Media Outreach

If you’ve ever lived near a small lake, river or pond, you know that shallow, stagnant water is less than desirable. It carries more than a stench: a thick, humid, putrid cloud of gnats and overall nastiness.  When a drought ensues, and all that remains of a once beautiful oasis, is a thin layer of brown murky water, we tend to take our free time elsewhere. Why would you take your leisurely walk around a stink hole?

Well, we certainly shouldn’t view our websites any differently. The adage that time is money couldn’t be more prevalent in our culture.  We want information and we want it now. If it isn’t in the format, look or verbiage we desire, we move on.

One way we can continue to make our website a hub of activity, is to keep our website content current.  Stir things up a bit!  Often times there are pages on the website that may not need to change – a church’s history or vision will probably only change a little here and there. But that doesn’t mean we should write off that page as “unworthy of our time”.

Each ministry, church or business should mark in their Outlook calendar, smart phone or old school paper calendar for a monthly content audit.  Once a month, review your website.

• Check that the events advertised are those in the future – not in the past.
• Ensure the readability as well – is the content in a language your community can connect with?
• Update photos within the pages of the site – it is obvious if a picture has been on there for more than a few months.
• Consider starting over on some pages – it may have been updated so many times that the overall content doesn’t make sense any more.

It is imperative that we give our websites the fresh current of life (information) necessary to keep things from getting stinky.

Once a quarter, set a goal to have a pair of “fresh eyes” (meaning not your own) go through the website and give feedback.  Each quarter, find a different member/visitor/stranger, always keeping true to your target audience.

One thing to consider is that if nothing on the website needs to change, then probably something within the organization does. Every organization is much like a living organism, changing, growing and moving. If there is no movement, no reason to update the information of the website, try thinking of ways to breathe a new sense of life there.  New events, fresh faces and a buzz of excitement are sure-fire ways to inspire the members of any organization.

Turn on the faucet.  Water the hole.  Drain the old if need be…all water can get a little muddled over time. Whatever we do, we need to abandon the ideals of “things getting sweeter with time” in regards to our website.

Photo By: wribs