Youth Group Web Site – Not Just PDF’s
As I was focusing on our last post about safety in networking through sites likes facebook, I decided to write another post focused on developing a web site for your youth group. I actually do web design and networking for small businesses and parishes on the side, so I have built up some experience and knowledge and have learned many things that may be helpful.
I created a web site specifically for our youth group at www.sacredheartym.com. I have had this site for about seven years and have made tons of changes to get it to where it is today. I have it set up now to be very low maintenance, but also offer tons of information that is always current and easy to access. I will use this post to have you focus on a few aspects of it. Here are some things that I think have been key in the success of our web site. There should be more to your web site than links to PDF’s.
Current Pictures – The first thing youth notice about the site is the header images. I changes these at least quarterly and always use current pictures or memories from trips I want youth to remember. When they visit the site they are immediately brought back to a great memory they have from being involved in youth group.
Way to Stay Updated – Having a spot for youth to sign up to become a fan on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, and receive updates are key to bringing them back to your web site. Don’t think you have the time for these things? I probably spend 10-15 a week on these updates. It is well worth the investment.
Big Event Promos – For every big event I create a new 150×150 promo ad. This same picture is used for Facebook events and any other promotion that I do. For regular events like our monthly adoration, I use the same picture for every month and change it maybe each year. Having a spot on the home page of your site just for your big upcoming events is a great way to constantly remind them.
Discussions – These have been great for youth who spend time just browsing the site. I can post something funny, serious, educational, basically whatever I want. The youth do not need to sign in or set up a user name and password. They just put their name, email, and their comment. I have my youth group site set up so I must approve every comment (takes about 3 seconds) before it is posted online. Which great for when the kids are discussing duct tape and one kids says “why do have to be so abusive with duct tape?,” even though they are joking, you may not want parents reading that.
Also when I know a comment has been sent I can have the quick response time to answer questions or shoot back a quick response to them. I put a discussion on another church’s web site asking youth to talk about their favorite saint. It was a great way to get them discussing.
Upcoming Events – This section is automated and clears out as events are done. No maintenance after a simple form is filled out with the event info.
Behind The Scenes – I have a page for the volunteers that has all of the upcoming lessons, pictures of our youth group trading cards (so they can remember names), and also pages for the team for our Diocesan Retreat Program. All of these files are password protected. It is a great way to make sure people have the current information they need.
Stewardship – Although it is not up to date when I am posting this, it usually is. I have a spot for volunteers to sign up to help. It shoots me an email and I follow up with them.
Online Registrations – Since this is time sensitive, I can’t give you an example that will last forever, but I have found the perfect online registration system for just about any event. You can embed the registration form in to the site, or you can do what we use for our retreat program and just have it go to the registration site. The site we use is EventBrite. The thing I love about it is that you can both manually enter info and it is free or people can sign up online and they pay the site fee (you still pay the typical credit card processing fee). The reports are great and can be used for mail merging and just about anything you are creative enough to think of.
These are things that have been most helpful for me and really make is that much easier for youth to be involved and to stay informed.
A quick tutorial on how to easily maintain your Facebook and Twitter profiles. Set up the page on your website and link to it from Facebook. Link your Twitter and Facebook accounts together and you only have to do it in one spot. You can actually connect the web site also so each time you make a new post on your site, it updates on Facebook and Twitter also, but I like to add little comments on the Facebook page anyway. To link your Facebook page to your Twitter account go here.
Now how do you get this set-up? Well I recommend Parish Web Assistant. You can get all of these feature for your entire parish for about $500. You can also have them do your maintenance for you. You simply fill out a form, attach any files you want uploaded, and they do it for you. You can see all of their features here.
You can have them set up your whole parish site also and your staff will be very happy! Once you get a site set up, if you do everything yourself and you do it the right way, it shouldn’t cost any more than $75/year.
The biggest mistake I see are sites that are not current and only provide links to PDF’s. Set up a site now that will remind your youth of the great times they have had, keeps them coming back looking for more, and gets them involved.
Please comment below if you have other ideas or questions!
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