Many congregations and religious groups use the internet as a source of community, outreach or, in some cases, as the sole unifying experience. How to be sure of this? Just look it up. On Wikipedia, of course. After all, as above, search engines all point there. (That's “above” in this column. Not – necessarily – above, as in “the heavens above.”)
Through Facebook I heard from a client of mine from decades ago (when he was a rock ‘n’ roll dj and music director at his station, and I ran a radio programming and research consulting firm), who now leads a megachurch. Yes, he went from Top 40 radio to leading a church. He heard a calling, but that's a topic for another article. He reached out say hello, renew the friendship, and to inquire about best practices and the most effective ways to use the web to broaden the reach and good works of his church. Which brings us – thank God – back to digital strategy.
Digital strategy covers many areas. Decisions need be made on numerous matters. From as seemingly simple as what hosting service to use (not really so simple a decision; many factors come into play) to how to build a site, what theme or modules to use, what will the social media strategy entail, etc. Digital strategy also encompasses determining what is the message (getting back to the God question) and how best to deliver it.
Then there’s the issue of “findability,” which means the ease with which something can be discovered online. Social media can be an effective tool to acquire links and click-throughs. But even more important is construction and content of sites and blogs.
Next comes issues of data management, website analytics and a host of other tools and tactics. Also critical is deciding how to maintain the dynamism required for search engine performance (that holy water is known as “googlejuice”). Search engines penalize sites for infractions, such as keyword stuffing, duplicate content, overly slow page load time, etc. Sites suffer for those sins. There have been a number of times in my capacity as a digital strategist when I've had to exorcise such demons from client sites.
Religious devotion to all of these fine points and technicalities is necessary. Tending to them can and should become a daily ritual. Fair warning: the devil is in the details. Amen.
Dean Landsman is principal of the Landsman Communications Group, based in New York City.