Can They Find You?

Can folks who are looking for your ministry find you?
Off-Campus: Prospective students and their parents looking for Presbyterian support at, say, Mission Field University look for you in a couple of ways. They Google "Presbyterian Campus Ministry Mission Field". They search Facebook for "Mission Field Presbyterian" and they look at Mission Field's Website listing of Student Organizations. They might search the PC(USA)'s Campus Ministry Locator if they are seriously Presby-geek and persistent. If your ministry is known on campus by some other name (Westminster House, K-House, The Abby, The Bridge, The Inn, FOCUS, FLAME, etc.) you will need to be thoughtful in your media usage.

Web site metatags are what help search engines list what information appears on the search results page. Use them!

If you are a congregation hoping that some nearby college students will attend your church, your web site had better have something which specifically says "college students". They won't be attending without first looking you up for directions, times, and to see if you look like a church where they would be welcome.

A Facebook PAGE is good for your external visitors because it will appear on search engine results. The PAGE's title should not be the on-campus name. Save that for the INFO. A  Facebook GROUP for your internal (on-campus) organization should have the title by which your students would know you.

You should also check that the PC(USA) Campus Ministry Locator has up-to-date information. The procedure to submit changes can be found on the Locator front page. If you are a congregation near a campus hoping to attract college students and you are already in the Locator data base, you MUST have a website!!!

A Recommended exercise: Go to the library. Pick an institution similar to yours in another state. Imagine that you are first a parent and then a perspective student.  Use a computer there to search for a Presbyterian campus ministry at that institution. Did you feel as if you got a good sense of what faith support there might be there? Then repeat the exercise for your own campus.  (Don't use your own computer, it may skew your results)

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