ChurchPost.com Blog

New Standard Email Editor - Coming February 1, 2010

John Goodell — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:35:23 +0000

We are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of our new Standard Email editor on February 1, 2010.

Here’s a sneak peak at the top 3 features:

For a quick summary of what all of the buttons/icons do, visit our Help Desk:
http://support.churchpost.com/kb/article/000043

ChurchPost launches BitPost.Us - Social Network Sharing!

John Goodell — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:16:54 +0000

We are excited to announce the release of our new social network sharing feature.

Next to each of your SENT messages, you will now see a small icon that automatically creates a short URL to your message.

URL shortening is a technique on the Web where a provider makes a web page available under a very short URL in addition to the original address.

For example, the page:
http://www.churchpost.com/view_message?id=pp45dfdhyXd78dfs
can be shortened to:

http://bitpost.us/23ts

Short URLs are perfect for sharing content via a host of social networking sites!

Instead of using services like bit.ly or TinyURL.com, we decided to create our own shortening service called bitpost.us, or “Bit Post Us” - a reference to our company’s legal name Post Communications

In recent years, services like bit.ly and tinyurl.com have been attacked by spammers and the like, often times making these references (or short URLs) flagged by social networking sites and email services (like Gmail) as potential SPAM because anyone can create short URLs using them.

By creating our own shortening service, we ensure that only valid ChurchPost mailings get short links with the http://bitpost.us/ prefix, and that your messages are not filtered as SPAM when you post them.

By teaming up with AddThis, you can now share your ChurchPost.com messages with a host of over 230 communication services, including Facebook, Twitter, Digg and many more!

Of course, you can use our short URLs anywhere you wish - simply click the SHARE icon next to your sent message and copy/paste the URL into anything! Clicking the link will automatically take your viewers to a web version of your message.

By using SHARE ChurchPost, we make it incredibly easy to post your message to the platform of your choice:

Selecting Facebook, for example, automatically takes you to your posting page (or prompts you to login if you aren’t already) and includes the short URL and message subject. You can add your custom message and then post it!

TWEET your message with one simple click!

This new feature makes sharing your message even easier, without the hassle of re-creating it on every communication platform you use.

Remember, we only create short URLs for messages you decide to share. Otherwise, web versions are completely encrypted and only viewable by those who receive them.

Once a short URL has been created for your message (by clicking the SHARE icon next to your message subject), this URL will ALWAYS remain the same, and you can refer back to it any time by clicking the SHARE icon.

In the coming months, we will be vastly expanding our reporting section to include tracking of messages viewed by short URL and much more!

Happy communicating!

Team ChurchPost

Select All Groups

John Goodell — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:21:05 +0000

Today we released a small but helpful feature that allows you to, with one click, select ALL of your groups when sending a message:

This feature has been requested by several users recently, and we thought we would go ahead and push it live before the holidays

Remember, ChurchPost automatically “de-dupes” recipients for a given message, so if a subscriber exists in more than one group in the “TO GROUPS” list for a specific message, we will be sure your subscribers do NOT receive duplicates.

We have some exciting news just around the corner…keep your eyes on our BLOG…

User Permission Updates

John Goodell — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:25:10 +0000

Setting User Permissions is one of the most powerful features of ChurchPost.com - users are invited by the Master User, and today we started rolling out some small but important upgrades to how users of various types (see below) interact with our system.

It’s always been the case that every user can search and browse EVERY subscriber using the SUBSCRIBERS tab. If a subscriber exists in at least one group that you OWN, you can also edit that subscriber, and any changes you make affect that subscriber GLOBALLY.

Up until now, when creating a message, the “Send to Individuals” feature automatically searched for subscribers that existed in at least one of your groups (ownership) - this was particularly frustrating for LIMITED users who owned only one or two groups and wanted to copy a message to someone already in the global database. Because they did NOT appear in the ‘quick search’ results for individuals, many users reported going to the SUBSCRIBERS tab, searching for the subscriber, copying the email, and returning to the COMPOSE MESSAGE page to paste the email into the CC box.

Our ’search as you type’ feature for individual email addresses now searches your central database for ALL SUBSCRIBERS, regardless of your user type. Hopefully, this will further streamline your messaging experience.

We’re rolling out some amazing new features in the coming weeks and months, including an entirely new Standard Email platform, complete with an intuitive and highly flexible image library platform that is compatible with every major browser. Additionally, we have some surprises coming…just in time for the holidays and into the beginning of the New Year.

As always, keep your feedback coming! We cannot continue to improve our service without you.

ChurchPost noted by AnnArbor.com

John Goodell — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:09:05 +0000

We’re thrilled to be mentioned in yesterday’s edition of the Ann Arbor News (AnnArbor.com) along with Facebook and Twitter as a way congregations ‘friend their faith lives online’.

Posted: 6:00 a.m. August 13, 2009

Read the article online here.

Terry Johnson, Ann Arbor, checks her Facebook account on her laptop while sitting on the couch in her living room on Tuesday. Johnson spent the better part of three months on the couch while she recovered from a stem cell transplant last summer. While she was recovering, she used Facebook as a way to stay connected with her church community. Lon Horwedel | Ann Arbor.com
After undergoing a stem cell transplant last summer, Terry Johnson felt trapped inside her Ann Arbor home, shut off from her church, her friends and the rest of the world.Unable to leave her house, Johnson could no longer volunteer at church, attend swim meets and spend time with people. She missed the children she had befriended as a volunteer at St. Luke Lutheran Church.

A self-described people-person, Johnson turned to the Internet, where she used social networking sites and other online tools to reconnect to her faith and friends.

Johnson was able to continue contact with the children at the church as well as listen to sermons and read the latest news of the congregation. She also kept her friends online updated on her recovery from the transplant.

“For me, God’s word is very important,” Johnson said. “I draw a lot of strength from hearing God’s word, reading God’s word and talking to other people about God’s word.”

Johnson is one of many people using the Web to keep in touch with her church. As churches and temples see a decrease in attendance, St. Luke and other congregations in the area are working to maintain a relationship with parishioners online.

Keeping in contact with people in the Jewish community is the goal for Rabbi Lisa Delson at Temple Beth Emeth.

Delson, director of congregational services, recently started a page on Facebook, which she updates regularly.

“I give announcements about things going on, reminders of things happening,” she said. “I remind people that we’re here. (The temple is) here, and we’re still open.”

Delson writes about what she’s doing and informal, conversational posts, such as “We’re busy today at the Temple,” on the Temple Beth Emeth’s Facebook page.
She also uses Facebook to advertise initiatives at the temple.

On Monday, for example, she posted, ”The Food Gatherers food drive is up and running. Please bring bags of food or a check to the social hall at TBE.”

Delson said her target is to find people who might not come regularly to the congregation.

“Right now, we’re just reaching out to members of the community and people who have come to events at the temple who might not be members,” she said. “It’s a way to draw people in, in a more active way.”

In April, a study by Unconventional Method (pdf), a firm that strategizes with businesses, nonprofits and ministries, found social networking sites that focus specifically on Christianity made little headway into the church market. However, more than 51 percent of churches surveyed used Facebook.

The study also found that congregants look for specific tasks when using online tools associated with their church. These include the ability to post prayer requests or needs; to find out more about events; to find opportunities to donate or volunteer; to find phone and e-mail directories; and to find and interact with Bible study groups.

The Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor uses Facebook, Twitter and online tools to reach out to its community and recruit new members. Associate Pastor Donnell Wyche said about 28 percent of newcomers come through the Internet. The church tracks the data through welcome cards newcomers are asked to fill out.

“It allows for us to have different conversations with folks in different mediums,” he said.

Internet social networking not only spreads information about events, but it also allows people in the community to participate externally in an experience happening through the church, Wyche said.

Several people from the church went to Costa Rica, and they were explaining the extreme poverty they encountered while in the region online.

“The capability of the Internet to create a community is a powerful tool,” Wyche said. “Those people who weren’t able to go were able to experience what we were doing.”

St. Luke uses ChurchPost, a site that connects congregants to churches, to send out messages to its members. The site allows the church to define messages based on subject, and parishioners can choose which subjects, such as youth or missions, they want to hear about regularly. The church also posts all of its sermons online.

For Delson, the use of social networking is a way to reach a generation of people who don’t remember life without a cell phone or the Internet. The same generation is notorious for its low attendance at religious centers.

“It is a way to get younger people involved,” she said. “Any little bit helps.”

The “Old” Templates are back!

dlgerber — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:02:44 +0000

We know some of you have been missing the postcard templates that you had access to in Version 2.0. The wait is over…

To access, hover over your CREATE button and choose Custom Email. Click on the My Template Library button and you will see them under the heading of Public Templates just below your own My Template designs if you have any.

Don’t see something you’re looking for? Let us know. If we haven’t uploaded a design that you loved contact us and we’ll either put it up in the Public Library or load it in to your My Template section.

Thank you all for your great feedback and patience!

“Paste from Word” feature added to Standard Email v3

John Goodell — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:11:01 +0000

One of the more frustrating tasks is copying and pasting content from Microsoft Word to ANY other program. Behind the scenes, Word (and other Microsoft programs) includes proprietary code that usually messes up how certain characters are displayed outside the PC/Microsoft environment (see our “Funny Characters” post from August 2008).

We recently added a feature to our Standard Email Platform (CREATE -> Standard Email) that allows you to paste content from Word (and any other program out there) into your messages without having to worry about how things will look.

This new feature automatically removes extra code, formatting and other proprietary code so your messages are delivered in a readable format to all your subscribers, regardless of what email platform they use to view messages.

Once your content is pasted to the message body, you can use our Standard Email editor to format and otherwise adjust your message display without having to worry how it will appear to the recipient.

Happy pasting!!

ChurchPost Company Retreat June 23-June 30, 2009

John Goodell — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:13:52 +0000

It was in early 2003 that Debra and I first discussed the concept of ChurchPost, noticing that even our own small church at the time had large communication issues that often translated into wasted resources and hurt feelings.

Two years later, after lengthy discussions with hundreds of clergy, lay leaders and other friends and family, we set out building a prototype and officially launched ChurchPost.com in 2005 at the National Outreach Convention in San Diego.

Our experience in San Diego, including our “monitor on fire” incident, is surely the topic of a separate post

We have come a long way, and have been amazed at the honesty and generosity of our customers - people who have essentially built this product for us while we have been along for the ride.

The release of ChurchPost Version 3 this past Easter was a huge milestone for us, and while it wasn’t entirely smooth, our dedication to providing the best possible service for a specific set of needs has kept our ears open to feedback (both good and bad) and has helped us provide a tool we are incredibly proud of.

Of course, we are always working to improve - and our hearts are in this for the long haul.

To help celebrate our hard work, Team ChurchPost will be heading to California for a company retreat later this month (June 23 - June 30).

During this time, we will offer limited email support through our newly launched support site:

http://support.churchpost.com

Or direcly via email (support@churchpost.com)

We intentionally picked this span of time as a particularly quiet block as folks enjoy summer and restore their energy for the return of fall programming.

ChurchPost started in our congregation of 200 people, sending 2 emails out about once a week.

Today, over 1,500 users have sent messages to hundreds of thousands of people from every denomination around the world - from newsletters to birthday greetings, death notices to baptism pictures.

Thank you for making this journey with us.

John & Debra
Founders
ChurchPost.com

Clearing your browser cache

John Goodell — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:00:47 +0000

Each time you access a file through your web browser, the browser caches (stores) it. In this way, the files (including any images on the page) do not have to be retrieved anew from the remote web site each time you click the `Back` or `Forward` buttons.

Unfortunately, this means that when we release new features (and fixes for old ones), your browser may still be showing you OLD content. You should periodically clear the cache to allow your browser to function more efficiently.

Internet Explorer 7

From the Tools menu, select Internet Options... .
Choose the General tab.
Under Browsing history, click Delete... .
Next to “Temporary Internet Files”, click Delete files... .
Click Close, and then click OK to exit.

Firefox 3 for Windows

From the Tools menu, select Clear Private Data, and then check Cache. Click Clear Private Data Now.

Firefox 3 for Mac OS X

In Firefox, from the Tools menu, select Clear Private Data.
Make sure Cache is checked, and then click Clear Private Data Now.

ChurchPost Custom Email Option

John Goodell — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:53:45 +0000

We are thrilled to launch our new Custom Email option via our CREATE menu.

Our custom email interface allows you to access your church’s templates AND our growing Public Template library.

Choosing a template is simple - just select your favorite and go!