you’ve worked at a church, you know how rare that third option is exercised.

In his book “Ladder Shifts”, Dr. Sam Chand explains how leaders must make the hard relational decisions to move, demote or even fire people they love in order to not be limited by a person who is not capable of rising to the next level of growth and change.

Firing may seem harsh, but how much more harsh is it to keep a person from fulfilling the unique gifting they can offer the Kingdom for fear of hurt feelings? “Releasing into ministry” may not be a mere kind term for a church job termination, but the real truth of the matter for many good people who may have simply been part of the Peter Principle (the concept of promoting a person to their level of incompetence, formulated by Dr. Laurence Peter).

However, before any staffing decisions are made, the facts need to be presented. Has the job description been defined, along with some stated expectations and goals? What kind of measurements are used, consistently, to determine the effectiveness for the employee? How often, and in what format, are critiques and praises offered and recorded for each employee? What kind of improvement program, including training and mentoring, is offered to help employees grow? Are time lines for improvement defined and communicated up front? Which leaders are involved in determining if the issue is with the employee or with how they are managed?

Now I’m no Human Resources expert, but without some basic guidelines and a metric system in place – in combination with the input and testimony of peers – churches are simply setting themselves up for failure, both at the point of hiring and at termination.

How does your church define goals and set expectations? What kind of tangible metrics are used to evaluate effectiveness? Who is holding a team back from the growth that is necessary to meet the current and future needs of your local church?

Don’t be an employer of last resort; be an employer of Kingdom-minded people with savvy processes for getting results.

The lines between our ‘work lives’ and our ‘personal lives’ have been blurred due to the interchange of social media and technology. Though not anonymous, there is a certain sense that because we’re not looking directly at someone when we share something electronically, our status update is somehow still limited to a semi-private audience.

What we say is both a reflection of who we are and what we represent. Beyond a personal sphere of influence, church staff and lay leaders are physical representatives of the character, culture and convictions of the church they serve. Therefore, what is shared or made available through status updates, pictures and blogs needs to be filtered through the lens of the church ethos.

A couple of years ago pastor Tom Lane of Gateway Church in Southlake, TX, asked me to write up a social media policy for his review. In the end, I created a framework instead of a policy since I’m only a volunteer at the church and am not privy to the entire staff culture or administrative oversight and boundaries over staff. Tom took this framework and modified it to fit the ethos of Gateway and infused his own gentle yet firm wisdom into what is now the Gateway social media policy. I’m thankful that Tom shared with me the final version, as it gave me insight into what he and the leadership believe and expect. The result of the combined effort sent me back to the drawing board to rethink the framework I originally wrote.

I won’t share Gateway’s policy because I fear many churches would simply use it as-is, when what they need to do is think through how their own ethos should modify the policy. Instead, taking cues from the venerable and wise pastor Tom Lane, I’ve copied and pasted the text from my new “Church Social Media Framework”, with HTML formatting, for use in your churches.

NOTE: This document (content) is made to be changed. It’s a framework, not a policy, and has obvious places where churches will need to add, modify or take away. I’ve intentionally not made it copy-and-paste “instantly use-able” because I really want you to think through what you believe, why you believe it and how it will impact your church staff. Simply copy and paste the content below and modify it for your church. This is provided free to all Christian churches.

Church Social Media Framework

CHURCH NAME HERE

Social Media Communications FRAMEWORK

DATE HERE

Introduction and Purpose

Many individuals and departments are interested in using digital communication services beyond email, such as text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, etc to maintain contact and to send important, but unsolicited, messages to members and contacts of theirs and of CHURCH NAME HERE: for example, to all members, all staff, department leaders, or to some combination of these large segments of our data file.

Email systems and email addresses, cell phones, and computers are provided to the employee to be used primarily for ministry purposes.  We believe that ministry by its very nature is relational so use of digital communication to expand and develop a sense of community is a valuable tool for reaching people but needs appropriate guidelines.

The goals of all CHURCH NAME HERE communication are these:

1. To promote member and community awareness of ministry initiatives and opportunities.
2. To support ministry efforts by targeted promotion and timely interactive feedback.
3. To provide relational points of connection and response through blogs, social networking software, church ministry websites, email and text messaging.

This policy sets forth boundaries for using these digital forms of communication by employees and leaders of CHURCH NAME HERE.

Electronic Communications Policy

When sending a mass email to members of segmented groups of the congregation the email should be run through the DEPARTMENT NAME HERE for timing and coordination.  For further details, reference the CHURCH NAME HERE Email Policy.

All communication through any electronic form is subject to public scrutiny and can represent a reputation risk to the individual as well as to CHURCH NAME HERE.  Therefore, it is important for each person to consider carefully the information shared through these mediums.

• Opinions expressed could be unintentionally interpreted as representing the position of CHURCH NAME HERE although they are communicated through a non-CHURCH NAME HERE source like Facebook or Twitter.

• Personal information that is shared through these mediums can present yourself, someone else, or the church in a bad or compromised light. Most often when it comes to images and words of communication, perception becomes reality. Therefore, we must be careful with both what and how we communicate so that our motive is not misunderstood.

• Pictures and information posted on personal sites are public with world-wide exposure and therefore can have work implications related to reputation risk.  For further details reference the CHURCH NAME HERE Outside Interest Policy.

Philosophies to Consider when Communicating

• CHURCH NAME HERE’S Social Covenant declares INSERT HOW THE CHURCH VIEWS THE VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF RELATONSHIPS AND WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE SOCIAL COVENANT WITH THE CONGREGATION, therefore communication should be positive and honoring so as to not violate the Social Covenant.

• We believe that integrity is necessary for ministry therefore we cannot communicate confidential personal or sensitive information about people through these public digital sources.  Reference the CHURCH NAME HERE Privacy Policy for further guidelines.

• When using text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, and other similar digital forms of communication to contact CHURCH NAME HERE members preference should be given to “OPT IN” opportunities for members to participate rather than assuming that since we have the capability to communicate with the individual that they will want every bit of communication we can give them. Over-communication or communication to the wrong target audience is viewed as “spam”.

• Each employee must realize their responsibility for appropriate online communication behavior both with content and contact. It is our responsibility to maintain boundaries for our communications that are appropriate and righteous as they reflect CHURCH NAME HERE and, more importantly, the Lord.

Content Topics

Appropriate text and posting topics include, but are not limited to:

• Timely departmental and ministry updates.

• Specific information to parents or family members related to completion time of ministry events, arrival time from trips, and prayer/ministry updates from events.

• Administrative announcements that are specific and time-critical.

• Personal information that enables individuals to feel connected with you as a leader of an area of ministry or the church and which enables them to get to know you at an appropriate social level.

• Invitation for participation or involvement in departmental ministry.

Inappropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

• Any message whose content goes beyond your departmental mission or your appropriate personal data.

• Any discussion or presentation of sensitive CHURCH NAME HERE organizational or ministry information that has not already been made public.

• Any solicitation for personal benefit.

• Any message that includes improper or discourteous content or abusive language (including sexually-suggestive content, profanity, racial or sexual slurs) or that is otherwise not consistent with CHURCH NAME HERE’S core teachings and beliefs.

Communication with Minors

Based upon applicable law, the church considers anyone under eighteen (18) years of age to be a minor.  Great care should be exercised when communicating with a minor. As an employee you should avoid any communication which:

• Would potentially allow the minor’s personal information, address, phone number, picture or similar personal information to be available over the Internet or to third-parties not having a proper church-related purpose.

• Violates the church’s children/youth policies or would violate the policies if communicated in person rather than in a virtual or digital format.

• Requests the minor to agree to or participate in an activity or undertaking which requires parental consent or that would customarily be understood to require parental consent. All contact and communication must respect the parents authority with their children.

• Suggests the minor meet with you for any kind of activity not part of regular church events or a church-related purpose.

• Would be considered as child abuse or neglect as described by the church’s policies and applicable law.

If your ministry lay leadership is in contact with minors as part of their duties, the DEPARTMENT NAME will provide a non-staff email address (FIRSTNAMELASTNAME@CHURCHNAMEVOLUNTEER.ORG) and the necessary steps to set this up with a free email service such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail. The purpose of this email address is to provide a non-private email for lay leadership to connect with minors that is filtered through the CHURCH NAME HERE email servers for oversight and accountability. See DEPARTMENT NAME for further details.

Online Communication Methodologies

The term “online” is continually being updated because of new technologies. Therefore, the following is representative of the current technologies available today.

Email

The policy of the church requires the employees to respond to emails in a timely way. A timely response is defined as taking place within a 24-hour period. For other details related to emails, refer to the CHURCH NAME HERE Email Policy.

Text Messaging

Text messaging is one of the fastest ways to connect with the cell phones of our congregation. We are responsible for our own text activities and the amount of text information we send out.

It is recommended that text messages are sent only to those who request to be updated via SMS text. Not everyone has a text messaging plan, so we do not want to force our members to incur charges for texts if they do not have a text message plan.

Minors use text messaging on cell phones far more than they use cell minutes to talk on their phones. Though this is an obvious means of communication with minors, great care must be taken to establish specific boundaries and guidelines for texting with minors that relate to both content and time of day the texting takes place. All lay leaders that text with minors must agree to and sign our Texting Policy document that allows CHURCH NAME HERE the right to request and view all text messages with minors.

Ministry Group SMS Text Messaging

Reaching the cell phones of our members, volunteers and lay leaders is one of the best ways to share urgent information and event reminders. Unlike email, text messaging requires short, concise messages with actionable items. We encourage our staff to find ways to leverage text messaging to specific people-groups as an effective means of communication.

Various tools exist for text messaging and need to be evaluated for consistency with the existing privacy policy and for opt-in availability. There are to be no private departmental tools for group communication or data base management.  The tools for text messaging communications are to reviewed and approved by the IT Department. All data entered about members and attendees of the church and are to be entered into the CHURCH MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE NAME HERE or other software approved through IT. Therefore, use wise judgment about which text messages need to be copied and into the member record for unique or urgent issues.

Personal Social Networks

Some of the newest and least understood tools are online social networks. Ranging from simple, personal connection points such as MySpace and Facebook to group-wide, affinity-based social groups such as Ning, to the text message based service, Twitter, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each tool in the context of sharing information. Most important is remembering that all of these mediums are public to one extent or another. Therefore, staff is cautioned to be very careful when updating private information with these tools.

Facebook

Facebook allows both individuals and organizations to create profiles for sharing information, pictures, experiences and even videos on a large platform. Though some levels of security exist, the church Privacy Policy and Communications Policy guidelines need to be adhered to as boundaries for online community tools.

Each ministry may want to create a specific “Group” on Facebook as a way to share pictures, calendar updates, event details and unique, ministry-specific information. All church-sponsored Facebook groups should include links back to the church website and/or church website ministry pages.

Twitter

Twitter is unique in both its ability to allow each person to learn and share with others (those they ‘follow’) and to share and update information with those interested in you or your ministry (‘followers’).

Twitter is considered a valuable tool that can be used for staying connected to church members. As such, personal interaction and sharing certain aspects of your personal life are encouraged as a part of building community. However, never forget that even your personal Twitter accounts are representing the church and your actions are reflections of the church as a whole.

For the development of community, if a ministry staff person is on Twitter the IT department will put links to Twitter accounts on the church website as an additional method for people to connect and get to know the leaders of the church and be able to follow a particular ministry or ministry team member.

MySpace

Each department must decide if a church-sponsored MySpace page is warranted due to the fact that the advertising displayed on MySpace cannot be controlled.  Individual MySpace accounts for ministry staff are discouraged.

Church Website

The church website is created, maintained, and serviced by the CHURCH NAME HERE (DEPARTMENT NAME HERE). Departmental and individual websites created by staff should be reviewed and approved by the DEPARTMENT NAME HERE.  For further details reference the Church Website Policy.

Blogs

Blogs (also called Weblogs) are a popular way of sharing resources, thoughts, links, and stories in a format that can vary from paragraphs of text to audio recordings (podcasts), and video recordings (vidcasts). Overall, blogs are an incredibly helpful way to share “beyond the website” in a format that’s typically casual, personable and freely accessible. Blogs should be presented to the DEPARTMENT NAME HERE for approval and inclusion on the main CHURCH NAME HERE website.

The church policy on confidentiality applies to blogs. Personal information shared can present yourself, someone else, or the church in a bad or compromised light. Most often when it comes to image and words of communication, perception becomes reality, so we must be careful in regards to what and how we communicate so that our intention is not misunderstood. An abundance of caution and common sense is required.

Church Blogs

It is expected that churches sponsor blogs be on the church website as micro-sites (i.e. pastorsblog.churchname.com). This allows for greater search optimization and easier navigation for site visitors.  When these blogs are presented to the DEPARTMENT NAME HERE, they will, as a part of the approval process, be included on the main church website.

Personal Blogs

Privacy concerns for sharing confidential information must be maintained. Each department and individual must operate within the guidelines of this policy regarding the content of their personal blog. When a ministry staff person has a personal blog it needs to be declared on the Outside Interest Declaration form to their Executive overseer.  For further details reference the CHURCH NAME HERE Outside Interest Policy.

There will undoubtedly be technological advances in the future that are not specifically described under this policy. Each employee should use their best judgment to assume that the overriding concerns for security and privacy expressed throughout this policy apply to such new technology and the employee’s adopting and using new technology are expected to bring such advances to the attention of the church’s DEPARTMENT NAME HERE for evaluation and the Human Resources Department for consideration related to updating this policy.

Church Oversight

As a staff member of the church, your online activities are a reflection of the church and represent your ministry. Therefore, your opinions expressed can be taken as representing the position of the church, although it is communicated on your own personal communications tools online.

Account Access

The IT Department will determine which accounts have a master password and email address associated with the church. In this way, accountability and protection of church communications, even those shared through “personal” accounts, will be monitored by the IT Department and reported to church leadership.

Privacy Expectations

All church communication equipment (computers, telephones, network, servers, etc.) belong to the church and are ultimately subject to being inspected or reviewed by appropriate church personnel.

Utmost care should be taken not to publish or make publicly available, directly, or by virtue of links, passwords or employee personal information such as social security numbers, drivers license numbers, home address or other information that should reasonably be held confidential.

For further information on privacy issues reference the CHURCH NAME HERE Privacy Policy.

Online Public Statements

Care must be taken to not speak on behalf of the church. All public statements and interactions on behalf of the church or its ministries will be coordinated through the DEPARTMENT NAME HERE to the press, both offline and online. An employee is not authorized to make any public statement regarding: church policy organizational structure, management, governance issues, or regarding any alleged liability of the church to any third-party that has not already been communicate through the DEPARTMENT NAME HERE or from the pulpit in a worship service.  Employees are instructed to direct all questions on these issues to the DEPARTMENT NAME HERE.

Digital Communication for Commercial and political activities

CHURCH NAME HERE is a nonprofit entity. If it engages in commercial or political activities, that nonprofit status can be threatened or expose the church to tax liabilities. Employees should avoid or limit any situation in which commercial or political links are established between the church’s communications and third-parties. If there are such links, the church could be considered to be a sponsor of those advertised commercial activities or an endorser of a political candidate could lead to liability for the church. The church can take positions regarding matters of public policy or regarding social issues so long as it meets the following criteria:

(a) It does not become an endorsement of a particular political candidate or party.

(b) It does not advocate specific legislative change such that the church is viewed as being involved in lobbying.

Any issues not declared above need to be brought to the attention of your direct supervisor for review with the church leadership. This policy exists to provide accountability and security for staff and lay leadership.

With consumers searching, researching and buying online at an exponential rate, the advertising industry has realized the need to change from “shotgun marketing” to “laser-focused marketing”. The concept is simple and the application for churches is intriguing.

Put simply, since people are searching and looking in specific places more often, it’s possible to provide the right ad to the right person with greater frequency and accuracy than has been possible before.

Not too long ago you’d buy a billboard ad, for example, in the hopes that some small percentage of people would see what you had to say and respond to it. This “shotgun” approach worked the numbers game; high traffic areas meant more eyeballs and more eyeballs meant the greater chance of reaching the right person who liked or resonated with the ad. You still see this approach online with banner ads on websites that do a slightly better job of targeted by being placed on specific sites with unique topics. Better, but still a virtual shot in the dark.

Today, more of us are logging into sites – even retail sites – because we get a discount or some other benefit of shopping while logged in than if we just skim the website. Ad firms realize this and are working like crazy to be the behind-the-scenes engines that handle that log-in information on behalf of the merchant so that they can not only report on buying and traffic patterns but because they want to engage – often in real time or near real time – with the person while they’re online. For example, a woman named “Beth” might use a trip planning website to look at possible destinations for a vacation. The site, recognizing she’s logged in and tracked that she’d last searched for flights to Scotland, might pop up a question like “Hey, Beth, we thought you might like to know we found a great deal on airline tickets and a cozy bed and breakfast for a trip to Scotland. Click here to watch a 15 second video and see more details.”

Because they knew she’d been looking at that kind of information in the past, along with her basic profile information, it’s safe to make an educated guess that she might like to stay in a bed and breakfast once she arrived. Laser-focused ads are served up based on previous interactions, potentially providing “Beth” with something that she’ll want to buy. Taking it a step further, when “Beth” answers the question and chooses to watch a 15 second video from a major airline, she can earn points for virtual currency, Facebook credits, drawings and more.

With Facebook striking deals left and right with advertisers and businesses, it’s common knowledge that advertisers are tying into these websites with Facebook integration, providing even more accurate predictive targeting opportunities. Customization that’s tailored to our tastes and budgets all because we simply use the sites we’re on and we share information – a lot of it – through social networks.

Ignoring the obvious privacy implications (that’s being addressed on multiple fronts and is not the focus of this thought train, though the reality is that most people don’t realize just how public their life becomes with how much they share online), the thinking I’ve had since reading about this has been on how this applies to churches.

Today, churches don’t “sell” very much (mission trips, summer camps and maybe concerts being reasonable exceptions), so how does this behavioral marketing apply? Simple: people use your website and often log-in when you offer a way for them to stay connected (online calendar, volunteer reminder, small group leader reporting, online giving and contribution statements) to their life within the church. It’s not unreasonable to think that missions organizations or non-profit organizations would take advantage of this and potentially offer to tie into church websites.

On a more practical, we-can-do-this-today note, it’s also possible to consider that churches may want to be diligent and strategic about using analytics on their website, in combination with data in their church management software, to see where people click, what they fill out (or don’t complete), which videos they watch (or don’t) and begin creating a trend analysis to look for opportunities to improve the value and functionality of their websites. Beyond that rather simple measure, the communications options available to churches today mean it’s possible to utilize multiple methods and channels of communications. In effect, churches can move from a “shotgun” to a laser-focused approach by developing a strategic communications methodology that includes personal (face-to-face), phone calls, email, text, website, announcements, print materials and social media to develop a targeted communications campaign.

Regardless of the whiz-bang future predictive ad-serving or the more simple analytics analysis, this will first require church leaders to sit down with some knowledgeable folks (possibly inside their church) and take the time to understand their goals, develop proper strategies and apply the best tactics to more effectively connect and reach their people.

What say you? Please share you thoughts below.

I shouldn’t be, but I am still surprised when I meet someone for the first time and we both know a lot about each other. This happened a few weeks ago when I had the fortunate opportunity to meet Will Mancini, respected author and church consultant, for a couple of hours. Though we’d never met in person before, we both have followed each other on Twitter and read each others blogs, so our first meeting ramped up into significant conversation without the usual ice-breaker small talk necessary to establish rapport. Another win for social media, but also an important distinction in connecting with people you resonate with. But I digress.

Talking with Will face-to-face was insightful because I got to peek inside how he thinks by following his train of thought in conversation. Will’s a very bright man, to be sure, but what impressed me most was that he obviously disciplines himself in the art of conversation. Much like my friend (and CEO/boss) Jeff Hook, Will doesn’t ask an idle question; he’s got a motive behind his question that is strategically two steps ahead. During our discussion about everything from family to church consulting to technology to strategic processes, Will quite naturally shared about what is obviously his gift: he truly understands churches and has a near-consuming passion to help them focus on their unique vision.

Will’s self-proclaimed title is Clarity Evangelist. I love this title because it fits Will, as was evidenced as he brought – yep, clarity – to points of our discussion. As a strategic thinker myself (one of my top 5 Strengths Finder results), I am intrigued by people who have this capacity. Will has it in spades.

I highly encourage my pastor friends to connect with Will. His company, Auxano, offers on-site consulting, remote CO::LABs and workshops to help churches understand and leverage their unique vision.

Take it from me: Will will help your church in real, tangible ways. But, be warned: he’ll be two steps ahead of you the entire time!

I initially named this “linear growth vs. logarithmic growth” because that’s really the crux of this message, but it’s not as good for SEO. Let me ‘splain my thinking:

If a church has a goal of 10% growth in, say, attendance over one year, then it would be logical to expect a 2.5% growth every 3 months (for a total of 10% over a year). That would be linear growth. And it would also probably be unrealistic.

Logarithmic growth, on the other hand, assumes that ramping up will take time, effort and refinement. The growth may be .5% after the first three 3 months, 1.5% at 6 months and a larger ramp-up over the last half of the year. That’s logarithmic growth.

I don’t think it’s a shock to hear that the best results almost always come about after a period of sustained, goal-focused effort. We all want the results (I know I do), but we don’t always want to take the time to really put forth the right kinds of effort to get those results (I struggle with this). A gerbil in a wheel will work, very, very hard and get exactly nowhere.

Maybe it’s different for you, but I’ve found that I focus on that which I enjoy. The key, therefore, is to align my tasks to match up with the objectives (bite-sized and created from the original goal) that allow me do things that I enjoy during the process. For me to get the results, I’ve got to set myself up for success (and it helps if your boss helps you do this, too, by giving clear goals and realistic expectations). Since I’m all about “story”, I’m taking my tasks and doing them in the context of building up towards the over-arching story. Point is, find a way to get those things done, consistently, while filtering them against the goal.

My natural desire to see immediate results. My experiences have shown results come over time. It’s not linear….it’s logarithmic.

I’ll cut right to the chase: nearly every task and activity is a project. Some are simply more involved and take longer to accomplish. Some are reoccurring; others happen once in a blue moon. Yet they all have this in common:

“If you don’t take time to manage your projects, your projects will manage to take your time.”

I’ve not found the “perfect” project management tool, so I use a combination of tools that fit each situation. I have a moleskin that I use to write down tasks and project information in ad-hoc meetings. I also use Evernote on my iPhone when I need to quickly record audio or take a picture to help me with the project details. My one “constant” is the online software, Basecamp, by 37 Signals, which I use at work to help organize, prioritize, share, delegate & track project progress. In the past, I’ve been in companies that used Microsoft’s Project, the mother of all project management tools, but my experience with it revealed to me that you’ll need a certified project manager to make that software really sing.

Admittedly, managing projects means that I have to take the time to enter projects and care about the progress as my own accountability. We’re only as accountable as we want to be, so this requires a certain level of discipline.

When you think about it, learning project management is a must-have skill that will serve you well in church, business and life. In fact, through my years of consulting I’ve made the recommendation for churches to hire certified (or even a degree in Project Management) project managers.

Sunday comes every seven days. What you do between those seven days is a series of projects every week.

I’ve included a few resources that I’ve found helpful in learning about project management. Feel free to share your resources in the comments below.

Project management software:

http://basecamphq.com/

http://www.activecollab.com/

http://www.myintervals.com/

http://www.gtdagenda.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/project

Project management books:

A Manager’s Guide to Project Management

Scrappy Project Management

The One-Page Project Manager