Four Simple Techniques to Humanize Your Website
This is a Guest Post by Vin Thomas.
Is your website more like a text book, than Facebook? Do you struggle to engage your visitors? Here are a few simple tips to help you bring a human touch to your website.
1. Write With Personality
When you’re writing copy for your website, it can be easy to get into “business” mode. While you want to remain professional with your writing, try writing conversationally to add a personal touch. How do you do this?
- Don’t use lofty words that aren’t used in real life.
- Write in the first person.
- Don’t be afraid to be emotional: funny, dramatic, passionate, etc.
- Share your opinion.
2. Social Media Integration
If you have a Twitter account, link to it. Or even better, have a live feed on your site. Do the same with Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, and other social media services. Instead of offering mere text and pictures, leverage the tools that can add a social element to your website.
3. Use Real Pictures
Some websites scream STOCK PHOTOS — and people can tell! Instead of using the cliche images found on thousands of websites around the web, try taking real photos.
This tip is especially powerful for churches. When a new visitor comes to your site, they want to know if they’d fit in there. Is the church modern or traditional? Will my kids have fun? What type of clothes should I wear? You can answer these questions with 5 paragraphs, or with one strategic photo. You choose.
4. Start a Blog
If it’s appropriate for your site, start a blog. A blog is a great way to showcase your passion and personality. Keep in mind that a blog is not a one way street. You can take advantage of the comments section of your blog to build rapport with your visitors.
What other techniques do you use to make your website more personally engaging?
[Image from Sepulchre]
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39 Responses to “Four Simple Techniques to Humanize Your Website”
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Do You Use ‘Real’ Pictures on your Organization’s Website? - ChurchCrunch
[...] a great question from that came up from the “Four Simple Techniques to Humanize Your Website” as you can see above. The question is [...]
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Engaging with People with the Right Tools (or No Tools at All) 
Ask questions, but don't cop out: don't end the majority of your posts with "What do you think?" or "Do you agree?"
Pose something that literally makes people think or that shows you're genuinely interested in their thoughts and conversing with them.
And yeah, definitely do that, converse with them. Don't leave 'em hanging once someone invests in your site. That's a pet peeve of mine.
Ugh, I hate that question thing so much. Especially because I end up defaulting into that so often. Better to just not ask anything at all if you can't write engagingly.
Easier said than done for me though. Trying.
yeah. agreed. i've done that…
It can be hard (at least at first) to come up with a compelling question, but sometimes I often start my posts thinking about what I wanna ask people.
That way, I've got a frame for how to drive the content so that I can eventually arrive at said question.
Kinda like writing the title first…but with the main question/interaction in mind from the get go eh?
I suppose that deliberate strategy would indeed work well
i have a lot of pet peeves. that makes me wierd.
Anyone use a twitterfeed widget on a church's official page? Wondering how successful that's been.
how do you manage the potential \”spam\” comments or \”bad\” ones?
I have designed a few websites that use a live twitter stream. It is very cool if it fits into the church culture, otherwise it can get confusing.
Thanks for a great article vin!
my friend @vintom FTW…another northwest homie!
John
Just keeping it real Jim.
My pet peeve on church websites – Being set up and never touched except to update the "Church Calendar". Very inhuman. Love the idea of taking your own pictures.
You're right, So much can be said with that one photo.
Stale websites FTW! … …
John
I agree. If that's your idea of a church website you're better off setting up a single static page with your service times and then just link to your social sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc).
It's crazy how much of the web has morphed into the aggregation of various social services. So many "sites" are now nothing more than pages that pull data from other sources.
I'm not knocking it and I think that it can be incredibly effective when leveraged correctly. It's just cool to see the direction it's gone.
It's funny you say that. I have been thinking about developing a WordPress theme for churches to use that basically just pulls from their other sources: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Google Calendar, and a Blog. Do you think that would be something useful for churches?
i've thought of that a number of times. never executed on it though.
We should work on it together. That would be a cool collaborative project. What do ya think?
i've had a bunch of people ask to work collaboratively on something like that. not sure i have the time to do it right now…
I don't know much about working in the church, but I do know that there are churches that need something. So many of the off-the-shelf solutions are just so weak.
Plus, I did a series on ChurchCrunch a couple of months ago that was geared towards helping the get get an online presence. It was aimed at people that are technically-savvy but needed some direction or places to start.
Something like you're talking about could be useful for the church that lacks an online presence or tons of geeks that are members
.
that was a great series, btw… apparently you're more than useless.
FTW!
Apparently so. Who knew?
More ChurchCrunchy-Techno-Web-Dev-Goodness coming later this year so watch your face.
interested in mobile? we've got that coming too………..
interested in mobile? we've got that coming too………..
You know me. I spend more time on ChurchCrunch than my own site.
Okay, so maybe not quite true.
But seriously, if there's something for me to contribute, I'll be there.
You know it! I am glad we are getting some discussion around this topic. We all have room to grow in this!
I agree with the real pictures bit. When i'd just arrived in Singapore i remember paying attention to the photos on the website of the church i planned to attend to work out what I should wear
you don't like fake pictures? common……….!!!!!!!!!!
…
j/k.
Some good points brought up here, I like that you brought up the idea of writing with personality. I know for my website I am trying a vary different approach for a design website by bringing in some of my (dry) humor into the writing.
I think the key that sets a good chunk of copy apart from the boring or the incomprehensible jargon is what you had to say about having a balance between professionalism and personality.
i've got some strange humor… believe me…
Writing with personality is great — but it has to be real. If you're trying to push out a writing style that isn't really you, then: A) It probably won't be that good, and B) It is not sustainable. If you are a dry humor guy, write with dry humor.
Our church won't let us put real pictures on the website. They say we would need to get releases for everyone. The main concern is putting kids on the site. Anyone else deal with this?
bill. great quesiton. i'm blogging it for you…! check in a second.
You stirred up a whole new post at http://churchcrunch.com/do-you-use-real-pictures-...
