Social bookmarking can be a powerful way to attract visitors to your church website.  It’s also one of the easiest ways to market your church and a way to get everyone in your church involved.  How can you use social bookmarking most effectively with your church’s website?  Here are seven tips for using social bookmarking most effectively: Read more…

There are millions of people online at any given time. How many of those millions will ever hear about your church’s website? There are many ways for people to find out about your website and we’ve discussed many of those ways right here on the Church Marketing Online blog. Lately we’ve been looking at the social web and how your church can engage members and visitors online through interactive website features, social networking, etc., but social bookmarking is a little different. With social bookmarking you have a way to market your church through some of the most powerful marketing tools there has ever been…not social bookmarking per se…but simply the power of recommendations and the desire for people to fit in.

Does your church use this tool? Read more…

One of the biggest questions churches have when considering having a blog is what they should blog about.  It’s not only a common question, but a very important question as it will give your church blog focus.  So, what should you blog about?  Well, that will really be up to you.  What do you want to blog about?  It’s always best to blog about something you are interested in as it will make the posts more interesting and you are more likely to keep it going and be consistant.  If you’re having trouble coming up with a blog idea, here are 10 ideas for church blog topics: Read more…

If your church is going have a blog, what should that blog be?  How should you go about doing the blog?  Who should manage the blog?  What should you blog about?  These are all good questions to ask yourself before you start a church blog.  In this post I’ll give some tips about the who’s, the what’s, and the how’s of church blogging. Read more…

There two main ways to get a blog.

1. Start a blog on an external blog site, like blogger.com
2. Install a blog within your church website

There are benefits and draw-backs to both options as I will look at below. Read more…

Over the last several months we have been looking at ways of using the social web for church marketing.  We’ve discussed:

• Video sharing
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Podcasts

Now I’d like to move on to blogging.  Blogging can be a very powerful way to engage members, attract visitors, and gain links (which helps with search engine marketing).  It’s also a great way to add fresh, original content to your church website.  So, what is a blog? Read more…

We’ve talked about the “what” and the “why”.  So, what about the “how”?  If you have some ideas about what you want to do for a podcast, but aren’t sure how to go about doing it, this is the info you’ve been waiting for.  I’d suggest getting your pencil ready to take notes, but copy and paste should work just fine. Read more…

Last week we talked about how to plan for your studio podcast.  Hopefully, you’ve figured out what you want to do, who you are doing it for, and what you hope to accomplish with the podcast.  Now, let’s look at the actually production of the podcast and putting the “studio” in studio podcasting. Read more…

Last week we talked about some of the different kinds of podcasts your church may want to consider.  The sermon and Bible class podcasts are pretty straight forward in terms of content and how to do them (though I’ll give some tips in a future post “Podcasts – Techy Stuff for Geeks”), but studio podcasts are a little less obvious.  So, I thought I’d give some tips for how to plan and produce a good studio podcast.  This week I’ll focus on the planning and next post I’ll look at some production tips. Read more…

We’ve talked about what a podcast is and some reasons why podcasting is relevant for churches, but what exactly should your church do for a podcast.  There isn’t one specific answer.  Every church has its own identity, its own strengths and weaknesses, and its own budget.  So, you will have to decide what kind(s) of podcasting is best for your church, but here are a few ideas to get you going. Read more…