By unSeminary: Thanks for tuning in to this week’s unSeminary podcast. We’re excited to be talking with Vivienne Bechtold, the Director of Studio and Leadership Development at Crossroads Church in Ohio. Crossroads has been one of the fastest growing churches in the country for several years, but this growth hasn’t happened without being intentional about reaching those who are far from Jesus. Listen in as Vivienne shares how Crossroads has used data to make informed decisions about how to be increasingly effective at drawing more people into a relationship with Christ.

Use data for marketing. // Most churches try to collect some sort of information from the people who visit or attend. However if you don’t dig into that data, you won’t know how it can help you understand your audience better. Vivienne has spent 27 years in the marketing industry and now runs Studio, an internal agency at Crossroads that interprets data, handles research, design, marketing, social media and other digital products for the church. Their ultimate goal is to help the church more effectively reach people who are far from God. Learning to market to people using the data you collect isn’t just about numbers, but about being curious about people and the insights behind the numbers.Understand who you’re reaching. // Initially Crossroads didn’t have a team handling their data and marketing, but rather started with two people that would do focus groups and one-on-ones to gather research on what attendees were looking for. The church then built an analytics team that mined that data about who was coming, what areas they were coming from, what their demographics were, and so on. Using these insights, Crossroads started to put together a picture of who was drawn to the church and what they needed. This information led to them targeting a group of a dozen 25 to 35 year old men who didn’t go to Crossroads. Church staff went to where these people hung out, interviewed some of them, and invited them to attend two services and then offer feedback on their experiences.Implement changes. // The information Crossroads received from these new guests helped them to see the Sunday experience from the perspective of a visitor. As a result, they were aware of what people connected with and what turned them off. They made changes in training their teams how to recognize new people, right from the parking lot, so they could serve guests better. Crossroads also altered the order of their service. Rather than starting with worship, they started with something that would help connect people coming in with what was going to happen the rest of the time. Seekers often didn’t understand the value of worship and instead wanted to hear a message, so the church wanted to make sure their visitors stayed to hear the teaching.Your strongest marketing tool. // Crossroads discovered that when their people knew the topic of an upcoming message, or some sound bites that would be interesting to their friends, they were much more likely to invite others to church. When your people invite their friends or family to church, it is the most powerful marketing strategy you can use. Empower your people to share about the church and what is coming up in a sermon series by providing tools for social media or email that can be shared. Consider direct mail pieces leading up to Easter or Christmas and work with the natural dynamics of how people interact with your church.Use data to rebrand. // Churches tend to plateau after 20 years and in order to get over that, they need to reinvent themselves. Crossroads found that the seekers coming to their church today were different than ones from 25 years ago, and generally had no experience with church at all. So the church began to ask how to be relevant to these people today and reevaluated its branding. Crossroads realized their branding was very corporate and wanted it to be more unfiltered, fun and and fearless, which better represented what the church had grown into. So Crossroads rebranded in 2020 to better capture who they were as well as target that group of 25-35 year old men they are trying to keep in mind. The rebrand includes new colors and visuals, but also new vocabulary that everyday people use. Crossroads talks about themselves as “Spiritual Outfitters” that equip and guide you through this adventure that you were made for as you follow God. Consider your church’s current branding and if it’s serving to help reach the people you are targeting.Look to the future. // As we continue to collect data and process our learnings from 2020, it can inform changes we need to make for the future. One lesson is that first impressions can happen a lot of different places, including online, and when people do show up in person, they are looking to connect more quickly. Pay attention to when people want to watch sermons online. For some, Sunday mornings may now mean family time. Are your people more likely to listen to a message and participate in worship online, but come to a physical location for groups or service opportunities? The pandemic was a time of isolation so think about how can you help people engage and serve together when they attend church at your physical location.

To learn more about Crossroads Church, you can visit them at www.crossroads.net or download their app at www.crossroads.net/app. If your church is considering a rebrand, check out the book “What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest” by Denise Lee Yohn.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

Lastly, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Chemistry Staffing

It’s important for church leaders to pursue the right fit for the right position, which helps determine a long-term, healthy fit. It all starts with properly assessing the applicant’s resumé. Download Chemistry Staffing’s Resumé Screening Playbook and walk through a screening process that will help you discover which candidates to focus on.

Source: Leveraging Research to Drive Design & Communication Insights at Crossroads Church with Vivienne Bechtold

The post Leveraging Research to Drive Design & Communication Insights at Crossroads Church with Vivienne Bechtold appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Does Church Branding Matter?

The post Does Church Branding Matter? appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Launching a Preview Service

The post Launching a Preview Service appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Business Leadership and the Church

The post Business Leadership and the Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By Carey Nieuwhof: Ready or not, both you and your church are online more than ever before.

You’re streaming your services live and posting clips and videos on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.

Handling the tech is one thing, but a question many don’t think of is how to handle the people.

As you’ve probably noticed, you’re getting more weirdness, trolls and criticism than you’re used to.

What do you do with all that?

As an online content creator, I’ve been wrestling this problem down for years, and while it’s not easy to deal with, if you think in categories it can save you a lot of time, heartache and a few sleepless nights.

It starts here. The tone you set as a leader determines the tone of your online community. The tone you foster is the tone you fuel.

So if you’re angry, caustic and mean…you’ll attract those kind of people.

The tone you set as a leader determines the tone of your online community. The tone you foster is the tone you fuel.

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On the other hand, if you’re thoughtful, kind and generous, you’ll find that most of your audience is the same way.

I’ll also be the first to say I feel as a content creator that I’m in the rare space of having a generally amazing, thoughtful and kind audience. For the amount of traffic we get, 95% of the interaction I see online via the blog, podcast, and social media are overwhelmingly positive.

But—and this is the catch—no matter how kind, thoughtful and generous you are online, the critics, trolls and weirdness will find you.

So…what do you do?

In this post, I’ll share a filtering system for handling online comments, direct messages and interactions that have helped me a lot. And a new streaming solution that can help solve some of the tech problems for your church.

I hope they help you.

No matter how kind, thoughtful and generous you are online, the critics, trolls and weirdness will find you.

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There Are Three Basic Kinds of People In The World

Life online is still life with people. So it’s helpful to realize when you’re dealing with online comments, you’re dealing with human nature.

And basically, there are three kinds of people in the world.

It may seem too simple to divide the world into three kinds of people, and try as he might to avoid it, clinical psychologist and best-selling author Henry Cloud helpfully points out in his book, Necessary Endings that there are essentially three kinds of people in life and leadership.

Wise People 

Foolish People 

Evil People

After 25 years in leadership, I’d have to agree with Henry.  Sure, people can move between categories. Wise people have foolish moments and we can all do things that can only be described as malicious or evil.

All day long, though, you hear from all three categories of people online.

Essentially the difference between wise people and foolish people comes down to how they deal with truth.

Wise people encounter truth and change as a result. For example, after getting a speeding ticket, wise people learn and slow down. After being told their words hurt someone, a wise person will try to understand why, apologize and work hard not to do it again. They’re open, not defensive, they learn and grow and tend not to make the mistakes over and over again.

Foolish people encounter truth and don’t change. Instead, they try to adjust the truth so they don’t have to adjust to it. Confronted with a problem, a foolish person will deny, blame, minimize, generate excuses and do anything in his or her power to avoid having to deal with reality.

They don’t learn and rarely grow. As Cloud’s frequent collaborator John Townsend puts it, foolish people have a flat learning curve. As a result, they tend to wreak a lot of havoc and cause damage in their own lives and the lives of others.

Foolish behaviour means some broke people will always be broke, some chronic procrastinators will always be late and some people keep running into the same problems again and again. They may mean well, but their lack of learning means they keep making things hard for themselves and others.

Evil People. Finally, as hard as it is to admit, some people really act in an evil way. They intend to harm you. They want to take you down.

And as hard as it is to believe, they don’t have your best interests at heart and want to see you fail.

I found it hard to accept this early on in leadership, but I’ve seen it often enough times to no longer dismiss it.

For years, I kept thinking evil people would change and that foolish people will change.

I’ve learned the hard way that that’s just not always true.

Just because someone can change doesn’t mean they will change.

Just because someone can change doesn’t mean they will change.

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How to Handle Three Kinds of People

So what’s the takeaway?

If you want to curate a positive, helpful, honest and real presence online, my suggestion is to:

Amplify the voice of wise people.

Help and interact with foolish people (but limit their influence).

Delete and block evil people.

It can be difficult to discern who’s wise, foolish or evil in real life. It can be even a little harder online. But here are some characteristics to guide you and your team.

1. How to Recognize Wise People Online

Wise people are the people you want to attract, keep, promote and whose voices you want to amplify.

A few characteristic sum up wise people:

Thoughtful. They actually add to the conversation and are mindful of other people.
Considerate.  They think about other people and often engage with others in a way that makes everyone better.
Helpful. They make a positive contribution with their words and tone.  
Mutual. This one’s a little harder to put into words, but there’s a give and take, a back and forth. They’re open to new ideas and interested in what other people think.
Generous. They’re kind with their words and attitudes.
Humble. It’s not all about them, and they don’t mind saying sorry if they stumble into negative territory. They learn from their mistakes.

These aren’t just the kind of people you want online, these are people you want in your chat, comments and interacting with your guests online.

What do you do when you find a wise participant in the chat or comments? Amplify their voice.

Acknowledge them. Interact with them. Thank them.

Better yet, ask some wise people you know to be active early in the chat or comments to set a great tone.  Wise people often hold back from the conversation, allowing, well, others, to dominate. Draw them in. Ask them to comment.

This is the kind of interaction we all long for online but which seems to be oh-so-scare.

When you find it, fuel it.

What do you do when you find a wise participant in the chat or comments? Amplify their voice.

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2. How to Recognize Foolish People Online

Foolish people, as John Townsend says, have a flat learning curve. They don’t intend to harm themselves or others, but they do.

Here are a few characteristics of foolish people to help you recognize that kind of behaviour in the chat:

Selfish. It’s all about them.
Single Issue. Because it’s all about them, they keep coming back to their pet issues.
Unhelpful. They’ll keep talking about what’s on their mind, but instead of being open to others, they’ll link to the things they care about? i.e. “Have you heard about the latest discoveries about the Moon Landing in 1969? Totally run by aliens. Here’s proof.”
Off Topic. Because they’re the topic, they have a hard time tracking with what’s happening in the stream.
Not Humble. It is all about them. Sorry, did you say something?

Foolish people aren’t evil people, but the best practice in chat is to limit their interactions.

A great strategy when someone dominates the chat with their own issues is to invite them to an offline conversation. Hey Carey…thanks for being part of the chat. I see you’re really into Moon Landings. Jason on our team would love to connect with you. Can you send him a note at jason@xyz.com and he’d be happy to hear more of your story there.” 

If you run a Zoom service, you can move that person off to a breakout room.

The truth is people are lonely. They need connection, but sometimes the best way to connect is offline rather than in front of everyone in the group.

You’ll also notice that the characteristics above can describe the behaviour of someone in crisis or deep pain. Not necessarily a foolish person at all, just a hurting person.

Again, the best way to deal with grief or pain is to help the person get the help they need. You can best do that offline.

What’s your method for taking online conversations off line so people can get the help they need?

Once you have that set up, your chat will get a lot healthier.

3. How To Recognize The Trolls and Haters Online (Evil People)

People who behave an evil way can destroy your online conversation in minutes. Be really careful.

As much as you want to help people, if someone is there to harm you, you need to take action.

The biggest differences between foolish behaviour and trolls and hater are tone and intent.

Rude. Hater and trolls specialize in ALL CAPS, lots of exclamation marks, and being dismissive of other guests.
Abusive. They lash out against the speaker or other participants in rude or obnoxious ways.
Anonymous or Fake. Trolls and haters rarely use their real names and have fake account pics.
Single Issue. The issue tends to be them or what they’re against.
Closed. People who do something foolish often respond to correction. Trolls and haters don’t. They’ll keep going until you shut them down.
Persistent.  Even after you shut them down, some will come back under new, fake accounts.
Vain. It is all about them. There is no other message or messenger other than what they’re communicating. (Note, usually people who start with ‘In my humble opinion” aren’t).

I wish we live in a world where none of this happened, but it does. And you have to be ready for it.

What you focus on expands. The more you feed the trolls, the more often they return. The more you amplify the voice of the wise, the more the good people show up.

So, when I see someone like this on one of my posts, I’ll usually just delete their comment first, and if they are kind after that, I won’t ban them.

But often, an evil person will follow up and say something like:

“Oh, now you’re deleting my comments??? THIS IS CENSORSHIP AT IT’S WORST!!!”

In the same way thieves don’t have a ‘right’ to come back into your house, you can decide trolls and haters aren’t allowed to steal meaningful dialogue from your channels.

In the same way thieves don’t have a ‘right’ to come back into your house, you can decide trolls and haters aren’t allowed to steal meaningful dialogue from your channels.

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Letting trolls and haters control your feed is like letting cancer grow untreated. It will eventually kill all good life.

The best thing you can do to a troll or hater is block, ban or delete them.

They’ll find another place to spew on the internet, it just won’t be on your site.

My guess is the compassionate side of you would probably like to give trolls and haters another shot. I get it. I’ve tried more than once.

Hate to tell you this, but it pretty much never works. A true troll has no interest in dialogue, learning or respecting others. Maybe they do need help, but if they’re only doing damage on your site, you’re probably not going to be the person who helps them.

Letting trolls and haters control your feed is like letting cancer grow untreated. It will eventually kill all good life. The best thing you can do to a troll or hater is block or delete them.

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Flex, grow and thrive moving into 2021

Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now. And it’s exhausting. 

There are 5 different ways a leader can respond to change, and each means a different outcome for their organization. With the free Pivot-Ready Cheat Sheet, you’ll find out: Which kind of leader you areWhat it means for your organization; andThe mindset that will propel you into a new (and better) future

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Flex, grow and thrive moving into 2021

Yes, there’s a ton of change happening right now. And it’s exhausting. 

There are 5 different ways a leader can respond to change, and each means a different outcome for their organization. With the free Pivot-Ready Cheat Sheet, you’ll find out: Which kind of leader you areWhat it means for your organization; andThe mindset that will propel you into a new (and better) future

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So I’m curious…

Have you had to ban anyone from your online chat yet?

If so, what happened? Leave a comment below!

The post Now That You’re Online Far More: How to Handle the Critics, Trolls and Weirdness appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: Now That You’re Online Far More: How to Handle the Critics, Trolls and Weirdness

The post Now That You’re Online Far More: How to Handle the Critics, Trolls and Weirdness appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: Silicon Valley titan Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of VMWare and former CTO of Intel, and Scott Beck, who scaled Blockbuster Video, Boston Market, Einstein Brothers Bagels and Ancestry.com, and is the Founder of Gloo, talk about how the future church can use technology to reach people and connect people.

Pat and Scott also talk with Carey about why church leaders resist technology, privacy concerns and why the future is more relationally-connected than we imagine.

Welcome to Episode 372 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.

Plus, in this episode’s What I’m Thinking About segment, Carey talks about weird lies that pastors and church leaders believe about church online.

Guest Links

Pat Gelsinger on Twitter | Gloo | GlooConnect

Episode Links

Remodel Health

The season to reevaluate your health benefits is right around the corner. Are you ready for it?

These times are challenging enough for leaders within churches and faith-based organizations, let alone trying to navigate health insurance questions and rate increases! What if you could have an industry expert come alongside you to not only help you understand your options, but find a solution that could save you and your employees hundreds of thousands of dollars? I know this sounds too good to be true, but I promise you it isn’t.

Remodel Health is the health benefits software and consulting service that helps employers save money and care better for their teams. By switching organizations from traditional group insurance to individual plans for each employee, Remodel Health helps you and your team tap into significant savings on health insurance.

To date, Remodel Health has helped Carey Nieuwhof listeners save $2.1 million in the last year and a half! Imagine what your ministry could do with that extra money. We know right now is a very challenging time for churches, so why not take healthcare off your list of financial stressors.

If you’re interested in learning more, Remodel Health’s benefits consultants can run a free analysis for your unique team to help you evaluate all of your options.

Visit remodelhealth.com/carey today to learn more and get access to their free Savings Calculator, Church Buyer’s Guide and brand new e-book.

ServeHQ

Our partner, ServeHQ, is launching a new option for homeschool families and we want to tell you about it.

Homeschool Magnet supports homeschooling families by providing students with instruction from world-class credentialed teachers in a remote classroom with their peers. Parents choose the best teachers for each student based on values and teaching approach to ensure every child is receiving exactly the education they desire. This puts you, as the parent, in full control of your child’s education without the daily responsibilities of lesson planning, pre-learning, teaching, tutoring, and grading.

Each student will receive instruction in the four core subject areas of Math, English, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. Parents ultimately have the freedom to involve their student in as much or as little learning as they prefer based on each student’s learning goals.

Every student has daily access to their teachers who know their learning needs and can help with instruction and tutoring. With Homeschool Magnet, you get the freedom and control of homeschooling without the burden.

Homeschool Magnet is only a fraction of the cost of private schools and the 30-day money-back guarantee upon enrollment means this choice is risk-free.

Learn more about Homeschool Magnet’s student experience, by going to homeschoolmagnet.com and join the growing waitlist.

CONVERSATION LINKS

GlooConnect

The Juggling Act by Pat Gelsinger

Moore’s Law

ChurchPulse Weekly

Barna

7 Weird Lies About Online Church Pastors Need to Stop Believing by Carey Nieuwhof

Text CAREY to 33777 to join more than 75,000 subscribers to our leadership content

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

INSIGHTS FROM PAT AND SCOTT

1. Your church should use technology, not rejecting it, to reach more people

If you look back at the times of Martin Luther, it’s obvious that it would have been foolish for him to say, “We shouldn’t use the printing press to print more bibles. We should keep doing things the way they’ve always been done.” The printing press was a groundbreaking advance of technology that allowed more Christians to have access to the Bible.

The problem is that many Christians and churches are doing the exact thing with the internet. A lot of pastors are looking at online technology and saying, “It’s only temporary.” Or, “We need to keep getting people into our buildings on Sunday morning.” Sadly, those leaders are going to miss out on the biggest opportunity to spread the Gospel in our lifetime.

2. Privacy needs to be a priority as you move forward with technology

While technology is great, there are some dangers that come with any new technology. One of the biggest concerns with using the internet is data privacy. If your church has an email list or an online database of any kind, you know this is a challenge. Where do you store your members’ data? What happens if it gets hacked? How should you use it?

As you move online, you should put more energy into making sure your church’s data is secure. Platforms like Gloo and GlooConnect are backed with the highest data security in the world and have the resources to continually watch for potential breaches. Most churches don’t have the bandwidth or resources to do this, so it’s critical to outsource this.

3. Digital churches need to scale 1-to-1 interactions along with the 1-to-many

Pastors are focused on three things right now when it comes to online church: Video broadcasting, video broadcasting and video broadcasting. That’s great, but if you want to begin engaging more people online, you need to do more than just broadcast. You need to scale online 1-on-1 interactions as you scale up your broadcast interactions online.

As you put more and more of your effort online, ask yourself, “How am I helping my church have more 1-on-1 or 1-on-a few interactions online?” Are you providing Zoom rooms? Running ad campaigns around certain felt needs? Whatever you do, your ability to scale your reach will match your ability to scale healthy and helpful 1-on-1 interactions.

Quotes from Episode 372

90% of humanity will be persistently connected to the internet by 2030. 10 billion people are part of your potential congregation. @PGelsinger

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There are going to be two types of churches going forward. There’s going to be the phigital church, that is digital and physical, or the church that’s all digital. @PGelsinger

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This is the opportunity for churches to really scale, to really reach the world. – Scott Beck

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If you’re a physical-only church, you’re dead in the future. I just don’t think that you’re going to be able to survive in this increasing digitally-connected world. @PGelsinger

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Christ didn’t command us to go build churches, he said, ‘Go make disciples.’ @PGelsinger

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There’s nothing more important today than to be able to make sure that the smallest recovery center, the smallest church has the world-class capabilities to be able to leverage technologies. – Scott Beck

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Church is limited today by the capital of the edifices that we’re building. @PGelsinger

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We have to bring technology into the right design in order for it to be used for personal growth and for God’s purposes. – Scott Beck

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The average American spends 152 minutes a day on social media alone. @cnieuwhof

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People are screened out on things that aren’t interesting to them. They’re screened out on bad content, but are they screened out? Nope. @cnieuwhof

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Read or Download the Transcript for Episode 372

Looking for a key quote? More of a reader?

Read or download a free PDF transcript of this episode here.

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Turn Online Viewers into Real Relationships: Meet GlooConnect

Ever wondered how to turn online viewers into real relationships?

Every day, people visit your church website and access your content, but few ever really identify.

GlooConnect is a new solution that gives people watching the opportunity to introduce themselves to your church.

It can help your church:

Get a steady stream of introductions to people ready to connect with your church
Build real relationships with the people visiting your church’s website
Connect with people who are looking for guidance, hope, and support in life’s challenges where their church is already equipped to serve
Participate in world-class digital campaigns to reach people with needs in your community
Do digital outreach in a way that’s compliant with the strictest privacy laws in the world

GlooConnect lets you pastor while GlooConnect programs. No extra staff. No complex tech. Get started in as little as 15 minutes, and get ready to meet the people already connecting with you online.

To get instant access to GlooConnect and learn more, click here, and make 2021 a year of unprecedented growth for your church.

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Next Episode: Andy Stanley

In July 2020, Andy Stanley made national news when he announced North Point would not reopen until 2021. In this interview, Andy explains his reasons for the decision, the methodology he uses to find clarity, what he’s learning about preaching to a camera and the hardest part of the pandemic for him personally.

Subscribe for free now so you won’t miss Episode 373.

The post CNLP 372: Pat Gelsinger and Scott Beck on the Future Church, How to Connect with the People Watching Your Church Online and Why So Many Church Leaders Resist Tech appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: CNLP 372: Pat Gelsinger and Scott Beck on the Future Church, How to Connect with the People Watching Your Church Online and Why So Many Church Leaders Resist Tech

The post CNLP 372: Pat Gelsinger and Scott Beck on the Future Church, How to Connect with the People Watching Your Church Online and Why So Many Church Leaders Resist Tech appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: How do you measure what happened at church last weekend?

How do you know that you’re actually making progress?

If the goal is to turn online views into real relationships and actual discipleship, any idea what to look for to know if that’s actually transpiring?

The super-inflated (or super discouraging) numbers in your online channels on Facebook and YouTube can lead you to a false sense of success. You can think you’re growing when you in fact might be losing people as your own people or local people click off. Or you can think you’re not making any progress when perhaps you are.

In this post, I’ll quickly share some problems with vanity metrics and algorithmic growth and suggest five things to measure as you move forward.

As you know, all of this is really wet cement right now for most leaders.

But I hope this can provide a bit of direction and some sanity (the numbers can get crazy big or crazy discouraging).

I also hope it will provide a spring board for what you’ll decide to measure in your church.

First up, though, how vanity metrics and the algorithm can let you down.

The super-inflated numbers in your online channels on Facebook and YouTube can lead you to a false sense of success. You can think you’re growing when you in fact might be losing people.

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How Vanity Metrics Let You Down

If you’re driven by ego and insecurity, online metrics can feed both parts of your soul. They can make you feel far more successful than you really are, and make you feel far more discouraged than you should be.

Most online apps like FaceBook, YouTube and Instagram give you a simple summary of how many people watched your video (we’ll move beyond video views later in this post).

Vanity metrics can make you feel far more successful than you really are, and make you feel far more discouraged than you should be.

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Take this video I posted to IGTV. Instagram’s share counter says it got 5.7K views. Not bad.

But drill down into insights and it’s time to call my therapist. The screen shot below shows you the steep drop off of viewers after a few seconds.

The average person barely watched for five seconds. In fact, only 3% of people watched to the end.

Imagine 97% of people walking out during your message. That’s exactly what can happen online.

Facebook, YouTube and Instagram will all give you average watch times. As painful as it is to look, you should look.

Counting total views on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube as ‘attenders’ is a little like counting people who drive by your building as attenders. Probably not a wise strategy because it’s hard to build the future of your church on it. You can’t build the future off 3-second views.

Counting total views on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube as ‘attenders’ is like counting people who drive by your building as attenders. Probably not a wise strategy because it’s hard to build the future of your church on it.

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Why Algorithmic Growth Isn’t Real Growth…Yet

Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are all controlled by algorithms, meaning to a certain extent, the algorithm can give you a boost by showing your videos to more people that don’t follow you, or it can suppress views if it doesn’t think your content is connecting.

Algorithms provide opportunity but a big trap as well.

Learning how to hack the algorithms to boost your views is a cottage industry…you can spend all day on it and perhaps get more eyeballs on your content (Shopify has a good introductory piece on algorithm hacking here).

The algorithm can give you a temporary boost, but in and of itself will not lead to life-change.

For that, you need connection…a way to turn online viewers into real relationships—digitally, in-person or both. That happens one decision and connection at a time.

Spiking your church’s numbers by hijacking the algorithm is like living on energy drinks. The boost lasts for a few hours and then you crash. None of that growth is necessarily real or long term.

But, if you figure out different benchmarking, you can both measure progress more accurately and start to convert some of that online traffic into real relationships and real discipleship.

Here’s how.

Spiking your church’s numbers by hijacking the algorithm or using vanity metrics is like living on energy drinks. The boost lasts for a few hours and then you crash. You can’t build your future off 3 second views.

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1. 10 Minute Views, No Multiplier

If you look at most analytics, you can get something like 3 or 10 second views, 1 minute views or 10 minute views.

My suggestion is you pick the most conservative metric and start tracking that.

Yes, your numbers drop. But if someone stays with you for ten minutes, it probably wasn’t an accident. They were there on purpose. They listened, watched and at some level expressed an interest.

Another suggestion: don’t use a multiplier.

Many churches use a multiplier (1.4x, 1.7x, 2x) to account for the fact that people watch together off a single device. And yes, that actually happens.

But you have no way of knowing what number is accurate (unless you make them register, which can repel new people), and as already stated, the online numbers are probably inflated to begin with.

Please hear me: I get it. I’ve been in leadership long enough to know the ego boost that happens from big numbers and I am not immune to the pressure, but to quit my day job to become an Instagram ‘influencer’ based on my video track record would be a really stupid move. Don’t let the numbers go to your head or the lack of numbers go to your heart (thanks Tim Keller for that insight).

You would never inflate financial giving by a multiplier to account for what people ‘intended’ to give or ‘hope to give’. Why would online attendance be different? At least you know what you’re probably dealing with.

Taking a conservative bench mark in attendance gives you a chance to build on something real into the future.

So, pick a conservative view count and don’t add a multiplier. I know your senior pastor will hate it. Blame me.

You would never inflate financial giving by a multiplier to account for what people ‘intended’ to give or ‘hope to give’. Why would online attendance be different?

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2. Average Duration

Another key metric to benchmark is average view duration. This is different than one minute or ten minute views, because it tells you how long, on average, people watched or listened to your service or video (even beyond the 10 minute mark).

This screen shot is from the first streaming of The Online Church Engagement Summit my team and I ran recently. (You can watch it on demand now here.)

It was a ninety minute summit and 11K leaders had registered for the 1:00 p.m stream. You can see that about 6K leaders watched simultaneously and there were over 10K unique viewers.

But how long did they watch? 18 seconds? Eight minutes?

No, on this event we were thrilled to see that the average watch time was over an hour. Not bad for a 90 minute event.

Tracking average duration can help you determine so much.

For example, there’s a lot of debate about length of service. How long is too long? How short is too short?

You could argue that five minutes of boring is five minutes too long, and 60 minutes of fascinating is not nearly enough.

Five minutes of boring is five minutes too long, and 60 minutes of fascinating is not nearly enough.

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Here’s an example from my leadership podcast. I recently aired a 50 minute episode and a two and a half hour episode air in the same month.

You would think people listened to more of the 50 minute episode than the marathon episode.

Nope. There was a 2% difference in average duration.

The 50 minute episode was listened to for 66% of its entirety. The two and a half hour episode? 64%. Insight: episode length does not determine listening duration on that show. Fascinating.

I don’t really know what that means, but it filters out debates like “more people would watch if the sermon was shorter/longer”.

Planning for the future with data creates a better plan that planning for the future with emotions and opinions.

Planning for the future with data creates a better plan that planning for the future with emotions and opinions.

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3. Number of Followers and Subscribers (Social, Channels and Email)

The real goal is to help online viewers become online engagers. And the best form of engagement is to get them to take a step.

While it’s easy to imagine that someone who is watching for the first time online responds to the message by wanting to get baptized, that’s not the usual path. When it happens, celebrate it. But don’t hold your breath.

It usually starts more subtly than that. Often, it begins with a follow or a subscription.

Some viewers will start participating in the chat, and that’s great. You should have a robust, healthy chat.

But even more helpful is when someone starts following your church on social (or its leaders) and subscribing to your channel.

One metric you’ll want to track is the average growth on your social media and channels monthly or weekly.

Before you leave this though, also encourage people to subscribe to your email list. I know that sounds boring, but please underline and bold this next line: your email list is not controlled by an algorithm. Almost everything else is.

As a result, it’s a fantastic way to connect with people.

Via email, you have a direct connection with people. And it gives you a vital way to really build a personal relationship that could lead to a phone call, scheduling a coffee or an invite into a virtual or in-person meeting.

Start tracking social media growth, channel subscriptions and email list growth.

Those benchmarks will help you see whether you’re making progress.

Church leaders: your email list is not controlled by an algorithm. Almost everything else is. As a result, it’s a fantastic way to connect with people.

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4. Number of People Who Take a First Step

This is where it really gets good, and where it also gets hard.

But the real step is when they decide to do something.

Your church likely has a discipleship path laid out and is figuring out how to convert that to online.

So whether that’s to take a virtual membership class or join something like Starting Point or Alpha or some first step designed for new people, that’s what you want to encourage people to do.

Start tracking that.

The point is simple: define what first step(s) you want an online attender to take, and then start measuring how many people take it.

Again, don’t neglect email. It’s a very powerful and effective way to help people take real-life steps.

5. Whatever Is Really Connecting

Right now every church leader is fixated on three things: video streaming, video streaming and video streaming.

And yes, video is the future etc etc etc.

That’s awesome.

But just a small public service reminder that there are other ways to get content, ideas and messages out there.

So remember my Instagram video career disaster I shared earlier?

I have a written version of that exact same content that did a little better. My video got 5.7K views that engaged people for about 3 seconds.

The website version of When Christians Lose Their Minds, People Lose Their Faith has been read over 30K times and shared over 19K times, which is an insane share rate and sign of engagement. (I also know that number is not jacked up because I’ve written other posts that have been shared 38 times. The counter (unfortunately) doesn’t lie.)

Had I relied on video alone to share those ideas, I would have been disappointed. But when I shared that message in a post, it took off.

The point here is simple: don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

If it’s a good message, it might deserve multiple formats. But most pastors write, deliver, forget about it and move on.

If you’re short staffed, have a volunteer go through past messages that have connected and perhaps produce small snippets for posts on your website, social media or even share other (older) clips on your video channels. Or email the ideas out in bite size chunk to your email subscribers. If you have a team, have them do that.

You’re probably thinking “Carey, where’s the metric I need to track on this one?”

The point is you’ll find it.

As you get creative in sharing content in different ways, you’ll discover something that’s really connecting: a format or forum that delivers the message in ways that really connect and resonate with people that they in turn share.

When you find that, track it. And learn all you can from it.

The goal, after all, is to connect with people. You can use almost any means to do that.

I measure which posts get read the most, how many get shared, and the open rate on my emails to learn which connect and which don’t.

Your audience is giving you real-time feedback. Don’t ignore it.

The goal, after all, is to connect with people. You can use almost any means to do that.

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Turn Online Viewers Into Real Relationships: Meet GlooConnect

Ever wondered how to turn online viewers into real relationships?

Every day, people visit your church website and access your content, but few ever really identify.

GlooConnect is a new solution that gives people watching the opportunity to introduce themselves to your church.

It can help your church:

Get a steady stream of introductions to people ready to connect with your church
Build real relationships with the people visiting your church’s website
Connect with people who are looking for guidance, hope, and support in life’s challenges where their church is already equipped to serve
Participate in world-class digital campaigns to reach people with needs in your community
Do digital outreach in a way that’s compliant with the strictest privacy laws in the world.

GlooConnect lets you pastor while GlooConnect programs. No extra staff. No complex tech. Get started in as little as 15 minutes, and get ready to meet the people already connecting with you online.

To get instant access to GlooConnect and learn more, click here, and make 2021 a year of unprecedented growth for your church.

What Are You Measuring And….?

So what are you measuring, and where are you finding traction online?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post Beyond Vanity Metrics and Algorithms: 5 Online Benchmarks Churches Should Start Measuring appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: Beyond Vanity Metrics and Algorithms: 5 Online Benchmarks Churches Should Start Measuring

The post Beyond Vanity Metrics and Algorithms: 5 Online Benchmarks Churches Should Start Measuring appeared first on Passion for Planting.

COVID is teaching us, the church, many lessons. Obviously, there are many lessons about the value of Church Online or Discipleship Online. But why stop there? Church Communications Directors have been working overtime in this COVID season, managing the chaos that has been 2020.

While we don’t talk about Communications much here at THECHURCH.DIGITAL, let’s pause and ask some questions. To that end, we’ve pulled in three church communication experts from around the country to ask them some simple questions… what have you learned in this COVID season? What are you currently experimenting with? How can communication help your church go PHYGITAL? All sorts of fun questions that can help your church take the next steps in communications.

If you’re enjoying this episode, subscribe for free using your favorite podcast app below:

Apple Podcasts | RSS Feed | Anchor | Overcast | Spotify | Pocket Casts | Google Play

ON THE SHOW

Source: PODCAST 095: Launching & Elevating Church Communication Teams

The post PODCAST 095: Launching & Elevating Church Communication Teams appeared first on Passion for Planting.

This post on the algorithms around us is written by Leslie Mack. Leslie is a creative director, singer-songwriter, and communicator from Atlanta, Georgia. I recently interviewed her for ChurchPulse Weekly on how to leverage this crisis to reach the next generation. You can listen to the interview here. 

By Leslie Mack

You and your team just hit “post” on your latest magnum opus of content and with bated breath, wait for the likes to start pouring in.

You’d never say it out loud, but this could be the post that goes viral and brings your organization the visibility it deserves.

You check back in 15 minutes…2 hours… 2 days. Where are all the likes, views, reshares, and comments?! You have 500 followers but only 12 likes. You have 3,000 subscribers, but only 78 views.

Alas, we shake our fists to the heavens and lavish our unspeakable cures on the only one to blame here… The Algorithm.

Why do we hate “The Algorithm”?

Algorithm, a word that – if you’re bad at math like me- sounds like it’s spelled with numbers.

Between high school math equations, the binary zero and ones code the matrix showed us, and our leach-like dependance on a technology we barely understand, no wonder we feel defeated and helpless toward the invisible machine that seems to swallow our best work into the oversaturated oblivion known as the internet.

But what if you could sweet talk an algorithm?

What if you could sweet talk an algorithm? – Leslie Mack

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Algorithms have feelings too

What if we embraced the idea that algorithms have feelings too? That, like humans, algorithms are trained to pick up on behaviors, and adapt to social norms (or “abnorms”). What if we viewed the algorithm as highly emotionally intelligent and not just mathematically intelligent?

By the time you feed the algorithm several opportunities to practice reading your audience, provide the algorithm several opportunities to hone this skill, it becomes highly skilled at predicting the behavioral responses of your audience.

Don’t believe me, just google “Cloud AI”.

It’s not that the algorithm doesn’t want the world to see your content. The algorithm is more like a big brother (no pun intended) who doesn’t want you to “leave the house like that”. i.e. Put out bad content to your audience.

What if it were possible to partner with – dare I say befriend – the algorithm. You can begin to implement strategies to make the algorithm appreciate your best content by avoiding what the algorithm hates.

1. The Algorithm hates when you sucker punch your audience

The algorithm’s job is to keep people watching, scrolling, and attention-giving as long as possible. It will refuse to feed your audience something it has no history of ever liking.

Based on the previous content you posted, the algorithm collected enough data to tell what your audience likes to click on. So when you come out of left field with a new style of content, abandoning your truest tone of voice, the algorithm tries to protect your audience from the sucker punch you’re delivering. It ups it’s loyalty to the platform you’re posting on by not pushing your content.

Instead of a drastic change from say fixing motorcycles to make up tutorials, consider having a familiar face give a familiarly toned- intro to set up the change.

You might even consider cushioning either side of your “new” content with content that features a familiar face, topic and tone to your channel and audience.

The algorithm’s job is to keep people watching, scrolling, and attention-giving as long as possible. It will refuse to feed your audience something it has no history of ever liking. – Leslie Mack

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2. The Algorithm hates when you seem like a liar

If we agree the algorithm can feel things, the one feeling it hates most would be deception. And it’s pretty impatient when deciding whether or not it believes you’ll deliver on your promise.

Early on during the pandemic, I posted a video to YouTube called “You, Kanye, and Hangry Jesus” – teaching on the parable of the cursed fig tree. Originally, the thumbnail featured images of cut-outs of fruit, my face, and Kanye’s face. Clickbait-y? The algorithm definitely thought so. I didn’t mention Kanye until 9 minutes into the video!

In the first few minutes of the video being live, the metrics predicted that the video would perform below average for our channel. We changed the title of the video to “New Pandemic, Old Me: are Instagram Lives Making Us Better People” and changed the thumbnail to just feature my face with a confused expression holding fruit.

We were able to restore the performance of the video back to being on target for our channels average.

Now, we both know that you’d never intentionally set out to flat out lie to your audience. We just tend to like a sermon that ends with a good ah-ha moment.

However, if in the first few seconds of your content it doesn’t seem like you’re going to deliver on the promises made in the title, the thumbnail text, and the thumbnail art, well the algorithm would much rather suggest a video that will.

That’s why a large amount of the successful videos you watch on YouTube start off with “In today’s video I will…” followed by a list of buzz words and phrases that align with the title, tags, thumbnail text.

Try using a Search Engine Optimization tool along with a tool to help craft strong titles, to see what words people are searching for and align your content – from the title and thumbnail to the very last sentence- to meet an existing need.

If in the first few seconds of your content it doesn’t seem like you’re going to deliver on the promises made in the title, the algorithm would much rather suggest a video that will. – Leslie Mack

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3. The Algorithm Hates When You Thoughtlessly “Re-gift” Content

Grandma may always give you socks for Christmas and money on your birthday. At least she recognizes there’s a difference between the holidays (and doesn’t re-bless you with socks for both).

It’s tempting to put all your energy into making one piece of amazing content and just repost it, as is, across all platforms. But, the reason why your great aunt is on Facebook, your brother is on reddit, and your niece is on Tik Tok can be chalked up to two words: pace and preference.

Not tailoring your video to the platform it will live on means you’re guaranteed to be missing key components of what makes content succeed on different platforms.

It’s up to you to learn the pace and preferences, i.e. the native language, of the platform to which you post.

Where blogs speak the language of text with subtitles throughout, Tik Toks speak the language of short vids, overdubbed with jump cuts and text on screen.

Your audience (and therefore the algorithm) can spot “regifted” content from a mile away. Videos made for YouTube stand out like a sore thumb on Instagram- can the link you mentioned “in the description box below” actually found in your bio now?

Your church websites’ generic greeting video feels irrelevant to the audience on YouTube. Is regifting content all bad? No, but making some minor edits that make your content native to the platform help up your chances of visibility and reach.

Here are a few things to consider when customizing the content you intend to post on various platforms:

Your audience (and therefore the algorithm) can spot “regifted” content from a mile away. Videos made for YouTube stand out like a sore thumb on Instagram. – Leslie Mack

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1. Which platform supports the type of audience engagement you or your team is able to be responsive to?

If someone comments “I want to accept Christ” on your YouTube video you posted 3 months ago, do you have the right systems in place to respond in a thoughtful and timely manner?

If they reach out looking for your church’s address via Instagram DM, can you respond?

2. Are you thinking mobile-first?

The content we create is being consumed not on the massive computer screens we use to edit on, nor on a flatscreen TV, tablet, or jumbo stage projector in an auditorium.

By a landslide, mobile devices are the primary space for consuming digital content.

When you shrink your content down to the size of an index card, or even a 2’’ x 1’’ screen within a screen, are the graphics still legible? Does the orientation of the video allow your subject to be centered or cut off? Is important information in your headers or lower thirds being covered by in-platform graphics?

Does your call to action ask your audience to navigate through tricky multi-step processes that are hard to get to from the current platform? (Ask me about the nightmare of using Instagram Stories to ask 10,000 students to submit TikToks via FormStack that ultimately got complied into dropbox files for a DJ to mix into a video that would play on 40 ft projectors at an in-person event. The complexity!)

By a landslide, mobile devices are the primary space for consuming digital content. – Leslie Mack

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3. Are you using your title real estate effectively?

Is your title now cut off due to the character limit shown on this specific platform where the full title was clear over on YouTube?

Are you posting a series that all start with the same phrase and therefore limits your audience’s ability to engage with all the different parts of your content at a glance?

Is the text on your thumbnail redundant to title redundant to caption?

Maximize on grabbing attention by rephrasing or re-angling at each opportunity.

4. Does your content artwork break the promise your title makes to your audience?

Are you covering a sensitive topic but your artwork is your default, million-dollar smile headshot?

Is your message titled “peace during a pandemic” but your artwork feature an image of the pastor, scowling with passion as he makes his most poignant point?

Does your video title promise you’ll be hearing from students in this video but your thumbnail only show your face?

Treating the Algorithm as if it’s highly emotionally intelligent (even if that “emotional intelligence” is just a string of calculated predictions and mechanistic understanding) will help the algorithm begin to love some of your best content.

Treating the Algorithm as if it’s highly emotionally intelligent will help the algorithm begin to love some of your best content. – Leslie Mack

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The Online Church Engagement Summitnn

nn

So you’ve got people watching your church online. How do you turn them into engagers?nnnn

On October 8th, 2020, Carey Nieuwhof is hosting The Online Church Engagement Summit. It’s a free, 90-minute value-packed event where Levi Lusko, Nona Jones, and Bobby Gruenewald will give you their best practical strategies to turn viewers into engagers.nnnn

If you feel like you don’t even know where to begin, or if you’ve had success but want to reach and engage more people, this is for you and your team. nnnn

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The Online Church Engagement Summitnn

nn

So you’ve got people watching your church online. How do you turn them into engagers?nnnn

On October 8th, 2020, Carey Nieuwhof is hosting The Online Church Engagement Summit. It’s a free, 90-minute value-packed event where Levi Lusko, Nona Jones, and Bobby Gruenewald will give you their best practical strategies to turn viewers into engagers.nnnn

If you feel like you don’t even know where to begin, or if you’ve had success but want to reach and engage more people, this is for you and your team. nnnn

Learn more and register for free. n”,”label_pos”:”above”,”parentType”:”html”,”element_templates”:[“html”,”input”],”old_classname”:””,”wrap_template”:”wrap”}];nfForms.push(form);

What’s working for you? 

Have you had any posts go viral?

I’d love to hear about them in the comments below:

The post 3 Reasons “The Algorithm” Hates Some of Your Best Content appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 3 Reasons “The Algorithm” Hates Some of Your Best Content

The post 3 Reasons “The Algorithm” Hates Some of Your Best Content appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: The Church.Digital

The short answer is no – the very definition of social media confirms that the purpose of social media is for “users (to) create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content”. (Merrian Webster)

So how do you begin to shift the communication to being one way only to a two way highway with your staff and attendees?

Give them permission to drive on the highway: Ask questions! It could be as simple as asking for people to respond with their favorite flavor of ice cream on #NationalIceCreamDay or as deep as asking viewers to share a personal prayer request or a personal testimony about their walk with Christ. If your social media posts only tell without asking for a response, you will get little to no response.
Show them how to drive on the highway: Get your staff involved in this process! Use 5 minutes of a staff meeting to ask each member of your team to comment on a particular social media post. Have them pull out their phone and do it right in the moment. Send out a weekly email with a call to action to your staff and key volunteers to interact on a specific post. Your staff and key volunteers set the example for your viewers and can be a positive change in helping people feel empowered to engage in your content. (It also doesn’t hurt to keep the algorithms happy and working in your favor!) 
Ask them to drive on the highway: Yes – make it a part of your order of service to ask for people to follow your social media accounts and perhaps even challenge them to share a post or host a watch party for your weekend worship services. Once asked, we hope you are surprised with the engagement that you will create. Don’t assume that the people that enter your doors or watch online are following your social media accounts or that they understand the impact they can have on their own networks.

The Bible says that we are the light of the world, and even in the digital age we find ourselves in, the digital world needs the light of Jesus more than ever. So open your social media accounts for two way traffic to not only communicate but to listen!

Source: Is Social Media a One-Way Street?

The post Is Social Media a One-Way Street? appeared first on Passion for Planting.