Web 2.0 Suite wrap up

I have spent the past few posts working through how a small ministry or church could leverage the power of free “web 2.0” tools for effective Internet ministry. If you missed a post or two, here is a quick summary:

Web 2.0 suite for ministries: this opening post gave a quick overview of the concept of using free web 2.0 tools to develop a web presence that is compelling, cutting-edge, and relevant.

Web 2.0 suite step 1: Building a “home”: this post got us started with the idea of using a blog tool, such as WordPress, as a home page.

Web 2.0 suite step 2: Add content: this post described how to get content on the site. The key is to not only post new text content regularly, but also to integrate video from YouTube and pictures from Flickr!

Web 2.0 Suite step 3: getting noticed: once your site is up and running, people need to find it. A good domain name is the first step. A close second is getting returned in search results. If people are looking for you, they had better find you!

Web 2.0 Suite step 3: getting noticed (continued): in order to show up higher in search results, you have to get others to link to your site. This post tells you some of the ways to do that.

Web 2.0 Suite step 4: socializing: this post focused on how to find the people who may not necessarily be looking for you. Find out what your community does online and then go there!

The reason I have spent some much time on this topic is that I believe that many churches feel that they just can’t “do” the web properly, and so they do not try. Some do try and end up with a half-hearted effort that is, well, embarrassing.  And yet others spend a fortune on professional services when possibly that money could be more appropriately spent.  I am not saying that a ministry should not spend big money on a web site. For certain organizations, it is the appropriate thing to do. For many, a “web 2.0 suite” web site will be a first step toward something larger down the road. For others, however, it may serve all the needs of the organization for many, many years.

One last thing: I’m sure there are several other web 2.0 tools that I have not mentioned. If you find some that you think might be appropriate to add to this “web 2.0 suite”, please let me know!

Web 2.0 Suite step 4: socializing

In my previous post, I went over some ideas on how to get your web site found by those who are looking for it. But that leads to the question: how do you reach people who don’t know you exist? How do you find them? The answer is simple: go where they are.

And where are they? In this web 2.0 world, more and more people are turning to sites where they can share their lives with others. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are the prime examples of this. In these sites, you can create events and groups that others can find and link to. For example, in MySpace, someone created a group for those who attend Rock Harbor church. In this group, calendar events and message boards can be set up. Besides social networking sites, others are turning to media sharing sites such as YouTube and Flickr. The folks over at Internet Evangelism Day created this nice article on how to use YouTube and other sharing sites to reach the world for Christ.

Your organization may need to take some time to talk to your community to understand exactly how they spend their time online. By understanding the Internet habits of those whom you are trying to reach (whether it be existing parishioners in a church or new supporters for a missions organization or . . .), you can then find them where they are.

In my next post I will wrap this “Web 2.0 Suite” series up, taking a step back and looking at the big picture.

Web 2.0 Suite step 3: getting noticed (continued)

So how do you get your web site noticed? Last post I focused on getting a good domain name and showing up in search engine results. One of the keys to getting ranked higher in search engine results is to be sure your page is considered “important” by the search engines. When you create a web site and other web sites link to you, the search engines give your web site a higher importance ranking than other similar sites, which moved you up the results ladder. In fact, it even goes one step further: if pages that are themselves ranked high link to you, then you are considered even more important.

So, what can you do to get other web sites to link to you? For starters, link to them! If you are writing regular blog posts, be sure to link to posts from other blogs or web sites that are relevant to what you are talking about. This is the essence of writing a good blog post. When someone links to your blog, you are more inclined to link back to them. How do they know you linked to them? Easy, your blog software tells you. In WordPress, for example, I can go to the “dashboard” and see other posts that have linked to me. I will read them and, if possible, link back to them. If another site is really relevant to what your organization or site is all about, you should also add them to your “blogroll”, a listing of other sites that you find useful or interesting.

Besides linking to others, another important practice is to tag your posts with categories. This has become an important way for the web elite to find posts of interests. Most web tools (again, such as WordPress), allow you to easily categorize your posts. Once your post is categorized, it can get noticed by tools such as Technorati, which tracks blog postings, or other tag surfing engines. I know that this blog has found some readers that way.

There is one last way, of course, to get yourself higher in the search results: pay for it. The search engine companies are more than happy to let you pay for show up in the rankings. When you do so, you show up under “sponsored link”, which may turn people off from your site. This can be an effective way to jumpstart getting your site noticed. The way it works is pretty simple: you tell the search engine how much you are willing to pay every time someone clicks on your sponsored link and they will tell you how high that will put you in the search results. If you are willing to pay the most for your word or phrase, then you appear at the top. You can set a ceiling on the amount your are willing to pay each month so you don’t blow your budget. An example of this would be for the search on “church web site”, which returned three paid searches at the top of the results and many more along the side. Some quick research on Google’s site shows that it would cost $3.80 per click to get the #1 position. This could get quite expensive!

Having people find your site is extremely important, so this “getting noticed” step should not be skipped.  It will allow people seeking you out to find you. But what about when they are not seeking you out? Then you have to go find them. I’ll call that “getting networked” and I will write about that in my next post on using Web 2.0 for effective internet ministry.

Web 2.0 Suite step 3: getting noticed

I have been exploring how a church or other ministry can use existing, free “web 2.0” tools to create a full-featured web presence. The first post focused on how to get an initial web site up and running using blogging tools such as WordPress or Blogger. The second post discussed how to get your content linked in: photos, videos, and maps. Once you have these two things set up, the next step would be to make sure people can find you. To me, there are two key components to ensuring that your web presence will be found: a good web address and showing up in search results.
A good web address is one that is easily remembered by those whom you want remembering it. This usually means that your web address, or “domain name”, has the name of your organization in it. Ideally, your web address will be http://www.yourorgname.com. This may not be possible, however, if your organization’s name is too long or if someone else already has that address. If it is too long, then shorten it to something that can be remembered. For example, my church (“Evangelical Free Church of Diamond Bar”) shortened theirs to “efreedb”. To determine if someone has your address, go over to a domain provider and see if it is taken. I would suggest, if possible, that you register both the “.org” and the “.com” for your domain so that people do not have to remember which one it is. Once you have determined the domain name you want to use, then register it at the domain provider and have it redirected back to your blog’s domain. Once you have your domain name in place, put it on all of your literature and signage to point people to your web site.

To show up in the search engine results is the next step. This could be a whole book in itself (actually, several books). The first thing I would do here is to go to Google and do some searches on my organization to see where I show up. Think through all the search terms someone would likely use to try and find you. Include some of the names of the key people in your organization, such as a pastor or founder, if appropriate. Do not be discouraged if you do not rank highly for these search terms, especially during the first few weeks of your web presence. The keys to getting ranked higher are to 1) be sure that the search terms themselves appear many different places on your web pages, including the title of your site; 2) keep fresh content coming in that includes your search terms; and 3) work to get others to post links to your site on their web sites.

It is this third piece that is not so easy: how do you get others to create links to you on their web sites? I will address this in my next post.

Web 2.0 suite step 2: Add content

In my last post, I discussed how a ministry can use a simple blogging site, such as WordPress, to create a nice web presence for little cost and with little technical knowledge. From here, the ministry can then focus on adding content. Of course, being a blogging site, the first thing to be focused on would be adding blog posts. I can’t stress enough how important it is to develop a regular plan for posting to a blog. At a bare minimum, the blog posts should come at least once a week, with information about that upcoming week’s events and teaching. Each post can be categorized as well, meaning that readers can quickly click on a category such as “sermon notes” to get a listing of all the sermon notes posted to the blog.

Besides blog posts, the site should also include some static text, including information about the mission of the organization, the staff, contact info, hours/services, and directions. Depending upon the “theme” of the site chosen, links to these static pages will appear at the top or side of the main web page. Examples of this can be found on this blog, with links to static pages appearing at the top (example: My Research). With a tool such as WordPress, creating a blog post or static page is a click away – no technical knowledge needed. Again, the advantage here is that once posted, your blog entries are available via Google searches and RSS feeds.

Once the ministry has set up some initial information on the site (and created at least one “welcome” blog post), the inclusion of other types of content should be developed. After all, who would want to look at a web site that is just a bunch of writing? However, what you do NOT do at this point is try to use your blogging site to host this content. To share pictures, create an account at Flickr (free), load your pictures, and link it back to your blog site. To share videos, create an account at YouTube (free), and link it back to your blog site. To share maps, create them at Google maps (free) and link them from your blog site. Do you see a trend here? In the world of web 2.0, sharing content is the whole point. And the cost? Free + free + free = free.

To see this all for myself, I spent a couple hours updating this blog with pictures, videos, and a map. All of these now appear in my sidebar to the right. I will admit, I had to work a little to get them all to work properly, but my guess is that 90% of the students in my classes at Biola could do this if asked because it is becoming second nature to them. Organizations need to learn how to work with these web 2.0 tools and use them to their advantage. And if no one there understands it, hire a college student!

One last point to make on this: when we add our content to Flickr or YouTube or other similar web site so that we can show it on our own site, we are also making this content available to the world. Many, MANY, web users search through these sites to find things that interest them – if they happen upon the pictures or videos from your organization, so much the better. And isn’t that the point? Share your content with the world, don’t hide it away in your own ghetto.

Web 2.0 suite step 1: Building a “home”

As I posted last time, I am going to evaluate several “Web 2.0” sites/tools with an eye to how they could be used for a church or other ministry as a way to build their Internet presence. See that post for a listing of all the different tools I am going to be looking at.

A starting point for any organization wishing to maintain a presence on the Internet is some sort of place to call “home” that can be accessed via a Google search on your organization’s name or web address. One way this can be accomplished is, of course, to create your own web site and either manage it on your own server or pay a service to host it for you, purchase a web domain name, and hope that Google can find your site. This can get expensive and, at a minimum, requires at least some expertise in web site development and possibly server administration. An alternative to this, however, would be to take advantage of one of the free (or low cost) blogging tools that are now available. At sites such as TypePad, WordPress, or Blogger, you can quickly create nice looking web pages and manage content easily. Very little training is required to use these sites, and the results can be quite impressive. Further, all of these tools give you the ability to be available via a Google search, making your information instantly accessible to the world. They also let you pick a web site name that can be at least something close to your own organization’s name.

In the original post by Seth Godin that started all this, he recommends using TypePad. I spent some time looking at TypePad and it is a very nice tool that allows you to customize the look of your site and create some static web pages as well as a blog. In fact, TypePad even markets their tool directly to churches. From what I can tell, using TypePad, Blogger, or WordPress would work just fine as a first web presence, with the nod to WordPress for the best features and lower price (free). For comparisons of blogging tools, see these Google search results.

My recommendation for a ministry looking to begin their web presence would be to think about creating an account with WordPress as a place to get started. Use its ability to create static pages for basic information about your ministry and then blog regularly to give people updates on what you are doing. As your sites matures and your needs grow, you may then need to spend some time and money to develop a “real” web site – though you could continue your blogging at the WordPress site. I would also recommend purchasing your own web domain name at this point, if not earlier.

Once you have established your initial presence using one of these tools, be sure you update it often and give people a reason to come back. And don’t just update it with blog entries: using other Web 2.0 tools you can update it with pictures, videos, podcasts, and events. I’ll be looking at tools to do these things in my next few posts.