Church Tech Dump

A couple weeks ago, Henderson Hills Baptist Church, with the help of Terrell Sanders and Adam White of Main Street Enterprises launched a new feature on their Facebook Fan Page. If you visit the HHBC Facebook Fan Page and you are not yet a fan, you’ll be presented with a customized page via a custom Facebook App.

On this custom Facebook App you see items from the HHBC RSS feed, service times, a banner advertising an upcoming event, a link to our weekly newsletter and a link to our media player. Cool!

The magic happens when you realize that all the content in the app is tied to a Wordpress website where you can add new content very quickly and easily! And if your church’s website already runs on Wordpress, you’re Facebook App’s content can sync automatically with your website. Update the website…update the Facebook App.

Here’s some more examples of what Main Street has been able to do with these sorts of Facebook Apps:

• http://www.facebook.com/crossingsokc
• http://www.facebook.com/CommissionStories
• http://www.facebook.com/unitedbrethren

The only downside to these apps is, once you become a fan of the page the app is on, it only appears when you click on it’s tab at the top of the fan page. However, with that in mind, it’s the perfect opportunity to make a great first impression for Facebook users who make it to your page. It’s important to note that tis is due to a limitation in Facebook’s API.

So, how much will one of these bad boys set you back? Adam tells me that they start at $500 plus customization and you can expect it to take about two weeks to turn one of these around. So, if you’re looking to add something fresh to your church’s Facebook strategy, check into Main Street!