Many churches are out on the edge of technology these days, and in my opinion that is a good thing.  Culture is telling people that all kinds of things are available for them to use and enjoy, but many churches are still providing the same type of “services” as they were twenty years ago.  While blogging and services like Twitter may not be bleeding edge, they are still new to most people and will still be “new” for a long time as people pick up on them.  Young people, however, are already into blogging and tweeting, Facebook, MySpace, Ning and other social networks.  Churches are losing ground with a younger generation because they are trying to communicate to them the wrong way.

There are many benefits to ministry blogging that include immediate dispersion of the information, more open communication, a conversation with your blog readers, getting to know the author and commenters on a deeper level, high quality marketing and publicity for you and the church, and many more.

I think most churches  have good intentions.  They feel a burden to reach out to a younger generation, but maybe they just don’t get into worshipping with up tempo music or a fancy light show.  They like a piano and organ.  There’s definitely nothing wrong with that!  The research will bear out that most young adults don’t weigh worship style as highly as everyone thinks.  I mean, it seems like that is the obvioius reason for church growth. But in fact, a feeling of community, belonging to something greater than yourself, authenticity and service to the world are what young adults crave and are what draw young adults into any organization (including a church).

Lowering Barriers

So, back to blogging and social media for churches.  These exercises are important because they lower the barriers of entry for someone that may be considering coming to your church.  Some people have never met a stranger and don’t have any problems showing up to a new group or meeting for the first time and just getting involved.  I’m not like that.  I like to have a soft introduction into a new group.  The first day of school was always rough for me if I didn’t know anyone in the class.  I can’t imagine walking into a new church “blind” and having no idea what to expect.

How does blogging lower barriers?  A blog is a window into the church.  You can get a whole new view on the mind, thoughts and passions of a person by following their blog.  When blogging is done properly by a pastor and his staff then you get a wide angle view of the church as a whole.  You get the opportunity to have a constant flow of information from the church then just on Sunday mornings through the bulletin and announcements and the monthly newsletter.  I follow many pastors’ on their blogs and feel like I know them and know what is going on at their church.  I could almost feel like if I attended their church that weekend, it would be like I have been going there for months.

Twitter also gives you a picture into the lives of the staff.  While a blog allows the staff to take time to throughly communicate to you about what is going on in their lives, what they are hearing from God, what is happening at the church and so on, Twitter allows you to see what is going on in 140 character snipits of other people’s day.  Relationships and conversations are formed on Twitter in ways that can’t otherwise be done.

Stepping Outside the Box

Many churches already record their services on video or at least record the audio on CD or some other format.  This data can be used in the social media context to lower the barriers, give more people information about the church and style, and expand the reach and ministry of the church from just your local area to an unlimited reach on the internet.  YouTube, Itunes, Vimeo, Viddler and many other services will let you host video and audio of your services or portions of your services for free.  These videos can become “viral” and spread around the internet.

I hope this quick post gives you a taste of what you can do with blogging and social media and you see the benefits that blogs can have for businesses, ministries and churches if they are used correctly.  There are many reasons for using social media – even in the ministry context – and those reasons will direct the methods, technology, and ethics used in a successful strategy.

1. Prospect Generation: I have recieved many prospective clients from the blog.  This is mainly because of the search-engine friendliness of a blog in general.  I couldn’t help but smile when I showed my boss that I was coming up on the search engine results pages for all of the search terms that he was wanting to come up for on our general firm web site, but he is a little older and didn’t initially beilieve in the power of the blog.  My prospects can really be from around the world (at least around the U.S. because the IRS practice is federal and you don’t have to be in South Carolina to hire us to help with those types of problems).  Once I get the client to call it is my responsibility to convert them from a prospect to a paying client.
2. Held Out as an Expert: I have been quoted on other blogs and sites around the internet regarding tax and other legal issues I discussed on the blog.  This blog has also been picked up my local news outlets for some of my posts that commented on national events and lawsuits.
3. Income Generation: While the blogs do generate prospect calls and actual clients for my law practice I have also sold information products and reports from my blog.  We have also done surveys to try to figure out what people want to know on a certain topic.  I know there are many untapped income generation sources and applications from the blogs.
4. “Cheap” Advertising: Blogging can be done extremely cheap.  You can get a free account at Blogspot or WordPress.com or you can self host your blog to have a little more freedom.   The costs associated with operating a blog are generally minimal.  You need to purchase a domain name (about $10 per year), hosting (which you can get cheap – we use HostGator and it costs about $10 per month).  You can spend some money on a custom blog design or you can use of the zillion free WordPress themes available online.   The power of the blog is in your content and how often you contribute – not like in other types of advertising where people think the more money you throw at the advertising the more money you will make in return.  That is pretty old-school.  Whie it may have worked at one time or another in the past, today (to me at least) it seems to be a bad model.  Especially in times of economic hardship like today.  I work at a firm who likes to advertise in all of the traditional ways like the Yellowpages, local newspaper, classifieds, etc.  But the blog is great becaues after you put in some diligent work to create the content and get a readership, the internet will bless you because it will bring readers to you from search engines, links from other blogs, social media sites like Twitter (follow me, I’m @trippatkins).
5. Defines Your Internet Reputation: What comes up when you type your name into Google?  You may not want to know, but you need to know.  Your customers are going to be googling you to find out more about you.  I do this for everything I do now.  If I am going to a new restaurant or staying at a new hotel I want to find out about it.  I check out information about opposing counsel i my cases that I have.  People are doing the same thing about you and me.  In fact, one of the search terms that leads people to my site most often is Tripp Atkins Attorney.  People want to know more about me before they show up and start telling me about their life.  When I googled my name I found that there is apparently another guy named Tripp Atkins who is included in the Rip Off Report website because he scammed a lot of people.  **That Tripp Atkins is not me!! **  Anyway, that would not be good publicity for me if that were the number one position on Google for my name.  While he still shows up on the front page he is not the number 1, 2, or 3 listing and all of the rest are mine from my various sites to make sure people know that actual Tripp Atkins they are searching for.

Those are just a few of the benefits of blogging.  It is much more than an online diary and a way for the small business person to market their services that is becoming much more effective than traditional advertising methods.