Anyone using the Internet to do ministry should have a process in place to regularly evaluate how successful their online presence is. The three areas of the Internet Ministry Framework should all be evaluated: technology, people, and process. From this evaluation, a ministry can determine the best places to improve.
The research that we did on best practices will give some good ideas towards how Internet ministry can be enhanced. Some of the key findings of that research that can be used as ideas for enhancing your ministry include:
- use as much "new media", such as regularly updated blogs and podcasts, as possible to communicate your message.
- integrate your site with existing new media sites, such as YouTube or iTunes. Go where the people are, do not create your own versions of such sites.
- be sure you have someone on staff responsible for your Internet ministry. It would be wise to limit your use of volunteers to non-critical tasks. If you don't have the technical skills or understanding needed, then consider hiring outside help.
- if you haven't done so already, create a mission statement for your online ministry. What are your goals, who is your target user? What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
- keep track of how your site gets used. What search terms are used to access your site? How long to people visit? A tool such as Google Analytics will provide most all you need in this area.
These are just a few areas you could look in to enhance your Internet ministry. If you would like help in this area, consider using genesys11 to work with you in this process.