Have you ever considered using an online calendar as a marketing tool? Google Calendar provides you with the necessary tools to do this. Having a public calendar that automatically updates people of upcoming events, reminds them of events that they agreed to attend, and syncs with any mobile device comes in handy when you have an active community. Google Calendar is completely free and very effective, not just as an organization tool, but also as a resource for sharing and collaborating. Here are some tips for effectively using Google Calendar, Read the rest of this entry »
Should Parishes Communicate With Facebook?
In my experience, Facebook is typically avoided by parishes. I understand. Facebook, and other social media platforms, carries with it huge moral implications. This being said, Facebook currently has over 750 million users. Right now it is the second most visited website….IN THE WORLD (www.google.com was #1). The Holy Father himself addressed the necessity to see these people reached with the Gospel:
God’s loving care for all people in Christ must be expressed in the digital world not simply as an artifact from the past, or a learned theory, but as something concrete, present and engaging. Our pastoral presence in that world must thus serve to show our contemporaries, especially the many people in our day who experience uncertainty and confusion, “that God is near; that in Christ we all belong to one another” (Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, 21 December 2009).
Regina Web Solutions just held an informal survey (on Facebook) asking parishioners how they would prefer to hear from their parish online. The #1 way, Facebook. Communicating your parish’s events on its own Facebook page doesn’t have to be dangerous. You can disable commenting options and have 1 or 2 administrators that you trust to update it.
The benefits? Well…..
1) Keep your parish up to date. Not everyone reads the bulletin. Do you really want to put all of your eggs in one basket? Americans spent over 41 million minutes Facebooking in 2010. People spend way more time looking at their Facebook account than they do their parish bulletin. Every time you post an update on your Parish Page it automatically propagates to your "Fan’s" personal pages. This means they and all of their friends see what is happening…before they even see the Sunday morning bulletin.
2) Increase parish participation. By creating a Facebook Event and advertising it on your Facebook page you give Facebook users the opportunity to agree to attend, may attend, or not attend. You also give all of their Facebook friends the same opportunity (viral marketing is pretty cool).
3) Increase parish communication. If you decide to leave the commenting section on then there is the added benefit of allowing parishoners to give you feed back about upcoming and past events. However, if you leave the comments open you will need a diligent moderator…but maybe it’s worth it.
4) Great way to communicate the faith! A regular post can be added to evangelize/catechize/encourage/exhort your Facebook fans. Also, your parish blog can automatically be syndicated on your Facebook page (do you have a blog yet…). There is much that can be said on Facebook that may not find the opportunity to be spoken about behind the pulpit. I recently read a blog written by a pastor of a large Catholic parish about the practical and spiritual implications surrounding modesty along with some common sense instruction concerning the topic. It was fantastic. I don’t know if he would have wanted to spend that much time talking about this during Mass, but his blog afforded him an audience that could read about it in their own time.
There is more to say about the benefits, but let me move on. The main reasons I hear for parish intrepidation surrounding Facebook are: the (realistic) fear of inappropriate comments being posted on the Parish Page, the lack of time and staff to keep it up to date, and the need to learn something new. Allow me to address these reservations briefly
1) inappropriate comments: Simple solution, turn the comments option off. More involved solution, have a diligent moderator.
2) lack of time and staff: I actually have a lot to say about this. The fact is we all have the same amount of time and we give it to what we think is most important. Facebook could potentially be the most powerful communication piece you have outside of parish announcements and the church bulletin. Knowing this could help you make the decision to designate time for your Facebook page. Also, consider www.hootsuite.com. You can actually schedule your Facebook posts in advance using Hoot Suite. These posts will automatically appear on the day and time you scheduled. This means you can sit down once a week (or month) and do all of your Facebooking. Pretty cool.
3) the need to learn something new: This can be intimidating, but I promise you that Facebook is not rocket science. You can do this. Facebook was designed to be used by average Joe’s like me and you. Also, feel free to e-mail us questions and if we can answer them we will:) (email@reginawebsolutions.com)
Facebook Page vs. Group
In a recent Facebook survey the #1 way parishioners said they would prefer their parish to communicate with them online was…..Facebook (shocker since it was a Facebook survey). With that in mind parishes should really explore their options for communicating on a platform that has over 750 Million Users. This is a very quick overview of the differences between a Facebook Page and Facebook Group.
Both allow you to set who can post comments on your wall. Both
How to Embed a PDF On Any Web Page
Have you ever had document that you wanted to display on your website as you see it in PDF form? Allow me to introduce you to ScribD.
ScribD allows you to upload an archive of documents for private of public use. It is a document sharing website….and it is neat. It is loaded with features that are great for collobaration, sharing on Facebook/Twitter, or just creating links to documents that want others to have access too.
The embed feature is neat because it allows you to display your document as it is. This is really handy if you’ve made multiple page documents.Let’s get started…
I Love Free Workshops
Today I will be attending a free webinar on web development. It is being offered by an online content management system called Weebly. Companies offer these things periodically. The informed customer will become a long term customer. I really like the concept. I don’t mind if a company tells me what it provides while it equips me with useful information. That is just smart business. Be an expert and a servant and people will want to use your product. These short seminars have proven to be very valuable to
RSS Feed E-mails…Have you met Mail Chimp?
Mail Chimp (www.mailchimp.com) has a really cool feature. It allows you to make and “RSS-driven Campaign.” In a nut shell, this campaign will automatically send an e-mail to subscribers every time a fresh material is syndicated by an RSS feed. For instance, you make a new entry on your news blog…vwalla….all of your e-mail subscribers will receive an e-mail with this new material. You may already be using Google Feedburner and you may be asking yourself “why would I do this instead of Google Feedburner”. Glad you asked. Mail Chimp will send your blog entries in an e-mail template. Your template may contain Facebook Buttons, a cool theme, or anything else that goes in a regular e-mail. Feedburner would just send a link to the blog or the blog content. This is not limited to blogs though. Anything that has an RSS feed can become a “RSS-driven Campaign” (Google Calendar updates anyone?). Mail Chimp allows you to have up to 2,000 subscribers and send 12,000 e-mails a month for free. It is a great alternative to Constant Contact or iContact.
Facebook and the Printing Press
At the end of the 16th Century a holy saint, St. Francis de Sales, used a crazy new invention to diffuse the fragrance of the knowledge of God in every place….the printing press. This innovation allowed the gospel to be spread effectively, resulting in 40,000 conversions (actually reversions…Calvinists came home).
Four centuries later we have a new generation that needs to hear the gospel. Where is this audience? What is the marketplace? As of today Facebook is the 2nd most popular website in the world (Google.com is 1st). Facebook has more than 750 million active users! Wow.
That being said, are we following in the footsteps of St. Francis de Sales and using the latest and greatest means of communication to bring people into the fullness of Truth, the fullness of Christ? How Catholic is your Facebook profile?
Creating a Way for Parishioner’s to Subscribe to an E-mailed Version of Your Bulletin
Regina Web Solutions recently held and informal survey on Facebook asking how parishioners, if they had a say so, would like there parish to communicate with them using the internet. The second highest method Facebookers requested was to have the parish bulletin sent to them via e-mail. I decided to visit my diocesan parish directory and look at 20 randomly picked parish websites. 19 out of the 20 did not offer this service. Here is a free way of making a bulletin subscription box for your parish website. Can anyone guess what the #1 desired method of online communication is (according to our survey)?
Coordinator for Marketing for Franciscan University of Steubenville Speaks about Catholicism and the Internet
Good ol’ fashion interview…from my living room.
Associate Superintendent – Facebook
Vince Schmidt, Associate Superintendent of Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Kansas City ~ St. Joseph, Vince Schmidt, speaks about the benefits of Facebook in school systems.
