How We Made a Mobile Web “App” For Our Youth Ministry

In June we launched our own youth website. It contains the basic information like events, forms, photos, links, and recent youth news. Use of the site had been minimal at best. There were some looking at some photos, and maybe downloading a form or two, but there was no real engagement. We averaged around 87 views per week up until the beginning of 2013.

On January 11th 2013 we tried something new. We created a mobile optimized entry page for our website. In most phones it pulls up as a simple, clear, easy to read page that allows users to then choose from specifically chosen pages in our website.

We chose the pages using the following criteria.

1. Do they function well on a mobile phone.

2. Do they contain information parents or youth searching on a mobile phone would most likely want.

We currently have the following pages.

1 Recent Youth Update

2. Upcoming Events

3. Sign Up for Text Updates

4. Photos and Videos

5. Forms and Links

6. Contact Us

We use wordpress for our site, and use the wp-touch plug in which makes our site compatible with most phones and tablets. Users can access all of our site via a pull down menu, but we wanted to limit their choices to those the most likely would need, so they would not be overwhelmed.

The wp-touch plug in allows you to upload a thumbnail image to be used as your screen icon. We also registered a shorter domain, wmumcimpact.org, instead of our old full address williamsstudentministry.org. This shorter domain goes straight to the mobile optimized site, and made it easier for parents and youth to type in on a mobile device.

We sent out a message via facebook, text and instagram to all of our users encouraging them to visit the site. We asked them to go to the site and then add the page to their home screen.

The result for them is a web “app” button on their phone that they can have quick easy access to all the important information they need.

The result for us is a change from an average of 87 per week to nearly 400 views in 5 days.

 

 

There are many ways to make a web optimized site for your group. It may be included in your web package that you use, there are wordpress plug-ins, you may even look into making an actual app. I encourage you to, at the minimum, take a look at your youth sight on a mobile device, and make sure that it is friendly and accessible.