As a ministry leader or professional communicator in today’s media-driven digital culture, your greatest challenge is getting your voice and message heard. No matter how important your talent or calling, if nobody’s listening, then you’ve failed. The digital revolution has changed everything about the way we communicate the gospel, and in this session, Phil Cooke will share the most important principles for how to break through and get your message heard.

Is the content you are creating producing the results you want? Just because you have a digital presence, does not mean you have a digital strategy. And great content doesn’t guarantee success. In this workshop we will walk through the steps of creating an effective digital content strategy that will connect you with the people God has called you to, so you can produce content that will engage your audience and ultimately reach your goals.

You will learn:

• The essential questions to ask as you develop your digital content strategy
• Where your audience is and what content they prefer
• Processes and systems to analyze and audit what you distribute
• How to measure success

Millennials and GenZ’ers think differently, act differently, and look for different types of content. They are deeply concerned with how Christianity connects to everyday life, and desire to see how the Bible speaks to social issues like poverty, politics, sexuality, and creation care. Those in their 20s and 30s often see a disconnect between their faith and real-life, and sometimes that is directly related to the way the church tries to reach them. Daniel Day is the Director of Reclaim Today, a lifestyle content brand that creatively explores how we connect with God in the ordinary, extraordinary, every-day moments of life. His team specializes in using social platforms like Instagram, and he will be describing what it looks like to reach younger and more diverse audiences.

In a digital news environment, the pressure to break news is higher than ever, especially with SEO rewarding those who get a story out first. We look at how to get a story fast and right – how to avoid fake news, get the facts right, and build trust with sources so they will talk to you when they have a story to tell.

In this workshop we’ll discuss digital strategy for finding readers, subscribers and donors for faith-based publishers. We’ll look at examples from peer publications and how they are funding their journalism by raising more money online through subscriptions, donors and advertising.

What you will learn:
• The importance of email newsletters
• How new products can repurpose your content to attract new readers and advertisers
• What role social media should play in your overall digital strategy
• Why your website navigation is critical to your publication’s financial sustainability

During this hour we will present three encore presentations from the Best of 2020 DigitalMediaCon. Watch on-demand during this hour or anytime later.

It’s no surprise that no one likes change, even when it helps us. But this past year has opened up opportunities like never before, especially in digital media. As leaders, how do we navigate it all and get others on board without losing our sanity?

Discover how to grow your audience in six weeks or less. Develop your strategy to fill your audience with your ideal clients in as little at 30 minutes a day.

What you will learn:
• The 3 Ps necessary to grow your podcast audience that most podcast gurus don’t teach you
• Why most podcasts don’t grow
• Most importantly, how to overcome all of the tech struggles to make it as easy as possible

Isn’t it time to get more from your content creation efforts? You already know that “Content is King.” In this workshop, we’ll discuss how to go beyond “one-hit wonders” to expanding your existing content into a royal court. Reusing, recycling, and re-purposing across multiple channels is not only good for business but good for your brand. Executive Producer Russ Jones will share a few of his secrets that have resulted in explosive growth making Abide the #1 Christian meditation app.

Expand your audience and bring in more leads – with content you created months ago! That great content just keeps working hard for you.

Cross-promote content more easily on various social channels – with the right images, the right messages, without creating from scratch every day.

Spend less money on writers, graphic designers, or VAs to create new content. And learn smart ways to repurpose your already purchased, licensed content.

Spend less time every week creating content – with checklists, processes, shortcuts, and batching.

Extend the “shelf-life” of your content – make it more evergreen so it works longer and your hard work isn’t wasted.

What are the key skills needed to lead a virtual team and support the success of the organization? In this session, you will be introduced to concepts surrounding team dynamics and the ways they are more challenging in the virtual environment. Melody Rawlings, Director of the Center for Advancement of Virtual Organizations at Northcentral University, will share strategies to overcome the challenges and maximize virtual team performance.

What you will learn:
• The most effective leadership styles for virtual teams
• The importance of practicing authentic leadership
• The art of virtual coaching

An audience is one of the most powerful assets of your organization. In this session you’ll learn different tips and tactics on how to grow your audience and, more importantly, how to get them to perform the actions you want (read your stories, give donations, make purchases, promoting your brand, etc). This session is led by the CEO of Notion Digital who created an audience of over 5 million people!

During this hour we will present three encore presentations from the Best of 2020 DigitalMediaCon. Watch on-demand during this hour or anytime later.

Pending

Do you spend too much time on your social media…with not enough results? In this workshop, you’ll learn how to streamline your social media marketing program while upgrading the quality of your posts and increasing your exposure.

What you will learn:
• Choose the best social media sites (and ignore the rest)
• Easily find content your audience will love
• Streamline your process for crafting posts
• Tap into time-saving, third-party tools
• Understand which social media activities are most effective for business

You’ll walk away with lots of practical techniques to enhance your social media in less time!

From the pitch of a story idea, prayer, planning and trip preparation, to travel, creative development, editorial production and the subsequent publishing of an online photo story, join a panel of Cru Storylines’ staff as they take you on a tour of the process of creating an engaging digital photo feature story.

What you will learn:
• How to develop key steps and plan logistics for a successful story
• How to capture photos that tell a story
• Three types of journalistic writing styles

Bonus: 10 important packing tips for traveling journalists

Content, in every form of media, is king, but it is most significant on your website. If you want to inform, engage, and retain your audience, you must have content that is compelling and memorable. Creating balanced, quality content is a demanding process, but it doesn’t have to be painful! Participants will learn fundamental and essential techniques for creating key content for any web-related formats (e.g. websites, landing pages, e-newsletters, etc.), as well as simple methods for optimization. Various applications/tools will be discussed to help leverage productivity and save time.

What you will learn:
• Define what content is and where it is used
• Discuss content formatting and how it can affect audience engagement
• Explore ways to create, format, and optimize content using various web-based tools and applications

The Beyond the Screen session will help you learn how to keep your readers, donors and prospects actively engaged beyond their phone or digital device. This discussion features a proprietary research study conducted by ICC in May 2021 concerning communications trends in the pandemic era. This session will feature prominent faith-based communicators who will illustrate research insights with real-life ministry examples. You will learn what the latest trends in the digital revolution mean for your organization … and what you need to do now to make sure your audience stays happily engaged.

What you will learn:
• Understand research insights about communications message and media trends post COVID.
• Learn about the power of multi-media participatory platforms for engaging your audience digitally and in person.
• View video testimonies from leading faith-based executive leaders and communicators demonstrating real-life innovative digital and live ministry practices.

During this hour we will present three encore presentations from the Best of 2020 DigitalMediaCon. Watch on-demand during this hour or anytime later.

It is clear that every publication and every organization needs a professional website. But what is not always clear is what the publication wants the website to accomplish. Websites can be so much more than an online brochure or newsletter. Clearly defining the desired results is the first step in establishing the right web strategy. These objectives should then inform every aspect of a publication’s website and online presence. Sadly, this is often not the case. In this practical workshop, we will discuss the most common objectives your publication or organization may want to achieve online and provide practical solutions to move your online strategy from chaos to clarity.

Even in uncertain times, your audience maintains their email inboxes with a keen eye. The first permission-based digital marketing channel, email remains the highest driver of ROI. It’s one of the earliest touchpoints to introduce your brand and content to your audience. The accessibility, reliability, and cost effectiveness of email remains constant.

But using email to market and communicate during times of crisis can be tricky. It takes data-driven decisions as well as a thoughtful touch to create email that moves your audience closer to important moments. To help you navigate this uncertain email landscape, Sabatier will share tried-and-true tips and insight to guide you.

This session will cover:
• How Covid-19 has impacted email
• Setting goals and measures
• Building trust with your audience
• Designing email for maximum impact
• Delivering meaningful content
• Integrating with your audience customer experience

If you’re just getting started with email — or if you’re looking to improve what you’ve already built — this session will help you create email that resonates with your audience and proves its own value.

You put a lot of effort into making sure your reporting is fair, true and accurate. But your audiences are under barrage from a firehose of social media, right wing, left wing, dark web, conspiracy groups and it is time for you to spend some energy teaching “media literacy.” In short, this session provides a framework for you to plan a way to make your audience(s) savvy media consumers.

Imagine your work being used by Sunday Schools and Wednesday night classes with special attention on Seniors and younger consumers of social media how to separate truth from rumor, how to ask questions about studies, polls and whether images have been altered.

Digital discipleship principles will be presented for building an online community with practical instruction on how to do it no matter how big or small your organization may be.

Nona Jones is strategic partner manager, communities for Facebook, the world’s leading social networking and social media company. In her role, Jones is responsible for helping develop and drive the product strategy undergirding Facebook’s mission of giving its two billion members the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Jones’s work partners Facebook with communities of faith, youth development organizations, communities of color, and organizations that serve women to broaden their reach and deepen their real-world impact.

Do you know how to cater your message to mobile devices? Here are eight things you need to know to stay current.

Journey Group’s Jeremy Cherry and Zack Bryant will share lessons learned working shoulder-to-shoulder serving organizations large and small. They’ll talk process, tools, and best practices for those who design for screens, and show a few favorite examples of where they hope the web is headed.

All would-be podcasters need is a microphone, a recorder, and a cool logo, right? Right…and wrong. Christianity Today’s Morgan Lee has hosted and produced three podcasts, including the publication’s longest-running and most-popular show Quick to Listen. In this session, she will walk you through what you need to know to make compelling audio in a world where seemingly everyone has a podcast.

Do you have a Facebook business page, but you’re not getting the results you want to promote your business? Learn proven techniques and streamlined strategies that deliver results. Topics include:
• Static and dynamic content strategies
• Building your audience
• Video marketing
• Facebook advertising
• Leveraging Facebook groups alongside your business page

Walk away with ideas you can use right away!