Ben Crothers | 14 Nov 2009

 I am a
user experience designer/
business consultant
 I really enjoy
helping churches online/anything 2.0/painting
 Work: PTG Global as a Senior Consultant
 Blog: catchmedia.com.au
 Twitter: @bencrothers

 Format:
 Landscape, not portrait
 Not linear, but jumping around with links
 Interactive, animation and show/hide effects
 It takes time to download
 People have more control over the format

 Behaviour:
 Cognitive load as we go from 'page' to 'page': Will
this link go where I expect it to go? Do I have time?
Will I change direction? Go back?
 We scan rather than read, in an 'F-pattern'
 We are (even more) fickle, impatient, task-focused

 Think about the real intent of your content
 Avoid clichés and phrases that don't actually
mean anything
 Avoid acronyms and proprietary words that
may confuse and alienate
 Sermon, worship, justification, non-Christian
 Get someone else to read your content

 Cut your text in half
 Use shorter sentences and shorter paragraphs
 Avoid the 'padding' content, e.g.
 Welcome messages
 Overly-long instructional text for online forms

 Think about the reward for the reader in
reading your content
 Know your audience and decide who to
grab first
 Use keywords that resonate with your
audience (but maybe not you)‫‏‬
 Be bold, be exciting and excited, be honest,
be real, be confident

 Could there be a different way to present
your message, other than a title and five
paragraphs of text?
 Like a billboard?
 Like an IKEA catalogue?
 Like a chart?
 Like a packet of biscuits?

 Replace or remove old content
 Make sure the home page looks different
week-to-week, or at least month-to-month
 Update content
 Randomly-selected items of content
 Write new blog posts

 It is worth it, it does matter, people do notice
and it does reflect better on your
church/organisation
 Why? It distracts from the message in the
content itself
 Mind your it's and its
 Separate, not seperate
 One idea per paragraph

 It is worth it, it does matter, people do notice
and it does reflect better on your
church/organisation
 Why? It distracts from the message in the
content itself
 Mind your it's and its
 Separate, not seperate
 One idea per paragraph

 It is worth it, it does matter, people do notice
and it does reflect better on your
church/organisation
 Why? It distracts from the message in the
content itself
 Mind your it's and its
 Separate, not seperate
 One idea per paragraph

 Use plenty of subtitles
 Short paragraphs
 Bulleted lists
 Priority of messages: make the most
important message/call to action the most
prominent
 Chunk and simplify your information, with
links to more detailed information if necessary

 Use magazine layouts as inspiration...

 Twitter:
 Make those 140 characters count!
 Punchy lead-ins for links: good
 Making it personal and different: even better
 This post just changed how I pray! http://bit.ly/KM096GY
 Leave room for others to retweet
 Use hashtags, like #createconf

 Blogs:
 Make the headline count! (50/50 rule)‫‏‬
 Read this or the puppy gets it!
 Top 10 reasons why...
 What I didn't know about Jesus
 Use subheadings within the post to tell the story:
 “I used to mock Christians”
 “Then He showed up”
 “Now by God's grace I'm planting my third church”

 Blogs (continued):
 Front-load your post with the key pieces of
information
 Start with the conclusion
 The include the rest of the vital details
 Then expand on detail

 You may be the expert, but you may not be the
best person to write the content
 Delegate and share the load, if you can
 Assign one person to take charge of gathering all
content from all content-providers
 Endorse this person and their job
 Content workflow: who writes, reviews, edits,
approves and publishes
 Content schedule: new content every month?

 Easier for writing content
 What 'boxes to fill in' rather than blank canvas
 Easier for gathering content from others
 Makes content consistent

 Easier for writing content
 What 'boxes to fill in' rather than blank canvas
 Easier for gathering content from others
 Makes content consistent

 Ben Crothers
 Blog: catchmedia.com.au
 Twitter: @bencrothers