Google Alerts for Your Church
A simple way for us to keep in touch with our church online presence is Google Alerts. Yes, I believe you need a Google account to use this service, but it is free and easy to setup. This has many benefits, but here are a three…
1. It lets you know that Google is taking notice of your content.
When Google crawls the information you have been strategically placing online you can get an email letting you know. You can setup alerts for almost anything. But at least setting one up for your church name, Pastor’s name, and church website is a great start.
2. You find out POSITIVE things being said about your church online.
It is difficult to keep up with local newspapers and blogs when they mention your church in articles and posts unless you visit them regularly. This challenge can be simplified by Google Alerts. You should receive an email when you are mentioned.
Another thing you could do is setup alerts for all or some of your key church members. When they are mentioned in the news or online you would know and could comment or congratulate them personally. The great thing about this approach is that you only have to do this once and it works for you. A volunteer can input their names and you are set. The downside is that you are going to get a lot of emails that are irrelevant.
3. You find out NEGATIVE things being said about your church online.
There are always people out there who do not like your church. Unless you are following people who hate you online you will not know. You don’t necessarily want to respond to these people, but it is nice to know what is being said.
Our church had an instance of someone taking a picture of an old billboard we had and posting it on a we hate all churches and pastors who do not fit into our approach
blog. If they want to take that path that is their choice. It was good to know that was out there though in case someone asked us about the negative comments out there online about the sign.
Also, you might find that some of your key people are saying things that are negative about the church. You could have the opportunity to correct or open a conversation with them that could stop a potential problem.
Take some time to setup your Google Alerts. You may find something interesting!
