THE SEMINARY OF HARD KNOCKS PODCAST with Seth Muse and Meagan Ranson Church Communications | Marketing | Social Media   I'm going to tell you how I started, organized, and managed almost 30 Facebook groups for my last church. We'll talk about how to run a group successfully and how to facilitate community online with your people.    In this Episode: The 4 categories of groups that any church can start with. How to choose leaders and train them to run groups How to define expectations and set the groups up How to decide what groups to start Keeping the content flowing and resour ..read more

THE SEMINARY OF HARD KNOCKS PODCAST with Seth Muse and Meagan Ranson Church Communications | Marketing | Social Media   There's a good reason for why we are all at each other's throats, depression is on the rise, suicide rates are up, and we are generally angry all the time. It's not just because it's an election year or because of quarantine, though those things have made it worse. What if I told you that social media has contributed to poor mental health in ways you couldn't imagine? We're discussing mental health and the effect social media has had and looking at the recent documentary ..read more

THE SEMINARY OF HARD KNOCKS PODCAST with Seth Muse and Meagan Ranson Church Communications | Marketing | Social Media   Kyle Draper and I used to work together in student ministry at a large church here in DFW. Now, we both have found our way into the digital marketing world and have joined forces again in this episode to pull back the curtain on social media and ministry and where those two intersect.   In this Episode: What do businesses get about social media that churches do not? What type of content should churches focus on? Should churches be on TikTok and how should they trea ..read more

THE SEMINARY OF HARD KNOCKS PODCAST with Seth Muse and Meagan Ranson Church Communications | Marketing | Social Media   The church is facing a crisis of identity at this point in time. As we deal with civil unrest, racism, and divisiveness in our churches over multiple issues, Nik is one of those guys who always seems to have a clear heading. This is a very frank and powerful conversation with a creative who understands how art and beauty can lead us to truth in the church and creative space.   In this Episode: How art and design can help us communicate as well as process pain. Thou ..read more

THE SEMINARY OF HARD KNOCKS PODCAST with Seth Muse and Meagan Ranson Church Communications | Marketing | Social Media The carousel post on Instagram is a powerful way to engage your audience with ideas and content in a deeper way. It uses a tactic called "microblogging." What is that you may ask? This episode is all about it and how you can get your church followers to engage longer with content that matters on Instagram. In this Episode: What is microblogging? How to use the carousel post for microblogging on Instagram How to use Instagram stories as microblogs Content ideas for microbloggin ..read more

THE SEMINARY OF HARD KNOCKS PODCAST with Seth Muse and Meagan Ranson Church Communications | Marketing | Social Media Seth and Meagan share some of the big takeaways and highlights from The InstaSummit that just happened last week. This summit was all about helping churches master Instagram and understand the platform. They will go into detail about some of the speakers' content and reveal some surprising truths about where the church is with the platform. LINKS The InstaSummit Seth on Instagram Meagan on Instagram OTHER GREAT LINKS 88 Ideas for Church Social Media Posts *Affiliate links mean ..read more

This episode is not only the final episode of this season of the podcast, but it's a synthesis of everything this season has been about. Kyle Ranson at Crossroads Church is using just about every tool at his disposal to do online and digital ministry right. In this episode, we learn how he uses social, blogs, podcasts, video, SEO, and more to reach people during the week and on weekends. And he's not just inviting them to church, he's reaching people with the Gospel online.  Oh, and you have access to all the same things he's using to do it too! Find out how he does it and what God is doi ..read more

THE SEMINARY OF HARD KNOCKS PODCAST with Seth Muse and Meagan Ranson Church Communications | Marketing | Social Media On this episode, Meagan and Seth talk about TikTok, the state of social media, and 5 types of engaging Instagram posts that connect during a time of quarantine. LINKS Seth on Instagram Meagan on Instagram OTHER GREAT LINKS The InstaSummit! This free online summit will help church communicators master Instagram over three days of intense training! Get your free ticket HERE or upgrade to the Later pass for on-demand access. 88 Ideas for Church Social Media Posts *Affiliate links ..read more

We're wrapping this season up strong with Jennifer Benton from the BLK LYTE podcast. She is an Instagram influencer as well as a content creator for her church and she does it all remotely!   In this episode, we will see just how far online content can go when it is used as a means for discipleship and ministry. Can you impact someone's spiritual life and walk with Jesus while you're asleep?   All this and more in this week's episode.    LINKS Jennifer on Instagram | TikTok  BLK LYTE podcast ChurchComm Team ..read more

Before the pandemic, only 5% of the workforce worked from home. In May 2020 it shot up to a whopping 60% and it looks like there will be a lot of people refusing to go back to an office-only model ever again. If you are in a position where your job can be done remotely, then the pandemic has thrust you into a very interesting future.   Before we start calling these fortunate few “lazy,” you should know that a two-year study by Great Place to Work® of more than 800,000 employees at Fortune 500 companies found that most reported stable or even increased productivity levels after employees s ..read more