Creating Online Communities of Faith: Best Practices from Jemal Mosley
After the world shifted on its access for Covid19 Shutdowns - we noticed one customer segment’s use was not shrinking - it was in fact growing. So we convened the Customer Feedback Council and invited members that used our faith based templates; and we got to hear about some of the creative ways he uses our site; and we were so inspired; we wanted to share that inspiration. It was during this call, we saw one individual with a host of great ideas and creative use of PosterMyWall services.
So let us introduce you to this amazing individual and share some of his best practices and advice for helping out your organization during these times of challenge (and creativity.)
From music and video producer to website/app and social media manager.
Social Media Marketer is how Jemal Mosley of Mosley Media Marketing describes himself; but for the Bethel Baptist Church and Mount Lebanon Baptist Church (and the many others he has helped) he is simply the go-to expert when it comes to sorting out how to communicate using web pages, social media, email marketing and yes; live streaming services. Regarding that technology “As a musician and audio visual pro, I have been using Livestream for years - though I see a lot of other churches using Zoom, which you can push live via Facebook or YouTube.” With these options you can support a lot of interactivity during the call; and if you’re in charge of setting that up, you can have a lot of good visuals ready to help people take action and join other events besides the weekend services.”
“I’ve been helping churches to design websites, and help them communicate online for years; it really lets them connect and serve people who can’t make it to services regularly but don’t want to lose touch with the community there.” As Jemal was looking for artwork to help churches advertise events, a google search about creating flyers led him to find PosterMyWall.
“What I was really impressed with was the variety of styles and artistry that let me quickly and easily put together something eye catching and impactful. (ProTip #1: He doesn’t feel confined to use the templates put together specifically for churches - he finds inspirations in many categories of event.) What used to take me up to 24 hours in Photoshop - I could get done in 20 minutes!”
We asked Jemal to share some of the items that he felt provided a lot of impact in his marketing.
Livestreaming is not new - but it’s important to do it right.
If you’re starting to broadcast (livestream) a service - the first thing you need to have ready is a graphic that lets people know they’ve come to the right place; and you want to make it attractive to the eye.
Jemal used this graphic and many others to promote livestream events.
“Other ideas for visuals to put up while people are tuning in include graphics like bible verse quizzes and sharing the themes... - it helps keep up the interaction.”
Facebook, Instagram and Social Media for Churches
In addition to the livestreaming - Jemal shared that he’s been able to get a lot of use out visuals to use on Facebook and Instagram. “What’s really nice about creating visuals for this is that you get 2 promotions out of one graphic -- you create one for Instagram, which lets you talk to one set of users; but then you can set it up to automatically post to Facebook; where you have a different set of users.” (Note: PosterMyWall lets you select the format you want to start with; and then as Jemal mentions - Facebook will automatically resize the images and copy into Instagram - or the other way around.)
Protip #2: Create once / post twice if you’ve connected your Facebook and Instagram accounts.
A killer function… live hyperlinks. See below how any graphic can be linked to something -- so while the first click gets you to join the live service - you can also put up graphics that share things that are valuable in the moment, like being able to share the handouts for a prayer session while you’re in it. (And this without having to have people find links in the comments or a chat session.)
Churches Using Email and Text Notifications
“Another good time saving technique is using the images and flyers you’ve created in emails. You can send them as an attachment and they show up in the body of the email and really grab attention.”
Managing the lists is key -- we have a lot of different ministries we have to keep updated, such as men’s ministries, choirs, etc. We tend not to do large blasts because there can be an expense - so group leaders will manage addresses and send the messages themselves.
(Note to users who want to make this easy… PosterMyWall Premium and Premium Plus users can send emails directly from our service - no need to download /attach to send out flyers, etc. You can import your lists and keep them current - no extra charge!)
This is something that builds on churches' use of phone trees - we find that folks change their emails but keeping in touch using phone numbers is something we can count on.
New hot tech topic for church -- online giving.
We’ve been doing the online giving because we have always felt like we had to evolve… we wanted to make it easy for those that can’t get to the church. We’ve long been using a service called realm - and to make it even easier, we’ve added another service called Givelify.
With both of these services, your information is easily linked to your church and they make it easy to select and amount - and even add comments and your envelope number to make it all easy to do and keep track of. (And you can put in comments in the memo section.)
In addition to technology around communication - churches are quickly making the transition to let their members support them virtually - even being able to connect to the specific ministries.
Another option is to use PayPal - something that a lot of people already had setup. Givelify makes it easy for you to connect that option.
I do get a lot of questions about this - because people know I like to help out.
Because it's all about being able to help. (Amen.)
I am so glad I’m able to use my gifts to help out people who need it - I’m always happy to provide advice to other people wanting to get started on this. I love how many choices I have to make things that look great on PosterMyWall - and I highly recommend people give it a try.
One piece of advice I think a lot of people would like to know is how easy it is to import your own graphics. You can use an existing template to get the layout right - but then use your own graphics so it is your own look.
Mosley Media Marketing is happy to consult with your specific needs at JemalMosley@Gmail.com or 914-804-9168 -- and of course your team at PosterMyWall is happy to answer any questions you might have in this, or other areas!
