Build it and They Will Come: Electronic Media Outreach

Speaker: Deborah Weiner, Director of Electronic Communication, UUA

Prepared for UUA.org by: Margy Levine Young, Reporter; Jone Johnson Lewis, Editor

Speaker Handout: Powerpoint Presentation

How do we use electronic communication to provide services, to be an excellent congregation, and to attract people who are looking for a liberal religious home? One thing that is unique about the UUA and uua.org is that almost all our congregations have web sites and are linked from uua.org. We know that on a weekend, we have about 400 people who come to uua.org, click Find a Congregation Near You, and search for a congregation.

First, Weiner suggested that we need to consider the basics: the mission of the site. You need to identify who you serve, why, and who you are. You need to consider your intended audience (or audiences), what you want to convey (an introduction to UUism to newcomers, congregational news for existing members, or both), why a person would want to respond to your site, and how a person can interact with your site. The primary audience of your site is the seeker; make sure that your site doesn't turn visitors off with insider news that doesn't make sense to an outsider.

Your congregation's mission should apply to your web site. You can use your computer's identity, values, and priorities when designing the site, so they are communicated to the visitor. Concentrate on making connections with visitors, members, friends, and the wider public. Think about your audience's demographics, style, and connection to key issues when creating your design. For example, people who listen to public radio, watch public television, and support social causes tend to be open to UUism. If your congregation's social justice work is speaking to people, feature it to attract visitors. Don't try to attract everyone, because your site design will be too diffuse, and it may take too many clicks (that is, more than two or three) to find what they are looking for.

The UUA's existing web started as an audience-based web site, but has turned into a site that concentrates on a site that is structured around the UUA's staff groups. The UUA is about to debut a new uua.org web site within the next six months, one that is structured around the interests of the audience.

Weiner displayed the River of Grass web site (at www.riverofgrass.org ) as an example of good design without expensive, high-tech elements. The site has all the key information on the home page, including their mission statement, what's happening right now, and links to a minister's statement, RE, programs, calendar, and information about UUism. The Glide Memorial Church at www.glide.org has a lovely opening page with an inspirational message and links to more information. She also suggested that some sites can respond to who you are and provide links dynamically, using the Amazon.com and UUA Bookstore sites as examples.

How will people find your pages? You need to include metatags in your pages that provide information to search engines. Search engines use description and keywords metatags when they add your site to their database. These partially control what search phrases or words will bring up your site – how much influence depends on the search engine. Even more importantly, Google looks as the title of your site (the title tag) and the first paragraph or two of the text on the page, so use your preferred search phrases in the title and first few paragraphs. Be sure that these texts match, so that you are using the same kinds of words; this shows Google (and other search engines) that you aren't manipulating your keywords to fake it out.

You should also look into getting other sites to link to your site, including the UUA's site, the district site, and local sites. Google and other search engines rate your site partly on the number of incoming links (other sites linking to you). One way to increase your incoming links is to submit articles or sermons to other sites for reprinting, on the condition that they link to your site as a reference. See the Search Engine Watch web site at searchenginewatch.com for more information about how to make your site findable.

What kinds of material do you want on your site? Use lots of text and lots of pictures, especially of people. You can also include PDF (portable document format) files for documents that people will want to print. Get people in your congregation who have digital cameras to take pictures and provide the, or scan photos, or find photos and get permission to use them. Cut down the number of words – the Web is not a place that people will read long screeds. She suggested Don't Make Me Think , a book by Steve Krug about how people use the Web and read (or don't read) web pages.

There's huge competition to be on the home page, or a link from the home page. Use the congregation's mission to determine what's most important to feature on the home page and how many clicks are acceptable for various topics. One idea is to rotate links through the home page, so that each topic gets a turn on the home page; this is also a way to change the information on the home page to keep it current. You can think of your site as having two sites, one for members and one for visitors. You can even have two sites: for example, www.uuchurch.org and members.uuchurch.org (with links from one to the other). You can make a members-only part of the site that requires a username and password to see the pages.

You need to update your site regularly, so that people don't see out-of-date information, which turns visitors off. Congregational web sites can include code that displays a banner ad that links to a page at the UUA. Without you having to change your page, the banner changes regularly, and the link changes to match the graphic. For example, the banner might be about General Assembly (GA), with a link to the GA site, or about Marriage Equality, with a link to the Freedom to Marry pages at uua.org. Go to the "Add a UUA Square Banner Advertisement to Your Website" page at www.uua.org/ads/square for instructions for adding the ad to your site.

There are issues around safe congregations and web sites. Don't include close-up shots or name of children on sites. Instead, take shots at oblique or back angles, and action shots, rather than full-face shots. Get a waiver from families if you include pictures of kids. Don't include family's addresses or phone numbers on your public site, or information about families that would publicize a family tragedy, move, etc. But do include pictures of adults and groups. Have a congregational policy around what kinds of information will be on the site, and what permissions are required.

Finally, Weiner recommended that your congregation register its own domain name, calling your ISP or the folks at UUism.net (www.uuism.net ) to ask about the cost of registering a domain name and hosting your site, which shouldn't cost more than $20/month. Don't use a domain that lives on a member's site or uses a member's domain name as part of yours. With all good will, you never know when a member might leave, or move away, taking your web address with them. Make sure that it is clear that your congregation owns both the web address (domain name) and the content of your web site.

Unitarian Universalist Association
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