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#DigitalEvangelism

How to Create Opportunities for Prayer in the Digital Space

2/20/2020

7 Comments

 

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

How to Create Opportunities for Prayer in the Digital Space
I saw that every prayer which is sent up in faith from an honest heart will be heard of God and answered, and the one that sent up the petition will have the blessing when he needs it most, and it will often exceed his expectations. Not a prayer of a true saint is lost if sent up in faith from an honest heart. – Testimonies for the Church, volume 1, p. 121 
Even among the skeptical, there is a longing for someone to care enough to pray for us personally. Social media is a powerful tool for soliciting prayer requests and following up on those requests. Prayer can be just one “like,” comment, or message away. Online communication lowers the barrier to asking, making it easy for people to reach out when they can’t bring themselves to do it face to face.

I can personally attest to how sending recorded prayers can be a powerful way to minister to others. In the wake of a recent tragedy, I found myself asking, “What if we went beyond ‘thoughts and prayers’”? It happens all the time: a friend posts online that they lost a loved one or something else bad happened. We press the “like” button and carefully scroll over to the sad emoji. Then we type below “thoughts and prayers” or something similar.

We’re sincere about it, too. The person is in our thoughts, and we are praying for them. But we can take it one step further. What if they could hear us pray for them? It impacts people so much more when they hear someone petitioning God on their behalf. In times of crisis, they may not be able to answer the phone, or they may not want to talk to anyone. They can still hear us pray if we send audio recordings of our prayers. This can be done on most smart phones and messaging apps. It’s personal and intimate. That extra step that we take to invest in another can have a much more meaningful impact than the standard social media response.


Some additional ideas to use digital tools for prayer include:
  • Create digital groups for prayer (Facebook, What's App, Slack)
  • Host live video sessions weekly to take live prayer requests and pray for people live (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc.)
  • Message prayer request contacts weekly to remind people that you're praying for them
  • Follow up by sending recorded audio prayers so they can hear you pray for them (or call, FaceTime, etc.)
  • Place ads to solicit prayer requests via Facebook messenger
  • Create weekly prayer posts and personally respond to every person who requests prayer
  • Send prayers and receive requests via Snapchat

Remember to keep track and follow up regularly. Being intentional will not only impact the lives of those you minister to, but will also strengthen your own belief in prayer as you witness it in action. You may not get updates from everyone, but be patient and persistent with all your digital discipleship and engagement efforts.

7 Comments

What Does Community in the Digital Space Look Like?

2/11/2020

1 Comment

 

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

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Gorgeous2God is an online ministry dedicated to the difficult issues that teenage girls face. The content is relevant, tackling issues and topics that many don’t feel comfortable talking about in church. As of the writing of this guide, the ministry has over 45,000 followers on social media, millions of impressions, and over 200,000 video views. These stats are great, but the real value in something like Gorgeous2God is not the number of likes; it’s in meeting a very real need and filling a spiritual void for our teens, who have challenges today that older generations didn’t have to face. The advent of the digital age has made navigating young adulthood more complicated, and youth are often left to deal with their problems alone. The need for this ministry is great.
The #gorgeous2god blog has given teen girls a place to search for answers to the challenging questions they face about love, life, health, and faith. I have met so many young girls who are hurting and looking for someone to listen—girls who are suicidal, becoming dependent on alcohol, or who have just shut down completely.

This was the reason we created the Confidential Q & A section of the blog: girls can write in anonymously about anything they are struggling with, and they are answered by a Christian counselor who can show them compassion and offer sound advice without judgment. 

—Erica Jones
Assistant Director of Women’s Ministries, North American Division
 
The confidential Q&A part of this ministry serves to create a support system, offering crisis help and community care management. It is the top-visited page on the website, and girls write in from all over on a range of topics, including self-harm, sexuality, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and relationships. When they have nobody they can trust or talk to, Gorgeous2God has given young girls a safe place for Christian guidance on real-life issues.

The impact of this ministry is felt through countless testimonials:

This [person’s question] resonated with me on a such a deep level. It's as if this question and response was written just for me. Please keep me in prayer, too, as I struggle with the same temptations.

“This post popped up on my feed at just the right time in my life. It's almost as if you knew my life exactly. Thank you for writing this. Truly, thank you.”


What if every church offered a safe place without judgment?

Too often, Christians wall themselves into a protective bubble and don’t know how to respond to the difficult realities people face daily. Unfortunately, the feedback that many teens receive feels like it’s coming from a position of moral superiority, leaving them feeling judged and isolated.
When we offer a place where people can share without fear of condemnation, where we listen more than we talk, where our advice stems from understanding and compassion rather than moral judgments, they find that the
Church—faith—is relevant.

— Erica Jones
Assistant Director of Women’s Ministries, North American Division

It’s a privilege and a great responsibility when people come to us for answers. It’s not just community members either. Church members are not immune to the struggles and temptations of life. Let’s give people a safe place to land by demonstrating Jesus’ love and compassion for them. The Church should be seen as a place for sinners to find community and help. This is what we should be known for.  


Pay attention to cries for help

As a church body, we need to pay attention to cries for help. Every individual has some social influence and can actively use this influence to improve the well-being of others. In a famous example, the actor Pete Davidson from Saturday Night Live (SNL) posted online: “I really don’t want to be on this Earth anymore.” This alarming post resulted in a spur of online messages, phone calls, and people showing up in person to check on him and provide encouragement. Not everyone is famous with millions of followers to analyze their every comment and post, but they are no less valuable to God. The Church body should be setting the example in this kind of community care. It’s not uncommon for people to post a cry for help online. If we use our sphere of digital influence to stay connected to our friends and community, we can be there when people need us by simply paying attention and taking action.

The following are two actual Instagram posts from a friend of mine, who normally shares only her social media best. These tipped me (and others) off that something was very wrong, and we were able to reach out to her in a timely manner to provide the necessary support. Because we had invested time in building a relationship with her in person and online, we recognized this radical departure in posting behavior as a warning sign.

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When you invest in building relationships, you can better recognize warning signs and know how to respond.
When a church member makes a cry for help online, is the Church body paying attention? We should work to extend the church experience beyond the confines of time and space in a building to an involved community that provides 24/7 support not only to members but also to our broader contacts. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. We must really listen and take time in a busy world. We must also go online with purpose, not just for amusement and to pass time. By being intentional, we can make meaningful and measurable differences in people's lives. To be effective, churches should cultivate and nurture healthy communities, both analog and digital, both within the church and in the community, thereby better positioning ourselves to provide a ministry of healing and broad networks of support.


Recommended action steps:
  • Pay attention
  • Notice changes in posting behavior and/or language
  • Take action/reach out (text, email, call, meet, etc.)
  • Ask questions; never assume
  • Assess the situation; determine causes and factors
  • Listen
  • Encourage and uplift
  • Pray for and with the person
  • Ask them, “what can I do to help?”
  • Continue to follow up week after week
  • Continue to assess the situation and find ways to help/encourage
  • Repeat as long as necessary
  • If the person is a victim of a crime, abuse, or other forms of violence, direct them immediately to the proper authorities and resources found here: https://www.enditnownorthamerica.org/get-help
  • If a person appears suicidal, direct them to the national suicide prevention center: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

How does community building work in the digital space?

Community building in the digital space works in much the same way as in the physical world. Expert evangelists tell me that the most effective form of evangelism is friendship evangelism. Digital tools simply allow us to scale up friendship evangelism, but this takes getting out of our comfort zone and being intentional about interacting with people, paying attention, and following up in meaningful ways. This kind of outreach can involve every member of the Church, using the communication tools each individual feels the most comfortable with.

Scale up friendship evangelism by:
  • Being connected through social media and other digital tools
  • Learning more about people's lives through social media in addition to socializing in person
  • Taking the time to engage and show interest
  • Using digital tools to inform and invite friends to fellowship opportunities/events
  • Taking advantage of opportunities to serve people by better understanding their expressed needs, for example, help with moving, distress after loss of a loved one, etc.
  • Starting meaningful conversations
  • Listening more than you speak
  • Utilizing digital tools to follow up and stay in contact with people

Give them Community, Love, and Support

It all starts by connecting with the people you meet inside and outside the Church, understanding that not all online relationships have to remain in the digital space. The closer we get to people, the more involved we can be in their lives, and the more influence we can have. Our goal should be to take them from the digital experience to an in-person experience whenever possible. When we seek daily to serve and uplift others, our faith can have a real-world impact that is relevant to all ages.

According to The Knot, 19% of brides met their spouse online in 2017, making online dating an increasingly popular way to meet prospective partners. It's natural for us to first connect with people in the digital space before developing more meaningful relationships. The Church shouldn't shy away from this change in culture. Digital discipleship is an opportunity for those gifted in fellowship to build relationships and trust within the local community and beyond.
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What’s the Role of Engagers?

2/11/2020

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Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

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Being listened to is so close to being loved that most people cannot tell the difference.
​—David Oxberg

Engagers are at the front lines of mission and can serve as a powerful mechanism for community care. These empathetic individuals can operate within an organization or independently to engage in online conversations for the purpose of building meaningful relationships, understanding needs, and determining meaningful ways to serve others in both local and online communities.
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Every opportunity to connect is an opportunity to advance the kingdom of God. Let’s not waste our digital influence. Social media and digital tools provide a unique opportunity for continuous people care that can enhance and strengthen the relationships you cultivate with church members as well as with the community your ministry serves.

Why do we need engagers?

​When we consider the roots of the ten leading causes of death (diagram below), we can see eight opportunities for the Church body to improve the well-being of others. These eight root causes—stress, a sense of meaningless existence, lack of information/education, anger and frustration, loneliness and social isolation, low self-esteem or self-worth, economic disparity, and helplessness and emotional despair—can be addressed through the corporate Church’s messages of hope and wholeness as well as the local church’s ability to directly meet the physical and emotional needs of people. 
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The Curious Case of Roseto, PA

​A real-life example of the potential impact of addressing these root causes can be found in the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. He begins the book with the story of an Italian immigrant town in Pennsylvania, whose population was made up entirely of Italians from Roseto, Italy. Due to prejudice, it was common for Italian communities during the early to mid-1900s to develop separately from the general population. The people of Roseto, PA smoked heavily, 41% of their calories came from fat, and many struggled with obesity. Yet they were able to avoid the main causes of death. An extensive study was done of this community, and the secret wasn’t diet, exercise, genes, or location. In fact, extended family living elsewhere in the United States did not enjoy the same low rates of disease. 
There was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction, and very little crime. They didn't have anyone on welfare. Then we looked at peptic ulcers. They didn't have any of those either. These people were dying of old age. That's it.

Virtually no one under 55 had died of a heart attack or showed any signs of heart disease...death rate in Roseto was roughly half that of the US...the death rate from all causes...was 30–35% lower than expected. —Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers
My mother’s family is Sicilian, and I can personally attest to how extraordinary the health of this community was in comparison to that of other Italian-Americans. Italians in the United States tend to eat more meat, more dairy, fewer fresh vegetables, and less fruit than other Americans, and they favor white bread over whole grains; they also tend to suffer from chronic or severe heart issues. This is in sharp contrast to Italians living in Italy, whose health benefits greatly from a more plant-based, Mediterranean diet. However, growing up, we were taught to believe that Italians “just have bad hearts” and that we were genetically predisposed to have strokes and heart attacks. Recently, a man I had grown up with passed away suddenly at age 36. He appeared healthy, but his heart stopped while he was sleeping. Shock rippled through the Italian community followed by knowing nods of acceptance that it’s really not that uncommon among us. So, what is the difference between the Roseto community and the community I grew up in?
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When the researchers looked beyond the individual and started looking at health in terms of the community, they found something fascinating. Extended family clans formed the foundation of the town’s social structure. Three generations lived under one roof, people stopped on the street and talked, neighbors took care of neighbors, grandparents were respected, and the people of Roseto were unified through church and civic engagement. 
...The Rosetans had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world. The Rosetans were healthy because of where they were from (paesani culture), because of the world they had created for themselves... —Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers
​In other words, they avoided illness because they had transported their communal, village way of living—embodied by the paesani culture of Italy—to their new home, whereas the Italian community of my childhood has become disconnected, individualized, and distant, only gathering together at the American Italian Society for major holidays. 
...the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are. —Malcolm Gladwell
​To live out our faith and mission in the modern world, we have to be counter-cultural by striving to build healthy communities and support systems. While family and community structures have broken down, the Church, with some effort, can rebuild some of what has been lost to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of people. While the world has changed, people, fundamentally, have not. We still need each other. Digital tools and technologies offer a way to build meaningful relationships in a busy modern world. This takes empathetic and intentional people who can use their digital influence to uplift and connect with others. 
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Content Evangelism: Engaging Your Audience and Improving SEO

12/18/2019

7 Comments

 

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

Content Evangelism Picture
When it comes to digital evangelism and discipleship, content is made to inform, to educate, and inspire—for the purpose of attracting and nurturing a loyal audience that connects with your ministry’s message. Ultimately, your goal is to support their growth in their spiritual journey.

The currency of content marketing (or in our case, evangelism) is ACT: Authority, Credibility, and Trustworthiness (though we should also add “Empathy” to this list, especially when dealing with spiritual topics and life lessons).

Use multiple forms of content to maximize your organization’s ability to get picked up by Google’s search algorithms, as well as to further engage your audience. Keep in mind that certain forms of content will perform better with some audiences than others. By diversifying your content creation strategy, you optimize your reach and increase your impact across a variety of demographics. 

Here are the four major components that work together in a comprehensive content creation process:
  • Strategy – defining your ministry’s purpose, goals, and niche opportunities to target. Effective strategies outline topic coverage and evaluate means of distribution, measurement, and analysis.
  • Copy – the words within the content. What messages are being conveyed to your audience? How can the language best reflect the culture of the medium and the target audience so that the desired meaning can be best understood? Remember, good communication is when we speak so that our intended audience can not only hear our message, but understand its intended meaning or purpose
  • Imagery – the pictures, videos, icons, and graphics. What’s your visual theme? What emotional response or mood are your trying to evoke? What perception(s) of your brand will your audience develop of your brand based on the images you utilize?
  • Medium/Media – The final home(s) for the copy and imagery content. Where will it live? On your website? In an app? On another website? On various social media platforms?
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As you continue through this section, consider how each of the following elements will fit into the above four categories. 

Most Popular Types of Online Content

Text
The written word is the foundation of any type of content, and, therefore, this is where we must begin. Ideas are usually written down first—whether in the form of notes, scripts, or outlines—before they’re turned into anything else. Even in visual media like video, written content often accompanies and supports the other content types. When you set your content evangelism goals, you’ll want to prioritize quality writing.

Keep in mind, however, that good writing in an academic sense is not the same as what’s considered good content writing or copywriting. Writing for digital environments is much more straightforward, casual, conversational, and concise.

The most common forms of written content online are:
  • Website copy, as in, the text found throughout your organization or ministry website. A thorough outline or bubble diagram is a must for planning out website content. Each page should have a clear purpose made obvious in the headline and introductory sentences. Typically, you’ll start with writing copy for the following standard pages: “Home,” “About,” “Services,” and “Contact Us.” You’ll expand from there, depending on your type of ministry.

    The more high-quality content your website has, the more likely it is to show up in search results for topics related to your mission—especially if it has a blog.

  • Blogs, or a consistently-updated collection of topical articles. The word “blog” originally came from the word “weblog,” back when blogs were more like online journals for individuals posting their opinions or recipes, documenting their parenting journey, etc. Now blogs are used both individually and commercially to engage in conversation and as a means to inform (or persuade) readers.

    Many blogs have inspired the formation of online communities, especially if they prominently link to their corresponding social media profiles on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Many commercial websites also leverage blogs to build or grow a community around brand values. If an organization’s blog contains useful or thought-provoking information, and is properly promoted, it can skyrocket in online influence. Often, this also increases audience conversions (taking a desired action). 

  • Landing pages, or a stand-alone page dedicated to one important message, campaign, and/or call-to-action. It’s more than just a page where users happen to “land” after a search. Landing pages are where visitors are directed via a website link, social media post, paid advertising campaign, email button, etc., for the purpose of taking a specific action. A landing page is where a visitor would be directed to learn about a specific campaign, cause, or opportunity, and is designed to encourage them to get involved or sign-up for a special offer. The call-to-action would ask them to enter an email address (or other additional information) in exchange for something like

    - a subscription to your newsletter on marriage.

    - registration for a webinar or upcoming event on healthy eating

    - the opportunity to sign up to meet with a local Bible worker or pastor

    - a “lead magnet,” such as a free e-book (or physical book) on a topic of interest, such as “What happens when we die?

    The primary purpose of landing pages should be to gather email addresses and other contact information for your marketing list, as well as analytic data on how many people are interested in what you’re offering. With the right promotional strategy, landing pages are valuable tools for growing your digital influence.

    Landing pages can also help your organization increase registrations, sign-ups, downloads, purchases, etc. When applicable, build in “buzz” words that create a sense of urgency or exclusivity that urge visitors to take action or that make them feel special. 

  • Email content. Email marketing is still a key player when it comes to optimizing your digital influence. While this content is not indexed by search engines, it serves a vital function in nurturing the relationship your ministry builds with its audience. It helps to grow an actively engaged digital following across multiple mediums and platforms, which does boost your SEO.

    However, for your message to have an impact, your audience must first open your email. Strategically written subject lines are meant to convince the reader to open your email. And once they do, the email content should be written as concisely and in as straightforward a manner as possible, as you only have a matter of seconds to engage the reader and pique their interest.

    Most email marketing content is in the form of e-newsletters that keep your community informed on news, events, resources, new content, etc. Emails may be notifications of new blog posts, or sometimes email campaigns can be an educational series in and of themselves.

    Think about what you get in your inbox. Maybe you’re on an email list that sends you a daily devotional. Whatever type of email you receive, understand that careful thought (hopefully) went into how that content was presented. Email content is intentionally designed to keep readers engaged and feeling special so they don’t wander down to the footer to click “unsubscribe.”

  • Testimonials. This content features member/participant stories and testimonies that promote your mission, message, event, or cause. Storytelling remains central to evangelism because we’re drawn to the narrative of someone “just like us” experiencing a problem, seeking the right solution, trying this and trying that, and finally discovering how to overcome the problem.

    Testimonials allow your ministry to be the “great discovery,” demonstrating that it can help people succeed and find a happy ending to their story. Around the testimonial, you can highlight your mission, what your ministry provides that others don’t, and give people a glimpse of what their lives would be like if they embraced your ideas or joined your faith community.

  • E-books. E-books educate readers (provide value) about a topic of interest. For an audience that might be looking for more depth, an e-book is a good option for going deeper than a blog or social media post allows. E-books can be terrific lead magnets as well. You can use landing pages to encourage people to sign up to receive e-books as well as physical books.

  • Social media posts. Many organizations assign their best writers to engage with their followers on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and various niche-specific platforms. Social media writing requires short, punchy messaging that encourages discussion, inspires shares, or includes an enticing call-to-action that directs to a landing page, blog, registration page, full video, etc. We’ll discuss more about how to write effectively for social media and online audiences in the next section.

    Social media is today’s “word of mouth.” It’s the central hub of online conversations, and, if they want their posts read, liked, and shared, social media writers need to write in the word-of-mouth style, catering to the audience’s interests, frustrations, and convictions, and using strong, specific calls-to-action.

    Social media “buzz” can dramatically increase your ministry’s web presence and impact. Not only is it a good source of active backlinks that can drive traffic to your website, your social media profiles can appear as additional search results as well—further elevating your findability online.

  • SEO titles and tags, such as page titles, headlines (or H1s), meta descriptions (the intro blurb that appears underneath the page title and link in search results), and ALT tags. All of these are priorities for SEO copywriters, as the content found in these areas can make a big difference in which webpages get clicked on and ranked in search results. 

  • Microcontent, or “scannable web copy,” which refers to headlines, subtitles, subheaders, lists, pull quotes, sidebars, meta descriptions, calls-to-action, etc. These are very important, and it’s actually an area that demands the most creativity from the writer. Its purpose is to make content more scannable, overcoming the “wall of text” issue that deters so many potential readers. More often than not, the microcontent is what convinces a reader to start reading and to keep reading.

  • Transcripts for videos or podcasts. Some sites post them verbatim, while others optimize them for readability and add microcontent. This can make the transcript just as popular as the recording, especially for those (about 16% of web users) that prefer to read content. It is also highly valuable for making the content of the recording indexable for search engines. It is also a good way to promote accessibility for users that use screen-readers. Accessible content is valued by search engines.
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  • Checklists, as they can stand alone as their own type of post. They can appeal to hurried readers who love scannability, and to thorough readers who like the idea of a concrete list they can check off as they apply each step. Detailed checklists can also be effective lead magnets to the right audience, especially if your content teaches a complex process or provides ways to improve an existing skill or behavior.

Video

One-third of all online activity is spent watching video. This isn’t surprising. People, as visual creatures, have been naturally drawn to online video and made it one of the most popular ways to consume content for all ages! The increase in mobile device usage has made video more popular as well. With a smaller screen, it’s easier and faster to watch videos than to read text.

Video is a great enhancer. Have you noticed that when you click on a news story, the page often has both the written article and the video from the newscast? Not only does it offer two different options for content consumption, it adds a perception of depth and authority to the story.

Video content is particularly useful for educational topics, especially “how-to” tutorials and telling stories. Demonstrations, interviews, personal testimonies, time-lapses...some things are just better presented via video.

When it comes to YouTube, this platform has created its own niche of search engine optimization. YouTube’s search algorithms rely heavily on keywords, titles, tags, thumbnail images, and microcontent such as video descriptions and channel descriptions.
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YouTube also measures “watch time,” or how long a viewer watches before clicking away or going back to search results. The more of a video that gets watched, the better that video must be, so YouTube ranks it higher in its search results. Longer videos, especially if frequently watched until the end, get even more of a boost (on other social media platforms, however, it is still generally recommended to keep videos short, around three to five minutes or less). 

Livestreams

With livestreaming, longer videos are always acceptable, regardless of platform. Livestreaming your events, whether on Facebook Live, YouTube, or your website, can widen your audience, further engage your existing audience, and provide an archivable piece of evergreen content that can be repurposed later. This is great for church services, special performances, programs at a school or university, conference sessions, and more.

When it comes to SEO, livestreams can have a sizeable effect. Facebook announced that its ranking algorithm favors live videos in its searches. YouTube promotes YouTube Live videos. And even if your organization’s livestreams are hosted off-site, it’s another link to your content that could show up in search results—especially if you’re live often!

Webinars (Online training or Bible studies)

Taking video up another notch, webinars are exclusive, live, educational presentations. Like its name suggests, it’s a seminar broadcast over the web using tools such as GoToMeeting, Zoom, or Lifesize. Participants are typically invited to webinars and provided with a private link.

While the webinar itself would not be indexed by search engines, its power to engage audiences boosts SEO through lead generation and by increasing engagement, trust, and loyalty to your ministry. Webinars can provide a valuable service to your constituents when used to teach useful information (such as tips to improve your marriage), provide background on a popular issue, or facilitate live online discussions. They can also be an effective and convenient way to host digital Bible studies for small groups, allowing face-to-face interaction and relationship building regardless of location. 

Images

While the right pictures can elicit emotion, the right designs can inspire action and highlight strategic details. Careful planning is necessary to make sure the images you’ve chosen indeed emphasize the intended emotion. It must be clear what the picture is portraying, and it should look genuine, as opposed to a cliché corporate stock photo.

Used sparingly, stock photography can be a great resource to enhance your ministry’s brand online, and it’s easy to find free stock images at pixabay, pexels, unsplash, and free-images.com. Click here for more free or low-cost stock photography and design resources.

For websites, hero images (the large, single images that dominate the top area of a website) continue to be trending. These pictures must be high enough resolution to avoid appearing pixelated (approx. 1600 pixels wide), but low enough resolution to avoid slowing down the site’s load time.

For other images that appear on your website, stick to file sizes under 250 kilobytes if possible. Learn more about image best practices for church websites.

For each image on your website, blog, or Instagram profile, make sure to apply ALT text, which is indexed by search engines to determine what the picture is about. It also acts as text that can be read by screen readers to tell visually-impaired internet users what pictures are on a page.

Infographics

When explaining a process in text, an accompanying visual is a must.

If, when talking about your topic, you find yourself saying, “Here, let me show you…” or, “Why don’t I just draw this out,” an infographic would probably come in handy.

Infographics illustrate each step or point of a process and include short and straightforward text to accompany the imagery—making complicated information easier to understand.

Designers and writers must work closely to create an infographic with a clear direction so the eye knows what to read first and where to go next.

If you’re short a graphic designer, some free tools like Canva can help you create simple infographics, which add a splash of color to your page, post, or feed while informing and engaging your audience in a creative way.

As the below infographic explains, infographics don’t just make your page more pleasant to look at—people actually search for infographics on certain topics. They’re also shared frequently on social media. Think of creative ways to use infographics for ministry, such as mapping out “How to Study the Bible for Beginners.”

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Podcasts

Audio content can include interviews, sermons, vocal essays, monologues, presentations, seminars, and more. Podcasts created from this audio content should be distributed as widely as possible, including on your website, iTunes, and other hosting platforms so users can subscribe. Even if you’re already hosting through a provider such as SoundCloud, Blubrry, Google Drive, or archive.org, it’s worth uploading to other hosting platforms in addition. These simple audio files are a highly shareable piece of content people can listen to while driving, walking, exercising, or cleaning their garage.

Having podcasts with your ministry’s name in the title, or hosted by a prominent personality associated with your ministry, can do wonders for brand awareness, which ultimately benefits overall SEO.  

Interactive content (quizzes, polls, calculators, etc.)

This type of content requires audience participation, making their interaction with your ministry far more memorable.

You’ve probably seen various character quizzes on Facebook or Twitter. They are highly shareable because, to the audience, it feels like they’re sharing information about themselves, not about the organization that designed the quiz.

Interactive content that strives to be helpful or practical might include assessment-type quizzes, calculators, interactive graphs or charts, or polls and surveys. They can also help you with demographic info-gathering for your ministry’s strategic planning. Remember, anything that deepens engagement also boosts SEO! It’s always beneficial to keep people on your website longer.

There are many tools that can help you create interactive content, including qzzr, SurveyMonkey, Doodle, Vizia, and more. 

Courses

This type of content can be important for building what Google refers to as an organization’s E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness). At the same time, courses provide yet another way for your audience to consume your content. If your organization is qualified to teach even a simple skill that has value in your audience’s life (healthy cooking or practical discipleship tips), creating courses can bolster your content marketing and SEO, and become a relevant resource for your site visitors. Not only can this type of content boost your credibility, it can empower your audience for positive change.

Beginning Content Strategy Worksheet

Filling out this structural worksheet can guide your brainstorming process and help you solidify your content strategy.

  1. Which topics do you wish to cover in-depth for your content evangelism?


  2. What goals and objectives do you have for your content evangelism?


  3. What keywords relate to your topic? Brainstorm below.


  4. Run your topic and keyword ideas through a keyword research tool. What kinds of results do you find?


  5. Are the terms you thought would be popular showing high search volume?


  6. Which keywords show the most favorable ratio of search volume to competition?


  7. Using what you’ve determined from your keyword research, what is the main topic that will guide your content development?


  8. List a few substantial subtopics that can branch out from your main topic.


  9. Create a “topic tree” or bubble diagram to outline your content’s topical progression.


  10.  What possible content titles come to mind? Brainstorm below.


  11.  For which of these subtopics would it be most useful to invest in a visual element, such as a video, infographic, or image?


  12.  Which platforms best suit these topics and/or content types? Which platforms would best reach your target audience?


  13.  Start drafting content assignments and/or a publishing schedule, include guidelines for visual content, and describe the places and forms it will be published in. ​
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A Deeper Dive into Content and Creative Planning Through Keyword Research

12/17/2019

1 Comment

 

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

Content and Creative Planning Through Keyword Research Picture
People value content that helps them make better decisions, answers their questions, and speaks to their core values or interests. Optimizing your content based on search engine queries (what people are searching for) helps you best match your products and resources to the needs and interests of your audience. We previously took a bird’s-eye look at using search results to find relevant content ideas. This section will go into greater depth for those ministries who want to focus more on creating digital content related to their mission and themes. If you’re a digital missionary looking to develop a content creation strategy that will reach beyond a geographical location, bookmark this section. This type of digital evangelism helps expand your messaging to new audiences who are hungry for the resources you can provide.

Writer’s block? Find out what people are searching for.

Keyword research is the core of what is known as SEO copywriting: writing content based on search engine optimization principles. Search engine optimization is a set of strategies that help organizations reach more of their online target audience. A website’s visibility in search engine results can be elevated by utilizing certain content development techniques. The higher a website ranks when a person googles search terms related to it, the more web traffic it receives. Visit SDAdata.org/SEO to learn more about SEO.

Researching keywords removes much of the guesswork when trying to figure out which topics (related to your ministry and mission) make the most sense to explore for your content. It bridges the gap between your hunches, the data, and what information people need or want.

This technique uses search query data from Google and other search engines to determine what kind of topics interest people. Creating content focused on commonly searched topics improves the visibility of your content in search results, which helps users find your ministry and increases the impact of your message.

Use the following framework as a guide to creating content based on keywords.

​1) Define the main topic of your online ministry.
For example, you decide you want to start a blog to help Pathfinder leaders. “Pathfinders,” of course, is the topic. But if you title your blog, “Pathfinders,” it’s not specific enough to get search traffic. You have to differentiate from Nissan Pathfinders, Pathfinder International, and the Pathfinder role-playing game.

Familiarity with your audience allows you to feature relevant keywords in your titles, headlines, and posts, such as:
  • Pathfinder leadership
  • Pathfinder club meetings
  • Pathfinder honors
  • Pathfinder investiture
  • Pathfinder campouts
 
While definitely more specific than “Pathfinder” alone, these are also considered broad-match keywords, as they can still have a wide variety of subtopics. They’re certainly good ideas, and posts on these topics can be helpful for your audience. However, they’re harder to rank for in Google search results without further specificity.

Let’s say there is a burgeoning trend to create Pathfinder blogs. The broad topic of Pathfinder leadership is now a highly competitive arena. How do you get your blog to stand out? Considering the clear, central purpose of your ministry is a useful exercise for most types of digital content, but you’ll quickly need to distinguish how you’ll be providing something different from the competition.
 
2) Refine your topic.
You have to get more specialized in your focus, so start brainstorming “niche topics”—subtopics within the broad subjects of Pathfinders and meetings and honors and campouts that people might be searching for information about. Some of these might be:
  • Pathfinder knot-tying honor
  • Pathfinder winter campouts
  • Pathfinder club meeting activities
  • Pathfinder Bible Experience prep
  • Pathfinder Oshkosh fundraising ideas

These are considered long-tail keywords, or keyphrases. Long‐tail keywords are low volume and highly‐focused search queries that tend to convert visitors to engaged readers/followers exceptionally well. 

You can also start brainstorming possible blog, social media, and video posts for these subtopics and long-tail keywords:
  • How to teach knot-tying to Pathfinders
  • Make your Pathfinder Investiture fun and memorable
  • Top 10 activities for Pathfinder campouts
  • Tips for teaching Pathfinders with disabilities
  • Preparing your Pathfinders for Pathfinder Bible Experience
  • Best Pathfinder fundraising ideas to cover Oshkosh expenses

3) Test your topic.
Start by googling your topics, exploring related words or phrases, and come up with some post ideas.

Then ask yourself the following questions:
  • What exists already?
  • Can you improve on what’s already written?
  • Are there certain aspects of the topic that aren’t already covered in depth (or at all)?
  • How are other users responding to this competing content? Review their comments on posts.

This is your first peek at your opportunities to enter the discussion.

Maybe you find that the knot-tying honor already has several articles that are well-written and popular. There are lots of positive comments on those posts. Therefore, another topic would be more effective in making your content stand out in search results.

However, maybe there’s one particular knot you don’t feel the other writers have explained very well, even though the rest of the post is good. Maybe you’ve found a couple comments on other blogs about how they’d like more information on the hunter’s bend. You might then decide to write a post titled “How to teach the hunter’s bend knot.”
​
This is a simple example of how research and testing can help shape meaningful content creation.
 
4) Test some more.
Here’s where dedicated keyword research tools come in.

These tools access data that tells how many people are searching for a certain keyword or keyphrase (search volume), as well as how much content already exists about that keyword (competition). The sweet spot is when you find a word or phrase that has high search volume and low competition.

Here’s an example from Google Keyword Planner:
Keyword Research Picture
Many keyword research tools provide a ratio of search volume and competition. Some tools do require a paid subscription, but some are completely free and offer similar data. These free keyword tools may also show related keywords or phrases, which can be helpful for coming up with good content ideas. Overall, you’ll get a general idea of what people are searching for, enabling you to create content that will connect your ministry with the needs and interests of your audience.

Here are some recommended free or low-cost tools for keyword research or keyword ideas:
  • Keywords Everywhere is a browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox that gathers data on every term you search for with Google. It’s especially easy to use since you don’t have to open a separate program; it already displays keyword results on the side of your browser window. It can also help you find related topics to cover in support of your main topic.
  • Ubersuggest was created by renowned digital marketing strategist and author Neil Patel, because he felt that aspiring digital marketers should have a free keyword research tool they could trust. It is touted by many marketers as a great way to get keyword ideas for blog posts, and possibly provides even more ideas than Google’s Keyword Planner.
  • Keyword Planner has been the industry standard tool by which keyword research has been measured. It is a technically free keyword research tool embedded in a Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords). You will need to set up a Google Ads account to use it. While it costs money to run Google Ad campaigns, you can do keyword research with this tool without an active campaign running.
  • Twin Word allows ten free searches a day. This tool provides similar data to those already described, but is known for helping you find patterns, and its filters allow you to customize how you want results displayed. One such filter shows User Intent in five categories to help you determine the intent your audience may have had when searching for a particular keyword. If the topic they intended to search for doesn’t match up with what you’re offering, you’ll want to find other keyword options. (Find out more about how and why you should consider user intent.)
  • Google Search Console has functionality that shows what keywords are leading users to your website, as well as light keyword research.
 
The tools below differ from true keyword research but can be very helpful for “informed brainstorming.”
  • Answer the Public is a tool best used for brainstorming rather than measuring search volume and competition ratios. It’s effective for finding out what kind of questions people are asking about a certain topic. It’s based on UK data, but the info is still relevant for content creators anywhere in the world.
  • Google Trends allows you to compare two or more different topics to see which one is searched for most frequently.
  • Soovle is a customizable engine that unites the suggestion phrases from all the major providers (Google, Bing, Amazon, Answers.com, Yahoo, Wikipedia, YouTube) in one place. This tool can be a major help for search and content creation inspiration.
  • YouTube has its own keyword research tools: vidIQ and TubeBuddy. Ubersuggest also has an option to look on YouTube.


5) Create content from keyword research.
Once you’ve utilized these tactics and tools, it’s time to use this knowledge for your content planning. Keyword research does more than just tell you which words to use. It tells you which topics are popular, which topics are competitive, and what your best content opportunities may be.

This is good news! This means that the organizational methods you learned for writing essays and research papers in school will now pay off in a practical way. For blogs and websites, begin by writing an introduction to a topic (one webpage), then cover the topic (another webpage), then cover related topics (more separate webpages) or background information (another separate webpage or two). It’s essentially writing an outline, and each section of the outline is a webpage. Blogs organized like this score highly in both search engine visibility and user-friendliness. For good examples of this, visit sdadata.org/seo and SDAdata.blog/DDandE.  From a visitor’s perspective, this streamlines navigation within a specific topic. But, be careful not to take this concept to the extreme, creating a confusing maze of short pages.

Remember that relevant topics and strong topic coverage have a stronger influence on search engine ranking than using individual words or phrases repetitively. The algorithm rewards quality writing and presentation.

However, keywords do still matter!

Keyword research helps us know what words and phrases people are using. We still want to use those words and phrases as often as we can on a page—naturally. If it sounds hokey to keep repeating a phrase, find another way to say it that means the same thing. Overall, you still want the content to read as naturally and conversationally as possible, as if you were telling this information to a friend. Click here for tips on how to write conversationally.

Here are some tips for thorough topic coverage in natural language that can be adapted for a variety of content types:
  • If you were telling your friend about Pathfinder knots because you’d done the research and knew they were interested in teaching this honor, you’d certainly use the proper names of each knot, as well as some common nicknames or synonyms.
  • You’d also provide context for how you learned to master each knot and highlight some parts of the learning process that were trickier than others.
  • You’d give advice regarding the best time to use one knot over others.
  • You’d highlight some common mistakes people make when trying to determine which knot to use.
  • Then, if you had a rope and video camera (or smart phone), you’d do a demonstration.
  • You’d sum up the main ideas and conclude that knot-tying is important and that the reason so many knots exist is because they all serve a unique purpose.
  • After that, you might ask if your friend had any questions.
 
Work your way through a topic, creating as much applicable content as possible over multiple digital media posts and platforms. Content organization techniques that may help you include outlines, topic trees, bubble graphs, etc. Using these as your foundation for content creation helps you determine topical goals, objectives, and key takeaways, and makes the whole writing process easier.
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Basics of Content Creation and Strategy

11/15/2019

1 Comment

 

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

Basics of Content Creation and Strategy
Social media is the ultimate equalizer. It gives a voice and a platform to anyone willing to engage.  ―Amy Jo Martin
Before we get started, we must first answer the question, “Who is a content creator?” The ultimate source of creative content and inspiration will always be the Bible and God. Therefore, those of us who answer the call to share the gospel online must always look first to Jesus Christ and His word for guidance.
Social media and modern technologies have eased entry into the world of telling stories, sharing ideas, and expressing thoughts through creative visual content to a wide audience. We can all be writers, creatives, and publishers now. This means that when it comes to creating content for evangelism and discipleship, the role is no longer restricted to pastors, theologians, and other trained professionals. Church leaders can organize teams of content creators within their churches and ministries by empowering professionals or aspiring young people with expertise in design, video, communications, writing, technology, etc. Many congregations have yet to tap into the potential of tech savvy members and their modern-day spiritual gifts. Greater collaboration across multiple generations can be fostered by investing in young people and giving them space to utilize their skills in this area for the Church. 

Organize Your Team

There’s no single way to organize your team(s), given that every ministry is unique. Start by taking an inventory of your church’s human resources and individuals’ personal interests and skills. Then organize accordingly to best accomplish your goals and utilize your church body’s strengths and talents. Determine roles and responsibilities, set up a multi-channel content calendar that can be shared with everyone on the team, and map out your content strategy, being sure to take an integrative approach that incorporates both traditional and digital methods of communication.

Download a content calendar template (be sure to customize it to reflect your channels). We recommend using Google Docs for sharing the content planning calendar with your team.

Remember the “Rule of 7”

If you recall from the “Strong Foundations” section, the “Rule of 7” states that a person needs to be exposed to a message at least seven times before they’ll take a desired action. Develop a comprehensive content strategy that incorporates both traditional media and digital, working together to maximize impact. In most cases, digital media is not used in place of traditional forms of communication, but in addition, as a means of amplifying your message to a larger community. Implementing an effective content strategy requires repeated, consistent messaging from multiple communication channels. Plan to repackage your content for different platforms and channels. If we view evangelism holistically, every touchpoint matters, as your target audience is likely to come in contact with several.

These touchpoints may include, but are not limited to:
  • Traditional: printed outreach materials, presentations, events, classes, seminars, wearables/flare, ephemera, print/radio advertising, direct mail pieces, billboards, flyers, bulletins, print newsletters, print publications/literature, other handouts, signage, posters, branded vehicles, letterhead, business cards, general resources, radio ministry
  • Digital: digital advertising messages and design, digital newsletters/emails, digital publications/blogs, digital flyers, website(s), social media content, videos, online resources, podcasts
    ​
With this in mind, try utilizing a diversity of content, touchpoints, and channels that are relevant to your mission to help reinforce the same “story” or message in unique ways to maximize effectiveness.

​The 20/80 Rule

Whether you realize it or not, your communications and content (or lack thereof) are telling a story, and that story is key to giving your audience a sense of why your ministry is valuable. When your audience values what you’re doing, they are more likely to respond to your call-to-actions and actively participate in other ways. Social media is popular because it speaks to a basic human need: to connect and share. We must use digital media to tell our “story” all day, every day, and build a connection with our community that ultimately motivates them to draw closer to Christ.

Along with the “Rule of 7,” you’ll want to incorporate the 20/80 principle in your content planning. The ideal ratio of posts on an organization’s digital media should be 20% direct appeals (calls-to-action to get involved, donate, register, etc.), 80% engagement. In other words, 80% of the content posted by your ministry should:
  • demonstrate the need your organization fulfills through services it provides,
  • share what initiatives your ministry is implementing to satisfy the felt needs of your community,
  • update your audience on your various goals and efforts,
  • showcase impact through testimonials and results,
  • and engage and connect with your followers.

Think of social media as a potluck with friends during which you share your desire to go on a mission trip, or your excitement about an upcoming event you’re organizing. You wouldn’t hard sell them or ask them for their involvement with no context, but you might talk about your goals, ambitions, why it’s important, and why you’re excited about what you have planned. Once your friends understand how important this mission trip or event is, they will naturally be more inclined to help you when you mention that you haven’t yet reached your fundraising goal, or they may even accept your invitation to attend with you.
​
The same principle is true for an organization’s social media channels. If you spend most of your efforts telling the story behind your ministry and creating value, your followers will gradually become more emotionally invested. Then, when you make direct appeals for action (the 20%), you will have better results because your supporters feel like they understand the importance of your mission, know what to expect, and know how the money will be used. This is especially important for millennial givers, who demand transparency and accountability when it comes to use of funds.

Plan Efficiently

Social media can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. For most Adventist entities, social media manager is just one of many hats an employee or volunteer might wear. If you happen to be a full-time digital strategist, you’re likely managing multiple campaigns and projects at once. Regardless of your level of expertise, there never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish everything you need to do in order to stay on top of the ever-growing evangelistic influence of digital media. Streamlining your approach will help you and your team tackle a large workload. 

Here are our top three tried-and-true time-saving tips for developing your content and/or campaign strategy:
​
  1. Schedule your content in batches. Scheduling your content (and ads) in advance helps you focus on big picture items without the urgency of consistent posting. Plan out regular content in advance and make time to schedule it in monthly or bi-weekly chunks. Then you can focus your attention on engagement, community building, data analysis, strategic planning, and other projects. Staying on top of performance analytics enables you to better evaluate and optimize your strategy, ultimately helping you reach your campaign goals. This technique empowers you to be more proactive in your digital strategy, as opposed to reactive. You’ll also have more flexibility to respond quickly to comments or address any unexpected issues or changes.

  2. Create evergreen content and repurpose posts. Just because you posted a piece of content once doesn’t mean your entire audience has seen it or had the time to react. Remember the “Rule of 7” states that a person must see a message at least seven times before they take action. Consequently, it’s a good idea to use one post multiple times to ensure greater exposure. Over the course of several months, you can schedule pieces of evergreen content with slightly different wording and images, and post at different times of day and different days of the week to reach different groups of people. Evergreen content is content that maintains it’s relevancy indefinitely, without losing its usefulness after a certain time period.

    This enables your team to invest more time into creating compelling posts and strong resources, videos, and images that could be used multiple times, instead of constantly seeking to create new original content. Then, weave new content around these evergreen posts as it becomes available. This technique helps guarantee a consistent posting schedule and continuous flow of content. 

    For event-specific campaigns, you can leverage the technique of repurposing to build urgency towards deadlines. For example, as the last day for an early-bird registration approaches, you can rework the same message and call-to-action using key buzzwords to attract attention.

    Messaging example:
    - 2 weeks until the early-bird discount ends!
    - Early-bird registration ends THIS Friday. Register today!
    - Don’t miss out! The discount price for registration ends tomorrow. Sign up now!

    ​Then utilize the scheduling in advance technique and set up the posts ahead of time, as well as any targeted social ads you have planned.
    ​
  3. Build off previous campaign plans for reoccurring events. This is possibly our biggest hack for annual or repeating conferences and programs. Always keep your strategy outline and performance report from the previous campaign. For the next project, simply reuse what worked, change what didn’t, update/tweak the content and timing for the new event, and freshen up the images. Systematically building off the previous campaign improves campaign performance and results each time you make adjustments that strengthen it. By tracking each campaign performance and studying the results, you not only continue to reach your audience more effectively, but lower overall costs. Why reinvent the wheel, when you can just improve it?  

Repurpose What You Already Produce

​No need to start from scratch; your team is probably already doing a good job generating content related to newsworthy events or outreach. Packaging it for the digital space and publishing online enables you to grow your potential audience exponentially beyond the worship service. A great amount of what your team may already produce for your local church ministries is content, for example: sermons and live-streams each week, studies for small groups, messages from the pastor in newsletters, videos, pictures from events, testimonials, etc. Always look for content you are already creating, then consider how it can be repackaged and weaved into your overall digital content strategy. This can be inexpensive and have long-term value as the content stays in place and is relevant for people to discover far into the future. Prioritize content that will help your audience in a tangible way, either emotionally, physically, spiritually, or psychologically.

Finding Relevant Content Ideas For Your Target Audience

Picture
If you’re like many content creators, you’ve hit a creative roadblock at some point. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pastor, Christian vlogger, or a digital disciple; we have all run out of content ideas and sat staring at our laptops at some point. As digital evangelists, we want to create relevant content, but may not always be sure what people are searching for online. Our purpose is to meet the needs of people in the digital space, and luckily, the inspiration we need lies in tools many of us use every day. Being strategic and intentional with the content we create, can help us provide people with the answers and connection they are searching for.
​
I’ve said this before: people are literally Googling for God, and I don’t expect this to change anytime soon.
Each year there are millions of Google searches for answers to questions like:
  • Is God real?
  • What happens when we die?
  • How do I know I’m saved?
  • Why is there so much suffering in the world?

There is a great need for our message of hope and wholeness. Additionally, many people are hurting emotionally, entertaining suicidal thoughts, or feel there is no hope for their situation. They turn to the internet for companionship, understanding, information, anonymity, and more. It’s easier for them to pour out their heartfelt searching to Google or on social media than it is to talk to a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or family member. Consequently, this is where we, as disciples, need to cast our net. We need to provide the kind of spiritual food the fish are looking to feed on.


Here is an easy tip for a wealth of content ideas:
Find content, write content, and curate content related to top Google searches. Frame your posts to pique curiosity and answer people’s questions, addressing their deepest longings. You can get top search data from any search engine, YouTube, and other social media trend tracking sites. Try it. Start typing in a question and let the search engine auto-finish. The top results represent the most popular search queries. In other words, you will see what large numbers of people are searching for online. It gives you a sneak peek into their needs, worries, nagging questions, and often hidden yearnings. 
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These trends allow us to predict what topics audiences may find interesting, and we can use this predictability to speak to the masses in a relevant way. When we make content that speaks to people’s spiritual needs and seeks to address their deepest longings, we can change lives through digital evangelism. Being strategic and intentional with the content we create allows us to provide people with the answers and connection they are looking for online.

Bonus Tips:
  1. Explore ​Google Trends for more ideas that can be specific to your location.
  2. Name your blog post, video, etc. the same as the search result you’re basing your content on, so the search engines match it to that specific query. This helps your content appear higher in the search results and receive greater visibility. For example, you could start typing “Does God…” into the Google search box and choose the top-ranking query in the example above: “…test us.” Then create a blog post and/or video named “Does God test us?”

Jesus Spent Time with People

You must come close to those for whom you labor, that they may not only hear your voice, but shake your hand, learn your principles, feel your sympathy.
​—Ellen White, Ministry of Healing
​I cannot stress this enough: while data and research can be a huge asset when trying to find relevant content to create and issues to address, nothing replaces quality time with those you are seeking to reach. The best thing you can do in order to understand the needs and interests of your audience is to engage with them in person. Talk to them, ask questions, show them you care, and dig deep into their perspectives and challenges. This kind of relationship-building can also take place in the digital space when necessary. 

Additional Content Tips & Ideas:

  • Try new things and see how your audience responds.
  • Crowd-source content from your church community (members’ content as well as conference, union, and division resources) to help when you have limited time or manpower. You don't have to create everything.
  • Break the scroll, think differently, and allow creativity in your team.
  • Build predictability/expectations for when new content will be released (like a new blog post every week or new podcast episode released on the first of each month) but don't be so predictable it's boring.
  • Develop a multi-generational creative team with room to innovate and fail.
  • Lower the barrier to entry by demonstrating what it's like to be a part of your church community. Peel back the corporate-ness of a brand to reveal humanity by featuring behind the scenes videos and live streams.
  • Put your church culture on display. Give your audience a glimpse of the events, spiritual life, and friends they might make.
  • Champion your ministries, team, and member achievements online.
  • Find ways to showcase how non-members could fit in and be welcomed in your church.
  • Tell stories, and share experiences and testimonies online.
  • Offer digital bible studies, live-streamed prayer sessions, webinars, etc.
  • Share inspirational passages, health nuggets, practical advice for day-to-day challenges, marriage and parenting tips, community alerts, resources relevant to community issues, etc.  

Content Tips for Personal Digital Discipleship:

  • Start slow, if sharing spiritual content online is new to you and your friends. However, continue to be your authentic, unique self, who is also in a public relationship with Jesus. Share your interests but find natural ways to weave in your faith. Over time, it will get easier.

  • Share practical content that is relevant to you and helps “prepare the soil” for future conversations with people within your sphere of influence. 

    Some examples, as described by Communications Executive Rachel Lemons Aitken, could include:
    • Relationship articles
    • Lifestyle content
    • Healthy living headlines
    • Videos showing healthy food being prepared
    • Recipes
    • Workout tips
    • How you’re making health changes in your life
    • Mental and emotional health tips

The Purpose of Content

​Digital media grants the community the immediate ability to sense what your church is about by seeing its:
  • Content
  • Personalities
  • Culture
  • Environments
  • Beliefs
  • Services to the community

However, in order for your digital content to be effective, your online visitors must actually feel welcomed to attend in person, transforming online engagements and conversations into an on-site, in-person experience. Remember those brand touchpoints discussed earlier. A person’s perception of your church and faith will be based almost entirely on experiences they’ve had interacting with your organization (brand).  
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Your digital strategy must go beyond “content out, bodies in.” Strive to create content that moves people through their spiritual journey. Find ways to feed your community’s spiritual needs beyond the few hours they spend in a church service each week. Provide spiritual guidance to those people who may never come to a church service. Afterall, the kingdom of God is an all-day, every-day pursuit. His Church and teachings should be available 24/7.  

Done is Better Than Perfect

People are drawn to authenticity in communications, not perfection. This trend is likely to hold true over the next decade, and this is good news for content creators. There is a place for highly produced professional content, but don’t let resource or skill-set limitations prevent you from attempting to create valuable content. Remember:
God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. 
Keep learning and keep trying. You and your team will improve with time and practice. Your videos and content do not always have to be produced pieces, nor should they be, in order to optimize relatability and impact. In fact, overly produced content can turn people away. That doesn’t mean be sloppy or allow for typos, but understand that you’re not competing with Fortune 500 advertising campaigns or mega-church branding. Local churches and ministries have the advantage when it comes to showcasing real people, authenticity, and community in a way that doesn’t feel contrived. Don’t hesitate to go live on your mission trip, post your event pictures, and share your in-the-moment thoughts online.

Fail Productively

​It’s fine to fail, just make sure you learn. Not every idea will be a winner, but each piece of content you produce enables you and your team to see in real-time what resonates with people and what doesn’t. Your team, through trial and error, can steer toward content that is most impactful to your target audience. Digital media allows us to test, change, and update our content and messages until we get it right, without the burden of high costs. Remember, you’re not in this alone. The Holy Spirit is working alongside you. Your message might only reach a limited number of eyes at first, but it could be the exact message those people needed to hear. Small impact doesn’t necessarily mean no impact. 
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What Role Do Content Creators (Creatives) Play?

11/15/2019

1 Comment

 

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist, Social Media + Big Data, North American Division

Digital Evangelism & Discipleship - Content Creators Role
People search online for answers to their problems. What better place for the Church to share its message of hope and wholeness?
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Our message is the gospel. It’s the role of creatives to package it in ways that connect with our audiences by using the platforms, tools, language, and media that are culturally relevant and accessible to them. Today, that means presenting the gospel message and teachings of Jesus via various digital friendly formats such as video, blogs, images, podcasts, etc. Remember, good communication is when you communicate in a way your audience understands. That requires adaption, whether it’s the physical mission field or the digital one. 

Content As Mission: Think Differently

Before we get into the practical application of content creation, I want to challenge the status quo for a moment. Only 20% of Americans regularly attend church, and only 2 in 10 millennials consider regular church attendance important. What if your digital content is the only exposure to the gospel a person receives? How important it is, then, to post consistently! The predominant way the Church uses digital communications currently is to promote events. Promoting events is okay, and we should continue doing that as part of a comprehensive communication strategy. However, we can and should go beyond promoting events to create content that is meaningful and relevant to people’s daily lives and challenges. After all, our message is the gospel, not “Come to our next event!”

The truth is, some people may never come to church, but we can still touch their lives. How would you witness if your local church service, events, and Bible studies did not exist? What would you want your community to know about Jesus? We’re called to preach the gospel, especially to those outside the church body. What ways can you accomplish that? Strategize, find solutions, and fulfill them intentionally.

Put Jesus/God on Display

​The life, character, and gift of Jesus Christ should be on display in your digital content and interactions. Jesus came not to uplift Himself, but to reveal an accurate picture of God’s character. It’s not about how many followers you have on your digital platforms, but how people can and do discover Jesus through you. It’s about portraying the truth of God’s character in all aspects of our lives, including in the digital space. 
Jesus sought first to fulfill people’s needs; He then invited them to follow. 
We’ve been going about digital missions backwards. We’re spending most of our time and energy promoting events, resources, or products, when we should be ministering first to the needs of our community, just like Jesus demonstrated.
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During His three-and-a-half-year ministry, Jesus:
  • shared stories
  • shared Godly (and scripture-based) wisdom
  • attended to people’s needs, physically and spiritually
  • answered people’s questions regarding spiritual matters and everyday challenges
  • gave them hope
  • created community
  • developed an engaged/active church body
  • lead people to wholeness
  • equipped people to be disciples and to replicate the model He developed
    ​
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.

Christianity is a Lifestyle

Creatives can use their talents online to encourage Christian lifestyles in their community. When asked:

“Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28-31, ESV).
 
True Christianity is about helping those in need and seeking ways to elevate the well-being of others, all while reflecting the character of Christ. One way to do that is to create sharable content. But what is shareable content? In other words, what kind of online content do people tend to interact with and share with their friends? What makes content relevant or worthy of sharing?
 
Hootsuite reported on an extensive study conducted by the New York Times to uncover the top reasons people share content online.
 
The top five reasons why people share online are:
  • “To improve the lives of others.” (94%)
  • “To get the word out about causes they believe in” (84%)
  • “To grow and nourish relationships.” (80%)
  • “To define themselves.” (68%)
  • “Self-fulfillment.” 
 
The number one reason people share content is that they feel it will improve the lives of their followers/friends. Amazingly, this is a core Christian value and could be developed in coordination with digital media for the gospel message. As digital evangelists and disciples, it’s an essential part of our mission to share and create content that will uplift, help, and/or improve the lives of your audience (and their audiences). Eighty-four percent of participants in the NYT study also said that they share information “because it is a way to support causes or issues they care about” (New York Times), which directly relates to the first reason. Think about how your mission aligns with the core values of your target audience and create content that supports these values. In fact, the Church should be the clear leader in using its digital influence to create media content that improves the lives of others and advocates for meaningful causes.
 
Sharing content online is also a means by which many maintain and create relationships. This is an incentive for us to create content that helps foster connections between members of our community, our brand, and Christ. Encourage engagement and conversation as much as possible. Additionally, people use their social influence to help create an “idealized online persona” of themselves. Evaluate your audience’s interests and develop content that fits with their goals or identity. Ask: “How can our organization’s content demonstrate what it means to be a follower of Christ?” or, “How can our ministry’s content create value for those already invested in supporting our mission and interested in becoming more involved in our community?”
 
Finally, the same research found that “consumers enjoy content more when they share it, and that they enjoy content more when it is shared with them.” When we create audience-focused content that facilitates this sense of positive community and interactions, we can help encourage our audience’s natural desire to share our content for perceived personal and social value.
 
These five key motivations clearly show that your audience’s main reasons for sharing are their relationships with other people—not your brand. Keep this in mind as you continue creating and sharing audience-focused content.
— Dara Fontein, Hootsuite

​The Seventh-day Adventist Church has a solid message that can easily meet the top motivations for sharing content online, but presentation is everything. It’s up to content creators to package our messages so that they clearly align with the type of content people want to share. The tools and technologies will continue to change, but people and their deepest desires and motivations generally remain the same. 

Empathy: Think Like a Seeker

Always remember: empathy first. Put yourself in a prospective visitor/viewer/engager’s place and seek to understand their needs and/or experience. Figure out what their barriers to entry or barriers to faith are, and try to diminish or address them through the content you create, services you provide, and the relationships you build. Create an online space for community, love, support, and understanding through your content.
 
When creating, consider who might engage with your media.

Ask yourself:
  • What questions might my audience have that I can answer?
  • What questions could they have about my church or beliefs?
  • What questions might they have about God?
  • What would encourage them to attend a church or reach out to a Christian to better understand Jesus, salvation, or the Bible?
  • What issues are they facing?
  • What could encourage or help them in hard times?
  • What are their barriers to faith or barriers to entry in my church?
 
Our goal as content creators is to reveal who God really is in a world that often views God, or religion in general, as vindictive, cruel, and uncaring.

Don’t just create content for content’s sake. Consider:
How will your audience change as a result of your [article/letter/post/video]?  —Seth Godin, marketing guru
Or, more directly applicable to our mission, ask:
​How will their attitude and perceptions of God change because of your [article/letter/post/video]?
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1 Comment

It All Begins with a Strong Foundation

8/1/2019

2 Comments

 

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist for the North American Division

It All Begins with a Strong Foundation, Digital Evangelism, Digital Discipleship
​I occasionally receive criticism online from believers who think I need to be reminded that Jesus is our rock, not worldly marketing best practices. However, understanding that any missionary effort must have its foundation in Christ does not negate our responsibility to educate ourselves in the most effective ways to reach people with the tools available. I have witnessed far too many situations where well-meaning people fly by the seat of their pants, don’t plan appropriately, leave all the details to Jesus, and pray everything works out okay. As a result, the impact of the event or campaign is not what it could have been. Think how much more effective we could be if we practiced good stewardship through proper organization, planning, and communication best practices. The Bible teaches us that a strong foundation is important, both for personal spiritual health as well as for effective witnessing. We should take this wisdom seriously and do everything we can to share the gospel effectively, leaving what we cannot do to the Holy Spirit. A wise person once said:
Don’t pray for the things you can or should do yourself. Ask God for the things only He can do. 

A Strong Foundation Begins with Leadership. 

Whether you’re a ministry, church, conference, or independent missionary, here is what leaders can start doing today to build a strong strategic foundation for sharing your ministry message:
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  • Include digital strategies in short- and long-term visions and goals.
  • Dedicate funds for social media promotions.
  • Dedicate time for training you and your staff.
  • Identify staff who could take on social media as part of their job duties (this may mean taking something else off their plate).
  • Invest in young people; give them space to utilize their skills in this area for the Church.
  • Take advantage of all our free resources, classes, and case studies on SDAdata.org.

The stakes of our gospel calling are too high; your church, conference, or ministry can no longer go without a digital strategy. It is imperative that we become just as effective as secular organizations at using digital media for communication and community building.
Strategic planning is simply the process of being intentional and thoughtful with your digital communications. 

Social Media & Digital Communications Audit

Social Media & Digital Communications Audit Picture
Begin by evaluating your existing accounts and platforms.  Ask: “Are we using the right ones for our audience and mission?” and “Are there opportunities for consolidation?” Less is more. When you streamline your communication efforts, you will achieve greater impact.

Look at your data to determine who you are reaching, the effectiveness of your current strategy, and areas for best practice implementation. Look for issues with your foundation and start thinking about digital strategy goals, target audiences, and key metrics.
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Define your purpose for being on social media and utilizing digital tools. Then frame your strategy accordingly, identifying key performance indicators for success. Many ministries and churches fall into the trap of reactive digital communications versus proactive. Reshape your strategy so that you are ahead of the ball. Develop and implement branding guidelines for all your digital communications (which should be an extension of your traditional media, like print) and make sure your team follows best practices. 

Understanding Purpose

Understanding Purpose Chart
Credit: Heidi Baumgartner, edited by Jamie Domm
​The auditing process should help you evaluate your current system of communication and develop clear objectives for your digital communications, such as: to advance the gospel and positively influence your community. You and your team can then develop an ongoing approach that aims to achieve some of the key areas listed above.  

Setting Goals

Once you have a purpose, you can set goals. When you know what you are trying to achieve, you can set benchmarks for measurement. Then came up with a strategy and budget.

Examples of some goals may include, but are not limited to:
  • Increase fan base and drive traffic to the website.
  • Increase event attendance & participation.
  • Increase community awareness to become more than a building up the street.
  • Get to know your membership/community better and understand their felt needs.
  • Encourage social media ambassadors to share your content and invite people to your events.
  • Increase meaningful engagement online.
  • Develop digital disciples who actively share their faith in the digital space.
  • Reach target groups with meaningful content.
  • Improve the lives of others.
  • Communicate core values.
  • Create connection and foster relationships.
  • Define why you are unique, becoming a resource to the community.
  • Set expectations, both for those who interact with you and for your team.
  • Create clarity and focus. When everyone on your team (whether that’s a few people or an entire church) understands what they are trying to achieve, it enables them to find their place within your mission.  

Performance Metrics (aka Key Performance Indicators)

Once you’ve identified why you’ll be using digital media and who you’re trying to reach, it’s important to implement measures for success. Identify the metrics that are the most important for your goals and decide how to track them. If you don’t have a lot of time, set benchmarks and track high-level numbers.


Types of Digital/Social Media Metrics:
  • Activity metrics: quantity of posts and content created (a great metric for beginners who are starting a content strategy from scratch)
  • Reach metrics: number of people who see your content and their demographic data
  • Engagement metrics: interactions and interest in your brand and content
  • Acquisition metrics: changes in engagement over time or “relationships developed”
  • Conversion metrics: actions, sales, registrations, resource requests, and other results
  • Retention metrics: happy customers and brand evangelists
Source: Buffer, edited by Jamie Domm


For example, key performance indicators for ministry could include, but are not limited to:
  • Activity metrics: number of videos/podcasts/new content created by the team
  • Reach metrics: reach/impressions/views for your content in general or from a specific age group, location, or people group. Also, traffic to the website in general or from a specific channel, platform, or location.
  • Engagement metrics: quantity of followers, likes, shares, comments, or messages
  • Acquisition metrics: empowerment of social media ambassadors and the resulting activity, number of questions submitted, active online Bible studies, Bible study requests, or active (ongoing) conversations
  • Conversion metrics: number of volunteers, registration numbers, event attendance, donations, visits to the church, quantity of purchases, baptisms, one-on-one meetings, as well as book, Bible study, and resource requests
  • Retention metrics: testimonials, repeated visitors to your church, positive impressions shared, people sharing their experience with their online friends/followers, meeting felt needs, developing a presence in the community, increased involvement in ministry 

Choosing the Right Platforms/Channels

Remember, to reach your target audience, you must go to where they spend their time online and use the language they use. Refer back to the “Understanding Your Target Audience” section to help identify the best platforms for your chosen target audience(s). It’s very easy to become overwhelmed by all the possibilities. To avoid that, start with just a few platforms that make the most sense for your ministry, your messages, your available human resources, and your goals. It’s best to pick a few platforms and do them well! A strategy that is stretched too thin will not get the results you’re hoping for. 

Remember the “Rule of 7”

The “Rule of 7” states that a person needs to be exposed to a message at least seven times before they’ll take a desired action, such as register, RSVP, attend an event, request a resource, send a message, read an article, or participate in some other meaningful way.
 
Everyone, including our audience, experiences marketing messaging and content overload. It’s estimated that the average adult is exposed to over 3,000 marketing messages a day! Therein lies the challenge. To cut through the clutter, we must utilize a multi-channel, multi-platform approach. Also, consistency with your branding, as well a regular messaging schedule, will maximize effectiveness. Channel typically refers to the communication medium, such as radio, print, TV, or social media. Platform refers to different kinds of social media such as Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram. Truly effective communication strategies work across all channels and platforms to reach people where they are, conveying one consistent goal or message.

This is often referred to as integrated marketing and may utilize the following channels:
  • Print
  • Email
  • Social media
  • Radio
  • Television
  • Text messages
  • Websites
 
Social media should be part of a comprehensive communication strategy that incorporates both traditional media and digital, working together to maximize impact. In most cases, social media is not used in place of traditional forms of communication, but in addition, as a means of amplifying your message to a larger community.
 
For churches, you’ll most likely want to leverage in-person interactions and conversations, website updates, text messages, flyers, group messaging tools, podium announcements, emails, and your social media profiles. Together, all these efforts help communicate your church brand, and it’s important to consider how each of these communication tools reflects your message, mission, and, ultimately, Christ, following His example for drawing people to the gospel. Being strategic is just being intentional with how you orchestrate all the different ways to distribute information, and making sure to use effective methods of presenting that information. If you find yourself struggling to make your members informed about events and opportunities, understanding and implementing this multi-channel principle will help improve awareness amongst your congregation.
 
But with the busyness of life, how can you ensure that your audience prioritizes your messages? Your content must be read before it can have any kind of life-changing effect. It’s not enough to communicate often and in different ways. To stand out and be effective, your messages should communicate directly to the reader in a way that is relevant to their life or situation, framed in a way that meets their needs. Messaging like: “This will make your life easier/help you with a problem,” or “Here’s a chance to learn how to eat healthier/help the community,” or “Here’s an opportunity to gain some insight on that nagging question you have,” is strong, engaging content.

Another way to think about this is to seek to understand the motivating desires and core values of your community. Refer back to the “Understanding Your Target Audience” section of this guide for more information on this topic. Then create programs, ministries, and content that serves them. Too often we create the programs and content that we assume our audience wants, and don’t end up with the results we were hoping for. When we combine a strong communications strategy with careful research about our target audience prior to creating programs and messages, we can increase our chances of being successful. We’ll unpack messaging and content more under the “Content Creators” section of this guide.  
 
Implementing an effective strategy requires repeated, consistent messaging from multiple communication channels to have an informed audience or membership. In addition, those messages must serve your target audiences in a meaningful way. We now have more resources than ever before to reach audiences and reinforce our message. But with all the digital clutter, it might take up to a thousand tries to reach someone just seven times! Therefore, it’s important to keep at it and develop relationships with those you are trying to serve.

Get Organized

Social media can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. For most Adventist entities, communications manager is just one of many hats an employee might wear—especially if you are a small team or just a team of one. If you happen to be a full-time digital strategist, you’re likely managing multiple campaigns and projects at once. Regardless of your level of expertise and available resources, there never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish everything you need to do in order to stay on top of the ever-growing evangelistic influence of digital media. A streamlined approach allows you and your team to tackle multiple projects that must integrate an ever-growing list of communication channels.  
 
We’ll unpack the details of a content strategy within the “Content Creators” section of this guidebook. For now, here are some fundamental tips for getting organized:
  • Develop a content calendar that enables you to plan across all channels and platforms.
  • Share the calendar with your entire communications team. We recommend using Google sheets.
  • Schedule posts in advance for increased flexibility.
  • Download a free content calendar template and modify it to incorporate all your communication channels (traditional + digital): SDAdata.blog/calendartemplate

Schedule Content in Batches

​Scheduling your content (and ads) in advance helps you focus on big picture items without the urgency of consistent posting. Plan out regular content in advance and make time to schedule it in monthly or two-week chunks. Then you can focus your attention on engagement, community building, data analysis, strategic planning, and other projects. This also empowers you to be more proactive in your digital strategy, as opposed to reactive—freeing you up to respond quickly to comments or address any unexpected issues or changes.

Budgeting

What’s appropriate to spend?

People often ask, “How much does it cost to promote online?” Well, it depends. The beauty of social advertising and other digital promotions is that it the investment is adjustable based on what you can spend. Digital channels (specifically social media) work very well for small budgets and non-profits. A little can go a long way, but it’s important to spend at least a little. As your confidence and familiarity with your target audience grows, you can increase your budget gradually. Often, your budget depends on the size of your goals and your purpose. A small local ministry may only need to spend $300 a year to reach the surrounding community, whereas a nationwide campaign would need at least $3,000 to create impact within a targeted audience. Before setting a budget, develop a strategy, strong messaging, and a clear objective. Then start with a small ad budget directed at your target audience. Track and analyze results. Evaluate your results against your ministry’s key performance indicators and optimize accordingly. Remember, if you’re going to take the time to put together a campaign strategy, take the time to track your performance. Otherwise you can’t build on what you’ve learned or improve for the next campaign, because you didn’t learn from the last one. Under the “Distributors” section of this guidebook, we’ll discuss advertising in more detail. 

Don’t Give Up Too Soon!

Post reach and interaction will ebb and flow based on your audience’s personal preferences, attitude of the day, the news, that evening’s supper, or just the busyness of life. Keep posting. Keep interacting. Keep adapting.
​When you initially revamp your digital strategy, the changes in post engagement should show immediate and positive results. But over time things may plateau or even dip, especially during the holidays. You’ll learn to see and anticipate yearly patterns. Keep pressing forward. Often efforts fail because people give up too early.

Social Media Best Practices Checklist for Ministries

​As previously discussed, a strong digital strategy begins with a good foundation of planning. Social media represents a bold new frontier for mission and is a powerful communications tool. In order to fully realize the untapped potential of the digital mission field, each denominational entity, ministry, or local church is encouraged to download the latest version of the NAD Social Media Guidelines for an in-depth manual with resources and guidance regarding best practices for professional social media communication.

Whether you’re just getting started or conducting a social media audit, this checklist is designed to help you make sure your organization or ministry is maintaining basic best practices for social media.

The Basics:
  • Name: For all official denominational entities under the North American Division, use the North American Division name alongside your ministry name whenever possible, and include the full division name (not the abbreviation “NAD”) in the description for all social media accounts. Please refer to the NAD Brand Guidelines. For non-affiliated ministry entities or individuals, be sure to choose a name that accurately reflects your ministry and mission, while staying consistent with your internal guidelines for use.
  • Consistent branding: Use the same name, profile image, header images, and bio on each platform to affirm brand recognition and help members identify official accounts.
  • Logo: The branding and logo guidelines for the North American Division apply to social media as well as print and all other forms of communication. Please refer to the NAD Brand Guidelines for more information and downloadable logos. For non-affiliated ministry entities or individuals, be sure to develop a consistent logo and internal guidelines for use.
  • Optimize images per platform: Be sure to use the optimal image sizes for each social media platform to help your brand stand out and look professional. Refer to this cheat sheet.
  • Contact information: Provide additional contact information such as a phone number, business address, and email address, where relevant, in the about section of your social media account profiles.
  • Ownership: Posts should appear to come from the official brand of the account, not from individuals. An exception to this rule would be Church or ministry officials providing a public statement.
  • Organization: Plan out your regular content and schedule posts in advance whenever possible. We recommend that you create a shared content calendar for your team.
  • Content: Post consistently and be sure to always include an image/video, short teaser text, a call-to-action, relevant hashtags, and a link.
  • Link back to your website: Your website is your biggest communications tool; link back to your website in most posts.
  • Promote your social media: Include your social media handles (names) in all of your other communication channels, such as your website, emails, print material, and spoken announcements.
    ​
Account Management:
  • Work Facebook accounts: We strongly recommend that you create a separate work Facebook account to manage official pages to help separate your work from your personal social media.
  • Facebook page admins: Facebook pages should have more than one staff admin on the page to prevent lock-out.
  • Connected emails: Never connect an organization’s social media profiles to private email addresses or even an individual’s work email addresses.
  • Create a dedicated social media address (socialmedia@yourministry.com) for your organization and grant multiple people access. Contact your IT department for assistance if applicable.
  • Connect social media accounts like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and Hootsuite to the work social media email address.
  • Page roles and access: Regularly check Facebook page roles and account access to make sure it is up-to-date and does not include former employees. When social media managers/page editors/admins leave your organization and no longer require access to your social media accounts, update page roles immediately and change passwords to all social media platforms, management accounts, and emails.

Account Protection:
  • Security: Keep your account privacy and security settings up-to-date with the latest best practices. This also applies to your laptops and devices.
  • Facebook: We highly recommend that you set up the following safe-guards:
    • Two-factor authentication: Two-factor authentication creates an extra layer of security when log-ins are attempted from unknown browsers. This will safeguard against hackers who could otherwise take control of personal profiles, organizational pages, ad accounts, and credit cards. Click here to learn more about two-factor authentication.
    • Trusted contacts: Choose coworkers to be trusted Facebook contacts to help you regain access to a compromised account.
    • Follow Facebook’s recommended security updates: Learn more about Facebook security features and tips here.
  • Passwords: For all social media accounts (personal and organizational), please choose strong, unique passwords and change them every six months.
 
Ideally, organizations should conduct a basic social media audit every six months as part of a larger digital communications strategy review. The digital mission field is dynamic and ever-changing, and the North American Division office of Big Data + Social Media is here to help you stay informed. Once you can check off everything on this list, visit SDAdata.org for more resources, tips, and tutorials to continue to enhance your digital evangelism and discipleship strategies.
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Who Is Part of the Digital Discipleship & Evangelism Team?

8/1/2019

0 Comments

 

Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist for the North American Division

Who is part of the Digital Discipleship & Evangelism Team Picture
​In terms of who makes up the digital discipleship and evangelism team, our philosophy includes everyone. The integrated model utilizes every active member in a holistic approach that aims to scale up the traditional friend/community evangelism and discipleship models, not replace them. 

What does this mean practically?

​It’s not a digital approach attempting to subvert a traditional approach, but, rather, the entire church body using all its human resources, diversity of spiritual gifts, and available tools to work together for a common goal. Church growth is a product of promotion, experience, and personal connections. Digital technology is a powerful tool to guide more people into your church, but the on-site experience and personal connections is what will keep them coming. After all, it’s one challenge to attract new people; it’s another to get them to keep returning. To encourage people to remain in your community, whether online or in person, they must not only have a good experience, but also connect with the members on a personal level and become integrated as a participating member of the community. 
Church Growth Graphic
​If we understand the local church to be a community of believers, we must seek to create meaningful connections, reaching out to seekers whose experience often starts online, as well as to those already in our house of worship. Your church’s online interactions with potential visitors should make them want to experience your faith and mission in person. Then, when they do come for that on-site experience, it should be a continuation of the positive relationship you’ve built with them online. The same is true in reverse.  

To achieve a continuity of experience and relationship building, everyone is part of the process. This means the 84-year-old greeter at the door is part of your digital discipleship and evangelism team just as much as the tech savvy youths who create video snippets and content for your social media. It includes the passionate and knowledgeable worship leaders who answer questions and host online bible studies. Remember, what starts in the digital space is not confined to the digital space. It may take weeks, months, or years, but eventually those people who have been touched by your digital voice may be moved by the Holy Spirit to walk in the door. From their perspective, it’s all one spiritual journey and experience, not digital versus traditional. They don’t view their experience in silos; therefore, we must break down the silos of how we go about discipleship and evangelism. 

Every touchpoint matters and must tell a consistent story!

Look at this process of evangelism holistically. Consider all possible touchpoints in the list below and ask, “Where does the experience decelerate? Where is the breakdown in communication?”

Touchpoints by role groupings include but are not limited to:

Creatives/Creators:
  • Traditional: outreach materials, presentations, events, classes, seminars, wearables/flare, ephemera, print/radio advertising, direct mail pieces, billboards, flyers, bulletins, print newsletters, print publications/literature, other handouts, signage, posters, branded vehicles, letterhead, business cards, general resources, radio ministry
  • Digital: digital advertising messages and design, digital newsletters/emails, digital publications/blogs, digital flyers, website(s), social media content, videos, online resources, podcasts

Engagers (Experience and Relationship Building):
  • Traditional: telephone, voicemail, services to community/members, small groups, ministries, classes, seminars, events, Bible studies, resources (access to people and print materials), children’s programs, fellowship meals, prayer groups, mentorship, worship experience on site, interactions with members, church culture and environment, customer service (aka people care), greeters, parking, follow-up, personal connections
  • Digital: website(s), chat tools, social media conversations, videos, AV, IT, texting, resources (access to people and digital literature), worship experience online, live-streaming, video content, customer service (aka people care), follow-up, personal connections, interactions with members through digital tools, online community culture, video conferencing, online Bible studies

Distributors:
  • Traditional: outreach efforts, Bible workers, door knocking, public relations, word of mouth, wearables/flare, ephemera, print/radio advertising, direct mail, billboards, flyers, bulletins, print newsletters, other handouts, signage, posters, branded vehicles
  • Digital: outreach efforts, digital Bible workers, digital door knocking, word of mouth, digital communications, online public relations, digital advertising, digital flyers, digital newsletters/emails, AV, IT, texting, social media posts/invites, social media ambassadors, live-streaming, video conferencing
Digital Discipleship and Evangelism Model
With the digital discipleship and evangelism model shown above as a foundational concept, we can understand how the roles of creators, distributors, and engagers can fit into the overall seeker/visitor experience.
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There may be an overlapping of functions that can occur at multiple touchpoints. Every church is different and has different human resources, and spiritual gifts to draw from. This concept is scalable and adaptable to your situation. 

Make room for digital discipleship and evangelism.

Change can be difficult, especially for institutions grounded in tradition. However, the Adventist Church is also rooted in a movement that was led by young people. We must again empower talented youths in our churches to take the lead in areas where they naturally excel, such as digital communications and community building. In addition, we have not done a good job of recognizing and utilizing the spiritual gifts of tech savvy and creative members. These gifted individuals have a wealth of talent to offer mission work and should be encouraged to use their skills in service. We can change the culture in our faith communities to make them feel that the Church truly values their time and talents just as much as Bible workers, nurses, Bible study leaders, and speakers.
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Form teams of content creators, distributors, and engagers. Each church likely has various members who could specialize or lead in certain areas. These can be powerful personal ministry opportunities, especially for empathetic persons who can facilitate positive conversations online and share stories of faith. Seek to create a culture of sharing and engaging with church social media content as a means for individuals to help fulfill the church’s mission and expand the reach of messages. Anyone who is on social media, has an email address, or is connected to the internet can share content. 
It doesn’t matter if a person has four friends or 40,000, they have influence.  
Find ways to leverage social influence. If people are connected to others through digital technologies, they have digital influence. Each impression/message received represents a person touched by your message and mission. “Social butterflies” can learn to use their online and offline influence to engage in practical mission work. There is a place for all skill levels.

Influencer groups in your church may include, but are not limited to:
  • Choir and music ministry groups
  • Prayer groups
  • Bible study groups
  • AV/IT
  • Greeters
  • Social butterflies
  • Hospitality team
  • Personal ministries
  • Administration
  • Pastors
  • Youth leaders
  • Designers
  • Creatives
  • Videographers
  • Writers
  • Techies
  • Marketers/communicators
  • Community outreach leaders
  • Bible workers
  • Health professionals
  • Any other groups or ministries

We’ll explore in depth the roles and their scope of work within the digital discipleship and evangelism model later in this guidebook.

Organize multi-generational training and mentorship opportunities. This will only strengthen your church body and improve cross-generational relationships. Young people yearn for mentorship, and the older generations can learn a lot form the natural skills of the youth. The church should be the ideal example of two-way mentorship in action. Ultimately technologies change, but people and their needs largely remain the same. Healthy communities involve multiple generations coexisting in a collaborative and supportive manner.

In summary, to make room for digital discipleship and evangelism in your church:
  • Empower the tech savvy and creative members of your church; make them feel that the church values their time and talents.
  • Create personal ministry opportunities; train empathic people to engage in conversations online and to become content creators.
  • Create a culture of digital sharing and content engagement.
  • Utilize and empower digital influencers and social butterflies.
  • Set up training sessions and opportunities for two-way mentorship.

Utilize Digital Bible Workers.

If you are lucky enough to have a Bible worker, empower them to expand their efforts digitally. Social media and other digital technologies can be leveraged as lead generating tools. Remember, young people spend upwards of 9-18 hours a day behind a screen, and that affords the church a lot of opportunities to reach them with relevant content and conversations facilitated for seekers. Ideally this is someone who can ultimately lead a focused evangelistic effort, train others, build a dedicated team, and work with other groups and initiatives within your church.

Digital technologies allow a Bible worker to enter a person's life at the convenience and comfort level of the recipient by providing relevant online content, a degree of anonymity, a simple platform for question and answers, and opportunities to engage and form relationships.

What does a Digital Bible Worker Do?

Digital Bible workers utilize digital technologies to share the gospel and stimulate religious thought by creating and packaging content that addresses relevant needs/questions and encourages people to advance in their spiritual journey. Digital Bible workers build relationships with those in the broader community, online and offline, and usually within a specific geographic territory in order to create opportunities for one-on-one or small group Bibles studies held in person or via digital tools. They work in partnership with a local church and pastor to evaluate the needs of a community and determine relevant opportunities for outreach and service. They mentor converts in their development of Christian character and commitment to faith as well as train and equip new members for active discipleship roles. This role encompasses a mix of digital discipleship and evangelism to bridge the gap between working in the digital mission field and achieving real-world impact. 
 
The following is sample of what a job description could look like for local churches and conferences looking to hire a Bible worker to lead online evangelistic campaigns. This position can also be adapted to more appropriately reflect the role of a digital pastor. Feel free to adapt to your specific needs and HR requirements. View this template as a type of menu to guide you in the creation of a position that makes sense for your organization’s structure. These positions can be adapted for paid or volunteer workers based on the level of time commitment needed and budget available.
 
Position Summary:
​The Digital Bible Worker will implement a comprehensive, multi-channel digital evangelism strategy designed to meet the spiritual and social needs of teen, 18– to 35-year-old, collegiate, career-focused, single or married seekers (may include other target audiences based on the goals of the conference or church) in the local community. While engagement and relationship building will start in the digital space, the intent is to bring the target audience to an in-person experience. A secondary goal of this position is to mentor young people already in the church towards a deeper relationship with Jesus and greater community involvement—empowering them to also be effective digital disciples.
 
 
Objectives and Responsibilities:

Essential Job Functions:
  • Work closely with a pastor, congregation or conference to utilize digital technologies for the purpose of achieving the organization’s goals.
  • Implement a comprehensive, multi-channel digital evangelism strategy designed to build relationships with the local users of social media platforms. The strategy should also meet the spiritual and social needs of teen, 18- to 35-year-old, collegiate, career-focused, single, and married truth seekers or other target audiences based on the over-arching goals of the church or conference.
  • Plan and implement a monthly content calendar for weekly video devotionals on appropriate social media platforms. Write, film, edit, and upload weekly devotionals. Respond to comments and build community on social media platforms through digital evangelism.
  • Develop and manage an advertising budget and set goals to promote devotionals and local fellowship opportunities on Facebook, Instagram, and other media as necessary. The purpose of this advertising would be to raise awareness, attract youth to engage with relevant content, and encourage relationship building that starts in the digital space and migrates to in-person interactions.
  • Use momentum from video devotionals to move into a longer format online Bible discussion/study that acts as a weekly livestreamed “Branch Sabbath School,” with live, interactive audience participation to further foster community engagement. The goal is to encourage open and honest conversations to equip youth to stand for their faith in a post-modern world.
  • Obtain Bible study interest contacts through digital engagements and social media ad promotions. Respond in a timely matter to all messages and questions posted online.
  • Participate in available continuing education sessions on evangelism offered by the local conference and digital communication training opportunities available online.
 
 
Traditional Ministry
  • Provide guidance and support based on biblical principles to young adults in an honest and open manner. Speak to young adults who desire authenticity, while using the anonymity of the digital space to engage privately when needed.
  • Plan monthly, in-person young adult meet-ups (advertised online, through partner churches, email, and social media).
  • Work with the conference to promote young adult events.
  • Offer one-on-one Bible studies as requested, in person and digitally, using free video conference tools.


Leadership
  • Train and mentor other young adults to lead in ministry both in person and in the digital space. Equip them to give Bible studies, lead outreach, and get involved in ministry by utilizing digital technologies, empowering them to become digital disciples.  
  • Provide church-wide visibility and communication about young adult activities.
  • Participate on the church leadership team.
  • Identify, develop, and implement solutions to strategically meet the needs of young people in collaboration with established youth and young adult ministries.
  • Have regular meetings with the pastor or the pastoral staff to report results, as well as give a full report during each board meeting. 


Education and Experience:
  • Bachelor’s degree (BA/BS) or master’s degree preferred. Religion-related field preferred. Relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of educational requirements.
  • 2-5 years experience in youth/young adult ministry preferred.
  • Demonstrated mature and growing faith in Jesus Christ.
  • Extensive knowledge of principles, policies and beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and North American Division of the General Conference.  This includes knowledge of Church structure and committee procedures.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills with strong relationship-building mindset.
  • Knowledge and skill in appropriate methods of dealing with human behavior in various circumstances and from different backgrounds.
  • Demonstrated strong leadership skills.
  • Biblical teaching and preaching ability.
  • Moderate to advanced computer and digital communication skills to facilitate ministry activities.
  • Basic to moderate understanding of integrated (traditional + digital) marketing strategies and promotion.
  • Basic to moderate understanding of video software and editing tools as well as the ability to communicate ideas on camera in an engaging and clear manner.
  • Willingness to learn new skills and ability to adapt to changes in digital technology.
  • Must be a committed Seventh-day Adventist in good standing with the Church, including regular church attendance, participation, and involvement as well as demonstrated faithfulness in stewardship as understood by the Church and adherence to the Church standards as defined by the Church manual.
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Witnessing When Our Message is Not Welcome

7/31/2019

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Jamie Jean Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist for the North American Division

Witnessing when our message is not welcome Picture
Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. (Romans 12:9-18, NLT)
As efforts to censor Christian viewpoints online and in the public space intensify, we may be tempted to respond defensively in a way that doesn’t represent the character of Christ. However, Jesus calls us to be a practical witness, one that puts Him on display in all aspects of our lives, one that is not so easily censored. Jesus sought first to fulfill people’s needs; He then invited them to follow. We can use our digital and social influence to gain insights and focus on meeting the mental, physical, and spiritual needs of those around us. Once relationships and trust are built, we can invite them to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Psalm 34:8, NIV). The gospel of action can further our ministry of hope and wholeness, even when words of truth are silenced.

Our integrity, genuine care for others, honor, and faith in Christ can never be taken from us. Our prayers cannot be blocked from reaching God. Christ’s character can never be shut down. By embracing the attitude of a servant first, apologist second, light will shine through us to draw others to the God we represent.

Practically, this means when someone online expresses sadness, anxiety about a life challenge, or excitement about a happy event, empathize with them. Engage with their post and/or send a personal message to let them know you’re with them along the way, that you’re there if they need help. Be consistent in building relationships with others who may have very different beliefs. Once they know how much you care, they are more likely to come and reason with you over truth.

Understanding that acceptance does not mean approval, what if we became known as a people who listened and helped first—without conditions? A people who proactively seeks ways to improve the lives of others in practical, meaningful ways, regardless of who they are and without judgement. What if the Church became a safe place to land regardless of one’s affiliation or interest in faith?

People share a surprising amount of information online. It’s up to us to act upon that knowledge. Modern technology gives us the opportunity to reach into gated communities and closed-off hearts, allowing us to build bridges on common ground. Every post represents a real-life person, their experiences, and their needs. What prayers can we answer by simply paying attention?
​
The Lord is coming soon because God has made it possible for the gospel to reach the entire world. We can change hearts and minds by living out Jesus both online and offline. When our voices are silenced, know that the Holy Spirit is still at work. Faith requires that we move ahead even when we don’t know how we’re going to reach people. In faith, step out and share God’s love without reservation. Trust God to perform the miracle. 
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