July 6, 2010 insight session by Nadine Monn at Church of the Brethren Annual Conference, on using Web 2.0 tools to build community and welcome new members
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Nadine Monn's 2010 Church of the Brethren Annual Conference Insight Session
1. HELLO! My name is Nadine L. Monn CoB and Web 2.0: Building Community and Welcoming New Members Slides for an insight session delivered on July 6, 2010 at the 224th Church of the Brethren Annual Conference.
5. A Few Truths It is for real It will not save your church It may save money It will take more than one person It may assist in reaching new people It may assist in reaching younger people
6. What is it? Interactive Collaborative User-generated Information sharing
7. What forms might it take? Blogs Social Networks Podcasts Video sharing Wikis Email
20. .com vs. .org For-profits traditionally use .com Non-profits use .org, when available Can use other domains when .org is not available Cost involved to register domain name, such as www.yourchurch.org Try Godaddy.com, as little as $1.99 for first year
21. Procedures Comply with any denomination or district guidelines/policies Make your church’s policy before you start (or go further, if you’ve started already) Define in writing who will be involved Decide what to do if someone leaves Some web tools may need stricter handling Update annually, or if new tool added Have available for church members
22. Administrator Considerations How many people can access the tool as an administrator? What approval does content need before it’s posted? What’s the process for changing access during leadership changes? Learn about complex passwords, to prevent hacking
23. Working with Youth Define process for any church youth helping with site(s) Have the content approved by adults who are administrators before it’s published Example: Pastor, board chair, and youth leader review content Once reviewed, let youth know if edits are needed or if ready to be published as is
24. Social Networks on Your Site If you create your own social network using Spruz or a similar group: Link to its login screen from church site Cleaner than embedding it to church site Preserves any privacy settings Extremely helpful if you ever change the provider, just update the link rather than any page coding
25. Consents and Credits Photos or videos showing church members: Decide on limits to protect children, such as only show high school or older when posting online Get written permission/consent from people in it Give image credit to person who took it Only post items showing visitors or non-church members if you have their written permission also Take photos or video that don’t show visitors’ or non-church members’ faces
26. A Few Best Practices Use template that has a CSS for screen readers used by visually impaired On sites, use sans-serif fonts Easier for reading online Examples: Arial, Verdana, Tahoma Hyperlink emails on sites Don’t list full email addresses on sites to prevent SPAM Images or text can be hyperlinked
27. Contact Me Let me know if I can help you with a: General question Site feedback or audit Web tool introduction Friendly and supportive ear Click on my virtual business card for more details! Nadine M. Gmail Skype Blog Slideshare
Editor's Notes
I am not a web expert, an attorney, or a district or denominational staff member. This insight session is an informational session only. It does not provide advice or analysis, since every church or organization has its own circumstances.Image credit: Nadine L. Monn
How many of you feel this way when putting together the church newsletter?Image credit: Microsoft Office Online download
Image credit: Microsoft Office Online download
By staggered column, moving left to right.Left, first column: Heart, Flickr, Wordpress, Blogger, DiggMiddle, second column:StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, MySpace,RedditRight, third column: Facebook, YouTube, RSS, deli.cio.us, Google
The first rule of any church web presence: the message on it has to be authentic and representative of who you are. Web 2.0 is about transparency and telling your story. The site and the church need to match.
The term "Web 2.0" is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability,user-centered design,[1] and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with each other as contributors to the website's content, in contrast to websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups, and folksonomies.
The term "Web 2.0" is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability,user-centered design,[1] and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with each other as contributors to the website's content, in contrast to websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups, and folksonomies.
Can post news (runs from most recent to oldest post)Can be mapped to a specific URL to your domain name (such as www.yourchurchname.org)Can be used as a content management system if you have a web hosting service for your domain name
Facebook: Personal profiles, fan pages for organizations or companies (need 25 “fans” in order to be eligible for a specific URL extension such as www.facebook.com/yourchurchname)Spruz: Create your own social network. Both free and paid. Can be public or private. Can customize design and functions available. Paid versions will remove advertising on the site.
Both offer Internet calling, chat, and video calling.Skype: Free of spyware, malware, and adware. Internet calling free to other Skype users; low-cost to landline and cell phones. I’ve used it to make a podcast.
Webcasting with chat feature. Free and paid versions. Need to have a webcam.
Polls and surveys. Free version allows 100 responses gathered for each one. Paid versions available. Look is customizeable. Can be embedded to sites, or put URL into an email or on a web page.
Twitter: 140-character limited “micro blog”. Can follow others, or be followed by others. Can be tied to your Facebook account, so that updates on FB publish to Twitter.Screenr: A free Twitter application. Can record a screen cast up to 5 minutes long, with audio. Video formats include HD and mobile-ready versions.
E-newsletter: Vertical Response knows non-profits have limited funds. Offers 10,000 emails/month free. Create account, complete their non-profit application and return with a copy of your 501(c )(3) paperwork.
Pamela: Skype-certified recording tool. (No adware, spyware, malware.) Can record Internet calls so that you have an audio file to use for podcasting. Professional license is $29.99 each; updates are free.
E-newsletters: Alternative to Vertical Response. Does offer a non-profit discount, though not as substantial as Vertical Response’s.
Image credit: Microsoft Office Online download
Most people will expect a church website to be a .org domain. Try to come up with a domain name that is very easy – or intuitive – based on your church’s name. But also come up with an alternative if it’s not available, using perhaps the church’s initials or adding the city name.Examples for: Resurrection Life Church of the BrethrenPreferred: resurrectionlifecob.orgAlternatives: rlcob.org or cityrlcob.org
Consider having anyone involved with your church’s web tools administration sign an annual covenant that he/she has read and understood the current policy relating to them. Keep this on file in the church office with the policy. If you update the policy for a new tool, update the covenants also.
I strongly recommend having a core group of administrators. This helps provide more accountability while also sharing the load of responsibility. This may be a good opportunity to have youth involvement in church ministry and outreach.The administrator group doesn’t necessarily need to be people charged with other facets of church leadership. However, do consider having the pastor and someone from the board involved so that they know what’s happening.
Trust that your youth want to do a good job working with the church’s web tools. Make sure they know that they are making an important contribution to the church’s ministry work.Have them sign any covenant relating to the church’s administration procedures, just like the adults. However, also get their parents’ or guardians’ signature on it, so that you know they know the youth will be helping.If a youth helps with keeping the church’s website or blog updated, make sure that content they want to post is reviewed before it’s published. (This is where it’s helpful if several people have administrator access! The youth can send the reviewers an email that content is ready for review before publishing it. The reviewers can login and read it, and send edits to the youth in an email, or let him/her know that it’s ready as-is.)
CSS = cascading style sheet; it provides standardized formatting throughout the site. Screen reader software can read the site faster, while giving better indication to the visually-impaired person about the importance of the content (i.e., distinguishing between a headline and regular body text).
