Articles V1

Finding Your Voice and Rising Above the Noise

Category: Web Strategies
Subtitle: #0 Check the pulse of your website - is it alive?
Author: Steve
Date: 2011/3/13
People are bombarded with information - radio, television, magazines, newspapers, text messages, email and social media updates. Despite all the noise, people are still starved for good information. How do you get heard above the noise? Contribute to the noise? Quantity does not guarantee quality.

The biggest factor in getting heard is actually saying something on a regular basis. Not just anything, but something of value - timely and relevant. I will bet you have something of importance to share with people, but you haven't used your website to share it. Or, by the time you did post it, the timeliness or relevance was lost.

'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.' ~Aristotle
Keywords: content, discipline, rhythm

Summary: People are bombarded with information - radio, television, magazines, newspapers, text messages, email and social media updates. Despite all the noise, people are still starved for good information. How do you get heard above the noise? Contribute to the noise? Quantity does not guarantee quality.

The biggest factor in getting heard is actually saying something on a regular basis. Not just anything, but something of value - timely and relevant. I will bet you have something of importance to share with people, but you haven't used your website to share it. Or, by the time you did post it, the timeliness or relevance was lost.

'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.' ~Aristotle

Some time ago, I conducted a survey of church websites and recorded a number of observations - some were technical, but most related to the content and practices being followed by their publishers. Of the 36 sites included,



 As an organization with events and news happening on a daily basis, keeping your church's website up-to-date with fresh content shouldn't be too difficult. Or, is it? Based on my findings, it appears to be quite difficult!


Establishing a new routine and creating a new habit usually means breaking an old one. It can also involve a change in the way you think. The process needs to be an extension of a current process - a new way of doing something familiar, instead of a completely foreign activity. To break a habit, break it down - start by examining and outlining your current routine



Next, look at the content you are currently publising.



Finally, find your rhythm. Your life has rhythm - you wake up, get ready, commute, work, lunch, more work, commute home, dinner, entertainment, sleep. Your community also has its own rhythm. In fact, without rhythm, a community will slowly dissolve. Strengthen your community by reinforcing rhythm, by echoing its pulse. 


'What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.' ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


With many sources of information, you need to decide and communicate which is the authoritative source - the "owner of record". That way, when things change, as they are likely to do, you know which source to concentrate on. When you tally the cost to produce, the time required to update and distribute, your website is the most logical and economical means to communicate a message. It is also the most accessbile form you can produce and it can be the source for your offline publications, too. So, why is your website the last thing to get updated?


What message can people carry with them through the week? What did those who were unable to attend services miss? What words of encouragement, challenges or prayers can you share?


Focus all your other publications on your website by making it the hub of life for your congregation and community. When you establish the habit of regular updates and guide people to the web as The Place for Updates, they establish their own habits. You give them the message in a way it is easy for them to share. And, people will notice when the site is down - that's a good thing!


Here's a challenge for you - spend the next 40 days looking at your publishing habits, both online and offline. Check your pulse. Think about how those habits might need to change and what you'll do next. I'd love to hear what new habits you've added and which old ones have been replaced - let us know in the comments below.


Blessings!


Articles V1
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