Five New Ways To Use Technology (Part Two)

Guest post by Paula Steinbacher from First Presbyterian Church in Arkansas City, Kansas

Editors note: This article appears in the new edition of Youth Leaders Only from interlinc. Click here to preview the box and check out the new youth-ministry-budget-friendly “YLO Select” membership.

You can read Paula’s first five ideas for using technology in youth ministry here.

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1. Pinterest: Use this virtual bulletin board (pinterest.com) to organize pictures and links onto “boards.” Following friends or people with similar tastes can offer you a cornucopia of ideas. What you may not know … Pinterest offers group pinning. Next time you are redecorating your youth room or looking for mission trips, set up a Pinterest board labeled as such and then invite youth and parents to pin ideas and inspirations to your boards. Also try ideas for t-shirt designs, fund-raisers, crafty-type projects, etc.
2. Instagram: This photo-sharing site can foster group spirit if you ask your students to add a specific hash tag with the name of your group. Give students a weekly challenge to post photos with themes such as “God” or “Peace Makers” or “Love in Action”, adding the group’s #hashtag name. Downside – only available for iPhone users.
3. E-mail Marketing: Check out using full-color templates and cool plug-ins from free e-mail marketing sites like madmimi.com. You can make your weekly mail blast interesting and eye-catching. Some services require paid subscriptions for larger mailing lists.
4. Google Business: Set up a free place marker at google.com/places if you haven’t done so yet. Try this – for a one-time set up fee of approximately $250 the experts at google will design a high-tech page for you that will hold up to five videos and ten pictures. More importantly, you can set up a list of key words that will push your link to the top of search results when they are queried in the search bar.
5. Facebook: Did you know that Facebook offers inexpensive advertising? You can set a daily limit on your advertising spending, and push ads onto the sidebar of age-specific users in a pre-defined location. Dollar for dollar, Facebook advertising is much more effective than local phone books or newspaper ads, and effectively targets youth like nothing before. Register for the free “marketing classroom” that gives you the low-down at facebook.com/marketing.

Read Ken McCoy’s “Letter from the Editor” for this special tech-themed YLO

Thanks Paula for sharing some great ideas!