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Taking the Fear Out of Blogosphere
- By Jay Delp
- Published 12/20/2007
- Technology in Ministry
-
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Jay Delp
Jay Delp has been combining media and ministry for two decades. He’s currently writing, speaking, training, and providing video productions services full-time helping people in ministry use today’s technology to “Show and Tell” the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Find out more about Jay’s ministry at www.jaydelp.com.
Principles for creating an effective blog
You’ve made up your mind. You’re going to take the long-awaited digital leap and dive headlong into the epitome of youth ministry tech-coolness...blogging.
With the blogosphere experiencing explosive growth over the last several years (some estimate 60,000 new blogs are created every day), you may feel it’s time for you to join the fun. In this edition of “Digital Discipleship,” I’d like to share some of what I’ve gleaned from blogging research, cyber observations, and even a local “techno-tween” friend of mine for the purpose of creating and maintaining an effective youth ministry blog.
First, a Definition
Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal that’s accessed via the Internet and frequently updated and intended for general public consumption and conversation. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.”
Technology
Unlike other applications in your ministry (video projection, video editing, etc.), blogging is very simple and very cheap. In fact, you already have access to 99 percent of what you need to launch your own blog—all you need is a computer, Web browser, Internet connection, and an online blogging tool. Of course, if you want higher-end blogging features and/or tools, a small investment is required.
Since the technological demands of blogging are so minimal, the biggest obstacles to effective blogging, as you might suspect, aren’t hardware or software but “youware.” In other words, how well you do your blogging homework, planning, designing, writing, communicating, linking, etc., determines how well your blog is received.
Speaking of research, if you want an excellent book on how to create, maintain, and develop a killer ministry blog, check out Brian Bailey’s book, The Bogging Church (Jossey-Bass 2007). It was a great help in my research for this article and is a well-written, comprehensive guide to effective ministry-based blogging. Bailey’s chapter, “Ten Steps to a Bad Blog,” is especially helpful (and humorous).
Creating a Blog Worth Blogging
Don’t let your fear of making cyber-mistakes keep you from moving ahead with your blog. Everybody makes blogging blunders along the way, especially early on. Let’s take a look at some not-so-secret secrets for creating and maintaining a dynamic and oft-visited ministry blog.
1. Frequent updates. Readers of your blog love to be in the know, so be sure to keep your blog filled with fresh content. Yes, this takes commitment—but you do want an effective blog, right?
2. Be fast. Make sure your pages download quickly (less than five seconds). If you have trouble with slower-than-expected page load times, find the culprit (banners, links, etc.) and delete them.
3. Create a strong front page. Most people may only see your front page, so make sure everything on it deserves the space you give it. Your first page is your most important page.
4. Use lists. I’m a “list guy.” Love ’em. Top-10 lists. “My favorite…” lists. “Most interesting blogs” list. You get the idea.
5. Authenticity. You already know this, but it still deserves some ink. The best blogs, both inside and outside of youth ministry, are full of real, authentic (and therefore sometimes messy) dialogue, conversation, and interaction. The church already suffers from a lot of well-deserved bad press for being judgmental, hypocritical, and irrelevant. So make sure your blog isn’t such a place. Keep a welcoming tone to all posts even if you receive some harsh input from those “outside the flock.” Isn’t building bridges and relationships with “the world” one of our primary purposes for blogging in the first place? You don’t need flashy design to be effective in the blogosphere, but you do need authenticity. It’s a non-negotiable.
6. Categorically speaking. Including a list (another list idea!) of categories on your blog adds value and makes it easy for visitors to find items of interest fast. A dozen max.
7. Easy does it. Is it difficult for folks to 1) find out how to subscribe to your blog or, 2) subscribe to your blog? Why? Away with those obstacles! An easily identifiable “Subscribe” (or similar) button/link on your front page will do just fine.
8. Free stuff. Or at least links to free stuff. These past weeks I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with a super-sharp, 13-year-old wiz-bang tech ace named Jacob (the son of a good friend and now senior high youth pastor at my church where I was youth pastor during the late 1900s). Jacob’s been linking me to all kinds of cool sites offering free software, info, etc. You do the same! Offer your own “free stuff” in the form of downloadable graphics, audio and video clips, documents, and anything else you have the right to give away and that may help others.
As many of you are experiencing every day, “online community” is not even close to qualifying as an oxymoron. Just when we all thought we reached the pinnacle of youth ministry techno-nirvana with our Web sites, wireless PDAs, multiple e-mail addresses, instant messaging, and even text messaging, along comes the blogosphere and blows the doors wide open for even greater ministry possibilities to youth. And we haven’t even talked about RSS feeds, podcasts, trackbacks, and tags. E-mail is so 2004. Sincerely logging off...
With the blogosphere experiencing explosive growth over the last several years (some estimate 60,000 new blogs are created every day), you may feel it’s time for you to join the fun. In this edition of “Digital Discipleship,” I’d like to share some of what I’ve gleaned from blogging research, cyber observations, and even a local “techno-tween” friend of mine for the purpose of creating and maintaining an effective youth ministry blog.
First, a Definition
Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal that’s accessed via the Internet and frequently updated and intended for general public consumption and conversation. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.”
Technology
Unlike other applications in your ministry (video projection, video editing, etc.), blogging is very simple and very cheap. In fact, you already have access to 99 percent of what you need to launch your own blog—all you need is a computer, Web browser, Internet connection, and an online blogging tool. Of course, if you want higher-end blogging features and/or tools, a small investment is required.
Since the technological demands of blogging are so minimal, the biggest obstacles to effective blogging, as you might suspect, aren’t hardware or software but “youware.” In other words, how well you do your blogging homework, planning, designing, writing, communicating, linking, etc., determines how well your blog is received.
Speaking of research, if you want an excellent book on how to create, maintain, and develop a killer ministry blog, check out Brian Bailey’s book, The Bogging Church (Jossey-Bass 2007). It was a great help in my research for this article and is a well-written, comprehensive guide to effective ministry-based blogging. Bailey’s chapter, “Ten Steps to a Bad Blog,” is especially helpful (and humorous).
Creating a Blog Worth Blogging
Don’t let your fear of making cyber-mistakes keep you from moving ahead with your blog. Everybody makes blogging blunders along the way, especially early on. Let’s take a look at some not-so-secret secrets for creating and maintaining a dynamic and oft-visited ministry blog.
1. Frequent updates. Readers of your blog love to be in the know, so be sure to keep your blog filled with fresh content. Yes, this takes commitment—but you do want an effective blog, right?
2. Be fast. Make sure your pages download quickly (less than five seconds). If you have trouble with slower-than-expected page load times, find the culprit (banners, links, etc.) and delete them.
3. Create a strong front page. Most people may only see your front page, so make sure everything on it deserves the space you give it. Your first page is your most important page.
4. Use lists. I’m a “list guy.” Love ’em. Top-10 lists. “My favorite…” lists. “Most interesting blogs” list. You get the idea.
5. Authenticity. You already know this, but it still deserves some ink. The best blogs, both inside and outside of youth ministry, are full of real, authentic (and therefore sometimes messy) dialogue, conversation, and interaction. The church already suffers from a lot of well-deserved bad press for being judgmental, hypocritical, and irrelevant. So make sure your blog isn’t such a place. Keep a welcoming tone to all posts even if you receive some harsh input from those “outside the flock.” Isn’t building bridges and relationships with “the world” one of our primary purposes for blogging in the first place? You don’t need flashy design to be effective in the blogosphere, but you do need authenticity. It’s a non-negotiable.
6. Categorically speaking. Including a list (another list idea!) of categories on your blog adds value and makes it easy for visitors to find items of interest fast. A dozen max.
7. Easy does it. Is it difficult for folks to 1) find out how to subscribe to your blog or, 2) subscribe to your blog? Why? Away with those obstacles! An easily identifiable “Subscribe” (or similar) button/link on your front page will do just fine.
8. Free stuff. Or at least links to free stuff. These past weeks I’ve been e-mailing back and forth with a super-sharp, 13-year-old wiz-bang tech ace named Jacob (the son of a good friend and now senior high youth pastor at my church where I was youth pastor during the late 1900s). Jacob’s been linking me to all kinds of cool sites offering free software, info, etc. You do the same! Offer your own “free stuff” in the form of downloadable graphics, audio and video clips, documents, and anything else you have the right to give away and that may help others.
As many of you are experiencing every day, “online community” is not even close to qualifying as an oxymoron. Just when we all thought we reached the pinnacle of youth ministry techno-nirvana with our Web sites, wireless PDAs, multiple e-mail addresses, instant messaging, and even text messaging, along comes the blogosphere and blows the doors wide open for even greater ministry possibilities to youth. And we haven’t even talked about RSS feeds, podcasts, trackbacks, and tags. E-mail is so 2004. Sincerely logging off...
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Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by an unknown user)
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As a "techno-tween" this was a great help. Please keep dragging me into the 21st century.
Comment #2 (Posted by brandon riley)
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great article.... check out some more technology for youth ministries at www.tuggle.it (basically it has blown myspace and fabook out of the water in our youth group)
