Outreach via Social Media to Retain & Grow Church Membership

The faith based score card (from Pastor Brad Powell – Northridge Ministries and Sacred Cow Tipping )

Is your Church, Ministry or Faith Organization…?

Healthy

Loving

Spiritual

Welcoming

Growing

Young

Cool, real, authentic, honest, the truth…

What 3 things are you doing to make it GREAT?

What is your Church’s Mission? Two are better off than one, because together they can work more effectively. If one of them falls down, the other can help him up. Ecclesiastes 4:9 © 2006-2009, CircleBuilder Software, LLC | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/11/09

What Are Your Pain Points? $$$ Who is committed? How to connect with NextGen Limited resources Wide-open back door Growth © 2006-2009, CircleBuilder Software, LLC | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/11/09

Social Media : people having conversations online

Using the 8 C’s to better serve members

Calendaring

Events – people need to know time, place venue, logistics

Communications

What kind of format? What quantity, quality and frequency of delivery? (needs to be user defined and interactive)

Collaboration

Creativity, passion and brain power of your members put to use

Content

How it is made, how it shows up.

Commerce

DVDs, video; online giving, philanthropy, flowers, group buying

Connection

Rules and filters for visitor, members, board of elders

Community

Offline and online community defines your groups Culture

Call to action

Why is your org great? -- say it in 30 seconds or less -- and what do you want them to do next?

Why should I care?

Over 90% of people are online in some way

Barna Research estimates that by 2010 - 10% of people will worship exclusively online.

Over 450 million people are participating on some type of social network

billions of websites

4 million online articles

55 billion text messages are sent each month

100 million videos online

200 million blogs

1.5 million residents living in virtual worlds

39% of people online subscribe to an RSS feed

57% have joined a social network

55% of people online have uploaded photos

83% have watched a video

How can the word of God – get through?

Americans are exposed to about 3000 advertising messages/day.

Corporations spend $620 billion yearly to get us to buy products.

What do YOU do online?

Where you surf depends on what you need

Some community examples

Private online church community that Features your brand and your rules

Integrated “mash up” with existing site

No confusion (“Is this our church’s site?”)

Single sign-on for subscribing churches

Fellowship, learning, and prayer anytime

Secure Login www.welovecentral.com

Open social networks

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and other secular and faith open communities

The good:

Social collaborative - phenomenon

Millions of seekers and unchurched there

Be in the culture - set up a group or fan page

Social media connect allows for single sign on

The bad:

Advertisements (many are inappropriate)

Too open – not private

Can you do “real” ministry there?????

Two groups cannot talk to each other

Not about your brand and under your rules

No reporting, online giving, or small groups

Bridging the chasm to build community Individuals would be involved if:

You made it easy to find events and service opportunities relevant to their interests

They knew friends would be there, too

Church would like to:

Increase membership, volunteer service & participation

Strengthen learning

Organize and promote activities

Be Welcoming to All – face to face & online Individuals get an easy way to:

Receive info that matters to them

Pitch in where most needed

Invite friends to join via Social Media connect

Church a simple way to grow:

Improve attendance “know thy member better”

Welcome newcomers

Personalize interactions with all

What’s the Best Way to Reach Them? Different people need different methods. And many require more than one method! Text msg Internet Print Phone Mail Posters & Flyers Email

Changing How the Church “Does Church”

Build a community that is right for ME

Make it simple and personal

Have information always accessible

Keep individuals/small groups connected throughout the week

Facilitate group-to-group , group-to-member and member-to-member communication and collaboration

Are your members thinking about your church between Sundays ?

“ Touch Points” Build Community Traditional Interactive

Awareness

Visibility

How do I find your church and join in your community?

Understanding

Church

Mission

People

Purpose

Action

Participation

Joining

Come grow

Invite friends

Small Groups

Ministries

Caring

Addiction

Counseling

Salt and Light

Celebration

Good deeds

Prayer

Serving

Disciples of Christ

Volunteer

Giving

Maximizing Your Touch Points Interactive RSVPs, Blogs & discussions Event & Volunteer Matching Custom weekly email Audio and Video Podcasting Cell phone text messaging Viral Marketing “ share with 2 friends”

Technology is only part of the solution It’s not about this… It’s about this…

How do you measure success?

Web analytics

Stay times and Stickiness

Dollars raised online?

New members

Close the backdoor to attrition

Create a Facebook group or fan page, check out Twitter , and YouTube / Tangle but do not stop there… 8-C’s - Fix your current website , print and electronic communications and make your “touch points” great! Consider a branded online church community to build the kingdom and spread the gospel

Huge growth – 1000+ churches, ministries & faith / cause related groups / orgs already signed up!