"I'm probably just most curious about what a campus like yours is doing and the kinds of things you're using to leverage technology to get the CCC name out on campus as well as expose students to the gospel (via technology) in relevant ways.
So, basically, what were you doing before (the old), WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW (currently) and perhaps a little of the why behind it. Some basic how-to's wouldn't hurt either, but we've got some pretty tech savy students that I could probably turn to for help. "
A staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ asked me this and thought it would be helpful to answer his question on my blog since I'm guessing others might have similar questions.
Then:
- Facebook group for the movement and for bible studies, event and leadership teams.
- Static website updated once or twice a YEAR
- Sporadic Facebook ads for our weekly meeting
Now:
- Facebook Fan Page for our movement: Provides a vanity url (facebook.com/chicocru) for advertising, allows for dynamic engagement amongst students, generates a variety of statistics. Does NOT allow for sending messages to members facebook inbox. Most appropriate for many to many conversations
- Facebook Group Page for sub-movement groups and activities: less dynamic than a fan page, more appropriate for one to many conversations. Allows for messages to members inbox.
- Blog-based (read dynamic and frequently updated) website: we display our facebook fan page on our site through a widget that allows someone to become a member of our fan page without having to go to facebook. The goal of our website is no longer to be an online brochure but to funnel students to the facebook fan page and expose and educate new students and parents about our ministry.
- Blog posts optimized for search engines and more particularly for those searching for our ministry: this is done primarily by using keywords and key phrases that someone looking for us would type into google: examples: "chico cru" "campus crusade chico" "christian groups at chico state"--by including these phrases into our blog posts we are increasing the chances that someone searching for us will choose one of our links, land on our page, and join our facebook fan page--which would virtually connect them to our body of students.
- A Live Broadcast of our weekly meeting via LiveStream: We've embedded the video feed and the chat on our website, and use it to expose new students to our ministry and allow members who cannot attend the chance to participate virtually.
- A Vimeo account to share videos: this is also great for search engine optimization, as our vimeo page link is on the first page of google when you search "chico cru" We've created a channel for our worship team which is highly popular among our students.
How To's (first three are screencasts, last is a podcast):
- Set up a facebook fan page
- Get a vanity/custom url for your facebook fan page
- Promoting an event or activity on facebook using a fan page
- How to use Facebook to Grow Your Brand: a podcast from Jeff Widman (Facebook expert).
photo courtesy of rptnorris
