Church and the Social Web

Church and the Social Web By Brad Davis Seal This report is free and does not contain affiliate links. Share it with the world under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. © 2009 Brad Davis Seal Cover photo credit: respres What is the Social Web? introduction The social web helps people, organizations, and businesses create, discover, read and share news, information and content. Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace are two of the most well know examples of the social web. However, the social web doesn't have to be as complex as these large sites. It can be as simple as the video sharing site 12seconds.tv that only allows you to create and share 12 second video updates or the iPhone audio blogging app Audioboo, which lets you record and publish five minutes of audio right from your phone. your community are sharing photos, videos, links, and messages on the social web. Other benefits Traffic - Brings traffic to your church's web site Sharing - Helps church members tell their story of what they love about your church Affordable - Free is the most common price on the social web Usability - Most social websites are easy to use and learn Fun - It’s a lot of fun to share what you love How does the Social Web benefit my church? The main benefit of the social web for your church is the ability to engage people where they already are. Everyday, members of your church and guests from Social Web Examples This list highlights some of the best examples of the social web. Some will work for you and your church, others will not. For more examples, visit Go2Web2.0 or CrunchBase. Blogs/Conversations Find popular blogs, posts, and comments Backtype Technorati Blogger Collaboration Share files and documents and collaborate online Drop.io Blog Platforms Start a blog Wordpress.com Wordpress.org Tumblr Typepad Posterous Google Docs Zoho Dropbox Comment and Reputation Global commenting systems that connect conversations across the web Disqus Intense Debate Backtype Slideshare Google Docs Events Create and track events accross the web Pingg Upcoming Socialzr Zvents MadeIt Crowdsourced Content Anyone can contribute news and information digg Mahalo Wikipedia mixx reddit Forums Exchange knowledge with others in your group Leafora Yahoo Groups Google Groups Mahalo Answers Documents/Content Social publishing. Share presentations, documents, spreadsheets. Make documents embedable. Scribd docstoc Wordie Empressr 280 Slides Lifestreams News feed for every site that you use in one place Friendfeed Facebook Ping.fm Soup Socialthing Location Share your current location and travel plans with friends Brightkite Dopplr Loopt TripIt Micromedia Livecasting Video and Audio Broadcast live audio and video form your computer or mobile phone qik kyte Livestream Ustream.tv Audioboo Watershead Justin.tv Stickam Blog Talk Radio Share short messages, photos, and videos Twitter Yammer Seesmic 12seconds.tv Plurk Music Create and play custom radio stations and discover new music Pandora Last.fm iLike Blip.fm Odeo Pictures Online photo sharing and management Facebook Flickr Posterous Photobucket Zooomr Picasa Radar Bebo Hi5 Orkut Video Share your videos with friends, family, and the world YouTube Vimeo Blip.tv Viddler Metacafe Social Bookmarks Store and share your bookmarks online–discover new sites Delicious Stumbleupon Diigo Evernote Wiki Create, modify and organize web page content in a collaborative manner PBworks Wetpaint Wikia TWiki Social Networks Connect with your friends Facebook MySpace Twitter First Baptist Church Hattiesburg, MS case study 2008 was the first year that First Baptist Church Hattiesburg expanded from a traditional website into the social web. Photo sharing on Flickr was first, followed by video sharing on YouTube - both are free and easy to learn. 2008 Statistics Website 17,539 unique visitors; 31,529 visitors, 107,726 pageviews YouTube 17,540 views Blip.tv 19,288 views Vimeo 3357 views Flickr 71,264 views Budget $225 including domains, web hosting, blip.tv Pro account, Podbean account, Flick Pro account. Current Use: 2009 Engaging the social web is a priority for First Baptist Church Hattiesburg in 2009 - especially on Twitter and Facebook. rated from 1 to 5 starts, commented on, and embedded on viewers websites or blogs. The website is built using with Wordpress with a theme from WooThemes. Website/Blog http://firsthattiesburg.com The church’s website, FirstHattiesburg.com, is built using the blogging platform, Wordpress. Wordpress allows us to use plugins that connect our website with the social web such as our blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Backtype. The theme is from WooThemes. Learn more about Blogging & Wordpress Blogging Tips for Beginners Wordpress for Dummies Video Website http://video.firsthattiesburg.tv Since First Baptist Church Hattiesburg creates a lot of videos, they created a separate website, Video.FirstHattiesburg.tv. The videos are first shared on Vimeo, then embedded here. Videos can be rated from 1 to 5 starts, commented on, and embedded on viewers websites or blogs. The website is built using with Wordpress with a theme from WooThemes. Vimeo - video sharing http://vimeo.com/firsthattiesburg Cost: Basic: free, Pro: $60 per year Use: All videos are uploaded to Vimeo. Videos are embedded in our website and blogs using Vimeo Pro's high quality, customizable flash video player. Sermon Website http://firsthattiesburg.tv For the weekly messages, First Baptist Church Hattiesburg created a separate website, FirstHattiesburg.tv. The sermons are shared on Vimeo, then embedded here. All sermons are labeled by sermon series, speaker, and topic. Sermons can be Facebook - lifestream, photo & video sharing http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hattiesburg-MS/FirstBaptist-Church-Hattiesburg/14020280647 Cost: Free Facebook Page The church's main presence on Facebook is it's Facebook Page. Pages are profiles for business, organizations, and celebrities. They are free. What can you do with a Facebook Page? Share links, videos, photos, status updates, ask questions, give help, take prayer requests, play audio, share news, birth announcements, post church meal menus, highlight volunteers More info on Facebook Pages The Ultimate Resource List: The Difference Between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Page News Flash: Facebook ‘Pages’ Now Useful! 8 Essential Apps for Your Brand’s Facebook Page More info on Twitter and Churches The Reason Your Church Must Twitter YouTube - video sharing http://www.youtube.com/firsthattiesburg Cost: Free Use: Share videos under 10 minutes in length YouTube is the most popular video sharing site. If your video is on YouTube, it can be easily found. It's not great for sermons, however, since YouTube videos cannot be longer than 10 minutes. Learn more about YouTube An expert's guide to YouTube Flickr - photo sharing http://www.flickr.com/photos/fbchattiesburg $24/year After an event, the best photos are shared on Flickr. Twitter - microblogging http://twitter.com/Hattiesburg Cost: Free Use: Quick, casual sharing. Shares both church and local community events Blip.tv - video sharing, podcasts http://fbchattiesburg.blip.tv Video, podcasts Cost:Basic: free, Pro: $8 per month or $96 per 14 months Sermon videos are shared on blip.tv which converts it to Flash video, iPod friendly M4V, and MP3–all are embedable. Blip.tv then distributes our video to the following services: iTunes as a video podcast Flickr as a still picture of the video MySpace as a blog post and a bulletin Our own video blog Delicious Twitter AOL Video Lycos Mix Mefeedia Blinkx Pando Tumblr - blog http://hattiesburgchurch.com Free Create a simple blog highlighting the Sunday worship service. http://HattiesburgChurch.com Tumblr list a ones of the easiest and fastest ways to set up a blog. It's great a sharing media: photos, audio, and video. More quick & easy blogging Posterous - http://posterous.com. Free. Blog by email, create group blogs. PodBean - audio podcasts http://firsthattiesburg.podbean.com/ $50/year MP3 audio files of sermons are shared on PodBean which creates an iTunes ready podcast and embeddable audio player for a website or blog. More Case Studies Groundswell If your church is interested in getting started using the social web but need examples and results from companies using social media, get the book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Groundswell, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research, has 25 case studies of how companies around the world are using the social web: Groundswell is based on hard consumer data and experience with dozens of companies, large and small, from Procter & Gamble to Ernst & Young to a tiny but wildly successful winery in South Africa. Mayo Clinic How the Mayo Clinic Uses Social Media “Total Cost for Mayo Clinic Facebook, YouTube and Twitter $0.00.” Resource Links Learn more about the social web Books The Blogging Church Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? The Twitter Book Blogs AllFacebook Chris Brogan church.alltop.com ChurchCrunch Church Marketing Sucks Church Technology Evangelist Groundswell Mashable Micro Persuasion ProBlogger ReadWriteWeb Seth Godin Social Media Marketing Strategies TwiTip Twitter for Churches Webware Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide: Business thinking and strategies behind successful Web 2.0 implementations Web 2.0 Heroes: Interviews with 20 Web 2.0 Influencers Premium Blog Themes Thesis WooThemes About the Author Brad Davis Seal is a Communications Associate at First Baptist Church Hattiesburg, MS where he directs the church’s social web strategy and tactics. These include websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo and podcasts. Connect with Brad Email: davisseal@gmail.com Twitter Friendfeed Blog: DavisSeal.com