The following is an interview with NewSpring Greenville campus pastor, Howard Frist, from almost two years ago. Keep in mind, two years ago, these guys were just dipping their toes in multi-site and their first multi-site campus in Greenville was brand new. Now 5 campuses later, these guys are rocking and rolling. Here’s Howard’s answers from the early days of multi-site at NewSpring (I’d love to do a new interview now!):

What is your ministry background? What did you do before becoming a Campus Pastor?
Before coming on at NewSpring full time, I had the privilege of owning several business. Also for about a year (while owning the business), I was working part time at NewSpring in the Children’s area.

If you were a pastor, do you still preach? If you were a pastor, do you miss preaching regularly?
This does not apply, since I was not a Pastor and I do not preach, which is a good thing.

How would you define the role of Campus Pastor?
My role at the Greenville campus is somewhat unique because this is our first multi-site location. Because of that we are trying to figure our how multi-site works for NewSpring and how we go about implementing that for our others locations coming after this one. But outside of that, my number one priority as a campus pastor is to guard and protect the vision that God has given our senior Pastor and the leadership team that surrounds him. In order for that vision to be carried out, I need to be in touch with the people at this campus and lead them in executing that vision, both staff and volunteers.

With your focus being on the role of a Campus Pastor and not preparing a weekly sermon, what do you get to do that you think a lot of pastors/preachers miss out on? What are the advantages of your role?
Since I have never been a senior or teaching pastor, I cannot speak to what I am able to do and what they cannot do. I do know that God wired me as a leader and not as a gifted speaker. So the campus pastor role allows me to use my God given talents in a way that I would not be able to if I also had to teach as part of my role.

What are the unique challenges for a Campus Pastor at a multi-site church?
One of the challenges that our campus has faced is that we cannot always change/control the information being sent to the campus level. In other words, we at the campus level do not control the teaching, or the children’s curriculum, or the groups’ strategy and so on. At times that can cause real challenges and issues as you try and implement something that was designed with others in mind. The way that we have overcome that challenge is to focus on what we could control, and that is how we interact and lead the people at this campus. We have focused on building a very tight tribe of volunteers and people who have been impacted for Jesus through this church or who love the vision that God has given us. We are finding that when people are able to connect to each other and understand why we are doing church a certain way, it overcomes a lot of challenges.

What is your communication like with your main campus or central support system?
We encourage a lot of horizontal communication between the Greenville campus teams and the Anderson campus teams. For instance the Children’s team here in Greenville has a weekly call with the Children’s team in Anderson to talk through issues each campus is facing. We are in the process of trying to figure out the right “central support team look” for our church. Currently we do not have a central team and that does cause for some issues in communicating. Our senior Pastor has given me the freedom to do what is needed in order to carry out the vision, so if there is ever a time when we cannot communicate with the Anderson campus and we need to make a decision, we make that decision locally.

Anything that you’d like to say, add, point out, etc.?
We have been open at the time of these answers 18 Sunday’s and have seen close to 100 people begin a personal relationship with Jesus. Back on Oct 4th we baptized 151 people at this campus, after being open just 12 Sunday’s. I cannot tell you how amazing it is to watch life change happen using methods and technology that were not even thought about 5-10 years ago. I would encourage anybody thinking of or maybe going through the challenges of multi-site right now, to think about the possibility of people meeting Jesus because of doing something different. And if you are already doing it, then look for and focus on the life change happening at the campus you lead. It makes all the challenges you face seem so worth it!

*** Just this past Sunday (2 days ago), NewSpring pastor Perry Noble tweeted the following: 516 people gave their lives to Christ @NewSpring today!!! (99 @ 6pm). Never seen a day like this in our history! #awakening

Praise God!

The following is a guest blog post from one of my sponsors (on the right): Brad Hill of SiteOrganic. Be sure to click on their ad and check out what they’re doing. Below is the guest blog:

Have you ever wondered if Jesus considered the distribution of His words, as much as the words themselves?  I think it’s pretty clear that He did.  During His earthly ministry, He spent time dispensing Truth, exposing falsehood, and demonstrating love.  Along the way, He chose his audience and forum carefully.  Those who saw and heard Him were blessed (John 20:29), but those people, in turn, perpetuated a viral firestorm that spread throughout the world and continues to this day.

They used the tools of the day to spread His message. Throughout history, there is a long history of people using new technologies to spread the gospel (examples here, here, and here).

If Jesus were walking the earth today, I think he would have a Website.  It’s kind of fun to dream about what he’d do with it (music playing on the home page? Popup ads? Big photos of the disciples? I think not…)  One thing is for sure.  He would be using it–along with every other available means available–to spread His message.

You and I are the Church, and Jesus left us with the task to teach others about Him (Matthew 28:16-20).  We should be doing everything possible towards that end, using the technology available to us.  Assuming that you are preaching the unadulterated Truth from your pulpit, then you should be using online tools to spread that Truth to the ends of the earth!

If you have a Website for your church, Here are 10 suggestions on how to improve and enhance your sermon audio or video content. Read this as a quiz and see how you would score your church Website:

1.     Add scripture references to every sermon.

2.     Organize your sermons by date. Covenant Life Church does a great job of this (click on the date tab): http://www.covlife.org/resources.

3.     If you preach sermons as part of multi-week series, then be sure that your visitors can find the series easily. I suggest creating a landing page for each sermons series.  Mars Hill has a good example: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/preview.

4.     Don’t charge money to hear your sermons online. Give them away to all that will listen! (You don’t charge admission to attend your services do you?)

5.     Use the MP3 format for audio, as opposed to Windows Media, Quicktime or another proprietary standard.  This ensures the broadest possible compatibility.

6.     Provide an easy way for people to share the sermon with others (Email, Facebook, Twitter)

7.     Write a synopsis of every message, to make it easy for people to understand the “big idea” inside each presentation.

8.     Include every sermon in your podcast, no later than Monday lunchtime. Traffic logs consistently show that sermon content is in greatest demand the day after the service.

9.     Provide links to documents and supporting materials.  For example, any outlines, notes, or other resources should be included as part of the online sermon experience.  This is especially true if you provided these resources to people who were sitting in the room when you recorded the sermon.  Treat your online visitors like first-class citizens and give them the same resources!

10.  Every sermon should be searchable (your site does have a search feature, right?).  When someone on your home page is searching for “prayer”, “marriage”, “Jesus”, or “end times”, your sermons should appear in the results right alongside your other resources.  With good keywords in place, you’re more likely to provide the right message at the right time, right when a person needs to hear a certain message.

Extra credit: Provide a transcript or manuscript of your sermons.  These serve both as an aide to the hearing-impaired, and also a great tool for discussion group and small group leaders who want to build on the content of the sermon.

So how did you do?  Think about how you might be able to build or improve your own church’s media archive this Fall, and take advantage of the amazing tools available to you. Heaven knows, people need to hear the Truth via any method possible.

==============

Brad Hill is founder and President of SiteOrganic.  As one of the leading providers of online ministry tools, they design some amazing sites for churches around the country. Their heart really is all about helping ministries reach more people online for Christ. In addition to their portfolio of easy site management tools, SiteOrganic has a brand new media sharing system called Media Suite 2.0.  If Brad’s post got you thinking about how to improve your sermon archives, then definitely check out http://www.siteorganic.com/media2 and give him a call!

The following is and interview with Scott Williams of LifeChurch.tv from October 2008. These are Scott’s answers:

What is your ministry background? What did you do before becoming a Campus Pastor?
I don’t have any formal “ministry training” besides volunteering within one of the LifeChurch.tv ministry areas.

Prior to becoming a Campus Pastor at LifeChurch.tv; I had spent 13 years 6 months and 7 days in the prison system… I was actually a warden in both the Adult and Juvenile Correction Systems.  My other professional experience includes but was not limited to:  Real Estate Investment, Correctional Consultant, Assistant to Company President, Political Consultant, Lobbyist, Small-Business Owner, College Professor…

If you were a pastor, do you still preach? If you were a pastor, do you miss preaching regularly?
n/a

How would you define the role of Campus Pastor?
Being a Campus Pastor provides the unique opportunity to cast vision, pastor, shepherd, lead, provide fiscal accountability, counsel, train, develop…. without the responsibility of teaching/preaching each and every weekend. Although as a Campus Pastor, I will teach several times a year.  I personally feel that I have the best of both worlds; my campus receives the teaching from our Senior Pastor Craig who is a truly gifted leader and phenomenal communicator. Additionally, I get to be the “Senior Pastor” for my campus.

With your focus being on the role of a Campus Pastor and not preparing a weekly sermon, what do you get to do that you think a lot of pastors/preachers miss out on? What are the advantages of your role?
Again, I have the best of both worlds; my campus receives the teaching from our Senior Pastor Craig who is a truly gifted leader and phenomenal communicator. Additionally, I get to be the “Senior Pastor” for my campus.  I think other pastors might miss out on the fact that they don’t have the freedom to just lead; without the absence of the time and commitment necessary for adequate weekly sermon preparation.  If teaching is an individual’s primary spiritual gift, then the role of Campus Pastor in the LifeChurch.tv system could pose a challenge to adequately express that gift.

What are the unique challenges for a Campus Pastor at a multi-site role?
Balancing centrally driven directives/initiatives vs. individual campus autonomy; as well as developing a unique overall campus culture.

What is your communication like with your main campus or central support system?
Consistent communication via e-mail, conference calls, video conferencing, face-to-face meetings and consistent communication with Regional Campus Pastor, who serves as Supervisor/Advocate/Liaison between the Campus Teams and the central organization.

This is from DJ Chuang of Leadership Network: Do you have a backup plan? If technology fails you are you the one to preach that day? What is your backup plan?
Our back-up plan includes receiving a copy of our Senior Pastor’s sermon notes mid-week prior to the weekend experience.  If satellite is down or there is a technical difficulty prior to our first Saturday night experience; then I will have to teach the message…

As a result of our Satellite being moved less than 1 degree during a serious wind storms;  I personally had to preach a last minute message from Craig’s sermon notes… only one-time so far (Praise The Lord).  We record the Saturday night service and implement a multi-layered redundancy plan for the remainder of the weekend. (Satellite, DVD, DVR, Back-up Hard Drive)

Anything that you’d like to say, add, point out, etc.?
It is more difficult than one would think to effectively lead a campus/congregation with minimal weekly stage time.

The following is an interview between Chris Brown of Flamingo Road and me from October of 2008. These are Chris’ answers:

What did you do before becoming a Campus Pastor? I ran a residential Real Estate team.

What is your ministry background? 4 years at Clearwater Christian College but a Business Major.  10 years of volunteering for several churches. 6 months at Elevation Church as a Campus Pastor of their Union Campus and 8 months here at Flamingo.

If you were a pastor, do you still preach? 3-4 times per year.

If you were a pastor, do you miss preaching regularly? No, 3-6 times a year is fine for me.

How would you define the role of Campus Pastor? The local shepherd responsible for connecting/ministering people, campus execution, and an accurate relay of Global vision from Lead Pastor.

With your focus being on the role of a Campus Pastor and not preparing a weekly sermon, what do you get to do that you think a lot of pastors/preachers miss out on? More donor development, leader development, assimilation, team building, networking with community, and community outreach.

What are the advantages of your role? All the joys of being a lead pastor without weight of the vision being carried out, without the internalization feeling personally attacked when programming is disliked by small groups of attendees, without sleepless nights worrying about revenue, and without needing to sermon prep, etc…..

What are the unique challenges for a Campus Pastor at a multi-site church? Trying to get the attendees and volunteers to understand that I am not the lead pastor, separating local vision from global vision, keeping local vision under global umbrella, trying to keep attendees from traveling 20 minutes northwest to here the teaching live.

What is your communication like with your main campus or central support system? Very good.  We have weekly Campus Pastor meetings where we all collaborate about weekly issues, 4/6 of us are on the Directional Team so we are well informed, and I am the Multi-site Director which provides one formal portal for information distribution to Campus Pastors.  We have a very open environment where CP’s can feel comfortable sharing ideas to the DLT for review.

This is from DJ Chuang of Leadership Network: Do you have a backup plan? If technology fails you are you the one to preach that day? What is your backup plan? Great question.  Because most multi-site churches have a very dynamic communicator, I never suggest trying to finish the teaching unless it is in the last 5 minutes.  We know that I will immediately get on the mic and invite the band to come back up for a worship set that will conclude when system restores.  If system can not be restored I come up after worship set to apologize and dismiss telling all that a DVD will be mailed to them along with a gift package that week for their inconvenience.  I have a packaged statement that spins the occurrence in a relatively positive manner and does not stop campus momentum.  Because we really do not like this strategy, we do a very good job at having several tech back ups to assure that this never happens.  The only thing we are not prepared for is if all power goes out and that would be an issue if teaching was live as well……

Anything that you’d like to say, add, point out, etc.? I would like to hear what others think about video worship…….. I want to buy in but I am having a real hard time…

*** What do you guys and gals think? Anybody out there using video worship at a campus?

The following is an interview between Larry Van Laar of North Coast and me from October 2008. These are Larry’s answers:

What did you do before becoming a Campus Pastor?
I owned a concrete pumping business with three direct employees. However, I would show up on job sites and run crews of up to 40 – 50 men to complete jobs .

What is your ministry background?
Before I became the campus pastor for North Coast church I was a volunteer in children’s ministry at another church while I went to school for my degree. Shortly before graduating I became the Youth Pastor. My responsibilities grew and I started occasionally sharing the pulpit on Sundays. I became the associate pastor after about 4 years and then the Executive pastor while still having hands on with high school and Jr high. I remained at that church for a total of 8 years and then stepped down. Two years later I was hired at North Coast.

If you were a pastor, do you still preach?
I do not. Well, rarely. In the last two years I have preached two times to my venue.

If you were a pastor, do you miss preaching regularly?
This is a bitter sweet thing. There is part of me that truly enjoys teaching/preaching. However, it is not my best gift. I think I want it to be at times. However, I don’t know if you have noticed, but Sunday comes every week and I truly feel the pressure to be ready. With all the time spent in preparation, stress of doing well, I have conceded that the Lord has other things for me to that truly bring me more energy and that I do better.

How would you define the role of Campus Pastor?
Well…let’s see… I oversee and am responsible for everything as a pastor might be except preaching.

With your focus being on the role of a Campus Pastor and not preparing a weekly sermon, what do you get to do that you think a lot of pastors/preachers miss out on? What are the advantages of your role?
First of all, I get to spend time with my family. If I had the role I do now and I had to spend many hours every week preparing a sermon my family would not see me. On the ministry side I get to hang out with and build into the people I call my sheep. I get more time to do a better job at everything else a pastor might normally do.  I got to tell you….it’s the best.

What are the unique challenges for a Campus Pastor at a multi-site church?
There is a season, whether personal or public, I think, that you go through that I call the transition from Puppet to Pastor. Traditionally, the pastor preaches. Anything less is just an imitation. However, once you meet people and begin to truly love them and get involved in their lives you become their pastor. Which really is the deal anyway; the preaching thing does not build relationship—except for maybe the preacher. It is getting into the dirt of people’s lives. Even a preacher knows that.

What is your communication like with your main campus or central support system?
We meet every week. I am given more than enough rope to hang myself and they trust me with that. However, I have such a brilliant group of Godly men to work with we talk just about everything. I am amazed at the lack of power acquisition. Nobody is trying to micro manage me and I am not trying to build my own church. This is a team attempting to do great things and I disappointed how so often I see a play for power in so many other churches.

This is from DJ Chuang of Leadership Network: Do you have a backup plan? If technology fails you are you the one to preach that day? What is your backup plan?
There would need to be a fairly large scale technical breakdown. First we check the DVD’S to make sure they are working by running all the way through one each morning. We have a back-up DVD that runs about 10 seconds behind the first in case the DVD player goes down or whatever. We have gone to the second DVD two times in three years. However, if everything went down I would probably give a message. It would really depend on when it went down however. If it was half way or more I think I would call it done.

Anything that you’d like to say, add, point out, etc.?
Understanding my unique gifts and talents is why I am here. Understanding is the key. I may like to preach or whatever, but at the end of the day I know why the Lord has me here. I love people and love to lead them.

The following is an interview between Dave Clark and me from October 2008. At the time, Dave was a campus pastor at National Community Church in Washington DC. Now Dave is on staff at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX. I asked the following questions to several campus pastors. Here’s what Dave said:

What is your ministry background? What did you do before becoming a Campus Pastor?
Before coming to serve here at National Community Church I attended Valley Forge Christian College in Pennsylvania for 4 years where majored in pastoral ministry and minored in music. I have been a Pastors Kid my entire life and my father is currently still serving as a Senior Pastor of a church in West Chester, Pennsylvania. You could say that I was born in a pew.  In my upbringing I was constantly in the church. And having traveled with my family for a number of years with a transient ministry, I have been exposed to so many different kinds of churches and so many different kinds of church leadership. My father was an amazing man to watch navigate all of the nuances of doing life in ministry and I learned a great deal from him. After feeling the call into ministry I knew I wanted to serve by being apart of something fresh and new, but I didn’t have much of an idea of what that looked like.  Long story short I met Mark Batterson towards the end of my college days and ended up on staff here at NCC.

If you were a pastor, do you still preach? If you were a pastor, do you miss preaching regularly?
I get to preach a handful of times here at NCC every year. Sometimes it has been to the entire congregation and other times it has been preaching to just the campus that I am over. I really enjoy the practice and feel that it really stretches me.

Sometimes I do feel like I would like to preach more, but I don’t feel as if I am at a place where I can or want to preach every week. I have even toyed with the idea of planting a church at times in the past but one of the big questions for me has always been “if I want to” or “can” preach every weekend. I don’t really have the answer to that question.  So all that to say that being a campuspastor is a good fit for me because I get to scratch that preaching itch once in a while by being given an opportunity to speak here at NCC.

How would you define the role of Campus Pastor?
I think being a Campus Pastor means that you are the local pastoral presence at your location or campus. Meaning that you pray with people, meet with people, Council people, share how your heart was impacted after the message, help bring application, dedicate babies, marry couples and so on and so forth. Basically a campus pastor is responsible for carrying on or spurring on the vision of the Lead Pastor or Senior Pastor at that location each and every week.

With your focus being on the role of a Campus Pastor and not preparing a weekly sermon, what do you get to do that you think a lot of pastors/preachers miss out on?
I think that Campus Pastors get to pay more attention to the details of the church. Things like making sure things are in order and that things run smoothly. Making sure that volunteers are well resourced and happy. Being more strategic about helping the location practice the vision.
Another thing is that I actually carry dual roles.  I am also the Media Pastor at NCC. So along with my campus duties I also oversee all of our media/production elements at NCC. So being a campus pastor allows us to have a capacity to do more.

What are the advantages of your role?
I think the biggest advantage of Campus Pastors is the fact that the church can stay smaller and still have more intimate connections while still growing bigger. We have the ability to touch more peoples lives individually. Our lead pastor can only individually meet with so many people.  Se we help expand that capacity by carrying on the vision and leadership to our campuses.

What are the unique challenges for a Campus Pastor at a multi-site church?
I think the biggest challenge that a Campus Pastor in a multi-site environment is to stay connected to the vision and heart of the Lead Pastor. So many times things just start running and running smoothly and once everyone is comfortable, that’s when it’s most dangerous. The vision get diluted. As campus pastors we have to strive to constantly hear the heart of our leader and the heart of God. Lead Pastors also need to be extremely intentional about spending ample time with their campus pastors and investing in them.

What is your communication like with you main campus or central support system?
We have weekly meetings with the Lead Pastor and all campus pastors to make sure that everyone is on the same page. We go over everything from announcements to structure and order of service. We also talk about what went wrong or what’s working or what’s not working.

Anything that you’d like to say, add, point out, etc?
I think that about covers it. =)

*** What are your thoughts after reading this first interview? I did add one more question about a back-up plan to the rest of the interviews. Are there any other questions that you’d like to ask? I’m working on some new interviews and can add in some questions if they are appropriate. Let me know.

Over the next several blogs, I’m going to give you a little peak into my head and heart and what I have been chewing on for the last few years. For about three years, I have been fascinated with the multi-site church movement and the unique role of campus pastor at a multi-site church. About two years ago, I interviewed campus pastors at well-known multi-site churches around the country.

In the next few blog posts, I’m going to share the interviews I did with multi-site campus pastors. Keep in mind, these interviews were done two years ago and that some of their answers and situations may have changed by now – as a matter of fact, I’m sure they have. For instance, Dave Clark (who I interviewed as a campus pastor at National Community Church in Washington DC) is now on staff at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX.

However, some of the key issues, principles, challenges and advantages are still the same and that’s what I want you to reflect on. I’m leading up to something and will share more of my heart and my vision for the future in the near future. These interviews (and how God used them in my life 2 years ago) are foundational for what I’m working on now and have planned for the future.

After I share the interviews from campus pastors of multi-site churches, I will share brand new interviews with the next level of my vision – campus pastors and pastors of network churches or strategic partners of multi-site churches. These are autonomous churches that use video teaching primarily. Again, I’m leading up to something with all this and will eventually make a point.

As a primer for this conversation and the future conversations, I encourage you to pick up and read the following books (if you haven’t already):

• The Multi-Site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations
• A Multi-Site Church Roadtrip: Exploring the New Normal

In the meantime, if you’re a part (member, staff, volunteer) of a multi-site church or a network church, I want to hear from you. Please leave a comment and let us know about your involvement. Also, if you have any questions in general about all this, please comment as well. Campus Pastors: I want to hear from you!

It’s been a little over a year since I first blogged about “Digital Real Estate“. Was I right? Did you take me up on my plea and dive into social media for your organization? Let’s see what’s happened in the last year and what changed with the examples I mentioned in the first blog post. Basically, I showed you the concept of digital real estate and gave you some examples of people or churches that weren’t actively twittering at the time, but had reserved their space/name online.

The first example was of worship leader Matt Redman. When I first blogged about him over a year ago, he had created an account, but was not using it, yet. He had a total of 310 followers.

I’m writing this blog post on August 11, 2010. As of today, Matt Redman is twittering regularly and has 21,135 followers. Wow! Look:

The second example I pointed to was LifeChurch.tv’s Twitter account. Now LifeChurch.tv is active and has 3,586 followers as you can see here:

The next example I gave was of Willow Creek Church. Willow now has 3,774 followers on Twitter and tweets regularly. You can check them out here:

Lastly, I mentioned that Rick Warren had reserved his spot on Twitter and had 5000 followers before ever writing his first tweet. Now Rick has 130,463 followers and is a regular on Twitter and encourages church leaders daily.

So… have you claimed your digital real estate? Have you grabbed you or your church, business or organization’s name?

Throughout the past couple of years, I’ve made my pleas about giving Twitter a try. This is another plea for you to claim your “digital real estate” and get on Twitter for your church, business, non-profit or organization. We’re past the point of Twitter being a fad. Twitter now has over 50 million users and has gone mainstream. Businesses everywhere are using Twitter to be seen and get heard. They’re using Twitter to get by the roadblocks of old media and create a powerful presence online. You have the same opportunities and potential for an effective online presence with your church or organization.

The best part about Twitter users, unlike Facebook or YouTube, is that most Twitter users are over the age of 30. What does that mean for you? Paying Customers in the business world or your target for your church. Most modern churches target young couples with small kids – this is who is on Twitter. Make sense?

The 2nd reason? Laser Targeted Marketing:

When you use Twitter to build your brand online, you’re not relying on random Google searches. You’re not relying on expensive PPC methods that bring lukewarm consumers (in business) or people that aren’t located near your church and will never visit. You are using Twitter to filter out the tire kickers and bring you the people that want to hear your voice. Enter – a surge of traffic that is hungry for what you have to offer!

Now, I realize that a lot of what I just said is exactly what I tell my clients. Again, I’m just trying to share with you for free what I get paid to share with others. Please know my heart is to reach people for Christ. I’m not pushing a consumer-focused church or trying to scratch itching ears. I’m one of those, like Perry Noble, that will do anything short of sin to see people come to Jesus – realizing that it’s the Holy Spirit that draws men and women unto Himself. I’m just referring to the part where we are partners of the Gospel and work with the Spirit to share Christ and reach out to our community.

Still not convinced you should be on Twitter? Tomorrow I will blog an updated or revised version of my “Digital Real Estate” plea. Stay tuned. In the meantime, how many of you have a Twitter account for your church? How many of you update it regularly? Are you conversational and not just a broadcast mechanism? Please share.

In last week’s blog post “An Introduction to Social Media Marketing”, I referred to SMO. (SMO) Social media optimization, sometimes known as social media marketing, is a branch of search engine optimization that isn’t as mainstream as it should be. Every business and church can benefit from some form of engagement with social media networks, but not every business (or church) does engage. In the very near future, any business ignoring SMO will do so to their severe detriment. This is why I do my social media marketing company (GTK Solutions) and something I help educate business owners about.

Here’s just a few of the functions an SMO campaign serves:

*Exposure. This is the main thing most businesses aim for when they engage in social media optimisation. Many companies let increased exposure remain as the limit of a campaign’s advantages. A little thought can make social media work harder for your website optimisation campaign.

*Customer service. As more of the average businesses can be contacted through social media than in any other forum, it makes sense to use social media networks as a kind of customer service line. The publicly viewable nature of social media communication means that positive customer interactions get your business some excellent coverage, although for the same reasons negative encounters are best taken offline.

*Brand and reputation management. One of the major changes social media has wrought upon the internet is the need for results in real time. This aspect of social media comes in as an advantage when your brand needs a little support. Businesses are using social media to respond to bad press in their own words, getting in before the media does too much damage.

*Media coverage. The social media can be used as your own little media network, without the trouble of bothering with journalists.

*** I hope you know that my heart is to educate, inform, train and equip you as Church leaders. Any mention to my company (GTK Solutions) in my blogs is just a passing reference to what I do during the day. Please know that my business is not geared to churches (they can’t afford it). I’m not writing this for any other purpose than to share for free what others pay me to tell them. My clients for GTK Solutions are businesses only.

However, I do offer consulting (not marketing) to churches and am passionate about teaching and equipping church leaders and pastors about social media. Let me know if you’d like to talk with me about consulting with your church or organization for SMO. I also include social media and online strategy in my report when I do a secret shopper for a church. If you have interest in that, go HERE for more details.