NOTE: I messed up on the link from the newsletter! Mea Culpa! CLICK HERE to go to the Infographics article.
We all know that the internet is a social medium and our websites are more than a way to talk to ourselves and about ourselves. Interaction is one of the things that make a website useful especially for a church. However, sometimes it is difficult for the people reading your site to know how to contact you if they have a question.
To make that process easier, check out:
http://www.contactme.com
I just signed up for this and my first reaction is that I like the basic form on the website. It does not take the place of comments that relate to specific content on articles, but sometimes people want to contact an organization about a question that doesn't fit any category and this is a great way to do this. It puts a CONTACT tab on your page listings at the top of the website (see the one above). It also puts the little tab that is to the left of this page....not sure I like it, but I'll keep it for now.
Beyond the usefulness of the free contact form, though their integration with a calendar and database seems nice and easy to do, it doesn't seem that better than MS Outlook at the subscription price (I think it's about $9 a month, but hard to find which also bothers me) I'm not sure it's worth it.
MOST IMPORTANT CONTACT TIP OF ALL
Yes, that is in all caps and yes, I'm shouting it. YOU MUST RESPOND to messages! Nothing is worse than a church posting email addresses or putting a button like this on the site and then not responding when you get an email. It still happens far too often—I know, last week I sent a pastor an email about something significant (no names to protect the guilty) and no answer or even acknowledgement of the message. My message was not a pastoral concern and ultimately not terribly important. However, I would hope if a lonely or questioning person or someone with a desperate spiritual need sent an email believing that a pastor would answer that person would not be ignored.
Check it out, see if it works for you--and whatever you use, be sure to answer when people contact you!
