Over the course of my next three posts I will be taking a look at the United Church of Christ's social media presence, talking with young people involved with the church, and assessing what part of the UCC's social outreach plan appears to be working and what parts could use strengthening based on the successes and failures of current methodologies.

Here I've listed initial observations about the elements of the church's web presence which appear to be intended to appeal to a late-teenage/20-something audience [note: please, if you have any further initial observations about the web presense, make note in the comments section]. Over the course of the next two posts, I will integrate feedback I have gathered from UCC Director of Communication, Rev. Ben Guest, young people involved in the church, and organizational web outreach specialists as I contextualize the intended direction of the church's youth outreach plans while also making suggestions for how the UCC might consider effectively and efficiently moving forward with developing an organic, integrative outreach strategy that appeals to younger members.

The i.UCC webpage is the church's self-described online community. Implied by its implicit interactivity, it appears to be designed to appeal to members in their late teens and early/mid 20s. It aims to provide church-related resources, action opportunities, a series of connective communities, and communication between members and the church via bloggers.

• Search Engine Optimization: At first, second, and third Google search, it would appear that the UCC does not have a presence directed at youth, which it actually does in i.UCC (whether it is intended to be or not). After a search for various combinations of "youth," "young people," "UCC," "social network," "community," "United Church of Christ," the site does not appear on the first or second page of the searches. The closest that can be found is a link to ucc/youth which, on the left-hand side in small type, brings one the browser to another page and on the same positioning - there is a "UCC virtual community" page, which leads to the i.UCC link. Further, the church's Facebook and MySpace pages don't link to the site.
• Image: While I understand the picture on the front page (prayer/support/human connection), the initial image is sort of confusing, as it doesn't explain to me what, exactly, the church is, who is behind it, or why I might care to be involved.
• Design: The website does not stand on its own or look particularly different from the UCC website. This appeals, of course, to members of the church who are looking for familiarity in their web presense, but fails to speak to members who would find a site that speaks directly to them more appealing. Further, the white backdrop with sparse black and hard red markings reminds that the only social groups in history that has successfully put that design scheme to use were Communist Russia and China. For a church that is trying to overcome its image, internally and externally, as a perceived socialist organization, perhaps this should be rethought.
• Content: The content isn't very interesting in any way beyond offering strictly spiritual information via blog post and all other information on the site is 1.0 - lots of information available only to those who are very-intentionally looking for it. Unless I am exclusively looking for a place where I can read spiritual blog postings, which, if I am one of the millions of young people to whom the church might appeal if I could get beyond all of the the front-end churchiness, I am probably not looking for, there isn't much here for me.
• At the same time, however, the message seems confused. If I am coming to the site in order to find a one-stop place that explains what the church believes in readable, staight-forward way, I can't find that. In order to find this, one must fumble over some pull down menus and sort through clumsy amounts of content (including three much-too-long 30-minute videos), but there is nothing that simply conveys the fact that the UCC is a Mainline Protestant Church that is committed to social justice issues and acceptance of all members.
• News: The "What's New" section is kept up to date with some pretty great information.
• Odds and ends: There is "real time prayer chapel" that is only real time at 9. It might be interesting, but totally unnecessary, to have someone available at least during office hours to connect with in case one feels as though they need to connect immediately.  

The UCC on off-site social networks:

• At 3,000 members, the Facebook fan page has a somewhat impressive body of support, as well as a rather active ongoing discussion.
• On their Twitter account, the church has tweeted 12 times in their three active months. Despite having 214 followers, they are not following any of their followers, which implies the account exists solely to inform and not to engage. That top-down message might appear discouraging for young people who are trying to give the church a try.
• The UCC MySpace page has 600 members.
• The UCC Ning network, created late last year, appears to be up to date by widgets that serve to feed information (calendar and news) from another source. Upon a closer inspection, however, it appears that the site is very rarely used (as the site is home to only six members).

An ongoing joke in the nptech community has long centered around the organization that obsesses over starting a MySpace/Facebook account and then grows frustrated with the fact that this hasn't opened the door to new business. The UCC is a substantial example of this story (though they don't appear to feel frustrated - they're trying desperately to figure out how to make it all work). They have all of the right networking tools, intentions, and vision to make these resources integrate with eachother in order to meaningfully sustain and engage young people who already exist at the church while also trying to bring new members to the table. Rather than looking at their objective by saying, "We have this outreach tool, this one, this one, and this one," a clear strategy is needed in order to make all of these tools functional as individual tools and, when applicable, as a network of communication technologies.

Yesterday morning I had the luxury of dropping in on Rev. Ben Guest, Director of Communications for the church at his office in Cleveland. We talked a bit about the dilemma that the church faces with regard to this outreach strategy, especially by way of facing cultivating and maintaining a relationship with its present members and by maintaining a resonant relationship with its youngest members while also drawing more young people to the church. Rev. Guest has some great ideas and is willing to hear all suggestions. As I mentioned previously, I will integrate our conversation about the church's proposed strategy and intentions into the following two posts as I expand upon how the UCC can turn their current social outreach presense into a winning one.