Churches and Social Networking Study

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Apr 8, 2009 in Church Technology, Church Websites | 0 comments

Unconventional Method began to design research to explore what churches are doing effectively online in this area and help shape the understanding of how churches can use the internet to gather, disciple and build community. From January 27 through February, almost 1,000 people participated in an exploratory survey examining what churches are doing with social and community networks. Phase I research began to frame the landscape & attitudes in this space. In this research we examined questions such as:

* What feature/functionality are Christians seeking for social networking?
* What Social Media strategies and services do they or their church use?
* What Christian social media websites do they participate in?

Some key findings:

• Facebook was the most used Church Web Media strategy.
• Of the Christian Social Networking sites reviewed 82% of respondents had no awareness that they existed.

Top 5 Requested Features/Functionality sought:

1. Ability to find, register, and/or get details for events.
2. Ability to post prayer requests or needs.
3. Ability to find serving opportunities at the church based on interest or gifts.
4. Ability to join and interact with home/bible study groups.
5. Integration with existing church website.

WATCH THE WEBINAR Church, Christians and Social Networking
DOWNLOAD STUDY SUMMARY Churches, Christians and Social Networking Study (PDF) or you can also go to Church Tech Review: Churches & Christian Social Networking Study

Christian Social Networks and Private Community Sites

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 20, 2009 in Church Websites, Ekklesia, Monk Dev | 7 comments

As we’ve begun to look at numerous Christian Social Networks and Private Community Sites there is one test that easily distinguishes two paths that make a large difference in whether a Christian should use them:

Does the Social Network focus on the Community over the Cause?

Let me give two private Community Network examples:

Community-Focus: I demoed one private Community Network product that is set to be released later this year. In this product they pulled numerous ‘widgets’ into the framework to allow people to stay logged in and never leave. There was a tremendous effort on building community, including social activities for church members. This product will probably be quite successful in terms of use but I believe they will end up with a Christian ghetto where people aren’t led to be on mission.

Cause-Focus: I demoed another private Community Network that would not allow you to create a Group unless it was (1) a real group that met physically and (2) if it was a social group it needed to be for the purpose of mission. If an event does not occur (or if there are no needs posted) a flag appears questioning if it is even a real group.

Cobblestone: As we launch this product we definitely are driven by our Calling by God that leads us to be on mission to the world. We want to see the activities within Cobblestone be about creating opportunities for mission that would be pushed out to Facebook and other 3rd party sites. If you have a basketball group in Cobblestone it should be a place for prayer and encouragement to represent Christ on the court but more importantly it should be pushed outside of the system to invite others.

Social Network Example: There are a few Christian Social Network sites as well. How should Christian Social Networks lead people on mission (the “cause”)? In our Church Website research there are a lot of Christians who use websites for discipleship and to facilitate their evangelism efforts. On our study, 73% said the church website was somewhat to very important in sharing their faith with others (friends, business colleagues, others). These social networks should focus on these causes (as opposed to just being a ‘social place’ like a Facebook or Myspace knock-off) to equip believers for the work of the ministry.

(Shape the future of Church web strategies, take the Church Community Network Survey.)

What are your thoughts about Christian Community & Social Networks?

Top 10 Church Website Features/Activities

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 18, 2009 in Church Websites | 4 comments

What do people say are the most important features/activities they would like to engage on a church website? So far in our survey of 100 church websites these are what people are saying they want to: (out of 23 activities on the Use of Church Websites by Attendees survey)

Highest Rated
1. Find service information (times, directions, etc).
2. Listen to/download Sermons (audio recordings).
3. Learn about the church’s Beliefs/Mission/Values
4. Connect with other members.
5. Read/download Sermons (text transcripts).
6. Join and/or interact with a home/bible study group.
7. View weekly information/calendar/news/events.
8. Find serving opportunities at the church.
9. Post prayer requests or needs.
10. Read articles or other content.

See the Top 5 Church Website Features/Activities Most Frequently Rated ‘Highest Importance’ and Top 12 Church Website Page Destinations at Church Website Guide. [This is where future survey results will be published.]

Online Conversions

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 10, 2009 in General Technology, Monk Dev | 4 comments

Lately I’ve been in a couple conversations regarding online conversions. Are they happening?

Yes and by the millions according to sites like GodRev (see Joy in Heaven). Using GodRev as the example, they take people through a process of Knowing God where visitors go through a multimedia rich 7-step engagement towards a final “as easy as a prayer” commitment to accept Jesus with a final suggested prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ,
I am sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. I ask your forgiveness and now turn from everything which I know is wrong. Thank you for dying on the cross for me to set me free from my sins. Please come into my life and fill me with your Holy Spirit and be with me forever. Thank you Lord Jesus, Amen.”

From hearing the founder of GodRev at a conference, they then try to connect people who fill out this form with local churches and/or Christians.

Often I see two variations of reaction to people when the topics come up:

1. Pragmatists: Let’s save as many as we can by crafting a message and leading them to say a prayer. Often portraying Jesus as Savior but not as Lord.
2. Skeptics: I don’t really trust that there is legitimacy to most of these conversions online. The internet isn’t a place where this should be pursued.

What are the challenges with online evangelism? What is the role of using the internet as a tool for conversion? Should or how should it be done? What would be the best practices if you were to build the ideal circumstances for it to take place?

New Blog Design & Updgrade of WordPress

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 5, 2009 in Church Technology | 8 comments

I just re-launched Goodmanson.com with a new WordPress theme. I like that it’s fairly clean and simple. I still need to do a bit of tweaking (such as add thumbnails to more posts) but hope you like it. In the process I also upgraded to 2.7.1 from 2.5. Come on over and see the new digs.

The Truth about Church Websites and Effective Online Outreach

Posted by D. Goodmanson on Mar 4, 2009 in Church Technology, Church Websites, Featured Articles, General Technology | 11 comments

Thank you for all who participated in today’s webinar, nearly 80 people signed-up for it. For those who missed it, here was the description of the webinar:

We have all heard about the importance of a church website, the craze of social networking and the need for pastors to blog. But how effective are these strategies really in being missional and gathering people? Learn from a 2009 study on “The State of the Church Online: Websites & Mission” involving numerous church websites & strategies where we learn what really is happening. Answer questions such as: How effective is your church website? What can you do to improve this? Who is visiting your website? Why are they really visiting? Where are these visitors coming from? What are best practices in design and outreach? Learn how to enhance your web ministry and impact hundreds, if not thousands of people. This valuable session will equip you with practical strategies that your church can implement whether you are an online expert or a beginner.

Information about the study:

• 74 churches participating (target = 100) Sign your church up to participate in the study.
• web analytics
• congregational surveys
• phase II : interviews/case studies
• church size range of 5 to 45,000 people
• 27 internal designer & 20+ other designers

We are releasing some of the key findings from a sample set of our research (the full research project will last 2-3 months longer).

• 0% of respondents who were Non-Christians said their going to church was influenced by the church website.
• 6% of participating churches had a gospel presentation on their website.
• 27% of the respondents said the church website was how they first learned about the church.

We looked at 3-case studies of College Park Church, Park Community Church & Kaleo Church. We looked at the content viewed as categorized by activities a New Visitor would access (Service Times, I’m New Here type information) versus Events or Media. (see graph) We compared these to a few other churches who were receiving 4-11% of new visitor traffic and made some design observations. We also looked at where the online visitors were coming from to visit these churches.

We shared research based on segmenting three different profiles: Visitors (attending the church for under 3 months), Beginners (3-6 months) and Regulars (6+ months). Here are some of the findings based on the profiles:

Visitors

• 77% said the church website was somewhat to very important in my decision to attend the church.
• 83% said the church website was somewhat to very important in facilitating their participation in the church community.

Beginners

• 45% said the church website was somewhat to very important for their ongoing discipleship and spiritual growth.
• 73% said the church website was somewhat to very important in sharing their faith with others (friends, business colleagues, others)

Regulars

• 27% said they visit the church website more than once a week.
• Feature Rated Most important: Listen or ability to download Sermons.
• Most requested functionality: Ability to post prayer requests or needs.

Again thank you there was a lot more information from this, if enough people comment below that they’d like to hear it we’d be happy to schedule another webinar.

Future Webinars: Beyond the Web 2.0 Noise: How to use the Internet to Disciple & Create Real Community