1 A Review of 2.5 Years of Our Online Church Sept. 1, 2009 to Aug. 31, 2011

2 Summation New Request: –Allow non members to register Year-to-Year Comparison of Use –What’s down; what’s up and why Significance –Reach Issues –Effectiveness for acquisition and retention –Alignment to UU Principles Overview

Summary 1. Reach and usage are still very high but visits and page views are down. Some possible reasons: Newness attracted attention Content may be less compelling New quality content frequency down Coordination of Sun. worship and online content down Significant drop in blog posts Fewer resources working on the site Pastoral Care Guild use gone and VOICE usage down 2. Evidence emerging that site is playing a key role in capturing attention from new visitors intending on visiting the church in person. 3. Need integrated member acquisition and retention plan. The new visitor attraction of the web site is a huge lost opportunity. 4. More analysis needed 5. Resourcing for the online church – staff and lay leadership 6. Presentation to BOT 3

4 A UU issue, in general – Should non-members be allowed to register? – Members of more than on church – CLF – Professional consideration vs. who is my minister? Our promise to the Congregation -Only members, friends and inquiring friends of record -Perception and misunderstandings re: a safe sanctuary online Yahoo and Google groups cause spam – not us The Ning Platform -Doesn’t support a new class of registrant that we would need to monitor and manage Issues: Welcoming Church

Usage – Very Good! 37,000 total Unique Visits in 2 years ( UUCA has fewer than 1,200 members, friends, and IFs of record.) –55% of the 37K, are repeat users (20K) –45% of the 37K uniques were new unique visitors But down 20% year over year –Of the 37K unique visitors: 56% of them clicked something on the page they first arrived at. They came to the site 78,000 times in total They were from 174 countries representing 93 languages –US = 94%; Canada 3%; The balance – UK, France, Denmark, Spain, China, India, Philippines, Germany, Australia 244,000 page views,(3.00/visit) from those 78K total visits But down 35 % year over year 5

Content with page view (pvs) growth New Visitor/Member related –Location & direction: up 38% to 3,300 unique page views, average time on page up 11% to 00:02:45 –What is Unitarian Universalism: up 280% in unique page views; 61% increase in time spent to 00:03:17 Retention and Acquisition related –Unique pages views of the Arlingtarian download page up, 14.5% to 1,180. (no stats on downloads). However, the pvs indicate compelling content RE for Adults: up 26% in unique pvs –However, time spent is down by 15% and clicks off of the page to more adult RE info is down 5% need analysis as to why Capital Campaign: unique pvs up 43% but time spent down 36% Activism Related – when members create content and manage it –Social Justice pages, up 40% to 1,200 –Green Action, unique pages up 50% to 331 and time spent up 43% –PAG up18% unique pages, up 16% time spent –Immigration and Equality Now group activities are good 6

Declining Page Views But Increase in Time Spent = Still Compelling Sermons –Down 18% in unique pvs but up 10% in time spent –Potential reasons: Fewer sermons posted in 2010 than 2011 Promotions down? Link omitted to the uploaded text from the highlights box Blogs –Unique pages views down 30% but time spent up 24% –Potential reasons: Fewer clergy generated blogs than in 2010 Or more clergy written blogs featured member blogs Fewer blogs featured Fewer members blogging? Ste wardship Page –Down by 7% unique pvs but up 27% in time spent Capital Campaign: unique pvs up 43% but time spent down 36% Activism Related – immigration news and equality now groups growing too –Social Justice pages, up 40% to 1,200 –Green Action, unique pages up 50% to 331 and time spent up 43% 7

8 1. Non-Clergy staff: Create a blog and commit to refreshing once a week What’s new in membership What’s new with Youth What’s new in RE Content in Arlingtarian should also be items on the site 2. Training given to new employees and volunteers in the staff Tutorials online but also one-on-one intro sessions 3. Ministers: Use status for gratitudes Less might be more when it comes to blogging Plan videos and post before sermons – titling videos Every week mention in the sermon or homily, meditations too that more on the church site. Your writings in The Arlingtarian should also be blogs 4. RE: Improve content on existing pages. Meanwhile, video collection was mapped in part to adult and kids education curriculum. Ex: Adam and Eve; Buddhism. For older kids, curriculum could send students to our site for contentAdam and Eve Buddhism 5. Analyze use of time and and its effectiveness against goals Green --- reduce number of Arlingtarians – 3-4 month effort to confirm those who want paper Pass the Plate – turn into weekly event on the website with promotion 6.Increase use of facebook to virally spread exposure to our church and to better serve existing members who are heavy users Suggestions