News & Resources
Research: One in four teens are “cell-mostly” internet users
Recent research from Pew Internet reports that 25% of teens are “cell-mostly” internet users – that is, they primarily access the internet through their cell phone. Older teen girls are especially likely to be cell-mostly internet users – 34% compared to 24% of boys the same age. Currently 78% of teens now have cell phones, and almost half of them own smartphones. That translates to 37% of all teens who now have smartphones. According to the study, youth in lower-income and lower-education households are somewhat less...
read moreWordPress Security Update
Keeping your website secure is an ongoing battle. Fortunately, most major CMS systems like WordPress have lots of eyes watching for threats and issuing quick fixes. If you keep your WordPress version current, you are protected from a great number of the potential threats. Chris Jean at iThemes (and a former Main Street employee) has written a great blog post talking about some of the current threats in the WordPress world and some fairly simple security steps you can take to reduce the risk of hackers getting into your site. Check it out:...
read moreHappy 10th Birthday WordPress (almost)
WordPress will be 10 years old in May. Yeah, this is a little bit early, but we really love WordPress and don’t mind starting the party early. If you’ve been around the internet for very long, you know that 10 years in the internet is like a billion years in the real world. In the last 10 years WordPress has gone from nothing to running 65% of the top million websites on the internet. Builtwith.com has some fascinating statistics on WordPress and the other major content management systems used today. Besides having the largest...
read moreDoes your website target your best customers?
Everyone want their websites to rank highly on Google. There is a whole sub-industry of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that works to optimize websites to get the best ranking. When we start studying search engine optimization, it’s easy to get sidetracked by the minutia of optimizing techniques – optimizing image tags, managing percentage of copy of a page, and cramming keywords in meta tags. These are all marginally effective, but it’s amazing how many organizations don’t even have their primary keywords on the...
read moreSocial Media Graphics Checklist
Are you frustrated by all the different image sizes and banner sizes required by the various social media sites? Every time you find a good masthead image for Facebook, you realize it won’t work well anywhere else. We got tired of trying to remember or look up all the image sizes so we created this cheat sheet with the sizes and rules for all the major social media platforms. Of course, this checklist is only good until somebody changes their format, so get it fast and get all your graphics in sync! Social Media Graphis...
read moreThe economical one page website
The rise of social media has changed how websites are used. As more discussion, promotion and photos move to social media, the traditional website becomes either smaller, or a redundant copy of data that also exists on social media. Many individuals and small groups start with a Facebook page or Twitter feed and then look toward a traditional website to gain search engine placement. But, with all their content already on social media sites, they dread the extra work of maintaining another copy of it on a website. Enter the one page...
read moreNew iThemes Builder Customization Training
iThemes has released their new tutorials hub with over 63 new videos ranging from WordPress 101 to Advanced Builder CSS. We are particularly excited about the nine part Builder CSS series as iThemes contracted Main Street to develop and produce those videos. Our own Adam White developed those videos and is the voice you hear on them. This is the most in-depth training available on customizing Builder CSS. The following videos walk you through the Builder customization process: Builder CSS: Overview Builder CSS: Main Background Builder CSS:...
read moreWould Jesus Use Social Media?
I grew up in a couple pretty conservative churches where it was common to look for “scriptural authority” to do new things. It wasn’t a challenge, it was just their way of testing new ideas to make sure they weren’t going astray. Consequently, I’ve been asked multiple times “Would Jesus use social media?” It’s both a fair and honest question. We are encouraging churches to jump on Facebook and Twitter and who knows what else — is this really someplace the church needs to be? Aren’t...
read moreOne easy way to improve your ministry communications at no cost
An open letter to pastors and ministry leaders: For almost two decades, I have helped churches across the US and Canada with communications consulting and training. I work with churches that have incredibly effective communications, and others that struggle to publish the sermon notes each week. From this experience, I have discovered one easy, free technique that is guaranteed to improve the quality and effectiveness of your church communications. Here it is: Give your communications team at least two weeks lead time. That’s the...
read moreNew research: 67% of American online adults are Facebook users
A new research report released on Feb 5, 2013 by Pew Internet shows that over two-thirds of American online adults are Facebook users. This represents more than half the US adult population. Social networking sites are also be accessed more frequently that before. On a typical day nearly half all adult internet users access a social network site. Almost half them reporting accessing the site several times a day. This means Facebook and other social media are excellent tools for reaching American adults across all demographics. Survey results...
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