Ginny+Nolan+-+Article+for+Publication

NEW MEDIA CAPSTONE PROJECT ARTICLE  PARISH ENGAGEMENT, EVANGELIZATION AND EDUCATION  THROUGH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

PROJECT CONTACT: Ginny Nolan 239-285-5472 gnolan42@comcast.net __December 1, 2012 __

My goals for this project were to maximize the use of our parish website, social media and E-News which needed to be regenerated by using Web.2 tools (applications that facilitate interactive information sharing); make it a collaborative effort by staff and volunteers for administrative and ministry purposes; and to educate and inform the staff about the [|USCCB Guidelines for Social Media]  and [|U.S. Copyright/Fair Use Guidelines] . I have learned a lot in this process and would like to share my thoughts and recommendations.

After placing ads in the bulletin for those interested in being part of a digital technology team went unanswered, I made the more effective personal calls. I called together a small team of people whom I knew were interested in or up to date with today’s digital technology. We discussed a shared vision of evangelizing, educating and engaging, and also the copyright and ISTE standards. We also agreed to share the load of keeping up to date with our website and social media.

Outreach through our website, www.stpeternaples.com <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">, has increased, especially, in the area of requests either for prayer or wanting a staff member to contact them. Our Facebook page and our parish E-News always contain links back to the web page for those requests and for further information on other items. We keep up with current events in the parish on the home page, encouraging participation and providing links to registration forms for those events. The website has also grown through adding schedules for our Readers, Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers, and Altar Servers, which our ministers count on now. We have added more photos and videos at times to attract interest and educational information about all the sacraments with links for more details, including contact information if they are interested in receiving any of the sacraments. There is much more that has been added.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">We have upgraded our parish E-News through using Constant Contact¸ using more links and visuals and always trying to educate, invite and engage. After attending a Constant Contact seminar and being informed that the average open rate was 29%, I was pleased to see that our open rate was 42%, although I was disappointed to realize that it wasn’t 100%.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Our Facebook page has grown quite a bit. Our “Total Reach” is up 43% and our “Followers” are up 100%. We have fans in Mexico, India and Kenya! Our posts have educated, informed of events, shared photos or videos of events in the parish, and, hopefully, engaged by reaching out with thoughts or questions to foster interaction.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">I was able to establish a shared effort on Google Drive with a volunteer who is in charge of assigning people to take the Eucharist to the homebound, although that took quite a while as he lacked experience using the internet. We now share a list of those who have volunteered to help and a list of those in need of the Eucharist which we keep updated between us. I am presently working with other ministers to do the same type of sharing for their ministry. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">My progress has always been shared at our bi-weekly staff meetings and everyone seems pleased and to support my efforts. I have met with mostly our web team to talk about what we have accomplished and how we can improve. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Since beginning this project, this is what I have learned: <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Evangelizing through new media tools is an exciting new challenge for us which cannot be ignored. We need to maximize the use of these tools, not just for physical parish growth but, more importantly, the spiritual growth of our parish. Pope Benedict notes that the great emphasis on social media today <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif;">“demonstrates the restlessness of human beings, ceaselessly searching for truths, of greater or lesser import that can offer meaning and hope to their lives.” <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">As a result of my experience during this project, I recommend the following to our parish council and finance committee in order to accomplish the shared vision of being the voice of Christ on the internet and building up the Kingdom of God through new media:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">It is a challenge to obtain volunteers to help with the Digital Technology Team.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">It is a challenge to maintain volunteers because of their involvement with other duties or life situations.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">USCCB Social Media Guidelines need to be shared with volunteers and staff.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Involving volunteers with limited experience in using media tools for collaborative efforts is a challenge involving time for training.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Maintaining and updating our website and our Facebook page almost daily and publishing our parish E-News at least twice a month is also very time consuming.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">How, in a relatively short time, evangelism through social media in our parish has gone beyond our parish boundaries into our surrounding community and out into other parts of the world.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The importance of this form of evangelization witnessed by the responses of those in need of spiritual support through our outreach efforts.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">That we consider evangelization through digital media important enough in our parish to supply adequate budgeting for this purpose.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">That we respond to the importance of evangelization through new media in our parish by considering additional personnel to help with the difficulties of meeting the time constraints of maintaining our social media, website, parish E-News and other forms of digital outreach.