The Digital Future of Your College Ministry

tron legacy“80% of smartphone users have accessed Mobile Media on their mobile device vs. 26% of non-smartphone users.”source

The digital world is shifting away from the desktop and towards a multiple-device but mobile-centric world. The college ministries that optimize their web presence around image-driven content, mobile-optimized applications will be most relevant and engaging.

“Apple gets about 15k app submissions (to it’s App Store) a week. They come in up to 30 different languages.”source

“The number of Android Market apps increased (as of February ’11) about 127 percent since August.”-source

Shifting Away from the Desktop…

College students ALREADY access Facebook and YouTube from their current mobile devices. Computing power doubles approximately every two years. Smartphones will become geniusphones, enabling more tasks to be completed on a mobile device.

Towards a multiple-device…

TVs, gaming consoles, laptop/tablest, and phones already allow you to access similar content (YouTube, Netflix, the Web to name a few). Yet each of those devices center around different experiences–I watch TV, play video games, type on my laptop, connect with friends on my phone. Apps are the key to making the content from these sites accessible and optimized for these different devices. If your online content does not “fit” into a variety of devices it simply will not be accessed.

Mobile-centric world…

I see young (20 and under) and old (40 and over) purchasing smartphones all around me. This trend will only increase in the next few years, along with the ability to capture, share, and view rich media (photos and video). 50% of all connections to the internet in the US are through mobile devices. My guess is that in five years this number may reach 70%.

What You Can Do Right Now…

1. Start Building Up Your Video Presence on YouTube: Create a Gmail account for your ministry (click here to see how). Create a YouTube Channel (click here to see how). Seek to create 1 video per week; these can vary in length from 1 to 3 minutes. Seek to limit videos longer than five minutes.

2. Train Your Staff and Student to Capture and Share Pictures on your ministry’s Facebook Page:. too often engaging photos related to your ministry are shared on people’s PERSONAL profiles; on Facebook photos are the most viewed and uploaded type of media. They also garner more likes and comments than any other media. Encourage and remind your students to upload pictures DIRECTLY to your Facebook page as well as their own profiles.

3. Make Sure Your Website is Optimized for Mobile: If you are using WordPress then you can install this plugin to easily make your site optimized for mobile. If you are using a service other than WordPress it might be more difficult but you can use Google Search to explore some solutions.

4. Let Your Students Create Most of Your Content, But Upload it to a Central Location: The challenge is NOT to get students to create media, but to think strategically about WHERE and HOW to share that media online. I recommend a YouTube channel for videos, a Facebook Page for photos, and a Facebook Page for text. Notice that Facebook and YouTube are two of the most highly used Apps today on the iPhone and Android devices.

5. Share as Much Rich Media as Possible on Facebook: If a picture or short video can be shared instead of text, then it should! If you have to include text add it to a photo or video. When you login into Facebook, does your eye gravitate towards text, or photos and videos? If most of your updates are in text form then chances are most students are not paying attention.

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Brian Barela serves as the Director of New Media for Campus Crusade for Christ. Before that he spent seven years on campus, and was the first ministry in CCC to livestream their weekly meetings, and helped develop the paradigm for an integrated web presence that includes Facebook, SEO, Websites, and live-streaming. He blogs regularly here, tweets here, and can be added as a friend on Facebook here.

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10 thoughts on “The Digital Future of Your College Ministry

  1. to see a small glimpse of the multiple-device integration watch this youtube video that demonstrates the new gray’s anatomy iPad app that lets you interact w the show as it happens:

  2. Great thoughts Brian. What do you think about quality vs quantity on videos? I’m all about empowering and releasing control to students – but I’m just thinking if they’re uploading all sorts of random, crappy videos to our youtube channel it hurts our brand- if they’re cheesy, superficial christian-y, etc. What do you think?

    1. hey tim there are certainly some quality control things but 98% of ministries do not have more than 2-3 videos in one location, most likely not a youtube channel.

      i would keep them super short and honest–short testimony style, or quick announcements, having fun but not trying to be funny.

      i know you are in the same boat on this but “new person friendly” is key–no inside jokes, words, etc.

    2. I’m with you, Tim – I think that really can be an issue. Anybody have any ideas on that?

      Is there a way to let videos be posted but “demote” them to the bottom of the list? Do votes affect order on a YouTube channel?

      1. you can set the video to private as the admin in youtube and i’m sure you can do the same in vimeo.

        a good workaround is to have some frameworks:
        2 min video
        –30 seconds: one person intros
        –30 seconds: cut to second person
        –30 seconds: cut to both people together
        –30 seconds: close video and have some text/info to wrap up.

        when left to their own devices there is usually no coherent structure, and the videos are shot last minute. a little up front structuring can go a long way.

  3. Great ideas. What about the possibility of short “how to’s”? Maybe “how to share your story” and an example, or different students or staff using a tool (like Soularium) in different contexts? Would this idea work to share the wealth since ideas/tools/strategies rarely get shared outside our own ministry?

  4. Great! Thanks for that. I hope we’ll be up with the times. Thanks again for such updates.

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