Get a Facebook App for your Church!
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!
StreamAPI Opens Live Video Funtionality To All On Facebook
Lately I’ve seen a number of churches with online campuses that roll several social technologies together (twitter, Facebook, streaming video, etc.) to create their online experience.
I’ve always liked that approach because it does less reinventing of wheels by using existing services that people are already using.
Now it looks like your entire online campus could just take place in Facebook thanks to this service from Stickcam. Pretty cool.
Twitter and the Church hit the big Time
Here’s an interesting read about how a church is using Twitter in their worship services.
Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Extends Reznor's Innovative Run | The Underwire from Wired.com
I realize that Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor have little to do with the Church. However, Reznor’s innovative use of technology is changing the music industry (no small feat) and there are a few moves he has made, mentioned in the article linked to above that, I thought the Church could benefit from.
- Embrace existing technology
Instead of reinventing the wheel, Reznor has used existing a freely available tech to promote his brand. - Participate in social networks
Why build a social network to share photos, music, videos and discussion if his fanbase is already found on existing networks with greater reach? Plus it’s cheaper. - Leverage social networks for promotion
Now that Reznor is followed by and friends with users from Facebook to Twitter, he can easily and cheaply broadcast tour information and other news to his fans.
10 Predictions for 2009 in the World of Tech
Technophile, Louis Gray provides his predictions for technology in 2009. Of interest to us church types may be:
1) The Real-Time Web Will Become Critical for News and Information Discovery
Gray expects real-time tools like Twitter to gain in popularity and be favored amongst their users as news and information sources. This year, make it a goal to use Twitter for your church. While it will come in handy for communicating weather related closings, start thinking about how you can leverage the platform to become more accessible to your congregation and community.
2) Businesses Will Be Expected to Be On Social Media If They Have Web Sites
Does anybody need more convincing that Facebook can and should be used for ministry?
6) A Major Alternative to FeedBurner Will Emerge As the Service Stagnates
Yes! I am so ready for this. It’s a shame about Feedburner. Many of us use it and many of us have suffered through random posts from the past being mailed to subscribers amongst other issues. I hope for the sake of simplicity that Google gets their act together.
Read the rest of the article and if you have any of your own predictions to make, feel free to share!
