April 29th Is Internet Evangelism Day

Did you know April 29th is Internet Evangelism Day?  In fact, the entire month of April is Digital Outreach Month.

Are you doing anything on the internet to reach out to people with the love of Christ? Whether or not you already are, why not pick up a new idea this week?

• Learn more about Internet Evangelism Day and find a lot of ideas and great resources (see important notes about free downloads this week and a chance to win two books).
• Curt signed up to be an online missionary with Global Media Outreach. Have you?
• Did you know you can specifically request to answer eMails received from women who are seeking God?
• Check out these creative ideas from EveryStudent.com for sharing your faith.  (I’ll make myself accountable to you, I’m very interested in trying this idea in particular: it’s a mini-survey where you gather eMail addresses and send requested evangelistic articles to people.)

NOTES:

• On Sunday, April 29th, Internet Evangelism Day will be offering more than 10 free ebook titles and a mobile phone app.
• Some eBooks are already available (through April 29th).
• Also, follow the same link to learn how to win two books: @StickyJesus and Tweeting Church (you’ll need to know some hashtags).
• “Texting” image by Eitan Bar, the virtual-led director in Israel. You can find out about what they’re doing at www.oneforisrael.org.

Read more at Internet Evangelism Day Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Getting Started with MailChimp

Perhaps you have been thinking about sending out your prayer letter by email, or you may already be sending it out through Outlook as an attachment.  However, you can make your emails more impactful by using an email service like MailChimp to send your letter.

I did a survey with my ministry partners and found in general that women like to read the printed letter and men prefer to read by email.  I suggest sending both.  Sending your prayer letter by email should not become the only way you communicate with your ministry partners.  You should continue to send it by mail as well.  Also, using multiple touch points of communication each month enables you to stand out.

There are several other email services that are available, but MailChimp has a generous free option and is very easy to set-up and use.  Here are some of the key features:

• With MailChimp you can personalize each email to your partners using merge tags.  This will make your email standout.
• All your text including pictures and links are in the body of your email (people don’t generally like to open attachments in emails).  You can send both text and HTML.
• MailChimp provides reports for email sent so you can see who has opened your email and clicked on links.

Here are some tips that will help you get started.

1. First sign up for the free version account at http://www.mailchimp.com.  You can have up to 2,000 contacts (12,000 emails sent each month).  Beyond 2,000 contacts there is a tiered monthly fee that includes a 15% discount for non-profits.
2. Fill out all the info and get all your settings in place.
3. Create a list and import your contacts into your list.  You will need to put all your contacts (name and email address) in an Excel spreadsheet to import them into MailChimp.  Click here for instructions on how to do this.   You can export your contacts from Outlook as well.  Click here for more information.
4. Once you have done this then you choose a pre-made template or create your own.  Type out your letter (images and links).
5. Test and Send

Guest Post by Doug Weiss

Doug has been on staff for 17 years and serves as a media producer and digital strategist for The JESUS Film Project.  He is Chick-fil-a and Sweet tea fanatic. He has been married for 13 years to Karen and they both enjoy traveling the world with the ministry.  You can find Doug online on Facebook and Twitter and at his blog Outside The Box Ministry.

NOTES:

• Read more about MailChimp.
• A beta version of TntMPD now syncs with MailChimp.  If you don’t want to wait for the final version, you could just export your TntMPD contacts to Excel (see Step 3, above).

New Blog Ministers to 1000s of New Believers

Guest Post from Marilyn Adamson, director of EveryStudent.com, StartingwithGod.com, and MarilynAdamson.com

So far, about 30,000 people have signed up for “The Spiritual Starter Kit” or other emails series that we offer on EveryStudent.com and StartingwithGod.com.

I’ve been asking God if there is something further he would want me to do to continue ministering to these new believers, not just for their own growth, but to encourage them to share Jesus with others.

This week, through interactions with others, the idea came to start a blog for them. (It’s also a way to communicate to our Campus leaders around the world about new developments in EveryStudent.com.)

After sending an email (to the 30,000 people on any of our email series lists), already 5,000 people visited the blog within just the first 24 hours. So no one would have to learn a new URL, I decided to just stay with my name, which they know from the email series. However, MarilynAdamson.com isn’t about me. It’s a blog about our great God, and how we can make Him known.

If you go to it, scroll down the home page and read some of the comments people have left.  The most touching one is from a homeless man who is really struggling with life and considering suicide. Immediately, four people commented back to him, encouraging him. It’s so great to see people care for him like that.

God’s kindness is so evident. He’s a wonderful God to follow, isn’t he?

NOTE: All the posts will be found in each of these “MAIN MENU” sections listed here. Please click to see:

• New Developments at EveryStudent.com
• Our Great God
• Results/Praise (stories from people who’ve found God)
• Ways To Reach Others using EveryStudent.com

If you want to sign up for an RSS feed or to receive an email when new posts come up, go to MarilynAdamson.com.

eMail… briefly

One of the top posts on eQuipping for eMinistry is Tips about eMail Usage and Abusage.  (I’d like to suggest you read it along with this article since many of the 18 tips will apply to this post.)

So, here’s “part two” which I based on some great ideas from “How ‘EOM’ Makes Your eMail More Efficient” and “How to eMail Busy People”.  (I’ll include the links within this post so you can read more from the original authors.)

Watch the length of your eMails

Have you ever written an eMail that you realized in hindsight would have been more efficiently done over the phone or in a short meeting?  Try this mental checklist from LifeHacker for your eMail messages:

• Can you fit everything into a subject line? No?
• Then can your message fit into one paragraph? No?
• Then can it fit into two paragraphs? No?
• If it cannot, then a phone call or meeting is likely more efficient.

Yes, you read that right.  Use the subject line with nothing in the body of the eMail when possible.   Imagine  receiving an eMail that had only the following in the subject: “I’ll see you at 6:00 at Panera’s with the presentation materials  EOM/RR.”  Can you save yourself and others a lot of time and effort by saying everything you have to say in a well-written subject line?

Try standard abbreviations

Familiarize yourself with these great abbreviations for your subject line:

• EOM end of message
• NRN  no reply necessary
• RR reply requested
• EOM/NRN or EOM/RR

Learn more benefits of using “EOM” from LifeHacker, including saving time and guaranteeing your eMail will be read.  As more of us use these abbreviations, we’ll save more space on our servers, too.  (This is for my friends who make sure we have all the space we need.)

If You’re eMailing a Busy Person

Jason Freedman recommends your eMails to a busy person should be 3 to 5 sentences maximum or even just contained in the subject line.  Read more in How to eMail Busy People or in Part Three, where I’ll summarize Jason’s specific tips which also apply to eMails in general, not just to busy people.

NOTES:

• Read 18 more great Tips about eMail Usage and Abusage which I summarized from Michael Hyatt.
• CCC staff, so we can better serve you, please subscribe here to receive weekly emails of e4e posts, notifications of training, and more.

1-2-1 Labs Start at Lake Hart

We’ll be having computer labs (called “1-2-1 at Lake Hart”) during the lunch hour on the first Tuesday of each month at headquarters.  A dozen staff have volunteered to be available to answer questions on topics ranging from Macs, social networks, mobile devices, eMail, blogging, TntMPD, MailChimp, and more.  Twenty-eight staff came to our “trial run” lab in February.  I asked them what they thought of the lab:

“This was very helpful!!!  I like the informal setting where we can ask questions.  It is very difficult to grasp the tools we have available.  What is very basic for one of your experts, is very complicated for some people.  We need more bridge builders like you!!!  Sign me up to come again.”  ~ Tim C.

“I am interested in coming again. I actually really liked the free open ended way the lab was handled… I really wasn’t sure what I was going to ask [Mike] but as I sat there and fiddled with my MAC I really had a lot of questions. Thank you. I’ll be there next month.” ~ Lori D.

“Thanks again for all your work in putting the lab together.  I found it extremely helpful.  I appreciated Mike doing the one thing I asked him to help me with my tablet efficiently and quickly.  We were done in less then 5 minutes!  Monica … gave me some great tracks to run on [with Blogspot].  Once I am done implementing what she suggested, I am sure I could use further help with the next step.” ~ Gordana S.

“I am so happy that I went to the lab last week! It was extremely helpful to me on many levels and I definitely plan to attend next month. Andi gave me some very practical “next steps” for our StoryTapestry web presence.  I am looking forward to running some questions by the Tnt Mpd guys in the future, too.  I am so grateful for all the mentors for giving of their time…I know they are all very busy!  I hope to be able to pick your brain some more as well during future labs!“ ~ Brenda M.

“Yes, it was VERY helpful. As I told Troy and Bob, I have had this problem with tntmpd for months and have tried to research it on my own and even got consultation from Troy over email, but I still could not resolve it on my own (it does not help that I am NOT a techno-guru in the least). However, sitting down with Troy for less than 5 minutes got me on the right road and I was then able to take steps (with his in-person consultation) to resolve the problem within 10 minutes (that counts downloading and installing a third-party software (drop-box)).  Thank you for helping me resolve what was a big problem I was having with tntmpd.

“I would be very interested in coming again if I run into problems/barriers on any level, especially where technology is concerned, that I could not break through myself after trying. Or, it could also be very useful to get a consultation on the work-related systems I have employed and get an opinion and consultation on if there is a better or more effective way of building the mouse-trap.” ~ John C.

I liked Tim’s term: “bridge builders” to describe what we were trying to do during the lab to help staff know how they can use technology for ministry.  I try to build bridges with eQuipping for eMinistry as well.  Please recommend e4e to your friends.  Thanks!

Click here for a slide show of the lab.