Rethinking Church Websites
The following quote from the book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott that I am reading for my design work has got my creative, brainstorming juices flowing in relation to church websites.
Here is the quote:
“Website content too often simple describes what an organization or product does from an egotistical perspective. While information about your organization and products is certainly valuable on the inner pages of your site, what visitors really want is content that first describes the issues and problems they face and then provides details on how to solve these problems.”
then they write,
“It’s all about delivering content when and where it is needed and, in the process, branding you and your organization as a leader.”
Just a question:
What if church websites were more focused on giving value to their local community than telling the world how great they are?
What if, instead, instead church websites posted movie reviews of current films, reviews of local secular (gasp!) music, advice on finances and managing money, biblical marital advice, raising kids, dealing with relationships. You know, stuff that the Church should have something to say about.
It would be a ton of work from a group of committed people, but sounds like www.thewellpa.com might have a redesign coming soon… who knows.
mark licitra said...
101/7/08 1:48 PM | Comment Link |
interesting idea… do it!
Daniel said...
201/7/08 1:56 PM | Comment Link |
I like it. Seems like there is a lot that could be done with that thought. I’ll be watching thewellpa.com for ideas to steal. ;-)
David Meerman Scott said...
301/7/08 2:22 PM | Comment Link |
What a great discussion. Thanks for reading my book and writing about it here.
Best, David
Eric said...
401/7/08 5:03 PM | Comment Link |
Awesome thoughts. Ive been sort of thinking along the same lines. I look forward to what you come up with.
ed said...
501/7/08 7:58 PM | Comment Link |
While this should be really easy to put into practice for a church, I think there needs to be some planning and some talk of commitments just to make sure there’s enough momentum to not only get off the ground, but to get moving. Good work Todd!
Tom said...
601/10/08 4:57 PM | Comment Link |
Todd, I really like this idea. But content is key. If the site isn’t fresh, then users/guests will lose interest, and the project will fail. Ideally, there would be a separate site that aggregates (and therefore shares) content between like-minded publishers (or content creators). For instance, if someone at The Well writes a great movie review or article on parenting, I’d like to be able to “feed” that to my community and vice-versa. I do think it’s time for churches to think large about web publishing. I genuinely believe we have something positive to contribute to the broader cultural conversation.