Please Release Me - Tips on Sending Out Press Releases

Print may be dead, but churches can use it to spread the good news. 

By Russ Ward
Print is dead or at least on life-support. It's true, when you look at circulation rates for local, regional and national newspapers. As an example, the top ten national newspapers' Sunday edition circulation has dropped 47.5% in ten years. Total revenue reveals an even more devastating trend. In 2000, the advertising revenue for newspapers in the US was 65.5 billion; by 2013 that number dropped to 17.3 billion.

So if print is dead why should a church waste the time to send out a press release?

Because that lost revenue will allow you to tell your story more effectively and then communicate about your church through social media. This is based on the total decline of news reporters. Only 38,000 full-time jobs now exist in print media in the United States and that number is down 33.2% from its 1989 peak of 56,900, according to the annual census of the American Society of News Editors. This has led to many newsrooms to quickly peruse submitted releases and then publish them as they are sent. The result is you get to set the tone and tell your church's story the way you want.

In my career I have witnessed this decline. Fifteen years ago when sending a press release my client or myself would often receive a follow up call with questions. Now, the phone never rings and the vast majority of times the press releases are printed without a change. Keep in mind that editors still have to fill papers and without a full staff of reporters, so they use more press releases to fill the columns.

But if people don't read the newspaper why should we care? Because the purpose of a press release is not to have it seen in the paper. It seems like an odd contradiction, but the printing of the article in the paper is only an ancillary benefit. The real benefits are to use the paper to create an opportunity for social media to spread the word, use the newspaper's online presence and lastly, use the printed story as a way to reach other media outlets. So send out a press release.

Also, keep in mind that the newspaper is not the only media outlet. Local radio, television and other outlets form media today.

Below are some tips on sending out a press release:

How often?
Press releases should be sent out weekly to monthly. More than once a week and they will start to get ignored by much of the media. Less than once a month and the press will forget who you are. An additional benefit of consistent releases is that your church will become the "experts" on church matters and social questions. You will be called when reporters have a question about a story in the news about faith or God. Take advantage of this relationship by working with the media and be mindful of their needs and deadlines. Consistent press releases are a great opportunity to build rapport with influencers.

Who should I send a release to?
Everyone. We don't need stamps or a FAX machine so don't be stingy with your story. All newspapers, radio stations, television stations, magazines, media services and online outlets, should be sent a release; but not only just locally. If you are in Missouri, you should be sending your releases to the media in both Kansas City and St. Louis plus nearby medium sized markets. Even some national news outlets should get the release. If your media list is less than 50 email addresses, then you are not sending it out to enough people.

What should I say?
The release can be about a variety of subjects: A new sermon series, VBS, happy 100th birthday, a holiday program, community outreach, mission trips, pastor appreciation festivities, Superbowl alternatives, and much more. One of the more successful press releases I have sent out for a church was about them not serving doughnuts for Sunday School anymore. It would be easier to list what you shouldn't send. Just remember to tell the story in a way  that reflects your congregation and the love they have for the community.

How long should it be?
Most press releases should cover one typed, single space page or less, including the contact information and title. Very few press releases should be multiple pages, however the most important thing is to give all of the information.

How should it be worded?
Press releases are not an opportunity to gloat or brag! It is a way to let people know who you are and what you do. Write it in that fashion. Most media outlets now have an online component, so those that publish your release will be putting it online as well. People searching for information about your church will be the audience. Write for them. Always be completely honest and clear. If you are expecting 100 people for a special program say that. Don't use the "deacon count" (count the cars in the parking lot and multiply by four).

I find the best way to write is to compile a list of all of the important facts. You know these as the "who, what, why, when, where and how come" of journalism 101. Then just put them in a reasonable order from most important to least important and fill in the blanks by joining the fact together as a story. It is also a good idea to quote someone in the church associated with the program you are touting. Lastly, have someone proofread it. It is always better to look like an idiot to a friend or fellow christian than to everyone that reads the paper.

Also, there is a specific format expected. You can find samples on line or contact me at russ@speirocom.net and I will email you one.

Lastly, have fun and involve others in telling the story about your church!

5 Steps to Help Churches Plug Into Social Media

The challenge is plugging in the right people in the right place.

By Rachelle Ward
At the church I go to, the auditorium doubles for both worship services and a meeting space for meals and special programs. So when we have a dinner after services the congregation jumps in and starts moving chairs, rolling out tables and putting out place settings. The 200 seat auditorium becomes a hall set up for food service in less than a half an hour because, many hands make light work and everyone knows their job.

As the minister you may have wanted to start communicating in a better way to your community and you realize that social media may be the answer. You have lots of ideas buzzing around your head, but there is just no time to get it all done. How is this conundrum any different than setting up tables and chairs? The same philosophy applies. Many hands make light work.

The key is to plug in the right people in the right way to your plan for reaching outside of your walls. Here are some tips to get started:

• Have a Plan - No communication effort needs to take place before you have a plan in place. Run some general thoughts by other leaders at the church and peers and get their input. Think about which social media outlets you wish to participate in, then put goals and objectives in writing. An example of an objective could be complete a Facebook page by a certain date. A goal could be an actual number of "Likes" by a certain date. Use other churches in similar sized communities for help with numbers. In your plan write down the purpose for each social media venue you wish to engage in. Some could be informative for the congregation others may be specifically outreach. 
• Plug People In - Throw a way all of your preconceived notions. In our church over 10% of all of our likes come from women over 65 years of age that's ten times the Facebook average. They don't set up tables for fellowship dinners but they post to Facebook like crazy. Try to find someone from each demographic in your church if possible. Keep your team limited to core members. Fringe attenders could raise problems by not accurately depicting your church to the community. 
• Provide Guidelines - No rules or laws please. This has to be a fluid experience for the participants with general rails to guide the team. Suggested guidelines could include frequency of posts, who is allowed to be an administrator, the process of posting official church information, who can help with proof reading or technical questions or how to handle negative comments.    
• Let Go and Support - This could be the most difficult step for some ministers, but this will not work if you have to see everything before it is posted. Trust the team that is in place. As minister your job is to provide some content, monitor, general guidance and "Likes" and "retweets". You should also be the biggest cheerleader, reminding people on Sunday and at every opportunity to help the social media team.    
• Check Goals Quarterly - Have a meeting to celebrate and brain storm. Ask your group why you hit one goal but missed another? Maybe you need to drop one effort to promote another better. Goal revision is often needed and out of the box thinking is a must. 

With the right plan and execution you can increase your relevancy in your community. This will also equip the congregation with one more tool that they can use to let their friends know about God. 

If you have any questions or need help getting social media started in your church please contact Speiro Communications at info@speirocom.net. We are here to help! You can also find out about our ministry at www.speirocom.net. 

Marketing - The Church's 4 Letter Word

Watch what you say!

Christianity has its own specific language that you don't find in many places. Terms like justification, grace and sanctification all have their specific meanings that only the "elect" know. But more than that, the church often shuns terms amd some concepts that the world understands and takes for granted. These terms become "four letter" words to the church as there is a negative connotation associated with them.

One of those terms is "marketing". Yes, I know it has more than four letters, but it is still forbidden in some circles of Christendom. I guess that it is understandable. For years it was marketing that drove millions to smoke, drink and engage in all forms of sinful behavior. But, when you look at the definition of the term you come away with a different perspective.

Marketing, according to the American Marketing Association is simply the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

With that definition in mind it should broaden our view of the purpose and how the church has and continues to market, whether we like the term or not.

Consider the Gospels. Four books that all tell the same story. But, if it is the same story, why are they so different. From the perspective of a seasoned marketing professional it is as plain as the nose on my face (get ready to be mad). The answer is marketing. Matthew was written to a Jewish target demographic, Mark to Roman readers, Luke to the Greek market and John to the broadest audience.

This is not saying that each version of the Gospels cannot speak to everyone!!! They do!!! What it does mean is that the intended audience was able to get more out of the specific book because it was "communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings" better suited to their perspective.

For instance in Matthew there are around 50 quotes from the Old Testament. Also, there are 75 indirect or passing references to things that happened in the Old Testament and Jesus is called the "son of David" nine times. That kind of writing would have reached the Jewish readers more effectively.

Mark on the other hand only refers to the Old Testament nineteen times. He also goes into detail about the Jewish custom of washing hands in Chapter 7 because his intended audience would not necessarily understand. Terms are also translated out of the Greek into Roman when talking about money or distance. 

These are just a few examples of how many books of the Bible are written for specific audiences in specific times to communicate specific ideas. Pure genius to the professional marketer. Even more astounding is that the Bible continues to speak depending on circumstance, need or background. We have all seen this in our lives countless times. The Bible speaks to us and cuts us to the heart as we read a certain passage and other words seem to just pass us by. But, then our lives change and the Bible speaks to us differently than it did before. There is no new revelation, the Bible did not change, but we did and the verses become new to us in a different way. 

Back to the point of marketing and the church. I know that it can sometimes be distasteful to admit that we need to market, but are we not to "be wise in the way you act towards outsiders." (Colossians 4:5)? Also, we must realize we are marketing right now anyway. When the un-churched see your logo what does it say about you to that lost soul? If your location can't be found with a simple search on a smart phone how can you reach them? It only strengths the local church when we fortify personal evangelism with good consistent marketing.

At Speiro Communications we feel that it is time to take marketing back and start using it to reach others by speaking to them in a way that they understand and will respond to.

To find out more contact us at info@speirocom.net or visit our website at www.speirocom.net.    

5 Tips to Improve Your Church's Social Media

"Social media" is one of those buzz phrases tossed around by media consultants and churches are encouraged in some way to engage their community with it. But, what is the purpose of social media for the church and how do you use it?

The first question is easy enough. Social media is the wild west of the internet. There are no real rules in the realm of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, LinkedIn or Pinterest, to name a few of the more popular sites. People post what they want, when they want, with very little direction and quite often no moral compass. People are belittled, insulted, given bad information and terrible guidance on problems they face; yet it thrives.

And the purpose, as we see it at Speiro Communications, is to use this unwieldy force as a tool to simply let your community know about your church and God. Think about it this way. With all of the darkness you find in social media it should be pretty easy to strike a match and light that world at least a little bit. As a result the church needs to use this form of communication to show the world a different and better perspective.

And we do have a better perspective. We are a purchased possession of God and as a result we turn the other cheek, give to those that ask, pray for those that persecute us and love our enemies (Matthew 5:38-48). If that does not light up a social media site then I have no idea what would. We can use social media tools to demonstrate the difference that God makes in our lives and a better way for all mankind.

The "How" of social media takes a bit more understanding but can be helped with the inclusion of these five points:

1. Don't just start signing up for all sorts of social media! If you are not ready with a plan it will look like you are fumbling your way through. If not done right you can find yourselves embarrassing the church. Remember the world is watching.  
2. Determine your target demographic and how you can speak to them best. There is a difference in Google+ users and Facebook users. Figure out who you want to reach and the best vehicle for you to reach them. We can help let you know who goes where, but most social sites are pretty easy to figure out. Let me give you a small hint, if you are starting a Men's Ministry, Pinterest is the wrong place to promote it.   
3. Get your congregation on board. One church started with 100 Facebook "Likes" and with a Sunday geared toward outreach they were able to triple that number in just a couple of months. Their numbers are still great and the members are using Facebook to reach beyond the church walls!
4. Have content in mind weeks in advance. This does not mean that spontaneous posts cannot happen. But never get in the position of the well running dry. And never, and I mean never, resort to, "Like this post if you love Jesus."  Instead be fun, be inspired, be giving and be loving. 
5. You must commit and be consistent. Sporadic posts will halt your efforts faster than anything else. This is especially true if the congregation is on board and things are going great for a few weeks and then no one posts or comments on posts. People will stop checking in. Build a team to help you post, comment, favorite and generate interest. 

With the tips above you should be able to hit the ground running and start opening doors to people in your community and that really is the point. You will ultimately become an alternative to some of the junk out there and God will be glorified!

For other how's or to talk about the church and social media email us at info@speirocom.net or visit our site at www.speirocom.net.

Merry Christmas From Speiro Communications

Every year at Christmas we break out the old songs of the faith and sing with our loudest voices carols like Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Away in the Manger to name just a few. It is impossible for the hardest heart not to be melted by the words and music as we recall the true meaning of the manger.

It is our hope and prayer that each and every person will take advantage of this special season to search their hearts to find room for Jesus!

Happy Holidays from Speiro Communications.

Talking to People Where They Are

Fear can depend on perspective.

We had a young teenager come to live with us because he was having some difficulties in life. He was from a significantly different background than our family, but needed a home. We live in a very rural setting, a 200 acre farm, miles from the nearest city. He was not from a farm and as a matter of fact rarely went outside let alone go for a walk in the silence and open spaces of a farm.

To help familiarize him with the property, he and I went for a walk through the rolling hills and bean fields that he would be calling home. As we topped a small roll in the landscape at the edge of a dark green soybean field, a fairly sizable buck rustled to his feet and then bounded off into the woods. My pride swelled at the picture of our farm with abundant wildlife and such a picturesque site of the multi-pointed deer hopping through the field. I turned to the young man and said, "Well...what do you think of that?"

He quickly replied, "I think we should get out of here before he comes back."

I suddenly became acutely aware of the societal differences between he and I.

Our churches have the same problem of societal differences and speaking to a new, younger generation is difficult at best. But, we are not to ignore the next generation or people in it that are different than us and the best example of that is Jesus himself.

Think about how Jesus grew up. Nazareth was not mentioned in the Old Testament and it was not even a foot note in writings of Josephus or Philo. Also, archaeological artifacts are scant in the area leading to the right conclusion that Nazareth was a very small town or community. Yet Jesus knew his message had to travel outside of his small town and possibly beyond even his comfort zone.

But, Jesus did not let social factors or his small town roots get in the way of his message and we can all list some of the various cultures and people he was in contact with. The Samaritan woman at the well, Zaccheaus the reviled tax collector, the unclean lepers and the big city folks of Jerusalem were all touched by the small town man with the message of hope.

We too are called to go outside of our comfort zone and speak to the various cultures that surround us and we don't have to travel far to do so. Regardless, of where your church is at physically, you are surrounded by a new mission field, a generation that is hard to talk to and very difficult to understand. This mission field is the Millennial and younger generations. They are in constant communication, find answers to every question on small plastic boxes, and have more information available to them than in any other time in history, but are lost. I feel they are ready for the message of Jesus, but we have lost the ability to communicate with them. If you doubt me try to read one of their texts.

To go where they are, we need to start engaging in a planned social media campaign. We need to invite Millennials currently in our churches to help in this new mission field and more broadly get our church speaking in a way that this younger generation will understand and respond to. This does not mean that we alter the message! It does mean that we should think more deeply about how we convey that message. Don't delay. A new mission field awaits.

For more information about Speiro Communication go to www.speirocom.net or email us at info@speirocom.net.
 

A Simple Test to See If Your Church Is An Alternative

Many churches today are not even an alternative to the lost people of their community. It is unfortunate, but a fact that many Christian Churches and Churches of Christ in general, do not appear on web searches or have websites, let alone have websites set up for mobile devises. Some church leaders will stop reading right there, and will not modernize the way they communicate.  They do not realize that the ear of young people in their community has been lost.

This is despite the fact that of the 77 million Millennials (people born between 1980 and 2000) in the US, 85% own smart phones. This information comes from a Nielson poll taken in the second quarter of 2014. Not only that but 71% of all adults 18+ own a smart devise.

Keep in mind that these devises are not just toys but tools as many young people are using their phone to make important decisions. A June 2014 study by Mitek and Zogby Analytics, revealed that Millennials attempt to access a business's mobile site at a very high rate: 24% - Multiple times a day, 20% - once a day, 27% - few times a week and 12% monthly. Churches are not a business, however this reveals Churches have been behind the curve in this mission field. What if a young couple looking for a church, used their tablet or phone in their search? How would you do?

Don't worry I am not letting church members off the hook, personal evangelism is the most important aspect of spreading the gospel. However, just like the printing press forever changed how we interact with people so too has electronic communication.

So, are you an alternative to those looking for a church or a deeper relationship with God? Here is a simple test to find out. Don't worry, everyone can do this as it is no more than a simple search with a few caveats.

1. Turn on your laptop, mobile devise or desktop computer. If you don't have one borrow the youth minister's or a friend's.

2. Empty the cache of the browser (Chrome, Firefox, Explorer, Safari, etc.). Have you ever been shopping for a new drill on the internet and then later in the day all the ads that pop up seem to be from hardware stores? Your "cache" is the reason why. We need to empty it before you do your search otherwise it will skew the results. This website can help you if you don't know how. Click Here

3. Open your browser that you just cleared the cache for and type in the search space "churches in ____________"  fill in the blank with your city or town and hit enter. 

4. Examine the results. If your church appears on the first page of results multiple times congrats! If you are on there once, good job but there is work to be done. If you are on the second page, you have a lot of work to do. If you are on page three or more, you will not even be considered and you are not an alternative to many in your community.

Now what?
Don't get discouraged. Many of you didn't even know to check on this before today. Second, take control. Website builders often can make a great looking site, but lack the knowledge and expertise to drive traffic to the site. If they have the knowledge, they don't have the time. Find out how willing they are to help by requesting a plan to increase search engine optimization that involves volunteers from the church. Also, your site may have been built by someone that did not understand the goals or purpose. Re-think why you have a site. 

Third, find help. To increase your search engine placement (move you up on the list) it takes an organic effort with several people pulling their weight. You need to have an effort that is consistent and in place for the long term. This means developing content, posting links to social media, commenting on subjects posted and generating interest in the social media/website campaign. It can be done. A church that did not even appear in the first twenty pages of the search is now on the first page, with our help and a steady effort in just six months. 

Last, every church can do this regardless of size! And we need to start right now. A generation may be slipping through our fingers. 

If you need help to get started or for more information, take a look at our website at www.speirocom.net or email us at info@speirocom.net.