Thinking Social:
Using Blogs As Part of Your Social Stance
 When you think of "social media" on the Web, you may be thinking of specific sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. Social media works well for introducing topics and ideas, which you can then link to for a more in-depth discussion elsewhere. A blog is a great place for that in-depth discussion. It's an important next step in developing relationships with others on the Web. In fact, a recent survey from BuzzPlant Pulse showed that nearly one-third of church pastors have a blog. Another survey performed by LifeWay Research, indicated that over 50% of churches with 500-plus members have a blog.
E-zekiel's Syndication manager is there for this purpose. With it, your church can create one or more blogs directly on your site -- without using any additional tools or secondary domains.
Dacia Gulledge, director of customer service for Axletree Media, explains how to get started. "From the Control Panel, click on the Syndication manager," she said. "Blogs are often referred to as syndicated feeds. That's how the Syndication manager got it's name. Next, create a channel, which will house all the content of the blog. When site visitors see the channel on the site, they can subscribe to it."
Blogs are made up of individual "posts" contributed by one or more people. E-zekiel automatically produces an RSS button so that visitors can subscribe using a feed reader of their preference. Anyone that subscribes to the blog will automatically have new posts delivered to their feed reader.
You can also use the Syndication manager to house your audio and video podcasts. Podcasts can be created via the same process. "Think of blogs as something that you can print off, stuff that's on paper," Gulledge said. "Podcasts are for audio and video." We'll cover that more in-depth in a separate article soon.
For detailed instructions on creating a Blog in E-zekiel's Syndication manager, see the article here. If you're already using the Syndication manager, here's an extra tip on scheduling new items (posts) ahead of time.
Note: The Syndication manager is not included in all E-zekiel plans. If you're not sure if you have it, Customer Service can help you.
Christmas Designs Now Available
Just in time for Christmas, E-zekiel has added new design templates to help celebrate the holy season. If you would like to update your design, click here for step-by-step instructions.
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 More E-zekiel.tv Categories
One of the steps of uploading and sharing your media files on E-zekiel.tv is choosing one (or more) categories -- such as missions, music or events, for example. It's an important step because associating your media with categories gives viewers an easy way to discover your audio or video, which can lead them to other media you're sharing -- and perhaps back to your Web site, or even into your sanctuary.
E-zekiel.tv has added two new categories that we're eager to see how you will use to share Christ. "My Story," smartly suggested by an E-zekiel.tv user, is a place that can be used to share personal testimonies as well as other stories that highlight particular steps within your walk of faith. For example, one video already added in this category features a couple telling why and how they chose to adopt two children from Ethiopia.
"Environment," another new category, would be a logical place for media about, say, a church conducting a recycling drive or planting trees in honor of a special occasion. Showing that you're not only in your community, but helping preserve your community's natural resources, is a powerful outreach tool.
Share your faith on E-zekiel.tv.
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