Archive for January, 2009

Website Traffic Update

Every once in a while, I’ll be sharing some statistics about the Presbyterian.ca website and its visitors. In this post, I wanted to share a little bit about the differences between our international and domestic traffic.

In the last quarter of 2008 (Oct-Dec) the website at Presbyterian.ca was visited 60,000 times from 153 countries! Of those 153 countries, we had visits from 105 from 124 at least three times.

International traffic made up 17% of visitors to Presbyterian.ca. Here are some interesting tidbits about our international visitors:

  • the top 5 countries were: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Ireland
  • 105 countries sent at least 3 visits each
  • 11 countries sent more than 100 visits each
  • 56% of international visits originated from Google
  • the most visited page (besides the home page) was the Resources page
  • 85% of international visits were “new visitors”
  • international visitors spent an average of just over 2 minutes on the site

The vast majority of visitors to Presbyterian.ca, not surprisingly, visit from somewhere in Canada:

  • visitors came from 353 cities across Canada
  • the top 5 cities were: Toronto, Ottawa, Kitchener, Edmonton, Vancouver
  • 36% of Canadian traffic originated from Google
  • the most visited page (besides the home page) was the Resources page
  • 37% of international visits were “new visitors”
  • Canadian visitors spent an average of just over 3 minutes on the site

There’s not a lot we can conclude from these numbers but it is useful to be aware of the differences (and similarities) of these two groups.

Stay tuned for more traffic stats in a few weeks.

: General
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Inspiration

The slideshow embedded below is full of ideas for church communications material. It comes from a Flickr group called the Church Marketing Lab, organized by the Center for Church Communication.

Please remember that the graphic artists responsible for each work maintain ownership and copyright. I present these as inspiration, not as resources for your own use. I would also encourage you to join the group and participate in the discussions. You can also submit your own ideas (even in progress) for immediate feedback from a great community of designers.

Enjoy!

: Resources
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Lessons from McDonalds

Yes, that McDonalds.

A few minutes ago, Rev. Matt Brough, minister and blogger at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Winnipeg, had this to say on Twitter:

Just noticed McDonalds has reserved parking for people with kids. I didn't see staff parking. Churches need to take note.

When we talk about communications in the Church, we usually think about bulletin inserts, the website, the projector screen, and the monthly newsletter. But what does your parking lot communicate to prospective pew-dweller about your priorities as a congregation?

We’re all familiar with the notion that non-verbal communication is far more telling than verbal. So what other “non-verbal” messages is your church sending besides who gets priority parking?

: People
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How to Speak Presbyterian

I came across a great little resource on the Presbyterians Today website called “How to Speak Presbyterian.”

Written by Rev. P.J. Southam, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), it helps explain some of the oddities of Presbyterian jargon – with a little theology thrown in.  For the most part it is as applicable to The PCC as to the PC(USA) with two key differences being that our General Assemblies are annual rather than bi-annual and we have a Book of Forms rather than a Book of Order.

The resource can be found here: http://www.pcusa.org/today/archive/believe/speak.htm

: Resources,Theology
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First Presbyterian Church of Facebook

The Facebook phenomenon has begun to (finally) find its way into the Canadian Presbyterian community. This means that Presbyterians from across the country have begun to experience the fellowship opportunities that social networking sites like Facebook offer.

There are currently at least 25 close to 50 groups on Facebook related to the Canadian Presbyterian community – and I’m sure there are many I haven’t found. Here are just a few:

If you don’t spend much time on Facebook, you might think that we must have had an explosion of university students in The PCC. As much as we would welcome such a blessing, the demographics of Facebook now are much different than they were just eighteen months ago and conventional wisdom hasn’t yet caught up. In fact, most Canadian adults on Facebook are over 25.

What is even more surprising is the sheer number of Canadians that spend some of their time connecting with friends and family on Facebook. About 11 million Canadians now have Facebook accounts – that represents well over a third of Canadian adults. Using demographic information extracted from Facebook’s advertising system, I was able to determine the size of each age group on Facebook for Canada. The results are:

Age Range

Number

Percent
13-17

1,553,300

14.00
18-25

4,004,200

36.10
26-35

2,906,640

26.20
36-45

1,421,520

12.81
46-55

691,760

6.24
56-65

372,940

3.36
65+

142,320

1.28
Total

11,092,680

While it’s clear that the university crowd is the largest single age group on Facebook, Canadians over the age of 25 represent about half of the entire Canadian Facebook population. To me, these numbers represent a huge ministry opportunity for The Presbyterian Church in Canada.

What do you think? In what ways could we, as a denomination, reach out to the Presbyterian community that already exists on Facebook?

In February, I’ll be speaking at an unconference called PodCampToronto where I’ll be leading a discussion called “First Church of Facebook: an Exploration of Faith and Social Media.” We’ll be talking about the ways that Canada’s faith community are (or could be) using social media (like Facebook) to engage and minister to their constituents. If you have a story about how social media played a part in ministry, please share it with me either in the comments below or by email: ccarmichael@presbyterian.ca.

: People
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