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