MA Parish Using Social Media/Website Effectively
After reading this article from the CNS about a Massachusetts parish's use of its website, YouTube, Facebook, etc., it seems like they would be a good example of what to emulate in other parishes.
Father Longe and parishioner Timothy Hourihan believe in taking the message of Jesus to new people in new ways. Specifically, during the past year they initiated many forms of electronic evangelization to attract more people to the faith.
Since April 2009, the parish YouTube site has had more than 20,000 views of its home-produced videos. The men have created a church blog, Facebook site and Twitter account, and have homilies, songs and prayers available for free downloads on iTunes.
The electronic offerings from the parish are a mix of education and entertainment. For example, one popular YouTube video involved Father Longe just standing in front of the parish statue of Mary and talking about the mother of Jesus.
Another video features Father Brian F. McGrath, St. Mary's pastor, cooking an Italian meal. The show follows him from the rectory garden to the kitchen to the dinner table.
It's not just about the technologies—it's about how interested a parish actually is in using those technologies. It seems like Fr. McGrath (the pastor of St. Mary's) is being very helpful in this regard, encouraging parishioners to help him promote the parish online.
I think more parishes will take this approach in the coming years (especially those with younger parishioners).
Here's the St. Mary's parish website; one thing I wish more parishes (including St. Mary's) would do is use a better content management system/strategy so they could wrap all their online offerings in one consistent website, rather than having a link to an offsite blog, a link to YouTube, a link to Facebook, etc...
Comments
Yes, you said it right in the last paragraph.
I'm going to partially disagree with the last paragraph. Yes, it's important to have a content strategy that makes your online offerings available on your own site and to consistently include links back to the mothership. But church ministries also have to get comfortable accepting that today's audiences are going to want to interact on their own terms in their own locations. It's great if you can host your own videos, but you're not going to show up as a related video on YouTube there. It would be easier if all comments and discussions took place on our own parish websites, but if the audience is on Facebook then that's where the engagement is likely to happen.
It's definitely a challenging balancing act. Something similar takes place with the successful Theology on Tap programs where priests host discussion on Catholic talks at neighborhood bars -- because that's where the people are. The intention is to engage audiences and help them get/return to church, but sometimes it has to start outside of the church's (physical or online) site.
In that last paragraph, I didn't mean that the goal should be to have all content exclusively hosted and commented-upon on an organization's website. Rather, if content is hosted off-site (e.g. a video on YouTube), it should be embedded on the organization's site, rather than linked-to.
If nothing else, people should know to go first to your organization's website, then find relevant content on other Social Media sites via your site.
Advancing the faith.
True, with embeds, fan boxes and Twitter feeds, you can make that content available on your site whether your visitors are starting there or ending up there.
While it would be ideal for the parishes to have content management systems and strategies, all the content management systems I've seen cost $10K-20K to setup, never mind maintenance and updating. Are there grants available to pay for such development? Or maybe you know a few free AND Easy options for DIY'ers? Please.. :)
PS. I hereby admit to being a new reader. Please don't shoot me for not visiting and reading every page on yoru site before responding to your posting. I
Some of the easiest options would be setting up a quick site (for free!) on www.drupalgardens.com or www.wordpress.com, then expanding from there to a self-hosted website running on Drupal, Wordpress, or Joomla.
So far, in my life, I have never found a for-pay content management system that can do half the things I can do in one day with a Drupal site :)
For instance, archstl.org, this website, and whitehouse.gov are all running on Drupal, using a different mix of modules and custom themes (actually, this site uses 'Airy Blue,' an open source Drupal theme).
Advancing the faith.
@Jocelyn
To be honest..some of the cheap/free DIY stuff I've seen out there can be a bit misleading at times. By that, I mean that they often promise how great it'll look and how easy it is to maintain. The reality is...you get what you pay for - most of the time. In the end, they look pretty bad and people complain how it doesn't do what they want it to.
Nowadays, with the proliferation of Drupal, WordPress, Joomla (and others)...you should be able to hire someone to build a decent site for under $2,000. Obviously, complexity increases cost...but overall, costs have come down significantly in the past few years.
If you do a bit of digging, you can probably find a local web developer or freelancer that'll be a good fit and deliver the goods.
Here's how I'd go about it...
Go to your Diocesan website. They probably have a listing of all the parishes, hopefully with links to their websites. Browse through a dozen (or more) and you should find some decent sites. More often than not, there'll be a site credit at the bottom of the site and voila...you got a lead. It might be a good idea to contact the parish and ask how the experience went for them and if they'd recommend them for your project.
You might be surprised to find some good local talent!
Post new comment