ICFG: "I Love It!"

The Foursquare Church

March 03, 2006
Found in: Articles : Success Stories : Not-for-Profit :

It's accepted as gospel: Dynamic content is a critical part of online success.

But if you want to keep your content up-to-date and consistent, it's hard not to tie up your staff with tedious chores. Your most talented people end up wasting valuable time on micro-editing or performing mindless tasks. When your business has multiple websites, these problems are compounded. Contributors from one site see their hard work go to waste when their content doesn't fit the ideas developed at another branch. Meanwhile, you exhaust more of your resources trying to keep everything consistent.

Original Foursquare Site

Enhanced Foursquare Site

New Foursquare Church Site

These were some of the challenges faced by the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (ICFG). The organization wanted to convert twelve different websites into one, and offer separate sites for their members and leaders. But they faced a convoluted web of communication and design challenges. Content contributors from different cities had ideas that were difficult to explain over long distances. Often the result was a compromise that disappointed everybody.

Enthusiast Inc. forged a powerful solution, bringing together design talent, strong project management and writing skills, and our cost-shrinking technology. The main power tool of the project was a software service called Site Director. This service allowed seamless involvement between participants in Minnesota, Monrovia, and an entire ICFG communications team in Los Angeles. The use of Site Director helped keep the project going, and kept the design of the new site consistent. Site Director also provided a common point of reference. The result was a streamlined process that created two coherent websites, Foursquare.org and FoursquareChurch.org. A veteran user's comment on one of the new sites:

"I love it! I love it! I love it! Way to go!"

Site Director also wiped out a mountain of tedious work, so that human talent could carry the day. Site Director made it easy to bring out the best abilities of people like Shawn Stewart, a designer from Personality, and Kevin Hendricks, a writer from Monkey Outta Nowhere. As with most websites, Foursquare.org and FoursquareChurch.org are works in progress. Corrections are being made, new features added, and sections expanded in order to continually improve these sites and their ability to serve The Foursquare Church.

Site Director will make it simple for anyone involved to contribute to these ongoing updates, even if they don't know anything about programming or html. This is the essential value of Site Director. It puts the control of your content into the hands of your staff. This saves your company time and money, and ensures that your content is updated without any delays. Combine this with a clear framework and a human relationship, and you can begin to see the possibilities.

If you're trying to keep your content up-to-date and consistent, Enthusiast will find you the right mix of live human talent and off-the-shelf software solutions. This keeps your costs down while addressing all the fine points particular to your situation.

If you want online communications that will captivate people instead of holding your people captive, contact us to see how Site Director can help you meet your goals.

::The Foursquare Church is a pentecostal Christian denomination. It's a worldwide movement that includes over 4 million members, 36,000 churches and nearly 50,000 ministers worldwide.

::Enthusiast is a team of goal focused, Internet strategy enthusiasts specializing in creative solutions that meet goals and deliver results. To see how Enthusiast can help you grow, contact us for a free 30 minute goal discussion.

::Personality is the Cause Marketing Agency. Smart marketing to profit businesses and propel causes. You can see them at www.thinkpersonality.com.

::Monkey Outta Nowhere is a writing and editing company based in St. Paul, Minn. that specializes in web content and riding miniature motorcycles.