An article in the current issue of BtoB Magazine called Let’s face it - faces sell caught my eye this morning. Here’s an excerpt:
They are visual magnets that readers, visitors and viewers simply can’t resist because people are enormously curious about their fellow human beings. Faces have a place in b-to-b advertising, despite its reputation for being cold and clinical.
In fact, a human presence in b-to-b ads may be even more critical than in consumer advertising because of the more clinical nature of the product or service being promoted. Networking equipment, servers and software certainly lack the visual sizzle of fashion, travel or automobiles.
This brings to mind a simple tip for church webmasters that while mentioned quite a bit in the Christian website blogosphere, nevertheless bears repeating. Make sure your website is primarily about people rather than organizations, buildings, programs, ministries, etc. The church is people. One of the best ways to get a good start on ensuring that this is conveyed to your website visitors is to liberally use photos of people (photos that show people’s faces!) throughout your site.
A side note: one additional thing to ask yourself in this regard is what does your church website convey if the most prominent photo on your website is of your pastor?
What are other ways that we can help our church websites to reflect the principle that the church is people rathan than an organization, a building, a set of programs, etc.?
I believe that the internet provides today's church with a historic opportunity .... to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love in ways which could only have been imagined in times past. The objective of this website is to explore the various ways in which today's technology can be used to spread the gospel around the world.
