Why You Should Care About Big News from Google at the Mobile World Congress - Ministry & Business Marketing, Media and Strategy Blog

As I watched to this morning to a video featuring Google's VP of Mobile, my wife asked me why I'm interested in what's happening in emerging mobile markets. So why should we, as those seeking God's glory and to advance His kingdom, care about what's happening with techno growth? I'll get to that question in a second...

One oversized piece of news from Google out of this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is that IPhone users are accessing Google's web searches 50 times as much as those without the IPhone! Google's VP of Mobile explains why in the clip linked above. Also in the clip is news that Google anticipates mobile search to overtake PC-based search in the next several years. The takeaway for ministries: mobile is and will be a huge mission field/equipping territory going forward and you should plan your ministry accordingly (including subscribe by cell phone, Blue Tooth alerts, handheld bible study tools, and more).

Back to my wife's question...Why should we care about what's happening in emerging technologies? Because knowing what's coming & getting ahead of the curve should afford us an incredible opportunity to plan and successfully execute ministry, for God' glory!

You may be thinking, "I'm the pastor of a small church in the middle of Indiana. What does a Chinese mobile provider have to do with me?" Let me answer your question with a few questions of my own.

Do you support missionaries? Do you pray for & give to overseas ministries, or plan to do so in the near future? Wouldn't it be in keeping with Jesus' command to be "wise as serpents" for you to be able to better evaluate ministries in China, India, Africa, and beyond, based on their use of mobile technologies that are exploding in those locales?

For you parachurch leaders, what are you doing to tap the burgeoning mobile market? Are you delivering ministry alerts to members' cell phones? Are you Blue Tooth broadcasting at major events and on Sunday mornings?

The bottom line for this blog and the Lucky Rock ministry is to bring glory to God by "equipping the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the Body of Christ," primarily through better ministry strategy, with a special focus on staying ahead of the technology/marketing game and directing ministry accordingly. Don't let your ministry lag and don't fool yourself into thinking it's too hard to keep up. God will supply all the wisdom & insight you need and He will provide the human resources (including yours truly) to capitalize on the incredible tools at our disposal to spread the good news of our great God and King, Jesus Christ.

Try reading your Bible with forward thinking in mind and start praying about how to revamp your ministry to more efficiently build people in Christ and make new disciples. Then subscribe to our blog, link to us, and tell others about how they too can "get 'er done" for Jesus Christ.

PS: One more Blue Tooth broadcasting idea...For major evangelistic events such as Luis Palau Festival or other mass gatherings, why not broadcast Blue Tooth invites to the surrounding community throughout your activity? If you really want to go nuts, you could set up Blue Tooth units at large participating churches, which would help spread the word beyond the immediate vicinity of your venue. This would be especially strategic if your conference spans several days.

Your Website - Is It The Taj Mahal Nobody Knows About? - Ministry & Business Marketing, Media and Strategy Blog

One of my biggest frustrations as a sometime web designer and full-time ministry consultant is the near-universal tendency of ministries to spend all of their web budget on a killer-looking site that nobody outside of their members/friends ever sees. Ministries usually don't realize that optimizing their sites to be picked up by the major search engines, especially Google, is just as important as building a fabulous web home.

Before I dive into quick fixes for your website search rankings, let me say that search engine optimization (SEO) is not just about adding a couple of things to your site and watching it zoom. You must feature a solid amount of content people actually want, organized in a way that's easy to navigate and keeps people coming back for more. That said, and no offense to the SEO pros reading this, you can make some simple changes to your website that will make it pop in search engines. How do I know? Because these changes have done wonders for me.

1) Page title. Check out the top navigation bar in Internet Explorer or Firefox the next time you visit one of your favorite websites. It doesn't just list the organization name; it describes the ministry. Churches should include their geographical area, ministry distinctives, and denomination. Parachurches should detail their location (if pertinent) and ministry focus, in general terms like "Evangelize Africa," or "Feed America's Poor". Keep your title to just two or three key phrases that people are most likely to use when searching for your kind of website, then list your ministry name.

2) Description and meta tags. For those of you who don't know, meta tags, often in the form of keywords, feed information about your website content to all the search engines and crawlers that visit you.

I can't tell you how many times SEO experts have declared, "Meta tags are dead!" If that's the case, why do all of the best-optimized websites still use them? List the keywords that describe your ministry, such as "Orange County Baptist Church, biblical teaching, poor ministry, financial ministry, web ministry, web outreach, free plumber, free auto repairs." As with your page title, the trick is to use keywords and phrases that people are most likely to punch in when searching for your website.

3) Label all your photos. You do have lots of high-quality photos that tell your ministry story, don't you? Use alt tags to label all of your ministry photos.

Search engines don't read photos, they read text. And alt tags give Google and friends something to chew on and will pop up if your photos don't load. Consider tags such as "Heights Calvary Chapel in Chicago city-wide baptism," or "new Northpoint Atlanta community center opening."

4) Make your site contagious. Offer ways for people to subscribe by email, mobile, rss reader, and whatever else and be sure to include means for people to forward your page to friends by email, text message, etc. "Viral" websites get linked to more often, which leads to hire search engine rankings. Which brings me too...

5) You like me. You really like me! Links are a great way to boost your search engine ranking. In search engine-think, if other sites like you, you must be important. If you support or partner with other ministries, be sure to swap links with them. And if you have a blog, list it on all the major blog search engines (put in a Google search to find them).

Hopefully these tips will greatly improve your site's visibility and ministry reach. (For quick fixes to your website itself, check out this recent post.)

If you implement these changes and they work for you, I'd love to hear about it. In that event, I'd also love for you to send a few bucks our way so we can help other ministries.

I freely invite any SEO pros to add their suggestions/corrections via commenting on this blog. Let's work together to improve ministry websites, to bring God glory and advance His Kingdom...

Blue Tooth Marketing for Christian Businesses...Make Some Money, Give to Ministry - Ministry & Business Marketing, Media and Strategy Blog

I promised you I'd post another round yesterday, but seminary reading and company coming to town proved too formidable a duo. I digress...

This post is for all you Christian business owners. I just can't resist "tearing the roof off" of your techno-understanding, (sorry to steal your term, Francis Schaefer). Christian business owners need to wake up to new Blue Tooth revenue streams and use the excess cash to fund ministry.

A few Blue Tooth broadcasting possibilities...

1) Radio stations. We've all heard remote broadcasts at car dealerships. Imagine a radio station booking additional revenue by offering to broadcast on-site Blue Tooth alerts about the hottest vehicles. Suddenly the dealership is generating leads that they otherwise may not get, because most folks don't want to talk to a salesperson and just want the info on the car(s) they're interested in.

2) Grocery stores, coffee shops, bookstores (basically any retail outlet). Why aren't you using Blue Tooth to broadcast coupons, new merchandise, this week's specials, and so much more? Get a long-range dongle, buy some software, and amaze your nearby customers with your technical prowess and with the deals you're advertising.

3) Got an oil change yesterday. Now wondering why they're not setting themselves apart from the other oil change joint right across the street, by using Blue Tooth to broadcast their car repair specials.

4) Concerts. Use Blue Tooth to sell band merchandise right over the phone, to be mailed or picked up at the table in the back. Blue Tooth broadcast fan club subscriptions, album info, upcoming events, etc.

5) Movie theaters. Blue Tooth snack bar specials and opt-ins for your frequent movie watcher club.

The list goes on. The possibilities are endless. Praise the Lord! Make some cash and give it to ministry, (maybe the Lucky Rock).

By the way, if you're not sure how to manage your business or your money God's way, check out Crown Financial Ministries' great website and buy a copy of the classic CD series God's Principles for Operating a Business.

Internet Evangelism Day - Ministry & Business Marketing, Media and Strategy Blog

Quickly...Check out the Internet Evangelism Day website. Though they obviously focus on a once-a-year push for web-based ministry, IED also offers great resources on all sorts of ways to use technology in ministry. Enjoy.

I'll post another column later today...

Follow-up to Blue Tooth, Location-Based, Mobile Ministry - Ministry & Business Marketing, Media and Strategy Blog

In my last post I mentioned the incredible potential of Blue Tooth marketing. Again, the range of at least one low-cost device is purported to be 900 feet (600 feet from dongle to phones)!

As you consider Blue Tooth broadcasting (for which the Spirit-led possibilities for helping people know and grow in Christ are pretty much endless), please be sure of the following:

1) Supplemental signage is key. Don't just broadcast into oblivion; put notice of Blue Tooth alerts on your church sign and on billboards. Also put adverts in your church bulletin. And if you use video monitors to show the worship service, add a small graphic letting folks know about your Blue Tooth content. Such signage will also help you reach folks who've turned off their Blue Tooth devices, who obviously would not otherwise be reached by your Blue Toothing.

2) Less is more. Even though Blue Tooth is opt-in, don't just constantly stream a thousand different ads to see what sticks. Certainly some experimentation will help refine your messaging, but don't go nuts. Whether you're a church or parachurch ministry, keeping it to simple ministry info and interest surveys is probably best.

3) Keep file sizes to 10K or less (unless you're located in Europe or Japan). Most phones simply can't process big files efficiently, thus your latest super cool church video will just be annoying and likely off-putting. A slick graphic with links will fit within a 10K limit.

Alright, I can't resist giving you a couple more Blue Tooth ministry ideas...

1) Set up a short-range (150 feet) Blue Tooth dongle in your Sunday school/education wing. Broadcast a simple listing of the various classes available with links to more info.

2) Youth/college events. I know, I know youth and college are worlds apart. But they use Blue Tooth like it's hardwired into them (HA!), therefore Blue Toothing them should work better than other groups. Send out evangelistic info, news of upcoming Bible studies/discipleship opportunities, and a calendar of upcoming events.

3) PRAYER!!!! Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul commanded, "With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints," (Eph. 6:18). Send out Blue Tooth invites to submit prayer needs to everyone who walks through your doors and to your community. The goal is not to let folks know that the "great genie in the sky" is now granting wishes. Rather, we're proactively fulfilling the Spirit's exhortation to pray at all times for the saints and we're presenting God as sovereign, able, and loving to the lost. Praying for lost and found according to God's will is absolutely biblical and I quite frankly can't think of many better ways to use Blue Tooth than to efficiently collect prayer needs.

Nuff said for now. Feedback?