Author Archives: Mark Alves

Feb 7 2012

What Do Facebook Page Admins Want? Here’s What I Told Facebook

Facebook sent me a Facebook Page Admin survey that included an open-ended comment section at the end. What would be on your list of requests as a Facebook administrator for a church page? Off the top of my head, here’s how I replied.

  • Better incorporation of my organization’s existing Google Analytics account
  • Choice of URL shorteners and tracking
  • Option to schedule future posts within the main Facebook interface
  • More options for applying formatting to text in a wall post
  • A preview screen that shows how many lines will appear before it’s cut off by “more…” once a wall post is published.
  • Allow Youtube videos to be embedded without being surrounded by scroll bars (yes, Facebook, I know you’re encouraging us to upload our church videos directly to Facebook video, but c’mon. YouTube remains the industry standard for video embedding, for now at least, and should be accommodated.)
  • When a post includes multiple links make it easier to pick which one shows up in the blurb rather than defaulting to the first one.
  • When an event is posted to the wall, provide the option to include the existing photo of the event and more details. The previous version allowed this. The current one-line description on the wall doesn’t make it clear which link is for the event and does not help with engagement at all.

Along the way, I noticed along the way that Facebook uses Intellisurvey for soliciting feedback.

Those are some Facebook Page improvements I’d like to see administrators have. Did you receive a survey? What are you clamoring for from Facebook?

Jan 7 2012

New Year Checklist for a Good Looking Church Website

8 Quick Fixes to Start Your Year Right

You know the gyms are going to be crowded at this time of year, but what kind of shape is your church website? Follow this quick-fix checklist to make sure your parish looks its best before you head out into 2012.

  1. Do you still have Christmas graphics up after the Epiphany? Now’s the time to take them down before you end up looking like that neighbor who leaves Christmas lights up all year.
  2. Has anyone asked any of your Frequently Asked Questions in the past year? Are the answers still accurate? You might want to check the freshness of your “About Us” page, too. (Here are some good About-Us examples from the business world.)
  3.  Is your domain name expiring this year? Renew it before you risk losing your entire site.
  4.  Did you add any new social media accounts in the past year? Make sure all of them are listed on your site and in your marketing materials. Reorder the list if you are more active on some than others. And confirm that you are using consistent imagery and descriptions across all of these networks.
  5. Got the wrong copyright year at the bottom of your website? That’s oh so 2011. Here’s how to fix that problem so your site automatically updates each year. If your site runs on PHP, use this line of code (without the spaces): 
    &Copy; Copyright < ? php echo date ( ' Y ' ) ; ? > Your
Business Name or Site

    This will give you:
    © Copyright 2012 Acme, Inc.

    this year and next year the 2012 will automatically switch to 2013.

    If you don’t have PHP, you’ll need to resort to JavaScript.

    Copyright &Copy; <script type="text/java script">
 document.write(new Date().getFullYear());
 </script> Your Business Name or Site Name

    And remember, you can copyright your content but copyright law doesn’t protect domain names.

  6. Do your “contact us” forms still work? Fill them out, submit and then check that the confirmation message remains relevant and that the message reaches the proper inbox. And if these submissions go to someone other than you, it’s a good opportunity to see how fast your parish staff or designated volunteer replies.
  7. Repeat step 6 with your online donations forms. (Actually, that’s a good one to check before the end of the year. Sorry about that!)
  8.  Did any of your parish policies change, such as how you register as a parishioner or timelines for wedding and baptism preparations? Update your site and remind your staff accordingly.

Those are some key items to get you started on reviewing your parish website. So, what are you doing for your church to look good in the new year?

(Note: I wrote a small business-focused version of this article for NFIB that appeared as New Year Checklist for a Good Looking Small Business)

Examples of Copyright Dates on Church Websites

Example of StCharlesChurch.org with the wrong year on home page

Wrong year on StCharlesChurch.org

StJohnsTipton.com doesn't use a year in its copyright notice.

StJohnsTipton.com avoids the issue by not putting a year in its copyright notice.

Mary.org's great site needs to fix that 2007 copyright date.

Mary.org's great site needs to fix that 2007 copyright date.

SMIP.org shows 2011 in January 2012

SMIP.org shows 2011 in January 2012

CrossintheWoods.com shows the previous year's date.

CrossintheWoods.com shows the previous year's date.

Sep 19 2011

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2011 for Christians

By Sune Rievers on Flickr

By Sune Rievers on Flickr

It’s September 19 so it must be, what, Monday of the 25th week in Ordinary Time (or Twitter version)? It’s also International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Celebrate with this buried treasure from ChurchMojo.com we arrrrgh diggin’ up for this here special occasion.

My mateys in crime also delivered:

Jonathan Sullivan shared this gem on Google+ if you want to go pirate and Episcopalian (cursed PDF alas)

Ironic Catholic struck gold again with F’thr Pete the Pirate Receives His First Parish Assignment.

Apr 6 2011

Even More #CatholicRulesForTwitter

Catholic Rules for TwitterForgive me, Father, for I have sinned – I missed the #CatholicRulesForTwitter meme that broke out on Twitter during April Fool’s Day. (Pulling off my competing stunt doesn’t excuse my absence.) Had I fulfilled my obligation that day, here’s what I would have tweeted.

More #CatholicRulesForTwitter

  1. Lent begins on Hashtag Wednesday.
  2. Maximum tweet length is 125 – leave room for #theholyspirit.
  3. #FF actually stands for Fish-Fridays.
  4. When quoting Scripture, be vague and don’t provide a link to the exact verse (the exception, of course, is @todaysreadings).
  5. Yellow–or more precisely, gold–makes the best Twitter background. #CatholicGild.
  6. Late for Mass? Only check into Foursquare if you do so before the Gospel.
  7. If you give up Twitter for Lent, you can still tweet on Sundays.
  8. Learn from the example of Jonah and the FailWhale
  9. Using fake words that start with tw- is as grating as using catechesis instead of education
  10. Tweeting during the homily is okay if you make it look like you’re reading the bulletin

Whew, I feel much better now that I’ve got that off my chest. Here are my favorite Twitter rules for Catholics that have already been handed down::

The #CatholicRulesForTwitter meme is another great example of how the faithful can have some fun on April Fool’s Day. I just wish 1) I thought of it, and 2) jumped on it earlier. So what’s your favorite rule?