The iChurch Method 2012 Year in Review

As 2012 comes to an end, we here at The iChurch Method would like to thank you for all your support. It’s been a banner inaugural year. It’s awe inspiring to think that at this time last year, The iChurch Method was just a small blog that was waiting to be launched into the public with the release of the flagship book, The iChurch Method Vol 1: How to Advance Your Ministry Online. With that being stated, let’s look at some of the key accomplishments in 2012.

• Launched The iChurch Method Vol. 1 at the Pastors and Leaders conference in Orlando where I taught and had a book signing. It was an awesome experience
• Spoke at SDA national convention in ABQ as well as the Social Media bootcamp in Costa Mesa CA on taking your Social Media to the next level.
• Taught at FICWFM convention in Los Angeles at Crenshaw Christian Center on Social Media and Ministry. This was great because I have worked with CCC since 2007 and I was finally able to participate in their major convention.
• Wrote for Gospel Today Magazine (2 times) and The iChurch Method was reviewed in the magazine as well.
• Taught The iChurch Method class at The Potter’s Institute and introduced The iChurch Method Live, where I streamed the classes live online for anyone to participate in using Google Hangouts.
• The iChurch Method is now being sold in The Potters House, Crenshaw Christian Center and SDA Adventsource bookstores.
• Prof. David Bourgeois of Biola University in La Mirada CA, used The iChurch Method for his digital ministry summer course.
• Filmed by local news, CW33 for a segment on church and technology
• Participated in Conclave with Monkdevelopment.com for church communicators and met some great friends. This event hand selected church communicators from across the country and we all met in Dallas for a collaborative meeting.
• Reached 1 million Facebook fans and created a new online church streaming module for T.D. Jakes Ministries. When I arrived at T.D. Jakes ministries in Jan. 2010, they were not using social media at all. I was able to implement an initial strategy of devotionals and links to online video content to start generating interaction via social media, and two years later the audience grew to 1 million.

http://ichurchmethod.com/the-ichurch-method-2012-year-in-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-ichurch-method-2012-year-in-review

The iChurch Method at Universities

The focus of The iChurch Method was to educate and inform churches how to better use technology and advance their ministry online. What I didn’t foresee was the academic environments that The iChurch Method could be utilized in. I didn’t foresee Christian Universities using The iChurch Method in their curriculums to help educate their students on how technology can be (and is being) used in ministry.

Here are two great universities that have utilized The iChurch in their curriculums.

Biola University – Digital Ministry Seminar Summer Course – Prof. David T Bourgeois

Abilene Christian University – Christian Ministry in Digital Culture – Dr. John Weaver

The benefits of introducing students to The iChurch Method in college as well as how real life churches are using technology is that we are able prepare students to help advance ministries technologically as soon as they come out of school, instead of them going to corporate america and then eventually coming to work for the church. This would give churches access to more individuals with technical skills that are ready to help advance the kingdom online.

http://ichurchmethod.com/the-ichurch-method-at-universities/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-ichurch-method-at-universities

Social Media in Ministry Presentation Package

http://ichurchmethod.com/social-media-in-ministry-presentation-package/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=social-media-in-ministry-presentation-package

Mobile Media is on the RISE

A major ministry I work with has been on tv for years and has millions of viewers. As we were coming up with our web strategy, we knew it was important to allow people to watch the television broadcasts on the ministry website. We figured since millions people were watching it on tv, there would thousands watching from our website. Well we were right and we were wrong.

We were right in that there are thousands of people watching the website broadcast, we were wrong in thinking that it would be from our “traditional” website. The largest viewers of our broadcasts online are from the mobile website. After we setup our traditional website, we started working on a mobile website just because that was something that we thought the people might want. We had no idea how much they wanted it, and how much they would use it. And the main thing they do on the mobile website is watch live services and archived tv broadcasts.

Now I am not saying to build your entire mobile website around multimedia (people still want location, service times, contact information), but do keep in mind that with 4G internet speeds and millions of smart phones out there, multimedia is being consumed at a high rate, so provide the people with what they want and they will support the ministry.

For more information on how to best implement solutions like this preorder The iChurch Method 2: Changing the World When You Login.

http://ichurchmethod.com/mobile-media-is-on-the-rise/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mobile-media-is-on-the-rise

Mobile Giving is on the RISE

I was at a meeting this week with a ministry I work with and we were talking about the online progress of the websites. While we were discussing this a very interesting fact was revealed, I informed them that their first ever mobile online donation came in February 2012, since then, they have received tens of thousands of dollars via their mobile website. This of course made them very happy but also confirmed how important mobile was to their online strategy.

Now let’s think about this for a second, prior to January 2012 there was no mobile website. Likewise, prior to February 2012, they had never received a mobile online donation, thus this was a new revenue stream for the ministry. Stats did confirm that 30% of people that were giving via the website did migrate to the mobile website giving but 70% were an entirely new group of people. Based on this information, I genuinely believe that people were waiting for a mobile way to give from the church because that is convenient for them. They wanted to access and support the ministry via their mobile device, so when the ministry provided that, they in turned gave.

Now, let’s look at how to take this further, the church that we are talking about has a mobile website but they do not have a mobile app or SMS giving options. This is where they can improve upon their current mobile offerings and provide more ways for people to support the ministry. Does your ministry provide mobile donations?

For more information on how to best implement solutions like this preorder The iChurch Method 2: Changing the World When You Login.

http://ichurchmethod.com/mobile-giving-is-on-the-rise/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mobile-giving-is-on-the-rise

The iChurch Method 2: Changing The World When You Login

Here it is, the Highly Anticipated next edition in The iChurch Method series. The iChurch Method 2: Changing the World When You Login. Pre-Order Yours Today

Volume 2 in the amazing iChurch Method series, the purpose of this book is to continue to help ministries and businesses advance online. Continuing with the five part approach to taking your ministry/business online and reaching the world:

Part 1: Website – Interactive websites
Part 2: Multimedia – Internet Church Campus
Part 3: Ecommerce – Online Stores/Online Donations – Part II
Part 4: Social Media – The Rise of Visual Social Media
Part 5: Mobile – Mobile Websites and Apps

With these five parts, a ministry can reach and change the world. The iChurch Method is a MUST READ for every ministry leader who desires to have a global presence online.

Your Pre-Ordered Book will arrive by May 1, 2013 and your Ebook will be available via download by May 1, 2013. Pre-Order Yours Today

http://ichurchmethod.com/the-ichurch-method-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-ichurch-method-2

Which Social Network is the BEST?

Here is a question that I am often asked when I am teaching ministries on how to best use Social Media, “Which Social Network is the best?” Is it Facebook and their one billion users? Is it Twitter and their easy to use network? Is it Pinterest and their Pictures and Videos? Is it Youtube and their massive Video network? Which one is it? Well, the answer is simple, the best social network is, whichever ones your church knows how to use.

That’s the hard part for organizations to grasp when they start social media, start with the network that your ministry knows best. Here are the four key points I used from my presentation “Taking Your Social Media to the Next Level”.

1. The Social Network your church should be on depends on your church’s content and capability to use the network. If you have a just a small amount of church content, a few photos, text updates and videos, and the people you have on staff know Twitter best, then start on Twitter. If you have people on staff that are familiar with Facebook then use that social network and push text, video and photo updates there. Use whatever network you have people familiar with and your content will work on.

2. Repurpose your content for each network. Once you have decided to use more than one network, then you can repurpose the same content for multiple networks. For example, if you have a motivational quote from your pastor’s sermon, you can take that quote and put it out on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. You can then take quote and put it over a picture of your pastor preaching and put that picture out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest. Also, you can take that same quote, and use the actual video of your pastor saying the quote, and put that video clip out on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Youtube. So you see, different types of content can go on different networks.

3. Each network has its own community and its own best way to use it. For the sake of time, many churches will have their Facebook posts go to Twitter or their Twitter posts go to Facebook. While this does conserve time, it takes away from the uniqueness of each network and hinders genuine growth on the network that stuff is being pushed to. Usually, the network that stuff is being pushed “to”, is the one that’s not being monitored, therefore people that want to interact with the ministry on that network are not being answered because that network is usually just something that is being fed content and not attended to.

4. You don’t have to be on them ALL but it’s good to be on as many as your staff can handle. If you can only be on one network, then make the most of that network until you get the ability to expand to more.

If you would like to learn more about “Taking your Social Media to the Next Level” check out the training package that was released just last week. Click here to get it NOW.

http://ichurchmethod.com/which-social-network-is-the-best/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=which-social-network-is-the-best

Facebook was a Social Network, it’s now a For Profit Business.

(I elaborate more on this in my most recent presentation, “Taking Your Social Media to the Next Level”.)

Developing social media strategies for churches was originally something that I did out of necessity because I would be one of few people working for a ministry that knew how to utilize social media. As these strategies started to show some measures of success, I would analyze, optimize and repeat. A good social media strategy is to provide inspiration, information and communication to the variety of networks that you are one. Once you provide that then analyze the results, fine tune your approach and then repeat the process. This always works, even though facebook seems to be changing the rules.

Once Facebook went public, they changed from a focus on connecting people as a social network, to a profit minded, business entity. Facebook’s initial IPO was good but immediately their stock started tanking and they were losing market cap value. Many people wondered if Facebook even had a business model and what exactly were they selling.

Well Facebook does have a business model, and they sell you the ability to communicate with millions of people all around the world. Their Facebook newsfeed is their “Golden Goose” and millions of businesses strive to get their content into people’s newsfeeds. Facebook uses an algorithm called Edgerank to determine what information appears in your newsfeed and what doesn’t. Therefore, if you have 1000 friends on Facebook, you may only see the posts from 270-300 of them, based on who you communicate with the most. Likewise, if you are a fan page, and you have 1000 fans, only 160 – 200 of them will see your posts, based on who interacts with your page the most.

Now, here’s the kicker, Facebook has a “Promoted Post” option where they will “SELL” you the ability to have your post viewed by more people. So, not only do they not let your post be seen by all the people that have “Liked” your fanpage, they sell you the option to make that possible. From a business perspective, I must admit, I like it, but from a Facebook user perspective, this sucks.

Therefore, there are options such as Facebook NewsFeed Optimization where you actually have to develop a content strategy to push out high quality visual content via Facebook (ideally photos and videos), make a call to action in the post so that people interact with it (share or like this photo, click this link), and even promote the post to increase engagement. This is the new Facebook, it’s time to adapt.

I elaborate more on this in my most recent presentation, “Taking Your Social Media to the Next Level”. You can purchase and download the teaching in audio (mp3) and video (mp4) format along with the PDF handouts and the PPT presentation. Click Here to Order Today.

http://ichurchmethod.com/facebook-is-a-business/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=facebook-is-a-business

It’s Time to Take Your Social Media Strategy to the Next Level?

Social Media Success – Relationships vs Numbers

Friday, October 19, 2012 I gave a presentation on taking your Social Media to the next level to a room full of people that were familiar with using Social Media for ministry. During this presentation I made a statement that I had never made before, and it was “Focus less on the numbers and more on the relationships, I have yet to hear a church say, we have 10,000 facebook fans and we because of that we have saved 1000 souls”. This statement came to me while I was speaking because normally when I speak about Social Media in Ministry, people only want to know what did I do to help T.D. Jakes Ministries Facebook Fan Page get over 1.1 million fans, or how did I help his Twitter grow to over 650,000 followers.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have strategies, analytics and techniques that can help a ministry make the most of social media and church technology in general, but I realize that in addition to teaching the technical aspects of social media, I want to teach the social aspects of it and how it can literally change someone’s life from whatever device they are on. The goal of social media in ministry is a conversation which begets a relationship that can produce results. However, focusing on the results does not produce relationships and change lives.

While at T.D. Jakes Ministries these last three years I have seen, in real-time, people’s lives changes and souls saved. Whether it be via a live chat during a conference, a facebook comment from an inspirational post or a timely motivational tweet that changed the course of someone’s day, I have seen the power of social media taking ministry to the people.

Therefore, as you develop your social media strategy, make sure that you provide three things:

1. Inspiration – Help lift people up and encourage them to be their best.
2. Information – Relevant information on how your ministry can transform their lives
3. Communication – make sure you respond to the people via social media and let them know the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And add one more category to your analytics when it comes to measuring your social media efforts, and that’s relationships established and souls saved.

http://ichurchmethod.com/social-media-success-relationships-vs-numbers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=social-media-success-relationships-vs-numbers

The History behind The iChurch Method

I am currently working on some new advancements for The iChurch Method such as the Online Learning Network and Volume 2 of the book. In the midst of this a guy doing some work for me asked me where did I get the concept for the book. As I got to thinking, I decided to do a quick video about it but here are the highlights.

1. I originally came up with the concept while working at Crenshaw Christian Center in 2007. I was hired to be a webmaster but I saw that I had to revamp their entire online presence. Thus I developed a new website, a new online store and integrated multimedia. (Chapters 1 – 3 in the book).

2. In 2009 I setup Social Media at EIF Ministries (the international ministry of CCC) and came up with the initial parts of the Social Media strategy that I use today. I also laid out the road map to integrating internet church, mobile websites and apps into their online ministry.

3. In 2010 when I relocated to Dallas, I was recruited by T.D. Jakes Ministries and I had to show them that I knew what I was talking about so I came up with five areas that I could help them and explain my past successes, these five areas were websites, multimedia, ecommerce, social media and mobile. Yep, the same five chapters I have in The iChurch Method book.

And the rest they say..is history.

http://ichurchmethod.com/the-history-behind-the-ichurch-method/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-history-behind-the-ichurch-method

Speaking in Albuquerque – Taking Social Media to the Next Level

On Friday at 10:30am – 1pm M.S.T. I am speaking at the Society of Adventist Communicators Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My topic is “Taking Social Media to the Next Level”.

In this presentation here are a few of the topics I will focus on:

• Why is Social Media important to ministry
• How to effectively develop a strategy for Social Media (Hint: Its not to join FB and Twitter and hope they come)
• What do people want from your ministry via Social Media
• How to develop your online message for Social Media
• The Rise of Visual Social Media
• How to Analyze and then Optimize Your Social Media
• Integrating Social Media into your Website

Once the presentation is finished I will have the PPT available for download. Hopefully we will be able to supply MP3s and MP4s for download.

http://ichurchmethod.com/speaking-in-albuquerque-taking-social-media-to-the-next-level/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=speaking-in-albuquerque-taking-social-media-to-the-next-level

Content is King

Depending on what technology specialist, journalist or blogger you are listening to or reading at a particular moment, they may or may not agree on the importance of content. Some people say that content is king, some say that the delivery method is king, some say that interaction is king. With the focus of the church being to take the gospel to the masses, content is king. The message is the same, the packaging may be different, the delivery method may be different, but the gospel never changes, thus content still rules.

Today we have numerous ways to get the message out, websites, social media, mobile devices, mobile apps, sms, multimedia and many many others. Back in the day it was word of mouth, then came the printing press, next was radio, then television and so on. No matter the delivery method, the gospel has remained the same, thus it’s not the method but the content. Focus on the content and the delivery method won’t matter, the method will evolve and change anyway.

When I speak to ministries about what they should focus on, I always tell them that content is king. Make sure the message that is coming from the ministry is continuous and consistent. Make sure the ministry is putting out great content that reflects the ministry and the kingdom in a christian manner and helps people in their daily christian walk. Make sure when people respond to this content that the ministry is open and interactive. Don’t make the ministry just a one way street of communication, let people interact with the content and keep the conversation open. Maintain this focus and strategy and the ministry will always have a large online following because, content is king!

http://ichurchmethod.com/content-is-king/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=content-is-king

The Online Church Campus

**Here is a glimpse of the type of content that will be available in the next edition of The iChurch Method Volume 2**

This should be the goal of a ministry when they set up a way for members to view their services online. Now let’s talk about how to get them from being just viewers to actual online church members.

If you give people the online tools to better interact with your ministry, then they will use them, if you don’t give them any tools to interact, then they won’t. It’s as simple as that.

When you are creating an online church campus, you need to provide people with more than just the online streaming viewer, even though that is the central to the online church experience. You need to provide them with tools to (1) interact with the ministry (2) gather into groups and fellowship with one another and (3) share their experiences with friends. These three areas will get you started with a great online church campus.

1. Interact with the ministry – This should consist of quite a few things, first and foremost is the need for an online pastor or someone that will continuously communicate with the online members. Next, the tools needed for someone to stay in contact with the ministry could be as elaborate as a membership website where people are able to email or connect profiles with the online pastor or ministry representative or they could be simply a chat box next to the online stream that people use to communicate with the ministry. Another option could be a social media module such as a twitter box or facebook box that allows people to communicate as well.

2. Gather into groups and fellowship with one another – This feature is based on the small groups concept that has been championed by Saddleback Church and Willowcreek Church. They have developed great small groups strategies to help minister to the numerous members they have in their congregations and this concept translates online well. If you start to create groups in the online campus based on things such as locations, family qualities (married, single, parents) and other characteristics, you will have ways to minister to these online groups more effectively. Also, these groups will be able to fellowship amongst each other and help build each other up, just like ministries do within the traditional offline church setting.

3. Share experiences with their friends - This is simply integrating social media sharing features into the online campus. No matter whether the member is watching the stream, watching a pre-made video or reading an inspirational blog, they should be able to share that with their online friends and direct them to the online campus. This is very similar to someone speaking about their church in an offline setting and telling someone to come to church with them the following weekend. The benefit of the online campus is that people can tell their online friends instantly about something they saw on the online campus and their friends can come view, participate and join all from their laptop, desktop or mobile device. This is the true definition of taking ministry to the people because the ministry is accessible from whatever device an online user has access to.

Tools to use for online church campuses

Google hangouts on Air for video collaborations and recording of prayer meetings, group bible studies and other group sessions.

Socialgo.com or WordPress website setups that include blogs and community social features so that people that are joining your online church campus have a feeling of membership and belonging and not just logging in to watch a live service and then receiving nothing else till the live stream comes back on.

Blogs for updates on church happenings and other helpful information that the online church community can subscribe to. This information can also be pushed out to social media networks. Blogging tools should be built into the site, both of these features come with Socialgo.com and WordPress.

Media Center to not only watch live services and conferences, but also an archived center so that people can watch past sermons, tv broadcasts, past events and other multimedia that is created by the ministry. Video archiving tools can be Youtube.com or Vimeo.com.

Chatroll.com that provides chat features for real time connections with online viewers and online church members.

Sharethis.com for Social media sharing features that let people share your content via their social networks right from your website. This easy plugin gives you to code to enable people to share your online campus with their Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, email and numerous other social networks.

http://ichurchmethod.com/online-church-campus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=online-church-campus

Changing the World when you Log-on

This month I had the great opportunity to write an article for Gospel Today Magazine about online significance and changing the world digitally. Here is that article, enjoy.

Over the course of time we have seen numerous advancements in technology that have enabled individuals to communicate faster and access information faster. The printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio and television are a few examples, but nothing transformed the world as quickly as the internet, the internet gave individuals the power to communicate with the world from their computers.

Then, just as we were getting comfortable with the internet and how we “thought” we should use it, social media transformed the way we used the internet and gave us even larger platforms and more power to communicate with the world, all from our internet connected devices.Now we all know, with great power comes great responsibility, and social media is no exception.

As we continue to build our online presence we have to realize that through our words, ideas and interaction, we are impacting people, whether we see the results or not. Everytime we say something publicly on a social network, it’s a global message, we just don’t realize it till someone across the globe responds.

What ways can you make an impact online

Build a community FIRST!
There a numerous social networks that you can join, connect with others, and convey your message to, but your initial focus should be to build a community. Start with Facebook and connect with old friends, classmates, coworkers and family. Use Twitter and Google+ to find like minded individuals, celebrities, influencers and groups of people that share your interest. Use LinkedIn to connect with business professionals that can help further your cause and grow your network. Join Youtube to help distribute your video content and find other video creators that share your sentiment. This may sound like a lot of work but each network you join has a distinct audience and your videos, photos, updates and links will help grow your online presence and build a strong community around you.

Help others with their online movement.
There are numerous online communities that are built around helping others and you can use your social network of influence to help as well. A great network that’s helping others is called Hopemob and it shows how we can use our online social networks to help others and change their lives.

Hopemob.org (@Hope) and its founder Shaun King (@shaunking) have built the largest community of generous strangers the world has ever seen. What I love about Hopemob is that they feature real stories that I believe I can impact and make a change. The goals of Hopemob are not always financial either, sometimes they are virtual, such as helping a family to get a video out and make it go viral.

Start your own online movement.
You can start your own online network with a website called Socialgo.com. With this online software you can build your own online community where your ideas and insights can be the rallying cry for your network. So as you build up your online audience on major social networks like Facebook and Twitter, you can inform your audience that you have an online network on Socialgo.com and they can join you there to further progress the message that you are trying to convey to the world and help you make a change.

http://ichurchmethod.com/changing-the-world-online/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=changing-the-world-online

5 Steps to develop a Social Media plan for your Church

Just as Churches we were getting comfortable with the internet and how they “thought” we should use it, social media transformed the internet and gave the church even larger platforms and more power to communicate the gospel with the world. We can now reach the corners of the globe from our internet connected devices. Now we all know, with great power comes great responsibility, and social media is no exception.

Social Media is one of the best ways to reach and help people learn the gospel. With Social Media you can reach people right where they are at, on their social network of choice and let the life-giving information flow from your ministry to their social profile. In my book The iChurch Method, I say “the church should strive to meet people wherever they are at, on whatever network they are on, via any device that they pick up”, this is the opportunity that social networks give us.

Now that we understand the importance of social networking and the great moment the church has right now, let’s talk about the five steps to take advantage of this opportunity.

1. Who will manage the tasks: The first step in developing a social media strategy is to establish who will be the social media manager. Who will be the person that champions the social media networks, gathers the information from the rest of the ministry and actually distributes the information to the social networks. This person needs to have a good understanding of social networks and the benefits of one network over another.

2. Who is your audience: The next step is determining who is your audience for your social media strategy. Start to segment your audience into categories so that you can gather church content geared towards a specific audience. For example, if you are targeting non-church members then you will tailor a social media post differently than if you are targeting church members. Most churches say they are focusing on members and non-members but their messages are always catered to members only, wasting a great opportunity to reach millions of other social networkers that may not attend their church.

3. What’s Your Message: Next, establish the voice of your church. What will be the message that you will convey to people via social media and how will you convey it. Will your church speak on societal and current issues? Will your church quote scriptures and quotes on every network? Will your church push out announcements and never respond to people? Make sure your church isn’t one dimensional, there are many types of people that you can reach therefore you distribute many types of social media posts. Here are three focal points in establishing your church’s message via social media:

• Inspiration – Make sure to provide inspiration and motivation via your social networks. These are the best types of posts, whether they are quotes, scriptures or photos with encouraging words on them, everyone wants some type of inspiration in their life.
• Information – Provide information about your church via your social networks, don’t assume that everyone comes to church, reads your website or saw your eblast. Distribute the information about events and other happenings within the church via your social networks. You can repurpose flyers, newsletters, eblasts and other marketing materials and send them out via social networks.
• Communication – Social media is “Social”, therefore it should be two way communication. If you post to a network and people comment, ask questions and take time out of their busy day to respond, then make sure your church takes time to acknowledge them and respond back. Don’t let your church appear to arrogant to respond to its social network fans. Even if you don’t have the staff or time to answer every comment or question, at least answer some. Show that the ministry is seeing people’s comments and questions.

4. What social networks do you want to use: There are numerous social networks out there and each one has its own audience. Your church needs to establish which social network(s) they are going to start with, master how to use and then progress to other ones. For example, many churches start with Twitter, learn how to interact and send out content via Twitter and then they progress to Facebook. Here are the top social networks, their benefits and what types of content can be distributed via them.

• Facebook – This is the largest network in the world with over 900 million members. Facebook is the gold standard in social media and has literally defined how we use social media. Facebook fan pages have status updates that can be text or links to other websites. You can also posts photos and videos on facebook and create fan pages that can have millions of fans. (Google+ is similar as well)
• Twitter – Twitter is the “convenient” social network because its posts (tweets) are limited to 140 characters. This gives churches, pastors and people on the go an easy way to communicate, share photos, links to websites, videos and variety of other information. The benefits of Twitter are that its an easy network to learn and reach people quickly using short message and photos.
• Youtube - The #1 video network in the world is often overlooked as a social network. With a focus on only videos, Youtube has built a community where people can comment, share and build a following around multimedia video content. This allows churches to post inspirational sermons and gospel messages that can visually appeal to people and reach them on their computers or mobile devices.
• Pinterest – Pinterest is the new kid on the block with its focus on photos and the sharing (pinning) of them in a poster board format. With this network churches can create inspirational photos that can be posted to boards that are based around certain themes that people can search for. For example, if your church creates a board on Prayer, then they can post photos of people praying at your church and let other pinners repin those photos. You can also post links to videos on Pinterest, which is a largely unknown feature, thus you in addition to prayer photos, you can post actual video prayers on your board to help people get through difficult times in their lives. Now that’s living the gospel!! (Instagram is similar to Pinterest but is mainly on mobile devices only)

5. When to post: Lastly, how often to post is a question that many churches face. How much is too much? Can we post 5 times a day? Should we post items twice in case people didn’t see it the first time? These are questions that many churches ask when they start using social networks. Here are some posting tips to keep in mind:

Facebook – Post at least 1 – 3 times a day
Twitter – Post at least 4 – 6 times a day
Youtube – Post at least 1 video per week
Pinterest – Post at least 1 photo per week
Instagram – Post at least 1 photo per week
Google+ – Post at least 1 – 3 times a day

http://ichurchmethod.com/5-steps-to-develop-a-social-media-plan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-steps-to-develop-a-social-media-plan

How Churches can use Social Media – Google+ Hangout – The iChurch Method

Thursday, Sept 20, 2012, The iChurch Method conducted a Google Hangout on Air about Social Media usage in the Church. We recorded the video and here are some of the highlights.

Danielle Willis of New Beginnings Church of Chicago/ Project H.O.O.D.
- Have an organic social media conversation
- Adding online forms to Facebook using frames
- How to find a platform and master it
- Intensify Conference Oct 17 – 19

E.C. Cunningham of Salem Baptist Church of Chicago
- Integrating Facebook and Twitter into your service
- Helping your Pastor buy into Social Media
- Finding the social media savvy person in your congregation that will help you get started.

Jason Caston, Author of The iChurch Method and Internet Church Developer at T.D. Jakes Ministries
- Social Media Strategy of Inspiration, Information and Communication
- The rise of the Visual Social Media Networks
- Integrating Social Media and letting people share your church website.

http://ichurchmethod.com/how-churches-can-use-social-media/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-churches-can-use-social-media

Google Reader

After high school, the average person reads about 1 book per year, educated people read between 4 – 8 books per year and experts read around a book per month. Now I used to read a book every two months but now I have changed up my approach since the information I need has to be more current and readily available. Now I read blogs and ebooks, usually an ebook every month or two and I read blogs daily. Google Reader is how I am able to keep up with so much information and changing trends in technology. Ranging from online business to technology to digital ministry and everything in between, Google Reader is how I keep up and read any and everything.

Google Reader is an online software that takes RSS Feeds and lets you categorize them for reading. These RSS feeds come from websites and blogs that distribute them for people to subscribe to and receive notifications when they update their sites or post new content. Therefore, when I subscribe to a site like Techcrunch.com, every time they post a new article, my Google Reader is updated and I am able to read it immediately. Everyday, I receive around 1000 or so blog updates and I take an hour or two to read through many of them and stay current on all the latest and greatest in technology, digital ministry and online business.

Here is a screenshot of my Google Reader.

To setup your Google Reader go to Google.com/reader and login with you gmail account. If you don’t have a gmail account then create one.

Once it’s setup, you can add blogs or news readers to your site by clicking the “Add Subscription” button on the left-hand side of the screen. This will open a dialog box where you can input either search terms or the actual web address of sites you want to include in your RSS reader. Or you can click on the RSS icon on a website and if you are logged into your Google Reader, it will automatically be added.

Enjoy and stay educated and updated via Google Reader.

http://ichurchmethod.com/google-reader/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-reader

Introducing The iChurch Method Live

I have been testing and utilizing Google Hangouts on Air over the last few months and I believe the product is a game changer. I am always looking for new ways to use the service and I realized that with a macbook, HD webcam and a built-in mic, you can live stream any event. Well for the numerous events that I speak or teach at, I always have my macbook with me since I am training from it, and then the lightbulb moment occurred…I could stream all of my events live. And with that, The iChurch Method Live was born.

I have been teaching The iChurch Method classes (Phase 1) at The Potter’s Institute, a training division of The Potter’s House of Dallas, where I work as an Internet Church Developer. Last week I conducted a test where I used Google Hangouts on Air to stream my class live and record it. I wanted to make sure that it would work and that the audio would be good on my laptop. Well after conducting a test last week via a hidden link, I saw that the audio was video was good to go. So starting Tuesday September 18, I will broadcast my classes every Tuesday for the next 4 weeks until October 9, 2012. Then we will start another session of The iChurch Method classes, Phase II, from October 30, 2012 – December 11, 2012. Each session is five courses where I will teach from The iChurch Method book.

I will also live stream my speaking/training event, October 19, 2012 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Social Media and various dates of Google Hangouts in between. Tune in to http://www.ichurchmethod.com/live for dates on upcoming events and I look forward to your comments and participation. We are very excited about this new venture.

http://ichurchmethod.com/introducing-the-ichurch-method-live/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=introducing-the-ichurch-method-live

Make sure to use Google Alerts

Google Alerts is by far one of the best google services available. I have been using it for about a year now and believe that all businesses, companies, ministries and churches should use it to monitor their brands. There’s no reason to continue Googling yourself, your business or your ministry, you can now just setup a Google alert and anytime your brand is mentioned online, you will receive an alert/email.

Here’s how it works:

Go go http://www.google.com/alerts
For Search query: Type in the name of your business or church or the phrase that you want to monitor
For Result Type: Choose Everything
For How often: Choose how often you want to be alerted (once a day is good)
For How many: Choose only the best results
Deliver to: Input your email address

Finally, click on the red “Create Alert” button and you will be taken to your alerts page where you can see and manage all your alerts. I currently manage all my brands, my name and my books and find this tool to be extremely useful.

For example, I just found out that a college was using The iChurch Method in their 2013 curriculum. Thanks Google Alerts!!

http://ichurchmethod.com/google-alerts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-alerts

Church Social Media Strategy

Ok, now let’s get to the meat of things and talk about specific strategies when posting. It’s important to have a social media STRATEGY and not just say lets join Facebook and Twitter and hope for the best. It seems that when it comes to technology, quite a few churches just jump in and “hope for the best”. They hope “social media” works, they “hope” the website made by the volunteer will look good and they “hope” that technology won’t change since they just finally caught up to what was current “6 months ago”.

Thus, the time has come for churches to embrace technology and utilize it to the fullest. There are many people like myself who can help bridge the gap between “adoption of technology” and the “common church experience”.

The majority of churches that I work with have an idea of what will move their audiences and get them to respond and thus we want to make sure that the flow of content from the ministry to the audience is consistent and follows the criteria below.

Inspiration – Make sure you start your social media day and end it with inspirational posts. This is the foundation of a good strategy because no matter what, encouraging inspirational content pulls people in. A good example to use are daily devotionals or great quotes from the pastor.

Information – What are you putting out there, what type of content are you pushing out via your social media channels, how often do you post? As I stated above, the majority of churches that I work with have an idea of what will move their audiences and get them to respond and thus we want to make sure that the flow of content from the ministry to the audience is consistent. Stick with photos, text updates, videos, flyers, questions and links to information that will keep your audience engaged. Try to post at least 2 – 3 times a day per social media network, if not more.

Communication – Interact and respond with your audience! It’s called SOCIAL MEDIA people, let’s be social and not only broadcast our messages. Do not come off as a ministry that is so arrogant that you only talk AT your audience and won’t respond. I understand that there are ministries that don’t have the staff to respond to everybody, but at least respond to SOMEBODY.

Call to Action – Give your audience something to do when you post, ask them to like this status or leave a comment on Facebook. Ask them to click the link or retweet it on Twitter, ask them to +1 or share it on Google+. You don’t have to ask them every time to do something because they will then tune it out, but more often than not, ask them to respond and interact.
Images or Videos – Posting images and videos are a great way to increase interaction. Multimedia is easy to share and easy to consume via social networks. As we see the rise of visual social media with examples of Facebook Timeline, Instagram, Pinterest, Viddy, Youtube and other visual features, we should take notice of how visual social networking is becoming and adjust our strategies accordingly.

Innovate – Innovation is key in social networking, make sure you are adjusting, analyzing and re-adjusting your social media strategy. When you put out information make sure you consider that 70% of your users read their social media via mobile devices. Make sure that you are on a variety of networks (if you have the manpower) because while there are millions of people on Facebook and Twitter (and you should definitely start there), there are millions of people on Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+.

Networks to use per content – now that we talked about using multiple social networks, here are the best networks for the types of content you may put out:
Video – Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Viddy, Socialcam, Pinterest
Text – Facebook, Twitter, Google+
Photos – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest
Links/Products – Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter

http://ichurchmethod.com/church-social-media-strategy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=church-social-media-strategy

The iChurch Method Podcasts

Stay updated on all The iChurch Method Podcasts via iTunes or the great iPhone/iPad Podcasts app. The iChurch Method has numerous audio and video podcasts that you can take with you and listen to topics from The iChurch Method anywhere, anyplace, anytime.

To Subscribe to The iChurch Method Podcast CLICK HERE

http://ichurchmethod.com/ichurch-podcasts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ichurch-podcasts

One Million Facebook Fans for T.D. Jakes Ministries

In the almost three years I have been working on the social media team at T.D. Jakes Ministries I have seen the impact of social media on not only the people, but the ministry as well. I have seen people lives transformed by how they were touched by the ministry’s social media presence as well as how the ministry added social media to it’s main channels to conduct ministry. Which is why I was quite excited when the facebook page for T.D. Jakes Ministries surpassed one million people. It was a great day for the ministry and a significant milestone for the social media team and the hard work that has been put into building up the presence of the ministry on facebook as well as other social media networks. Contrary to popular belief, we didn’t get to a million fans without much effort, planning, technical expertise and strategic insight. We knew that if we set goals, worked our plans and continued to learn and adapt to the changing technologies, we would achieve great things. We have always tried to stay ahead of the technology curve and make sure that wherever people are at, whatever social network they are on and whatever technological device they use, the ministry is there.

T.D. Jakes ministries really started to embrace social media in January 2010, at that time we took a look at our current social media pages and realized that even though we were on Facebook and Twitter, we weren’t really there. Therefore, we started out with a strategy of inspiration, information and communication. We wanted to inspire people daily with some word of encouragement from Bishop Jakes. Next, we wanted to provide information about the ministry and how people could continue to stay updated on what was going on within the ministry and the numerous ministries, events, shows and products that we have. Finally, we wanted to give people a way to communicate with the ministry that was quick and responsive.

Integrating Social Media into our overall marketing and ministry approach has literally transformed the ministry. Letting people know that we have a Facebook page (as well as other social media pages) via our marketing channels such as television, flyers, conferences and numerous other events, gave us a significant boost in followers. People were happy to see that the social network that they were on, so was the ministry. We always try to reach as many people as possible with our social media strategies but that’s not the only key to what we consider successful. In order to consider our social media impact successful we want to reach as many people as possible but also we want to inspire, inform and transform our social media fans with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

More on our exact social media strategy tomorrow….stay tuned

http://ichurchmethod.com/one-million-facebook-fans-for-t-d-jakes-ministries/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=one-million-facebook-fans-for-t-d-jakes-ministries

The iChurch Method Book is now on Apple iBooks

The iChurch Method is now available for your iPhones and iPads. In addition to being on the Kindle, Nook and PDF format, we have made this book available to the millions of iBooks readers that were requesting the book in this format.

http://ichurchmethod.com/the-ichurch-method-book-is-now-on-apple-ibooks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-ichurch-method-book-is-now-on-apple-ibooks

How Entrepreneurs can better use Technology [Audio Interview]

In this audio podcast interview, I discussed how entrepreneurs can better utilize technology in order to help expand and enhance their business.

http://ichurchmethod.com/entrepreneurs-and-technology/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=entrepreneurs-and-technology

Church Social Media and Technology Google+ Hangout

I finally got to participate in a Google+ Hangout on Air focusing on Church and Technology. It was a great time with Chip Dizard (www.chipdizard.com) and Joel Sams (www.symbiota.com). We started talking about how social media is being used in the church today and then we touched on mobile and other technology topics. So many nuggets of knowledge that I just couldn’t write them all.

http://ichurchmethod.com/church-google-hangout/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=church-google-hangout

Church Social Media and Technology Presentation Excerpt

In July I was in LA for the FICWFM conference and presented a session on Church Social Media and Technology. Here is a short excerpt from the session and as soon as the final version is edited and released I will have it here on The iChurch Method.

http://ichurchmethod.com/ficwfm-conf-excerpt/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ficwfm-conf-excerpt

The Church website, a powerful ministry tool

I heard a stat recently that made me stop in my tracks and really think about it, the stat was that 60% – 75% of new visitors to churches check out the church’s website prior to visiting. Now let’s think about that for a second, the majority of new visitors to a church are first introduced to the church via the website. That means that the website immediately becomes one of the most important parts of the ministry.

How many times have you seen a church’s website and just shook your head at the lack of quality that the website displayed. I understand that there are many churches that have limited budgets and are not able to invest thousands into a new website but there are low cost solutions to make sure the website delivers the same quality ministry that someone would receive if they stepped into the church building.

If churches understood how important a ministry tool that the website is and gave it the same attention they give ministry items such as church buildings, internal ministries and sanctuaries, then we would see more high quality websites that engage and connect with people prior to them coming to the actual church. Don’t pay attention to all the things you traditionally viewed as important within a church and negate the website because many people are looking at the website as an extension of the church.

Now let’s teach, if you would like to know some ways to enhance your website there here are some helpful tips.

When people come to your website they are usually looking for service times, directions and contact information. Also, if you are streaming weekend services then they are looking for that as well.

There are free services such as Google Sites (sites.google.com) and Wix (wix.com) that offer websites that churches can easily make and initially establish an online presence. But do not rely on free solutions for an extended period of time, start off on those sites and then graduate to your own website on your own server, something built by a web designer/developer and hosted on a service provider like GoDaddy (godaddy.com).

Make sure people can get anywhere on your website within 2 – 3 clicks.

Don’t try to cram everything about the ministry onto the homepage, it makes your ministry homepage look like an online hoarding location. Less is better on the homepage, stick to large banners, an online video, social media icons, and key links to things that people are looking for.

Purchase The iChurch Method and learn How to Advance Your Ministry Online.

http://ichurchmethod.com/the-church-website-a-powerful-ministry-tool/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-church-website-a-powerful-ministry-tool

Church Technology, bring the people in or take ministry to the people?

I was having a conversation with a childhood friend (who is now a pastor) about Church and Technology and we came to a crossroads about how we thought churches should utilize technology. We both agree that churches should use technology to reach people and expand the outreach of the ministry, but he asked me how often does technology result in additional people in the sanctuary.

My approach to technology and the entire premise of The iChurch Method was to use technology to take the ministry to the people. I developed a strategy that would inform your local congregation and give them a way to connect with the ministry online, increase your online audience that is not local by providing them online tools to connect and providing information for future church supporters by positioning the ministry to be accessible in numerous ways via technology.

It never occurred to me that there was a focus by pastors to utilize technology to get people into the sanctuary OVER building an online audience and increasing the supporters that may never set foot inside the church. It appears easy for pastors to understand tv ministries and using TBN or The Church Channel to broadcast their churches to millions around the world and look for donations from their tv supporters, whom may never step foot into the sanctuary. But there seems to be a disconnect by these same pastors when it comes to building an online ministry using video, social media, mobile devices and streaming to build an online audience that they may never see but will still support the ministry via online donations.

Therefore, I believe that churches, ministries, pastors and Christianity in general will need to embrace technology, invest in online ministries, websites, mobile solutions and social media. Churches will need to continue to take the ministry to the people and make sure whatever device a person picks up, their ministry is accessible from it and accept the fact that online audiences will continue to grow and the church will have supporters that they see every weekend for services and supporters that they don’t see but still embrace the church as well. What are your thoughts on Churches embracing technology?

http://ichurchmethod.com/church-technology-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=church-technology-2

Mobile Websites vs. Mobile Apps

Most recently at a conference I was asked which mobile option should a church take, a mobile website or a mobile app? This question seemed to quickly get the attention of all the attendees at the conference because a strange hush came over the room in anticipation of my answer. Thus, I took a deep breath and said with all confidence, “Both…now let me explain”.

I am a proponent of mobile apps, I thoroughly love my iphone and ipad and the numerous (128) apps that I have installed. I also have an Android phone with apps installed as well. The apps and their native integration into the operating system of the phone makes their usage much easier than a mobile website. Unfortunately, apps are phone specific and each app is limited to the phones that have that operating system, while mobile websites can be programmed for numerous phone because all of the latest smartphones have HTML5 Webkit enabled updated mobile web browsers.

A mobile website is the first step in a mobile web strategy therefore prior to a church investing in mobile apps, they should create a mobile website. One mobile website can encompass numerous mobile smartphones and that should be the focus of the mobile website, to reach as many mobile devices as possible. Initially, I used to say to only create a HTML Webkit enabled mobile website that will work with the latest mobile browsers but after attending the Biola Digital Ministry Conference, I learned that an even more scaled down mobile website should be created by the church to reach people in developing countries with limited mobile access. People in developing countries most often can only access the internet from mobile devices that have slow connections and therefore your church mobile website for this audience should load very quickly and not have too much going on. Remember, in order to do this you need to create a high level mobile website and a low level mobile website and program it to load either site depending on the connection and mobile device the user is on.

Therefore, let’s recap, if you are creating a mobile strategy for your church you first want to create a mobile website that can reach numerous mobile devices. Next, you want to create mobile apps for the iphone/ipad, next android, and finally windows mobile devices since those seem to be gaining attention as of the last few months. What’s your mobile strategy for your church or business?

http://ichurchmethod.com/mobile-websites-mobile-apps/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mobile-websites-mobile-apps

What is Klout? Klout.com that is..

My great aunt asked me a question on facebook a few weeks ago that made me really think for a second, she asked “I don’t understand Klout, can someone please explain it to me”. I have been on Klout for almost a year and I have a general understanding of Klout with a score of 61 but personally I still don’t totally understand the algorithm or how to easily make my score go up or down. I don’t expect them to explain their algorithm in full because just like Google’s search or Facebook’s newsfeed, that is proprietary information, but I do expect them to release more information on how to enhance and utilize Klout so that more people and organizations will embrace it.

According to Klout.com:
“Klout measures influence online using data from your social networks. Anywhere you have an online presence, you have the opportunity to influence people by creating or sharing content that inspires actions such as likes, retweets, comments and more. The more engagement your posts receive, the more influential you are. Klout uses this information to provide you a Klout Score that measures your overall influence.”

Initially I thought Klout was just another software out there that you can sign up for and hopefully it becomes more useful in the future but now I am starting to see the benefits of Klout as my score continues to increase. I have connected Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Youtube, Linkedin, Foursquare, and Instagram accounts and therefore as I interact normally with social media than my score increases. I can see how this could help a ministry or business because you can sign up as an individual influencer or a brand influencer and connect your social media accounts. One glaring thing that’s missing from Klout is Pinterest, there is no way to connect your Pinterest account to Klout and that needs to change in the near future.

Finally, as more organizations use Klout and take the scores of influencers into consideration, people will continue to take steps to increase their score. Here is a great article from Wired about Klout – http://www.wired.com/business/2012/04/ff_klout/all/ and I think this will give a great explanation on the benefits and drawbacks of it. In my short time on Klout I have found that the more I post (which I use bufferapp.com to post continuously) the more my score rises.

http://ichurchmethod.com/what-klout-klout-com-is/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-klout-klout-com-is

Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Facebook Newsfeed Optimization

According to Wikipedia, Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural,” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”), search results. For quite a few years I have been familiar with SEO and the benefits of appearing higher in search engine results, specifically Google. As I have continued to help websites with their SEO, I have dealt with Google changing the search engine algorithm and thus making my strategy obsolete as I have had to relearn the new steps to improve search engine results. It’s not the easiest thing to do but it has been quite a task for ministry and business websites.

While reading http://allfacebook.com/news-feed-optimization-seo-facebook_b92006 last week I was introduced to a new term, Facebook Newsfeed Optimization. This is the approach to get stories and posts on facebook into as many people’s newsfeeds as possible. Facebook uses the EdgeRank formula to sort newsfeeds, the EdgeRank formula is based on how Facebook judges the closeness of two people (or a person and a brand), how valuable an activity is (sharing a photo is better than clicking “like,” for instance), and how long ago it took place. Precisely how these factors are measured is not revealed, and, like Google, Facebook is constantly making tweaks.

Therefore, when you are developing your online strategy, as you have your webmaster make sure your website is search engine optimized, make sure you have your social media manager make sure your facebook strategy is newsfeed optimized to your audience. To do this you need to go to edgerankchecker.com and connect via facebook and let them check your fanpage and analyze your audience, this will give you important data such as when to posts, what posts are most impactful and what the audience likes best.

http://ichurchmethod.com/google-search-engine-optimization-seo-facebook-newsfeed-optimization/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-search-engine-optimization-seo-facebook-newsfeed-optimization

Amazon Cloud Computing Outage? Cause for Concern?

I was just reading Managing risk in the wake of Amazon’s cloud outage and it discussed the outage that occurred last week where the cloud servers at Amazon went down. The issues were said to occur due to bugs in the code or inclement weather, depending on which source you read. With that being stated, here are my thoughts on the dependability of cloud computing.

In the early 2000s I was working in corporate america for a variety of companies because I was a web developer consultant. I had the opportunity to see a variety of organizations IT structure and how they reacted to the monthly and even weekly server issues that occurred within the company. Microsoft Outlook email would go down, Intranet server would go down, Internet connectivity would go down and every time a vital service went down, no one panicked or questioned the use of the service, they just waited until it was resolved. Yes, millions of dollars was being lost in man hours due to the lack of productivity during this downtime but there was never a mention of removing the Microsoft office servers or any other servers as our solutions.

Now, since the cloud is a viable solution to help small businesses compete with larger corporations and grow from a one man website into a fortune 500 company, it appears to come under attack more often than not. The cloud, and more specifically Amazon cloud solutions and even Google’s cloud solutions have a very successful uptime rate that is upwards of 95% – 98%, that’s extremely higher than what we dealt with in the early 2000s and for a fraction of the costs. When Netflix, Instagram and Pinterest went down last week, it wasn’t the cloud that we were upset with, it was the fact that these services that we depended on went down and someone had to take the blame. When in reality, we could’ve all been patient and waited a few hours or a day for Amazon to fix the issue and we go back to life as normal.

Companies need to make sure they have redundancy plans in place and backup sites available but the best lesson for working in the cloud was the title of this article – How to deal with cloud failure: Live, learn, fix, repeat.

http://ichurchmethod.com/amazon-cloud-computing-outage-cause-for-concern/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amazon-cloud-computing-outage-cause-for-concern