Your Church's Online Presence: Get Past the Planning and Jump in
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Over two decades ago Nike coined the phrase "Just do it". While this has taken on numerous meanings, the original meaning still rings true: even if it's not going to be perfect or close to perfect, just do it anyways. If you are waiting for the perfect moment and for everything to come together perfectly, it's probably not going to. Instead, take the first small steps, and go from there.
When looking at starting a website for your church, determining how your church and congregation can benefit from social media, or considering any other project, at some point you just need to jump in and start. Mick Mel talks about different approaches he has seen churches take in regards to social media. He highlights that many churches just make plans and never implement those plans because they want to enter the world of social media perfectly. On the flip side, those churches that had a rough plan and started trying it out, made mistakes, and kept trying, are the ones who succeeded. Even though his discussion is about Twitter, this could apply to anything like blog posts, new pages, websites, other social media, email lists, and more.
You can try to plan and delegate every aspect of a project, but there will be roadblocks and mistakes made along the way. If this happens, just start over or keep trying new methods. Rick Warren tweeted about his congregation and had severe backlash. Church Marketing Sucks provides the details, along with several lessons that are important when you're participating online. Even though the backlash was strong, and his statement is now permanently on the web, people (usually) will forget quickly and move on.
Is your church stuck in a planning phase that isn't going anywhere? Is your church planning how to participate online while there is someone like "Chris" from the link in Mike Mel's article, or are there unofficial Facebook pages already acting on the church's behalf?
Comments
In a large church, exactly who is supposed to do the jumping in? and under what authority?
Usually those that are supposed to approve the project like to see a plan: What are you going to do, how much will it cost, what will you say about us? Are privacy concern been met? May we see some of the proposed pages?
A Smaller church can go faster... once a volunteer has come forward to do it!
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