This is an example of how to design a sign-up form.
Make it as easy as possible for the user.
Only ask for the information you need.
Great work from Buffer.
By way of comparison, this is how you shouldn’t design a sign-up form.
Too many fields.
Asking for too much information.
Making it too difficult to a visitor to be bothered to get in touch.
Here’s another example of what not to do:
How is your church or ministry using Twitter?
A post from 18 months ago – ‘15 ways for churches to use Twitter‘ continues to be a very popular post for exploring the opportunities that Twitter provides. It’s good to plan ahead – to schedule different types of content, to engage in different ways with different people.
This infographic from Social Media Examiner is also a helpful reminder to think through the different types of content a Twitter account can provide:
The accompanying blog post is also worth checking out too, especially as you consider scheduling content in advance.
If you’re scheduling content on Twitter, here are a couple of tools to consider:
Mars Hill Church describes their Media & Communications Branch in this way:
“The Media & Communications Branch directs the Air War, the most visible ministries of the church that reach the largest audience: websites, audio and video content, publications, blogs, social media, public relations, the media library, etc.”
Great description of the importance of these ministries in the life of the church, and in reaching those outside the church.
I’m putting together a welcome video, to play in church before the service. The purpose is to engage with newcomers, to help them familiarise themselves with church, and help them connect with us.
One of our wonderful graphic designers is putting together the artwork, and I’m going to create the (very basic) movie – basically just adding the images into a PowerPoint presentation, and converting the presentation into a movie. I’ve been looking into background music that I can use legally, to play as the information appears on screen.
Below are a collection of sites that offer free or cheap stock audio that you can use for a variety of ministry purposes. Often, these sites offer a free file per month – so if you keep an eye out, you can build up an interesting collection of audio files, at no cost. I’ve included links to licensing agreements – please use the tracks responsibly, and honour God in the way that you use content (music, images, videos) that have been created by others.
From what I understand, you’re free to use these audio tracks for different purposes – as long as you don’t resell them, or embed them in work that you then resell, or make available on a website. Read more about the licensing terms here.
Not as cheap as some of the other options, but I’m a big fan of it’s big brother – iStockphoto. Read more about the standard and extended licenses here.
A fantastic collection of free Christian music from emerging Christian artists. My friend Andrew checked with Chad Johnson from Come&Live about using their music. The deal is: the music is free for use for personal, church or commercial use, and that they only time they ask for a financial contribution is if the song is to be used in a format that is to be sold (eg. a DVD for sale that contains a song). Thanks Come&Live.
“We select the most amazing independent musicians and offer you unlimited downloads and listening for only $15/month.” Read more about the license for non-commercial use here.
These clips are free, and there seems to be a decent collection of clips available. Each clip has its own licensing agreements.
Check out a long list of sites for sourcing stock audio here.
Need inspiration for a church or ministry website? MinistryCSS has loads of inspiration, in eight different categories including conferences, church, missions and more.
I was also pleased to see the website for Youthworks College listed – my friend Robert is the brains behind this site:
A similar gallery website is CSS Religion:
Word clouds provide an interesting way of seeing what words are most frequently used in a document or website. In my social media role, we create word clouds to show our clients the types of conversations that are taking place about them around the web. Previously I’ve written about Wordle, and I’ve recently discovered a new tool – Tagxedo.
One of the different features of Tagxedo is the ability to create a word cloud in a variety of custom shapes. For example, a speech bubble:
In the shape of a word:
Even in the shape of Australia!
