Jamie Jean Schneider DommDigital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division Only 20% of Americans regularly attend church, and only 2 in 10 millennials consider regular church attendance important. The Church no longer has the option of embracing change or leaving it to the next generation. The time is now; otherwise, we will become irrelevant. Change is never easy, but anything is possible with the Lord (see Matthew 19:26).
People search online for answers to their problems. They turn to the internet for companionship, understanding, information, anonymity, and more. We must be the voice that answers back, online, to share our message of hope and wholeness. Our digital presence may be the only exposure to the Gospel many people receive. We must recognize that the mission field is online, and just as legitimate as traditional evangelism. We need an army of digital evangelists dedicated to carrying the gospel to the digital mission field. Here are 5 steps you can take to become a digital evangelist with resource links:
Jesus sought first to fulfill people’s needs; He then invited them to follow. We can use social media and digital tools to achieve our mission of spreading the gospel and helping people by creating content that focuses on mental, physical, and spiritual needs first. Once this foundation is established, we can invite our audience to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8, NIV). When used for digital discipleship and evangelism, this shift in focus is a way we can follow Jesus’ example for everyday ministry to real people. We can use social influence for kingdom building while utilizing modern tools and technologies. For a practical guide to using digital technologies for outreach, community service, growth and evangelism, purchase the North American Division’s Digital Discipleship & Evangelism Guidebook at SDAdata.blog/book. Available from AdventSource. Print, Kindle and ePub versions available.
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Jamie Jean Schneider DommDigital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division Justin KhoeDigital Missionary, "I’m Listening with Justin Khoe; Life. Faith. And the things that matter." INTRODUCTIONPeople come to YouTube for entertainment and education. It’s not an exaggeration to say that video is king! Internet video traffic accounts for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic. YouTube is the second-largest search engine and the second most-visited website in the world. This is where young people spend most of their time online. Creating a YouTube account is very cheap. All you need is a camera and a device to upload from. YouTube is great for communicating ideas quickly and provides a storage place where your content never dies. It can be revisited or reposted as many times as you want. In this free guide, we’ll take you through a step-by-step process for starting a YouTube channel from scratch. We strongly encourage you to take the time to go through this guide completely and review the resources before starting your YouTube channel. Or, if you already have a channel, use this guide to evaluate where changes need to be made. If you’re not yet convinced that your ministry should consider creating a YouTube channel, review the following statistics. YouTube Statistics (May 2020)
If you have the calling to reach young people, YouTube is a must. This 63-page guide will help you determine relevant topics for your target audience and position your videos to maximize reach and watch time. Click the button below to download this free guide. Jamie Jean Schneider DommDigital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division If you can track it, you can measure it. As a result, you can gain a better understanding of your audience and their behavior, helping you adapt your strategies to more effectively reach them. Taking the time to review the performance of your digital communications and platforms enables you to better understand what is working and what needs to be changed, which empowers you to shape your digital communications strategy based on data. In the long run, this will save both time and money while maximizing impact. Avoid data paralysisTime is valuable. Don’t get so caught up in the details of the data that you respond too late and miss an opportunity. Aim to stay ahead of the curve and be proactive instead of reactive in your strategies. Most ministries and churches do not have the luxury of a dedicated analytics team, but you don’t need to dive too deep to get valuable information about how your website and campaigns are performing. Since most ministries are new to digital communications and analytics, we’re going to stick to a high-level overview. Go back to those key performance indicators we discussed in the strong foundations section, and use those as a guide for what to track based on your ministry’s goals. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the terminology of the various data points. Most analytics tools define their terms within the platform. You can usually access these definitions by hovering your cursor over the question mark next to the data category. The data that is most important to your efforts will be:
Compare the information you find to the performance goals and metrics you established. Always look for areas of improvement and adjust accordingly. Communicate with everyone involved by:
Use trackable links (a.k.a. UTM codes)UTM codes are segments appended to a URL that enable data platforms like Google Analytics to record information about website visitors and traffic sources. This is vital for social media managers as it enables you to measure and prove social media success or, alternatively, identify problems and adjust your strategies. Creating trackable links is surprisingly easy to do and will give you valuable insights into how well your digital communications and ads are performing. What is a UTM code? UTM = Urchin Tracking Module Example: https://www.SDAdata.org/?&utm_campaign=DigitalGuide-2020&utm_source=Social-Media UTM codes can be used in links shared via:
Creating your own trackable links A trackable link has five building blocks:
Example: URL – https://www.sdadata.org/digital-discipleship-and-evangelism.html Campaign – DigitalGuide-2020 Source – Social-Media Put it all together using this formula: Regular link + ?&UTM + Campaign (what event, month, where, etc.) + &UTM + Source (channel/platform) Final result: https://www.sdadata.org/digital-discipleship-and-evangelism.html?&utm_campaign=DigitalGuide-2020&utm_source=Social-Media Be sure to always test your links! After you create your trackable link, be sure to test it to make sure it works. It can be very frustrating for your audience to receive digital content with a broken link. Website performance dataThe most common analytics tool for detailed website performance tracking is Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool for monitoring where your visitors come from and understanding how they interact with your website. It’s easy to set up a free Google Analytics account. Most website hosting platforms offer easy-to-follow directions to get you started. Once you are set up, take the time to familiarize yourself with the tool and make it a habit to check your website’s analytics each month. Terms and definitions
Key metrics to monitor
Campaign performanceWhen you drill down deeper under campaigns, you can learn what aspects of a campaign performed the best by using unique UTM campaign names for the different components of your communications strategy. Google Analytics automatically picks up the campaign name and source from the tracking links. There is no need to do anything in Google Analytics to make this work! Just be consistent with the UTM codes you use, and be clear with your campaign and source names. Remember, prioritize. You don’t have time to track everything, nor do you need to! Once you have determined what you’re going to track to determine whether or not you’re reaching your goals, check performance monthly, and record your results in a way that enables you to see trends over time. Some analytics tools like Google Analytics allow you to create dashboards for easy access, while social media insights may require that you create your own charts and graphs. To learn more about Google Analytics, check out our beginner tutorial on SDAdata.org. Social media analytics or insightsMost social media platforms offer at least basic insights into the performance of a ministry’s account and who their audience is. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the analytics for your social media platforms and regularly check them to understand trends over time. Pay particular attention to:
Social advertising performance analyticsAfter you place your ads, don’t wait until the campaign is over to check performance. Monitor the ads closely to make changes and optimize as needed. Catch problems early on; otherwise, your money may go to waste. The great thing about social advertising is that you can edit campaigns at any time if they are not meeting your expectations. Make sure you understand what the numbers mean; most platforms have descriptions available in pop-ups next to the column head. Be sure to:
Some basic terminology you should know:
Track so that you can learnRemember, if you’re going to take the time to put together a campaign strategy, take the time to track its performance so you can be better informed next time. There’s no point in testing strategies without tracking your efforts. If you don’t learn from your campaign, you can’t improve the next one. Social media and digital marketing are both an art and a science. Use data to inform your intuition.
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