October 7, 2012 | 4 Comments

Why Parishioners Go Online

I found this summary of a non-denominational study on why parishioner’s go to a church’s website.  You can read the whole article here, but here’s the top reasons they’re looking at your website:

  • 43% – Checking mass times
  • 29% – Checking times of other events (youth groups, bible study, etc.)
  • 28% – Streaming Audio and Video

Other reasons mentioned for going to a church’s website in order of popularity:

  • Researching religious beliefs
  • Requesting a prayer
  • Downloading a podcast
  • Sending a message
  • Utilizing the parish’s discussion forums or bulletin boards

I found the streaming of audit and video interesting, but this study was non-denominational and probably does also speak to the growing importance of video.

Here’s a few past blog entry describing the content you need on your church’s website:

How many of these items does your church’s website have?

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Author:Joe Luedtke

Joe Luedtke is the President of the e-Giving Division for Liturgical Publications (LPi). Joe specializes in Social Media and Web 2.0 and is currently leading LPi’s efforts to move into the on-line world. Joe works for the world's largest and oldest social network, religion, and believes that this social network could benefit tremendously from the the proper use of Internet technologies.
View all posts by Joe Luedtke →
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Weber/100002354681054 Alex Weber

    I did a Facebook survey asking the same question a couple of years ago. I think we got over 2000 votes. The number one reason on mine was also Mass times, but the number 2 reason was bulletins. It was a survey that participants could add options to. I was surprised to see that one of the items that was added took 3rd or 4th place out of a ton of choices (the list kept growing as more participated in the survey). The reason? Orthodoxy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/phil.tanny Phil Tanny

    That’s interesting Joe, thanks.

    I was sad, but not that surprised, to see forums taking last place in the study. It seems like a waste of a great community building technology, one that is particularly well suited for encouraging the kind of thoughtful dialog that Catholics can be so good at.

  • BadgerDave

    The stats for our metro Milwaukee parish website show the Mass Times and Devotions page the most popular by far, followed by the daily calendar, the weekly bulletin download, the school, and the contact info page. We post the weekly homily audio on Posterous, and it gets a surprisingly good number of hits.

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