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Loose Tweets Sink Fleets

April 5, 2012 in Church HR, Church Staff, Social Media, Web, Internet, & IT with 1 Comment

Need I say more?

If you haven’t taken the time to educate/train your church staff on the importance of HOW they tweet … you are dealing with a ticking time bomb.

Here are some practical tips to share with your staff as you discuss this topic on tweeting.

1)  Every time, every single time, BEFORE you hit the “tweet” button … ask yourself … “Am I OK with re-reading this in heaven?”

2)  Be mindful that your words can impact others. Same goes for your pictures/images too.

3)  Make sure your staff understand the consequences of “leaking” tweets.

4)  Have your staff review good Twitter etiquette. Here are some good examples by Heidi Cohen and Jeff Goins.

Be proactive with your team about the use of Twitter. Help them be wise with their tweets.

Don’t sink your fleet with a loose tweet.

Bryan

 

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On-line Fishers of Men

April 2, 2012 in Church Culture, Social Media, Web, Internet, & IT with 3 Comments

A lot of churches are behind-the-curve in interacting with people on-line and on social networks. There’s not much more that screams “We are not relevant!” than a church without a web presence. Your plain, old church website can get a kick-start!

Reeling people in to your church can begin on-line.

Here are some innovative tools that we’ve found at MAG … that your church could leverage … in connecting with new people.

1)  PunchTab – crazy idea … reward people for coming to your website everyday! PunchTab can help.

2)  Olark – what if a potential visitor could engage in an on-line chat with your staff BEFORE they set foot in the doors? Create some web chat opportunities with non-believers and/or interested people in your church. Leverage Olark in a ton of ways … including customized welcome boxes, hours of chatting, and transcripts so your staff can learn!

3)  Intercom – get specific with people who visit your website! Intercom helps rate the visitors on your site based on how often you interact with them. It’s like fishing for carp with bologna.

4)  LaunchRock – launching a church soon? A new ministry? Want to generate some excitement? LaunchRock helps you develop pre-launch buzz.

Cast out your nets! They may keep coming back! The harvest is plenty! Make it happen!

Bryan

 

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Word of Mouth

March 28, 2012 in Church Culture, Social Media, Web, Internet, & IT with 0 Comments

QUESTION: how do people discuss your church?

According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association … below, the percentage break-down of US consumers who use the following methods to discuss products and services. Why would you think your church isn’t discussed in this way? Are you leveraging mobile technology on your website? Does your church have an app yet? Can a browser engage in a chat with a representative from your church via your website before they ever set foot inside it?

  • 84% – In-person Conversations
  • 58% – eMail
  • 50% – Mobile Phone
  • 35% – Social Networking Sites
  • 22% – Instant Messaging
  • 17% – On-line Product Reviews
  • 14% – Personal Blog

Let’s face it. Whether you like it or not … the people who would consider your church are also everyday consumers. How do you plan to engage with them?

Bryan

 

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Goodbye 2011 … Hello 2012!

December 27, 2011 in Church Outsourcing, MAG News, MAG Relationships, Social Media, Web, Internet, & IT with 0 Comments

This past year (2011) MAG has seen tremendous growth in several areas! Grateful to our new clients, partners, prospects, & advocates ... AND our hard-working EAs, Bookkeepers, Virtual Groups Pastors, and the MAG Corp Team too. Grateful to the Lord for his inspiration and provision as well.

We (Shannon & Bryan) started MAG in late 2010 ... and had no clue ... how well MAG would do in 2011! Humbled by the results.

We are excited for a great 2012 and beyond!

Thanks to ALL our MAGsays.com readers, Tweeters & RT-ers, posters, fans, +1-ers, Facebookers & Like-ers, and LinkedIn-ers!

In 2011 ... in MAG's first year ... MAGsays.com ... had 28,740 unique visitors that created 61,077 separate page-views! All 50 states and an extra 127 countries visited our blog ... and read our blog in 76 different languages. 4,139 people jumped on MAGsays.com from their iPhones this year. OK ... enough stats. To the blog kings out there ... these stats may not seem like a lot ... BUT we're just getting started! THANKS to all of our fans who promote MAG!

Happy New Year!

Bryan & Shannon

 

What’s Your Social Status?

August 31, 2011 in Social Media, Web, Internet, & IT with 0 Comments

This week on MAGsays.com … we’ve been focusing on several tools & companies that can help your church get in the social media game.

Knowing your options with social media management tools is key. Leveraging some of these tools (see below) can heighten your church’s social status. If you’ve decided that a social media company doesn’t fit your budget at the church … here are some great, economical, DIY solutions you can start leveraging today.

  1. TweetDeck – TweetDeck calls itself the “Air Traffic Controller” of Twitter. TweetDeck allows users to add multiple accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, foursqaure & more. You can see multiple feeds at once and mentions too. TweetDeck is currently free.
  2. HootSuite – a MAG favorite … lets users manage multiple networks, schedule messages, develop custom reports, & more. HootSuite is free, but there are upgrade capabilities with greater functionality.
  3. Sprout Social – users can organize multiple accounts and identities in one place, schedule messages, and measure success with their reporting tools. Well worth the look … but bring your wallet … as prices range from $9 to $49 per month.
  4. Actionly - become the world’s biggest social media nerd with this tool! Actionly is a paid social media monitoring tool that gives you the ability to pull data, track success, and measure post-click conversations. You can manage multiple accounts from their dashboard. They also partner with Google Analytics too. Prices range from $20 to $100 per month.
  5. NutshellMail – from Constant Contact … you can track your social media presence on a number of sites, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, foursquare, and YouTube and delivers a summary to you via eMail. This is a great tool is you are managing several ministries in your church from a social media standpoint.

 

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Upgrade Your Influence – Get Social!

August 29, 2011 in Social Media, Web, Internet, & IT with 0 Comments

Churches are quickly waking up to the potential influence of social media … and not just in their community … but also globally. Having a social media strategy … doesn’t need to cost you a lot of money. Churches with small OR big budgets can leverage social media (a lot of it is free).

If you are looking to get your social house in order … below are 4 companies you need to know about … that rank your social media influence (aka social media analytics).

  1. PeerIndex - measures a host of things (eg activity, audience, & etc) against certain categories (eg business, politics, news & etc)
  2. Klout – known as “The Standard for Influence” … Klout bases it scores on 35+ variables … that help you understand your true reach, amplification probability, and network influence
  3. Traackr – evaluates 8 types of media to discover your reach, relevance, and how well you & your content resonates
  4. Twitalyzer – Measures 10 criteria (eg impact, velocity, generosity, followers, followees, & etc)

One final thought … be mindful of your content. Just because you can make a lot of noise and increase your scores … doesn’t guarantee you’ll be influential. Content and intent … still matter.

Bryan

 

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