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?

Tags: AdWords, david nolent, facebook, jesus.net

They use the Internet in Turkey too

During the first week of March, as many of you know, I had the pleasure of being a speaker at the Turkey Internet Evangelism Network’s 2010 conference in Istanbul (TIEN).  I was invited to speak about my research in the areas of best practices and strategy, and also to share my insights into some of the current trends we are starting to see. There were over sixty different people in attendance, representing dozens of different groups from Turkey and around the world.

The Turks are serious about the Internet.  Turkey is now the #4 country in the world in number of Facebook users behind only the US, UK, and Indonesia. The government has banned YouTube, but everyone I talked to knew a way to get around it.  Wireless access was everywhere, and the quality was good.  At the conference, I was struck by the fact that everyone had laptops and cellphones, including Mac laptops and iPhones. When I spoke at the conference, I never felt like anyone there did not understand what I was talking about – in fact, they were more Internet-savvy than many of the church leaders I have talked to here in the US!

In many ways, I felt right at home in Istanbul: most everyone dressed Western, many people spoke English, and I saw many of the same stores and brands that I see at home. In fact, at the local Starbucks, I could order the exact same thing I order here, no Turkish necessary (see picture).   Yet in other ways, it was very obvious I was not at home: mosques were everywhere and the Muslim call to prayer was heard five times a day (see my Facebook video to hear what this sounds like – Facebook account required).

My time in Istanbul was a pleasure (at least once my body figured out that day was night and night was day).  The people were wonderful. And brave.  To live as a Christian in Turkey is to be different from the majority. It is to always wonder if the government is going to add some new restriction to your ministry’s efforts, or even remove you altogether. Though it is legal to be a Christian in Turkey, it is still not easy.

The title of this post,  ”They use the Internet in Turkey too”,  is obviously meant tongue-in-cheek. Many times, when thinking of ministering to muslims in a muslim country, we picture something out of Indiana Jones. But it is not like that, as I have described here in this post.

To be successful in fulfilling the Great Commission, we are called to understand other cultures and then determine how to best share the good news within them. This conference gave me a look at how this is being done; both through the people at the conference and through the Internet.  The Lord is working in Turkey and, indeed, throughout the world. The Internet is being used as a tool “that everyone may hear”. And they all will, very soon.

Tags: Istanbul, TIEN, Turkey

Interviews with leaders in the online ministry field

Have you ever wanted to pick the brain of some of the top names in online ministry?   Have you ever wondered what they thought it meant to be “excellent”? As part of the preparation for our study on excellence and presentations for the CLA 2010 Ministry Internet and Technology Summit, StateOfMinistryOnline has conducted several interviews with top ministry leaders, asking the question: what does it mean to be excellent online?

Interviewees include:

• Cynthia Ware, Executive Director of the Center for Church Communications
• Eric Célérier, founder of TopChrétien.com
• Matt Perman, Senior Director of Strategy for Desiring God
• DJ Turner, Executive Director Communications Denver Seminary
• Dr. Richard Krejcir, Director of Into Thy Word

Here are some highlight quotes from the interviews, see if you can figure out who said them:

Sometimes online excellence is seen when someone has taken the initiative and laid the foundation for others to follow.

Great content must be wedded with high usability. If you have excellent content but it’s hard to use the content is obscured. Not focusing on usability creates distortion that gets in the way of the content. Even if you have financial resources and a competent staff, poor usability will lead to an ineffective website.

When you go to a restaurant, you don’t go just for the food or for the look of the dining room, you go for the experience. This is how Facebook draws so many people: not just the content, not just the design, but the experience of it. The experience of a web site is created by how you navigate through the content. When you are designing your site, foremost consideration must be given for how the users will experience it!

Go read the interviews at StateOfMinistryOnline to figure out who said these and to get much, much more insight!

Of course, it couldn’t let this finish without reminding you of the CLA 2010 conference coming up in San Diego in April. And encouraging you to come! I am part of the team putting together a special 12-session summit on the Internet and technology, where we will be taking the principles learned from these interviews and other research and presenting them.

Also, if you are interested in coming (or even if you’re not!), please consider taking the online survey we have developed to help us further our research. For your time (about 20 minutes), you will receive a $50 discount to the conference.

Tags: CLA 2010, Interviews, state of ministry online

Getting in their stream

I wrote last week that I believe we are now in a “post-website” world, where the organizational website, while important, is no longer the centerpiece of how we interact online.  Continuing to think along these lines, the question then becomes: what should be the main focus of our online communications and interactions?

My answer to that question is not simple. I believe that the best way to interact with our target audience is to build relationships with them online.  And one way to build relationships with them is to insert ourselves into the “streams” of information that they consume everyday.  To have the maximum reach possible, we must understand the streams that our potential audience wades through on a daily basis and become part of it.

› Continue reading

Tags: facebook, post-web site world, stream, twitter

Living in a post-web site world

Whenever someone comes up to me requesting help for their church or ministry’s Internet effort, I usually get asked a question such as: “How can we make our website better?”  In my opinion, this is the wrong question to ask.  We are now living in a “post-website” world. I don’t know when this happened, but over the past year or so, there has been a shift away from the organization website being the centerpiece of the online world. We need to go where the people are; they are not going to come to us. The advent of social media, including the massive popularity and mainstreaming of Facebook, has changed the game. The question should now be: “What should our online strategy be?”

This is not to say that you don’t need a web site. A web site is your stake in the ground, it is how people will find information about you if they are looking for it. But it is not going to be your primary means of interaction. Sure, you can build your own social network or your own photo-sharing site, but what is going to draw people to it? They are already on Facebook! They are already on Twitter, YouTube, Buzz, MySpace, LinkedIn, and many others! Do your research and find out where the people whom you want to reach are going and then go there yourself! Your strategy should include an intentional focus on specific social media sites based on your research.

So what does this look like? For many, it means Facebook, absolutely. For others, it means getting on board with mobile technologies. Looking forward (as you must do) it should include location-based technologies such as FourSquare or Yelp! And be sure you are getting on board with the augmented reality applications starting to appear! It can be overwhelming, but by making intentional choices, you can move forward in a strategic way that will bring success. If your ministry is struggling with strategic decisions regarding online ministry, consider working with someone like me who is keeping on top of these technologies and can provide strategic planning and advice.

So what do you think? Is the web site as the priority Internet presence a thing of the past? Can an organization get away with a minimal website if they focus on social media sites instead?

Help us help you: excellence in online ministry

I told you earlier this week about the Ministry Internet & Technology Summit at CLA 2010. One of the themes of this summit is going to be “excellence in online ministry”. I am part of a research team that is putting this project together – and if you are part of an online ministry effort, I need your help!

The cornerstone of this research project is an online survey that will help us understand just what online ministries are doing, why they are doing it, and how effective they are. The results of this survey, combined with interviews and in-depth conversations, will provide our team with the resources needed to develop materials that can make your online ministry excellent.

So will you help us? The survey should take under 30 minutes. I know, this is still a lot of time, but we ask your patience in completing the entire survey to give us the full picture of your ministry.  Those who complete the survey will receive a discount code good for $50 off of the conference registration.

Start the survey by clicking here.

If you would like more background on the conference or the team that is working on the project, see our website: State of Ministry Online.  And if you are not part of an online ministry team, but you know someone who is, please forward them a link to this post or to the survey and ask them to help us out!

Tags: CLA 2010, excellence in online ministry

Internet & Technology Summit – CLA 2010

Do you want to network with those who working on the same technology projects as you? Need to know what the latest technology trends are? Do you want to know how to be “excellent” in online ministry? Or maybe you just need an excuse to go to San Diego in April? Come to the Ministry Internet & Technology Summit from April 19 to 21 in San Diego, CA. This summit is part of the larger Christian Leadership Alliance’s annual conference.

Presenters include:

• Cynthia Ware, Executive Director Center for Church Communications
• Nick Nicholau, President Ministry Business Services and Co-founder Ministry Technology Institute
• Drew Goodmanson, CEO Monk Development
• Steve Hewitt, editor-in-chief Christian Computing Magazine
• Kevin Ring, President Unconventional Method
• Steve Hewitt, Editor-in-Chief, Christian Computing magazine
• Ron Weber, COO Trinet Internet Solutions
• …and me!

For more detail on the sessions, take a look at this PDF of page 8 of the conference brochure.  For full details of the conference, take a look at the full brochure.

Watch this blog for more info on how you can make these sessions even more effective by participating in research and giving us feedback on what is important to you (and get a discount on the conference as well!).

Tags: CLA 2010

Highlights from around the web – 2/5/2010

Here are the most interesting, instructive, and innovative articles from around the web that I’ve read in the past few days.   I am sharing these, along with my comments on them, via Google Reader – you can read them all there or subscribe to the feed if you like.

• Announcing the Excellence in Online Ministry Survey
  Posted: February 3, 2010
  From: State of Ministry Online
  State of Ministry Online is launching their survey. If you are part of an online ministry, take a few minutes to do the survey and you'll score a discount to the CLA 2010 conference.
• Teens Just Don’t Blog or Tweet [STATS]
  Posted: February 3, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  The Pew Internet project just released a new report on teen use of the Internet. If you are targeting teens with social media, this is the scoop on what they do.
• Who We Are Is Who We Are
  Posted: February 3, 2010
  From: Collide Magazine
  A great perspective on the use of social media by...everyone. How do you use social media? How do those in your ministry see you using it?
• 3 New Ways to Measure the Social Web
  Posted: February 3, 2010
  From: Mashable!
  One of the keys to a good online strategy is to have measurable goals. This article gives you three ways to measure your social media interactions. Are you using any of these?
• Plugin by C. Murray Consulting

Tags: pew internet

Are you following “best practices” for online ministry?

Since many of you may be new to my blog and research, I wanted to make you aware of the “resources” section and some of the online ministry tools I have put there. The “resources” section is available both at my main site and my Facebook page.

One of my first projects in the area of online ministry was to seek an answer to the question: what makes online ministry successful? This led to the development of a research project to determine the “best practices” in online ministry.  From November 2007 to April 2008, over 300 ministries took a survey and reported on how they were doing Internet ministry. From the data collected, a series of “best practices” were developed matching ministries who reported success with their Internet presence with answers to the survey questions. I presented the results of this research at the Internet Ministry Conference in October 2008. › Continue reading

Tags: Best Practices, research

Is your online presence credible? Thoughts about the book “Persuasive Technology”

As you know, I am now on a “half-sabbatical” for the next two semesters here at Biola, with one of the outcomes being a book on using the Internet and social media for ministry. As part of this process, I am spending some time reviewing some different materials for possible inclusion in the book and/or my online course this summer.  As I complete my review of these materials, I will post a summary to this blog. To see all my reviews, click here.

Yesterday, I finished working my way through Persuasive Technology by B.J. Fogg. Dr. Fogg is the founder and leading researcher in the field of “captology”, which is defined as the design, research, and analysis of interactive computing products created for the purpose of changing people’s attitudes or behaviors. Though not written specifically to help churches and ministries with their online efforts, this book has a myriad of insights that are extremely applicable to those us interested in understanding how our ministries can have a more effective online presence.

› Continue reading

Tags: bj fogg, persuasive technology