Posts Tagged ‘urban church marketing’
3 Great Ways to Repurpose Your Articles on Your Blog For More Traffic
By: Jeff Herring
Blogging and article marketing go hand in hand. In fact, one of the most frequently asked questions I get is “can you use your articles on your blog?”
The answer is not only a huge YES! In fact, if you are not using your articles on your blog you are leaving tons of traffic on the table.
3 ways to repurpose your content on your blog
1) Entire article/parts of your article – You can repurpose your entire content into a blog post. It’s a great way to create lots of blog posts when you have lots of articles. While you can do this, it’s generally not a strategy I recommend.
Why?
Because you can get more than one blog post out of your content. You can turn most articles into a blog series. If you have have written a 7 tips article, that can be a 7 post series on your blog. You can also turn your sub-headings in your content into a blog post series.
2) Begin the article – Another strategy that I recommend is to begin your article in a blog post and then use the “more tag.” Instead of placing the entire article in one blog post, you can begin the article in a post on one page and then finish it on another page in your blog.
In a WordPress blog you use the “more tag” for this, and all good blogging platforms have a way to do this.
And don,t just cut off the article in just any place. Build some “article intrigue” but continuing as your article at a crucial point so the reader will be excited to read the rest of your article.
3) Blog to EzineArticles – This is my favorite blogging strategy to use to bring a ton of more traffic to my articles. In this strategy you begin the article on your blog. Make sure you use a compelling title to capture the reader’s attention. Then at a crucial point in the article you invite the reader to “click here to read the rest of the article” and send the to your article on EzineArticles.
When I first began to experiment with this strategy, I wondered if people would mind going more than one place to read an article. The consistent feedback I get is that once you have captured their interest they don’t mind being directed somewhere else to finish the article.
You can see examples of how I do this and get many more great tips and videos on my blog at http://FromtheDeskofJeffHerring.com
From Jeff Herring – The Article Marketing Guy
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Special Gift for You – I Shall Raise You Up Audio Book
From time to time special people come into your life that change your perception and trajectory of life- In this case that person is author Michael Holmes. You may remember Michael as one of our guest blogger who wrote these great blogs.
How to Use Social Media for Greater Ministry Effectiveness
Why Pastors Should Use Twitter
How important is social media in Church Growth?
Well now Michael has allowed me to offer his incredible book I Shall Raise Thee Up to you for FREE
I Shall Raise Thee Up is a book about leadership from a biblical and christian perspective. The book, expertly written is now available via download. That’s right folks – Michael is making that audio download available for FREE.
You were meant to be great. Regardless of color, culture, profession, gender, and background there are seeds of greatness in you that need to be cultivated. Understand that God has a purpose and a plan for your life. He Himself said: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
In this book you will learn:
• What true greatness means
• Why greatness means nothing without service
• The necessity of applying time-tested principles
• Why great people tend not to fit it
• Why desire is necessary before any great work can be accomplished
• Why God is always focused on sound character first and promotion second
• What principles great people apply to become great
• Why greatness was never meant just for you
And much more…
Know that it’s God’s desire to raise you up – He’s been preparing you for that purpose. He’s been getting you ready through every test, every trial, every setback, every victory…and deep down…you always knew it yourself. The time to unlock your greatness is now!
How to Use Social Media for Greater Ministry Effectiveness
In my last post we discussed the necessity of social media for ministry growth; not just leading people to a building but to a relationship or greater relationship with Christ and greater fellowship with each other. Social media is not the ONLY way to do that but it offers the tools to help. In this post I want to follow up with SPECIFIC ways to do that. But before I go into “specifics” let me lay some groundwork:
- It starts with the top: Ultimately, it is leadership that sets the culture of an organization (or ministry)–whether that culture be progressive or not it starts with the top. If the leadership is not sold on social media the ministry will not benefit from it.
- Social media is a tool of ministry, not its “savior”: Many ministries struggling often see this technology as a haymaker shot: “If we get on board technologically speaking, that’ll save us.” Technology doesn’t save ministries great leadership with purpose does. Technology that’s used in line with a core purpose will always bear more fruit than technology that’s used for the sake of being used.
- Social media efforts must be measured: Sometime ago E-marketer released a survey where 84% said that they don’t measure any type of social media ROI. This is astounding considering the fact that social media allows us to better track our efforts. Granted, some things can’t be measured but there are things that can–track the things that can.
Social media and ministry
So without further ado here they are: some strategies that can enhance ministry effectiveness.
- Use Facebook ads: Paul Steinbrueck recently recalled how his church used this to advertise their past Christmas play. The ad was run for 9 days prior to the weekend of the performances. Over that time, it was displayed 900,000 times and clicked on 600 times. Total cost of the ad campaign was about $475. Wow!
- Consider a blog-centric strategy: Some ministries have different ministries that do different things at different times. A blog-centric strategy allows the church to have a main blog and each ministry to have a blog. Feedburner is set up for each blog, so people can get info from whatever blog they want.
- Launch a Facebook Campus: That’s what Central Christian church did. Following their mission of “connecting the unconnected” they launched the campus and hold services 7 times a week. The Church partnered with Plainjoe studios and Facebook to develop the campus after positive responses from its year-old online campus. Launched in September, the inaugural service of the Facebook campus saw more than 450 attendees from around the world comprised of a wide variety of demographics.
- Listen: Granted, social media gives us a bigger microphone to speak from it also gives us a greater opportunity to listen to what’s being said. You remember the saying: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” In this new era of social media, we’re being asked to be more transparent and personal–its our job to make sure people know HOW MUCH we care.
- Show who’s using it: Mickey Mellen (follow him @mickmel) gave an example of how his church does it.
Got an event? Promote it through Tweetvite: Tweetvite allows you to create events specifically designed for Tweetups (or “meet ups” that use Twitter). Its free and offers a fully search able listing of upcoming Tweetups (should you want to get out the house). You can sign up through your Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace account; it allows you to map the location of the tweetup; and you can use your own URL. It’s great for informal get-togethers outside of of church as well.
The end of the matter
I must admit, there are endless ways to use technology for ministry. But the one criteria is this: it must be used prayerfully and purposefully.
We as believers have an obligation to “redeem the times”? Or as Paul said, “Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity.” [1 Colossians 4:5 The Message)
And truth of the matter is, the "traditional church" is on its deathbed.The times have changed and will continue to change...but our Message never will. This new landscape presents us with new opportunities. But, its only an opportunity to those who see it as such.
Guest Blogger Mike Holmes
Bio: Mike Holmes is the author of I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness. He’s also a blogger that writes on leadership development from a Biblical perspective. It’s leadership by the Book! When he’s not writing blogs or speaking he can be found writing bios in the third person. Check out his website/blog here.
How important is social media in Church Growth?
Today I present a post by guest blogger Mike Holmes. This will be the start of a wonderful relationship between our two blogs, and hopefully Mike will be a continuing guest blogger on our site. Mike the author of I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness. He’s also a blogger that writes on leadership development from a Biblical perspective. Please Enjoy.
The web is still buzzing about Pope Benedict’s message to his priests: go forth into the world and blog the Gospel! In his message he acknowledged that cultural shifts have brought conversations online…but…the church must be willing to change its methods to better communicate the Message. He wrote:
“Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ.”
And it’s no wonder! With his own iPhone App, Facebook page, YouTube channel, his growing influence on the web, and his nickname (via Mashable)–the “social media pontiff” could he tell them any different?
Social media and its social effect
It’s no secret that social media is growing at a mind-bogglingly high level–with Facebook and Twitter leading the pack! And we can’t deny it has an inescapable presence in our lives.
Case in point, the Haiti Crisis:
- It wasn’t the news media that first picked up the effects… it was through Twitter.
- A video of the quake was broadcasted on YouTube
- Wyclef Jean galvanized support through Twitter
- Red Cross raised millions through a text messaging campaign and through their Twitter page…in a matter of moments!
- CNN, in the earliest stages, was the news organization with the most material on the quake, and they enriched their work with social media.
It’s changed the way we do business as 94% of companies sponsoring online communities plan to increase their social networking support as well as engage with other social media tools.
Oh!! And let’s not forget my man “Pants on the Ground” becoming an internet sensation…and being adopted as the Minnesota Viking’s official mascot!!
But what about ministry?
Social Media and the Church
USA Today wrote an article today about the changing ministry model. The article summed it up best in saying, “the congregational model is suffering.”Add to the fact that according to a study of U.S. congregations — only 19% say they are in excellent financial health, down from 31% in 2000. Less than half (48%) could report at least 2% growth in worship attendance, down from 58% in 2005. Because of this many churches have closed down or “merged” with more prosperous ministries.
Also Barna group estimates that in 2010 10% of Americans will rely exclusively on the internet.
The landscape has truly changed!
It seems going forward we’re only left with two options:
- Embrace social media as a tool that can be used in spreading the Gospel, meeting the needs of people, and overall Kingdom work
- Or, reject these changes, and continue to go forward.
The choice is yours…
The end of the matter
I must admit…I could care less about church growth!
Huh!
Leading people to a building means nothing to me!
However, leading people to a relationship, or a greater relationship with Christ is everything! And if social media gives me the tools to do that, affect my community, and inspire spiritual maturity in God’s people…then I’m all for it!
What are your thoughts?
Guest Blogger Mike Holmes
Bio: Mike Holmes is the author of I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness. He’s also a blogger that writes on leadership development from a Biblical perspective. It’s leadership by the Book! When he’s not writing blogs or speaking he can be found writing bios in the third person. Check out his website/blog here.
Happy New Year – Getting the Year Started Right
Hello everyone and Happy New Year – We are just getting back into the office officially and I wanted to start this year off on the right foot. In the accompanying video, I lay out my 5 foundational strategies for 2010. These are not resolutions but really a way of centering my self and the company for the prosperous new year. We are also participating in an Entrepreneur Fast – please check it out.
What can I say I am so excited by this new beginning. Leave me a comment and let me know how do you get your New Year started. God Bless.
Best regards,