Best Practices Part 4: Social Sharing

Social Sharing has a well-earned spot in our best practices for outreach and engagement by enabling your community to share content quickly and effectively.

Social Sharing

We’ve heard incredible stories of users sharing sermons with friends and resulting in new relationships with Christ. With the ability to share sermons, blogs, and content directly through your app, users can easily share the right resources with the right people. I know when I’m listening to a sermon or reading a blog, sometimes I’ll think “wow, this person would really enjoy this.” Rather than opening a browser, copying links, and then sharing on Facebook (or forgetting altogether), I can share directly through the app to any of my social channels, email, and text.

These sharing capabilities enable your church network to reach their individual networks with the tap of a screen. A few ways you can encourage your users to share include adding a reminder in the Sunday service announcements, at the end of your sermon audio and video, or sending a push notification reminder. Happy sharing and stay tuned for part 5! 

Best Practices Part 3: Push Notifications

Push Notifications have earned the third slot in our series of Best Practices for outreach and engagement. Why are they so lucky? Well, they can guarantee your audience will see your message directly on their devices.

Push Notifications

Sometimes all we need is that final "push" to take the next step. From a newly uploaded sermon series, a new blog post, or a reminder of the community BBQ, push notifications provide an effective way of updating your community immediately anytime, anywhere. By updating users on resources, events, services, and more, push notifications allow users to take advantage of opportunities to help them grow in both their faith and community.

One way we've seen churches and ministries use push notifications is for the purpose of sending reminders for upcoming events. Both The Gospel Coalition and Harvest Ministries have sent out reminders of their upcoming conferences, while others have sent out reminders of gathering times and places. Whatever the event, resource, or opportunity, push notifications enable you to get more people involved with a direct and visible message on their device.

Happy notifying, and stay tuned for part 4! 

Best Practices Part 2: Connect Tab

Here's part 2 of our series we’ve put together to highlight best practices for maximizing outreach and engagement. We want to shed light on how some of our clients are using their apps to deepen engagement, foster community, and get people connected within the body of Christ. 

Connect Tab 

A unique way to get your audience plugged in is through having a connect tab. Similar to the Sunday tab, the connect tab easily provides your audience ways to get involved. In Elevate Life’s connect tab, users can fill out a connect card, learn more about their mission, join a ministry team, and get involved in outreach projects directly from the app. Let’s say a member is listening to a sermon and gets inspired to join a small group–they can then navigate easily from the media tab over to the connect tab and sign up in mere seconds. Whatever avenues your ministry provides for people to get involved, creating a connect tab is a great way to sync those efforts into one place, and engage people beyond the Sunday service. Get Elevate Life’s app here to see more!

Stay tuned for Part 3! 

Best Practices Part 1: Sunday Tab

Best Practices: Outreach and Engagement

Engage:  to occupy, attract, or involve someone's interest or attention.

That’s the hope right? Reaching people through technology is truly effective when outreach turns into response. Whether it’s inspiring deeper relationships with Christ through a sermon series, increasing attendance from event reminder push notifications, or getting newcomers connected through a connection card tab, creating a healthy and connected church community is the ultimate goal. That is why we’ve put together a collection of best practices for maximizing outreach and engagement. We want to shed light on how some of our clients are using their apps to deepen engagement, foster community, and get people connected within the body of Christ. Here are a few examples of ways our clients have used their apps to better engage their audience.

Sunday Tab 

We love the way Ecclesia Hollywood put together their Sunday tab! Being the first tab users see when opening the app, their Sunday tab creates a great space for users to easily engage with their content and take action during Sunday services. Within this tab are resources and opportunities geared toward newcomers, regulars, and people who want to get more involved. By putting their weekly scripture, connect card, and bulletin resources directly within the tab, Ecclesia not only saves money on printing costs, but are also making it easier for attendees to engage directly from their devices. A Sunday tab can also provide immediate access to giving links, announcements, small group sign ups, and much more. Get Ecclesia’s app here to see it in action and stay tuned for part 2! 

"We point people to the Sunday tab to follow along with the morning's scripture and announcements, and also direct newcomers to the tab for information specifically for them." - Michele McCreary, Director of Information and events, Ecclesia Hollywood