wfn.org | Advertisements increase United Methodist visibility on Internet

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Dec. 2, 1998	Contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
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By United Methodist News Service

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) --United Methodist Communications (UMCom) has
found a new way to use the Internet to increase the visibility of the
denomination.

The Nashville-based communications agency, which maintains the United
Methodist Church's homepage on the World Wide Web, began advertising in
October on two of the major search engines that assist Internet users in
locating the Web sites about topics of interest.  UMCom purchased banner
ads on Lycos and Infoseek to lead people to the church's web presence at
umc.org, the Internet address of the United Methodist Church.

According to Susan Peek, online services manager at UMCom, banner
advertisements are graphic displays that refer people to a specific
site. She said for the United Methodist Church, the banner
advertisements will do two things: let people know about the
denomination's homepage and promote the church's presence on the Web.
The advertisements will appear through Jan. 15.

"Our efforts to promote the denomination's Web site have always been
within the church's membership," Peek said. "By using the internet's
search engines, we hope to raise the church's visibility and name
recognition to a larger number of non-members." 

She said UMCom has received positive feedback from Internet users who
found the church's Web site using search engines. "This let us know that
people are looking for information about religion and about the United
Methodist Church." 

In the last three months, UMCom has revised the look and content of the
denomination's       three-year-old web site to make it easier for
church members and non-members to find out how the church stands on
specific issues, find related news and find contact and resource
information for projects and concerns.

With the new design, Peek said the agency "felt that it was time to
intentionally raise the awareness of the Web site and invite newcomers
and non-members to the church through the search engines." 

UMCom's goal with the banner ads is to make it easier for Internet users
to find the denomination's site and increase the likelihood of their
visiting and returning to the site, she said.

Lycos and Infoseek were selected because an agency audit of search
engines used to find information, indicated these two were among the top
in referring people to the church's homepage,  Peek said. Major search
engines include Yahoo, Excite, Snap and Altavista.

UMCom purchased the words Methodist, church and religion on the Lycos
site. Each time an Internet user types in any of these words or a string
that contains one or more of these words, a bulls-eye target will be
shown with a variety of phrases directing people to the umc.org site. 

On the Infoseek site, the agency purchased a percentage of the
impressions for the words Church and Religion and all of the impressions
for the word Methodist. An impression is the number of times a selected
word is entered at the search engine. 

Since the advertisements began, search engine referrals to the United
Methodist Church's Web site have increased by 75 percent, Peek said. 
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United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/