With Nancy Chafin, Director of Communications Diocese of Virginia

Your channels Church Website E-Newsletter Social Media The Press

The Church Website Two audiences; two goals Website through the Diocese; $10/month Home page photos Don’t be sexy; be useful – use words with your pictures Surface lots of content – balance cleanliness with ease of use Carefully plan what’s above the fold, keep home page wide not tall Cross reference like crazy What’s good content? Practical and spiritual, share your best ideas

Newsletters Who’s your audience? How often? When? Special editions What’s good content – calendar items, request for volunteers, other ideas? It is just a calendar laundry list? – sermons, feed spiritually The subject line – open rate Length of items Header: In this issue Photos – stock photos Platforms – Constant Contact , Mail Chimp Mobile optimizing – options, see analytics

Social media The Why and How The What - Creating Content Two audiences Less formal, real Build community outside the building – extension of fellowship at church Passive not active – in their feed How to grow audience – follow others, post often How to increase engagement: Create conversations: ask questions; ask for submissions on topics; respond to comments Ambassadors; parishioners, share your joy in your church life? The What - Creating Content Photos, SHORT video – increase reach, get permission for kid photos Sources for content –events, spiritual, what happened, what’s coming up, link to sermons, other web content, cross pollinate, re-use Creating content with graphics – canva.com Stay sane – calendar content – Facebook and Hootsuite

Mostly Free Resources Stock photography Canva – for graphic design Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/ Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/  Splitshire: https://www.splitshire.com/ Epicantus: http://epicantus.tumblr.com/ (more abstract) Picjumbo: https://picjumbo.com/ Canva – for graphic design flyers Social media Constant Contact – for eNewsletter Hootsuite – to schedule social media $19/month

Media Relations Good and bad coverage Work your connections Newspapers – small markets need news Public radio A secular angle/interest Pitching story – offer total package

5 Communications Don’ts Don’t constantly recreate the wheel Don’t send too much too often Don’t bury the lead Don’t ignore your mobile presence Don’t overthink it, sometimes good enough is good enough

10 Communications Do’s Keep your audience in mind Photos, photos, photos Cross pollinate Be brief, grab them fast and get noticed Include a call to action Steal content liberally Keep a schedule Create community Feed your followers spiritually Ask the Diocese for help! nchafin@thediocese.net, ekamran@thediocese.net