Over the past two weeks Paul and I have posted several articles related to the Interactive Church Conference, articles about church communication and interactive church websites.  One of the big stumbling blocks a lot of churches run into when deciding whether to have an interactive website is the fear of user created content or member created content…the loss of control of the website content.

• What if someone posts theology that is not what the church teaches?
• What if someone posts something negative about the church?
• What if people spam the site?
• What if people post inappropriate content?
• What if someone just attacks our church website outright with vulgar content? Read more…
  

One of the topics we discussed at the Interactive Church Conference was about the concern some of the pastors had about how people would interact on the website.  There were a variety of concerns, but some of the main concerns were how to prevent the website from being just self-focused (the users only being focused on themselves) and having inappropriate conversations.  Not just conversations about inappropriate topics, but public conversations about private matters or members arguing over an issue instead of having a discussion.  So, how do we keep our church sites from becoming a gossipfest or places where people are constantly arguing? Read more…

Yesterday, I posted a blog on the Christian Web Trends blog about why churches should have an interactive website.  I assume every church is now chomping at the bit to get their new website , but perhaps some churches aren’t quite sure how to go about it.  Thankfully they addressed some of those issues in the Interactive Church Conference.  Read more…

As the title of the conference indicates, the “Interactive Church Conference” had a large focus on interactive websites and their use within the church.  A well designed and well used interactive church website can allow members to connect with members they don’t know, deepen relationships with members they do know, and grow in their faith.  One of the greatest aspects of an interactive church website is its ability to extend “church” from being a Sunday event to being an everyday experience. Read more…

In the third article coming from the Interactive Church Conference Paul asks the question, “Are you a bridge person?”  In the previous articles Paul looked at the communication issues and solutions between church leadership and church techs.  In this third article, Paul focuses on bridge people, people who can bridge the gap between church leaders and church techs. Read more…

As I mentioned the other day, this past weekend Paul Steinbrueck and I attended the Interactive Church Conference in Daytona, FL.  We thought we’d blog about some of the discussion topics from the conference and, since much of the conference was related to churches and technology (as opposed to church marketing) we decided to post the messages in the Christian Web Trends blog. Read more…

This past weekend my brother Paul and I attended the Interactive Church conference led by the Bob Christenson and Matt Farina of Geeks and God. The focus of the conference, as the name implies, was why and how to have an interactive church website, a church website that utilizes social web features such as blogs, podcasts, forums, and Twitter to promote community within the church, help market the church, and spread the love of Jesus Christ. Read more…

Most of the focus of our Church Marketing Online University articles to this point has been on things you can do to bring people who are looking for a church to your church website.  But once a person comes to your church website for the first time, what happens next?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote 10 Things Church Website Visitors Need to See, which describe the design elements important to making a visitors experience on your church website a good one.  In this article, we look at the information first-time visitors to your church website are looking for.

Read more…

I was reading through some articles about church websites and came across one at Church Marketing Perspective that I thought made a great point and fit well with our current series of articles about church website design. The article, “Commandment 8 - Thou shalt be relevant and changing”, talks about the need for every church website to be constantly changing. Change is a part of life and our church websites need to change as well.

No church website has been effective with information that is 3 years old:
If you haven’t updated your church’s website in the past 6 months, then it’s probably out of date and not very useful to visitors. If you haven’t changed the information on your church website for more than 6 months and the information is still accurate, then you aren’t using the website to its full potential. Read more…

Dean Peters posted an excellent article over at Heal Your Church Website today – lessons derived from his office vending machine - about the importance of using website analytics with a church website.  Website analytics are statistics that tell you all sorts of useful information including which pages are most popular, what search phrases people used to find your website, and more.

Most web hosting packages provide some sort of statistics, but a great way to get very detailed analytics for free is with Google Analytics.

The bottom line is… when it comes to websites and snack machines – it’s important to give people what’s important to them rather than offering what’s important to you.