So I am thinking that out website should mainly be for information – events, sermons, etc. And that Facebook should be the main area for our interactions – devotions, blog, random thoughts.
It sends that most of the interaction happens on Facebook anyway, and that the website is mainly used to get info.
BUT – I wanted to get some feedback from people first. Do you want/need the devotions on the website, or is Facebook fine? Any other thoughts?
I will assume if this post gets no comments, that will answer my question. Haha.
Not intended as criticism Scott, so don’t take it that way. The problem is that the website is a fairly simple wordpress template and thus is not as interactive as facebook. This is a problem that organizations and church’s have the world over. What makes it worse is that FB is the bomb right now, the in and hip thing, but at some point it will become outdated/obsolete and be replaced with whatever new social networking tool is popular.
I would recommend looking for a new and more interactive with social networking wordpress template along with an SMS messenger system for devotions. The SMS messenger system is a cell phone text based system with a signup. You see these in stores, for promotional purposes, etc… You text a keyword to a number… the one I use at work is this: Text ALCO to 72727 . You can check it out and then send STOP to the same number to unsubscribe. What it does is create a messaging list that you can tag daily with the devotionals and other church info as needed. (I have a vendor who is a good Christian man for this if you want to price it out, as I recall it is fairly inexpensive every month)
So with an updated wordpress template that is increasingly socially interactive and the SMS message system, you could do the devotionals on the website and link socially using various social media and the SMS messenger system. With a good wordpress template, as the newest social networking fad comes, the template will be updated automatically and so you are never behind.
Just my thoughts… remember, connectivity and interaction are active, putting out information is passive. If you can get someone to be interactive through the use of less aggressive and more passive ways, then you are covering all the bases in terms of connectivity, interaction, and information exchange.
Thanks
Jason
Jason – thanks so much for your feedback. So far, you are the first person to call the site “simple”. 🙂
Do you have some websites in mind that are more interactive? I haven’t seen any sites – church or news or otherwise – that can match what is happening on FB/Twitter.
It seems that most churches don’t try to have the site be very social – they let the social networks do that. The advantage is that the church info is in the “stream” of other FB/Twitter info – AND the church can read/hear/respond to the comments and posts of others. I am the one who really heads this up, and so I am looking for things that don’t take a ton of time away from time with people and prayer and study and leadership development. The text service you mentioned is like that – a time saver. Right now, people “subscribe” by being on Twitter.
I was originally trying to make the website the “one stop”. Now I am seeing the site as the “updating brochure” you hand to someone, and FB as the personal invite and conversation you are having about the info. Both are important.
Again, thanks for your thoughts – I really appreciate them!