Fast forward to this spring. My congregation had an aging system for weekly emails, and it needed an overhaul. What an opportunity. Of course I leapt in, and the result will have to speak for itself.

Putting these various experiences together, here are the steps I’d advise for a congregation wanting to either launch or revamp its mass emails.

1. Get the Buy-In of Leadership.
This is a must. If your minister or senior church leadership is suggesting the church do this, jump at the chance. If not, persuasion will be the order of the day. Find allies in your congregation and explain the advantages. Given the recent economy, saving money is likely to be a compelling argument. Also, presenting a plan, with particulars of who can do what is likely to allay fears and get you a thumbs up.

2. Research Email Marketing.
This is probably overkill, but for those like me who enjoy reading up for their latest project, here are some of the best resources on the Web that I’ve happened across:

• Email Newsletter Design: Guidelines And Examples
• Design and Build Email Newsletters Without Losing Your Mind (and Soul)
• A Guide to Creating Email Newsletters
• E-mail Marketing: 13 Services To Help You Make Contact
• MailChimp’s Free Email Marketing Guide
• HTML Email best practices, resources and inspiration

3. Find a Free Email Marketing Service.
Our congregation opted to use VerticalResponse’s free for non-profits service, and we love it.

We tried doing doing mass emails on our own. The administrator kept a contact lists and sent emails as text, but the more people that signed up for it, the more unwieldy it became.

Now that we’ve moved over to VerticalResponse, not only can we do “pretty” HTML emails, but also a team of us can produce mass emails whenever needed. This is particularly important when emergencies come up.

4. Iron Out a Process.
It’s all well-and-good to want to produce a weekly church email or e-newsletter, but in the end what matters most is the content. That’s why step #1 is so important. If your ministers and other church leaders are itching for broadcast email, the content will almost write itself. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to get the right information to whom and when. (In an upcoming post I’ll explain my congregation’s process in more detail.)

5. Build a Template.
Most email marketing services have sets of templates you can adapt fairly easily. If you want to polish one up, perhaps customizing it to look like the website, find or hire someone in the congregation who is adept at HTML and explain the look-and-feel you are hoping for.

6. Put a Sign-Up Form on Your Home Page.
All good email marketing services include HTML that your webmasters can easily adapt for your site. Do be sure to double-check it once it’s live.

7. Import Pre-existing Lists of Email Addresses.
Again, all good email marketing services make it straight-forward to both export and import lists of email addresses. If you have a membership database, for example, those emails can be exported. Just be sure that everyone whose email you import has opted in to receive congregational emails.

8. Launch Some Tests.
At this point you’re almost ready. But be sure to send out some test emails and check them on a variety of platforms. That means not just Outlook and the usual suspects like Hotmail, but also a variety of mobile devices. Keep refining and testing until you and key leaders are comfortable. Then, drum roll….

9. In Email Marketing Speak, “Launch Your Campaign.”
In other words, take a deep breath and send our your congregation’s first blast email.

In a few days, you can view reports of how the email is doing. One of the more important, but deceptive, statistics is the “open” rate. A user has to display the embedded images to be counted as “opening” an email. Since many people don’t turn on images, the numbers will look lower than they actually are. That said, the reports have other potentially helpful data such as how many people clicked through on which links and if people forwarded the email.

* One aside about my first foray into email marketing: not only was it great fun to be in the trenches with this team, but our candidate won.  May you have fun with it too.

• Boagworld
  This one is a no-brainer.  Paul Boag and Marcus Lillington’s light-hearted weekly romp through the webmaster world is by far the most popular podcast for “all those involved in designing, developing and running websites.”
• WordPress Community Podcast
  Far less obvious….  Hopefully your website uses some kind of Content Management System — and there’s a good podcast to keep you up to date with the latest.  Thus, if you use Drupal, I’d suggest Geeks and God or the delightful Lullabots. My congregation uses WordPress and we love it.  I’ve looked around for WP podcasts and this one is the best I’ve found so far.  Its news section is particularly helpful, alerting you to security patches and plug-ins.
• WebAxe
  Web accessibility: it’s a subject near-and-dear to my heart, but more to the point, for a church webmaster it’s the right thing to do.  WebAxe is a great podcast devoted to all aspect of website accessibility.  Every episode I learn surprising and helpful tidbits.
• The Digital Marketer
  Part of the excellent Quick and Dirty Tips set of podcasts, The Digital Marketer is “a social media expert offer[ing] tech tips and tricks and information on the latest social media tools to help you market your business.”  As a webmaster, I’m actually wearing out with “social media experts,” many of whom seem to fancy themselves web experts too.  But Aliza Sherman is an exception.  She knows her stuff and keeps it mercifully short-and-to-the-point.
• This Week in Google
  Currently, this is my favorite podcast — period.  Google is infinitely fascinating and what a delight to have the wonderful outsider trio of Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani and Jeff Jarvis digging into the latest ups and downs with in hub of the web.

What other podcasts are there that would be helpful to webmasters serving their congregations or faiths? I’d love to know your favorites.

That said, there are a few excellent general resources.  I pass them along for those who might have similar needs.

• Safe Church guidelines for social media from the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut was the closest match to what I was looking for.  It has specific suggested language, and even a way to create a small booklet to distribute.  I’ll be doing just that with my congregation’s Communication Committee.
• One of my favorite church blogs, New Media for Unitarian Universalists by Shelby Meyerhoff, has Does the UUA have a sample “new media policy” for congregations? It’s a list of “some general principles that may help guide congregations in their new media use.”
• Finally, 12 Tips for Developing a Social Networking Policy and Usage Guidelines for Your Church has another helpful checklist of things to consider.

Do you know of other social media policy resources for churches — particularly sample policies? If so, please let me know.

P.S. A late addition:  ChurchCruch recommends PolicyTool for Social Media for quickly generating what we need.

For any web developer interested in meditation, it’s a must-read.  Google’s approach to meditation is refreshing – separating it from religion and encouraging tough questions.  The goal of the Googler behind this, Chade-Meng Tan, is a noble and surprising one – world peace.

Years ago I meditated regularly, but got out of the practice when my children were small.  Now, children grown, I’ve been teetering on the edge of picking it back up.  It seems this article is the catalyst I needed.

In particular, I’m inspired to try a practice the article explains in passing: mindful emailing.  It’s to help with those sticky emails.  You know – the ones you send off with shoulders tense, teeth clenched or stomach in a knot.

The biggest challenge in mindful emailing is step one – meditating regularly.  But at this point all I’m committing to is five minutes a day.  Of course I’m lucky.  I’ve had training by good meditation teachers.  But they say if you want to meditate badly enough, you will find a teacher.  Assuming you can figure out how to meditate, here are the steps.

1. Meditate every day, at least five minutes

2. After typing an email, decide if it’s just an easy one (e.g. confirming lunch date).  If it is, send it right away.  If not (or if in doubt), then….

3. Take three breaths.

4. Look at it again, imagining the other person (or people) receiving it.  How will they react?

5. Alter it if needed and send if needed.  Sometimes you may decide at this point not to email at all or to phone or find the person instead.

I’ve been experimenting with this process today and so far so good.  The three breaths don’t just help with email.  They re-center me.  Will I keep this up?  Who knows.  But I’ll report back either way.

I wonder.  Is this also the case for churches, denominations and other religious organizations?  While we’re not Toyota, Dell, Amazon or even Starbucks (much as my congregation loves coffee and coffee hour), I can’t help but think if it’s true for corporations, it’s true for us too.  It might even be more so.  Religion is much more personal.

The study was done by two groups: Wetpaint,  a company I hadn’t heard of before, and Altimeter, the company of Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell and one of the world’s most trusted voices on social media.

Here are some of the findings that leap out at me as particularly helpful and noteworthy for religious organizations.

• “Socially engaged companies are in fact more financially successful.”
• “Resembling any in-person exchange, socializing requires more than just being there — you have to interact with others, instigate discussions, and respond during conversations.”
• “As the number of channels increase, overall engagement increases at a faster rate.”

And here are a few of the lessons learned that might be of use to us.

• Deputize people throughout your organization.
• Centralize coordination.
• Be in it for the long haul.
• Engage in new channels where people already are.
• Be conversational from the start.

To learn more, see the study itself, ENGAGEMENTdb: Ranking the Top 100 Global Brands (a 34 page PDF) or visit the companion website, engagementdb.com.  If you are very brave, you can even take their  five-question survey and see how your institution compares to the very top brands.

On the surface, one of the simplest improvements to your church’s website is adding its institutional policies and procedures. It’s equally true that there are few time investments in your site more worthwhile. Why?

• Adherence to policies is easier to achieve when policies are readily available.
• On the Web, not only are they available, they become searchable.
• The webmasters don’t have to worry about content. Policies and procedures are already written.
• The audience is obvious. It’s church leaders.
• Ergo, it should be clear where in your site it resides, not only for those building the site, but also for those using it.
• In this era, church members often expect to find policies on the website.

A Culture Shift?
And yet, from an informal sample, many churches still don’t do this. My theory is that while it’s easy to include policies on a site from a technological standpoint, it represents a major cultural shift.

Bylaws, policies and procedures by their very nature represent tradition. After forms of worship, they seem to be the aspect of church life most bound by the we’ve-always-done-it-this-way mindset.

As soon as I got on the Board of my church (in the late 1990s), I started pushing for bylaws and policies to be added to our site. People were happy to oblige, especially when I was the secretary of the Board, but then we ran into upkeep. The bylaws changed, but I wasn’t on the Board, and no one thought to send them to our webmasters.

My next tactic was to request that inclusion on the website be required in the bylaws themselves. Once again all agreed this was a good thing. Thus five years ago Section 8.1.3 was updated to read: “A current and complete copy of all policies and procedures adopted by the Board shall be available from the Church office and on the Church website for reference by the general membership.” In earlier versions, as you might guess, they were only required to be in the church office, and you can imagine how few people had access to that.

At first, even with it mandated in the bylaws themselves, the webmasters still didn’t get the updated bylaws, let alone policies, without rattling cages. It was then I realized that cultural change was the issue.

Thus patience and persistence became key. At times I think these are the most important requirements for webmastery in a church. It’s not how much PHP or JavaScript or CSS that you know. It’s knowing what’s most needed and shepherding transition.

Now I’m happy to report that our culture has changed. After our most recent congregational meeting, I was not only sent a copy of the bylaws to post within 24 hours, but a few weeks later when I still hadn’t gotten to it, a Board member (Mr. Web Diva, as it happens) sent me a reminder.

And so it goes now with all of our policies. Even our most tech-resistant church leaders count on the web as a repository for policies.

If your church has not yet made this transition, I would encourage you to don the web shepherd’s mantle and ease them in this direction. The ROI is enormous.

Here’s a sampling:

• “The anxieties are different for every group. Some Muslim clerics have told followers to avoid making statements on social networking sites that antiterrorist investigators might misinterpret as suspicious.”
• “[S]ome in the clergy see a basic tension between the anonymous world of online life and the meaning of religious community.”
• “‘In Judaism, we believe that God resides in the community — among people in the same room at the same time, hearing each other’s voices and looking in each other’s eyes,’ said Rabbi Gerald C. Skolnik of the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens, who also wanted it known that he carries an iPhone and a laptop and is talking with his congregation about a Facebook page. ‘But can you tweet a minyan?’ he asked, referring to the quorum of 10 people required for most Jewish devotions. ‘I don’t think so.’”

It also mentions the Rev. Bill Reichart, a Presbyterian in Atlanta and an acknowledged leader in this area.  I googled a little, and sure enough, found his terrific blog that’s full of tips and insights for those of us interested in faith and the Web, particularly 2.0-inclined ministers: Ministry Best Practices. From a quick foray, here are a few of the posts I found.

• Why Should Your Church Invest in Social Media?
• Language Tools for Ministry.
• Fire Your Volunteers.

What fun it is to be back, exploring such delightful e-avenues.

I’m just back from my faith’s annual assembly.  It’s been a heady few days — and to my complete surprise my batteries for working on Faith and Web seem to have been recharged.  Of course, I’ll need to see if this stands the acid tests of time and competing priorities, but there are many, many things I am itching to talk about.

Here’s a sampling.

• Email newsletters vs. email marketing.
• How to harness the power of blogs for your church.
• What’s in analytics aside from a sea of numbers?
• What about this new kid on the block, Squarespace?
• And most of all, faith and the groundswell (a.k.a. the social web or Web 2.0).

So buckle your seatbelts, and send me suggestions.  I’m all ears.

The thing was, I didn’t have enough time. Various life forces converged. In particular, my job kicked into high gear. But there was a part of me that pined away, wanting to blog.

Then came the Christmas holidays. Every year this is a time I reflect and try to come up with a goal for the new year — a goal that’s both challenging and realistic about my limitations. This holiday the thing that kept popping into my mind was blogging. Left brain: “You don’t have time.” Right brain: “Pout. But I want to.” Left brain: “That’s not good enough.” And so on.

Finally the big day came and I couldn’t come up with anything else that did it for me. Worse, I’m perceived as a blogger in the worlds I circulate in. People are even asking my advice about who should blog and how.

So, I took the leap, with one sensible caveat to myself. This new blog would not be about substantial posts. I gave myself permission to dash stuff off, make more typos, not dot every i, etc., etc. For subject matter, well…. In many ways it’s still the same as this blog, but it’s not particularly church-focused. Sometimes I blog about church and web. Sometimes I blog about work and web. And sometimes, gasp, I just blog about fun stuff like Mr. Web Diva climbing trees.

So here it is…. Enjoy…. The Happy Web Diva.

At first glance I expect many of you won’t connect the dots between a church web diva and a local service agency like this. Nonetheless, the connections are deep and strong. I would never have known of this group if it hadn’t been for my church.

In the early 1990s, ours was one of the many churches torn asunder by allegations of clergy misconduct. Those of us struggling to do the right thing by our faith could find few if any good resources. Into this bleak terrain came RASAC’s counselors. While the congregation’s needs were many, their focus went right to the heart – to those most wounded – to the victims of misconduct. They stood by them and helped the church see what they needed most. They represented one of the few organizations that helped us turn a corner back into a healthy congregation.

More than that, through my church I have learned the importance of social justice. I’ve learned that social justice isn’t always marching in marches. Some of us do that well, while others become ministers or lawyers. Still others teach, inspiring our youth to justice work. And some of us create websites. We grease the wheels of communication – getting the word out to those who need it.

Creating websites is also, inevitably, a learning experience. As I catch my breath, the things I realize I’ve learned from this one are:

1. Be patient. Building even a small website takes time if you want to do a good job. In this case, I unintentionally created one of the longer logjams. The same forces that slowed down this blog also slowed the redesign. But the good people at RASAC were patient and understanding. I hope I was likewise with them.

2. Be appreciative. Their VP of Development & Marketing was the mastermind behind the site, pulling together the content and organizing the structure. She did the crucial work and she did an excellent job – and then sent flowers to me! This was after a small bumpy patch when stakeholders were trying to correct things like word spacing (being in a print paradigm and not realizing it).

3. Express compassion. One of RASAC’s Board counseled me to make the look-and-feel gentle and soothing, so a victim who came to the site wouldn’t be scared away. It’s such a grim subject, but he made me literally see things in a whole different way. And it brought to mind a battered woman whom I heard speak years ago. I’ll never forget her reading Psalm 55 – “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” Hence the birds in the upper right corner.

May I help the people who need RASAC find their wings and find peace.