Rethinking Facebook
It seems that there is starting to be a groundswell of, shall we say, “concern” around the use of Facebook. Most of this has to do with the privacy issues, but I think some of it also has to do with the independent spirit of those on the front edge of the Internet. Just as a backlash against Microsoft has led to the Linux/Firefox/OpenOffice user, I think we are starting to see a Facebook backlash. No one likes to be told what to do – the Internet was built on open standards and Facebook (just as Microsoft did) is trying to become the standard.
There are a range of reactions to the current situation from the “digital elite”. Some are canceling their accounts. Others giving up and opening up their privacy settings to be as public as possible. I personally have not taken any action – yet – but I am starting to understand the concerns.
We all will have to make our decisions about what we will do with our personal Facebook accounts. But a bigger question that concerns me much more is how churches and ministries respond. Many ministries (such as Lifechurch) have begun to heavily commit to using Facebook. I am working with two organizations right now who are considering heavy work inside of Facebook. I, myself, keep this blog as a page on Facebook. But if you do heavily use Facebook, what does that imply? If the “medium is the message”, are we then giving implicit approval to the use of Facebook and its terms of service? And if our use of Facebook encourages people to create accounts and/or begin using Facebook more, should that concern us?
So, will this all blow over? Just as Facebook was starting to be seen as more important than Google, will its decline begin? What do you think? What will your church or ministry do?
Changing the Internet culture of a church
I am working with a church on an upgrade to their web presence. Using my strategy framework, we have come down to a choice between two different solutions. The first is the top of the line, “Mercedes-Benz” of church web presence management software. It is expensive (though within the church budget) and feature rich. It will give us the ability to manage our full Internet presence, including integration with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Vimeo. On the other hand, we have a lower-end, less expensive solution that will give us a good church web site, but that’s about all. If we want to do the rest of our “Internet presence”, we will have to manage them separately.
It seems obvious to me, at first glance, that we want to go with the first solution. After all, we are now in a “post-web site” world, where we need to be “getting in the stream” of our audience. But I have a real dilemma: the culture of this church is not web-centric. In other words, there is very little excitement, except with just one or two of the staff members working with me on this project, for doing more on the Internet. So is it a good use of church resources to recommend the more expensive, more involved solution? The Internet Ministry Framework shows us that a successful online ministry combines equal parts technology, people, and process. So I can recommend the best technology, but if the people are unwilling, can it work? I can develop great processes to use to manage the site and keep it updated and relevant, but if the people are ambivalent, does it make sense?
When I was studying for my information systems doctorate, one of the things we studied was “what exactly is ‘information systems’?” One of the things we looked at was which other fields combined together to make up our field: computer science, business, sociology, and psychology, among others. Going through this process with this church has helped me to understand the psychology side, something I have not had to deal with directly before.
So, what would you do? Would you recommend the best solution, given a high probability that it would site unused? Or would you go for the lower-end solution? Or would you wait and try to change the culture?
Internet Evangelism Ideas
For those of you who have not been following the blog over at OurChurch.com, you have been missing a great series on “Internet Evangelism Ideas”. Yesterday was my turn to post, which you can find by following this link. This has been a great series and I encourage you to review the ideas that have been posted. The series wraps up today. Follow this link to get an overview of the series and links to all the posts.
CLA 2010 Presentation
Last week, I gave a presentation at the Christian Leadership Conference’s annual conference in San Diego, CA. My session was entitled “Online Ministry Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons”, which I presented with Kevin Ring. The talk was well received and encompassed several areas that I have been researching and writing on recently. I was asked by several people to make the presentation available, which I have done below.
For those of you who were not at the presentation, you may also want to get a copy of the audio of the presentation, which CLA is making available for $9.00. That link is also below.
Link to PDF of presentation
Purchase MP3 audio from CLA
CLA 2010 next week
I will be speaking next week at CLA 2010 on the topic of the Opportunities, Challenges, and Lessons of being online. This session is part of the twelve-session “Ministry Internet & Technology Summit” within the overall conference. I am looking forward to meeting a lot of new people who share my vision for using the Internet to share Christ’s love to the world!
If you are going to be there next week, look me up! The session is at 8:00 AM Wednesday morning. And don’t attend just my session! The MITS has a lot of great speakers and sessions!
Follow this link for more information on my part in CLA 2010.
Walt Wilson’s Vision
I had the honor of being a part of Biola’s Imagination Summit, or “iSummit”, a couple of weeks ago. The one-day event, held on campus March 12th, brought in several outside speakers to motivate faculty, staff, and students to think about the new possibilities of using digital technologies to extend Biola beyond its La Mirada campus. I had the privilege of being a part of the faculty panel in the afternoon session, where we got to present our vision and interact in a Q&A with the guest speakers.
This was an exciting event for me because I, along with a few others at Biola, have been scheming and dreaming about how to take the unique and exceptional resources that Biola has to offer the world and utilize the Internet to make them available worldwide. This summit was a positive step towards making that happen.
As I noted above, the iSummit featured several notable speakers, whom you can read about on the iSummit web site. But I want to focus on just one of them: Walt Wilson, founder and chairman of Global Media Outreach. Walt spoke passionately about the use of the Internet, combined with mobile devices, to reach the entire world for Christ by 2020. He believes that there is now no barrier to everyone having a mobile device and being connected. And it is now up to us to take advantage and spread the gospel to the “ends of the earth”. More from Walt:
“I believe that God has built this network to accomplish that very purpose [reaching the entire world] within our lifetime. We are the first generation in all of human history to hold within our hands the technology to reach every man, woman, and child on the earth by 2020. We are being called to engage in the battle for human souls, all across the world. We are being given the tools to meet them in their time of need. The moment they step out of the darkness, we are there to meet them.”
I found this vision to be inspiring and motivating, and I hope you do as well. Below I have embedded the video of Walt’s entire presentation – if you have the time it is well worth watching (it runs approx 25 minutes). Stay tuned to this blog for more from Walt; I will be interviewing him for my upcoming book and posting excerpts of that interview to this blog over the next few weeks.
Evolution of social media integration
As you know, I regularly share posts I read via my Google Reader shared items. This weekend, however, I read a post that I thought should be highlighted in my blog. One of the blogs I follow is Jeremiah Owyan’s “Web Strategy”. Yesterday, he posted an entry entitled “Matrix: Evolution of Social Media Integration and Corporate Websites”. In this post, he includes a matrix that shows an evolution of how and organization can evolve their social media strategy, starting with with “do nothing” and ending with “full integration”. But how do you get from nothing to everything? That’s the best part of this matrix: it gives you the baby steps in-between.
I am reproducing the matrix below, but I encourage you to go and read the entire post to get the full scope of how to use it. Though it is written for businesses, ministries and non-profits can also benefit from it.
| Sophistication | Example | Benefit | Challenge |
| 1) Do nothing, no social integration | Corporate websites that have no integration with social tools at all. | Cheap. Ignorance is bliss, at least in the short term | Your corporate website is irrelevant. |
| 2) Link directly away without a strategy | Corporate homepages that have chickelts that say “Follow us on Twitter/Facebook/YouTube” sending traffic away, seesharethis, add this andtweetmeme | Encourages growth of social channels | Sending traffic away, without having a strategy |
| 3) Link away, but encourage them to share with a pre-populated message | A chicklet that encourages new Twitter followers to Tweet at their friends “I’m no following X brand” | Triggers a social alert as a form of endorsement | Better than the above, it may not have a followup or call to action |
| 4) Brand experience is integrated in social channels | Extending the brand to social channels, so the corporate experience is somewhat mirrored on social channels | Regardless of wherever users go, they are still experiencing the brand | Social channels sometimes serve better as a conversational area –not for traditional branding campaigns |
| 5) Aggregating the discussion on your site | Aggregating select conversations from Tweets like the skittles homepage did, top discussions in communities or blogs, see Disqus and Echo. | Centralizes the discussion on your site, making it a resource to first look at. Low cost content | Lack of control over which content can be created, still links off site |
| 6) Social login systems that allow users to stay on site | Using FB connect, or Twitter connect allow users to use their existing logins to access site, see how JanRain andGigya (client) helps | May increase sign ups, widening marketing funnel, chances are content is more accurate than a sign up form | May not have access to email addresses, as users passthrough using social logins. |
| 7) Social login systems that allow users to stay on site, but triggers viral loop | In addition to the above, there’s an actual social or interactive experience on the corporate site that triggers them to share with their friends | Users stay on site, interact with brand or peers, yet recruit other members in social networks | Requires planning, a campaign, and extensive resources. |
| 8. Complete integration between corporate site and social sites | Other than URLs there’s no difference between a corporate site and a social site, the experiences are seamless | Customers, prospects, and employees mix together, churning on new members and viral activity | It doesn’t exist, yet. |
Creating a Facebook page for your ministry
Just wanted to point you to a great article (beginning of a series actually) that ChurchCrunch is posting on how to create a Facebook page for your church or ministry. This is a very detailed posting that describes the different options and gives you ideas for your page. Read through the comments for more great info!
Also – on a related note – I’ve finally got a real “username” for my Lessons From Babel Facebook page: http://facebook.com/lessonsfrombabel. Check it out – and if you’re not a fan, what are you waiting for?
Internet Evangelism Day is coming April 25
Do you want to get your ministry’s online efforts going but don’t have any momentum? Or are you trying to finish up a web site refresh or Facebook campaign – or get one started? Why not use Internet Evangelism Day, this year scheduled for April 25th, as a day to rally the troops and get some momentum going? One thing you can do right now: become a fan of their Facebook page.
Here is the press release from the Internet Evangelism coalition on this year’s IE Day:
Internet Evangelism Day is an annual focus day for churches. This year, it is scheduled for Sunday April 25. It’s an opportunity for any church to explore with its members the exciting opportunities for sharing the good news online. Ready-made free downloads – PowerPoint, video clips, handouts, drama scripts and music can be easily built into a presentation of five minutes or 50.
2010’s focus day will be the sixth to be used by churches around the world since the initiative’s launch in 2005. Over this period, digital media have developed dramatically, with the advent of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and the growing use of mobile phones to access online services.
IE Day’s website is also a one-stop resource covering many subjects including: how to build a church website that is ‘outsider friendly’, using Twitter inevangelism, and ideas for effective blogging.
Perhaps surprisingly, you do not need to be technical to share your faith online. And you can volunteer to be an email mentor to inquirers with several large online outreach ministries.
Internet Evangelism Day is an initiative of the Internet Evangelism Coalition, based at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton. It is supported by a wide range of Christian leaders and groups. “I am glad to commend Internet Evangelism Day,” says John Stott.
More information: http://www.InternetEvangelismDay.com
Insights into paid search from Jesus.net
When I was at the TIEN 2010 conference in Turkey, I had a chance to hear from David Nolent, who is currently listed as a webmaster and team leader for Knowing God. The Jesus.net ministry is a network of evangelistic and discipleship sites, including GodRev, TopChretien, and LookingForGod.
At the conference, David’s focus was on the use of Google AdWords and Facebook ads as a ministry tool. Jesus.net is one of the biggest Google AdWords users and has had tremendous success. In this post, I just wanted to summarize some of what he shared with us. Remember, this advice is for those looking to pay for ads via the Google or Facebook networks, not necessarily general SEO advice:
- All ads should be in line with your ministry’s focus and budget. They should be strategic!
- 94% of Google searches use multiple word phrases, not single words. If you are going to buy ads, focus on multiple word searches.
- You should take advantage of negative keywords as well, so you can better target your audience without being too general.
- Use all the tools provided, including: Google Insights for Search (http://google.com/insights), Google Keyword Tool (http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal).
- Customize your ads by location and by ministry, if applicable.
- Facebook advertising is a bit more expensive than Google, but it is much easier to target your ads.
- Facebook requires an image with their ad: make it relevant!
- Facebook is relationship-based, so your ads should draw people into a relationship. Link to a fan page or something else within Facebook that the user can interact with.
- When doing these types of ads (Google/Facebook paid ads), you should plan on doing a lot of testing first to see what works!
What is your advice for AdWords or Facebook ads? What has worked for you?
Search
Welcome to Lessons From Babel
This blog is where I share the latest thoughts on my research in the world of Internet ministry. Feel free to join the conversation by leaving a comment. For more information on what I am doing in 2010, see my first post of the year. To find out more about me, my company, and this web site, or to see what resources are available on this site, click on the images right below this.
- Dave Bourgeois
