Be On Top of Your High Holy Day Web Site Game
While congregations spend a tremendous amount of time and energy preparing for the community to walk in the doors for the High Holy Days, it’s important to remember that your web site is a critical destination for members, prospects and the community at large at this time of year. Think creatively and carefully about how you can deepen the holiday experience, serve your members and strengthen relationships. While the logistics of the season may seem obvious to you, making sure you’re offering clear and easy to find information can be more valuable to your members than you might think. Consider:
- Basic info like times and locations, with links to or an image of Google Maps or Mapquest;
- Parking information, restrictions, suggestions;
- Opportunities to increase comfort, such as a downloadable definition of terms, transliteration and translation of common greetings for the holidays, and brief tutorials on traditions, like the symbolism of apples and honey;
- Support for self-guided reflection — though many people may not attend selichot services in person, how might you provide questions to catalyze pre-Rosh Hashanah reflection? Could be a question per day on the home page, or one per day emailed from the Rabbi;
- Provide links to additional opportunities like sign ups for adult education classes, and resources MyJewishLearning.com or Babaganewz.com to deepen members’ experience;
- Provide background information and any logistical details that might be helpful to the community at large and neighbors who live or work near the congregation
Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle and Bellevue, Washington has made great use of their home page with quick links to more info, a few reflective questions, and an invitation (note: not an announcement, but an invitation) to join selichot services
How are you using your site this high holy day season? What would you add to the checklist above?
This blog is a welcome addition to the Jewish blogosphere, where we tend to be later adopters, especially in the synagogue world. Congratulations Lisa and Darim.
Re: your post. I’ve also seen rabbis create Rosh ha-Shanah video greetings on their web sites for congregants as well. Just one more thought to add to the mix.
Rabbi Hayim Herring, Executive Director, STAR
For synagogues that charge for seats, would it be too ‘commercial’ to accept payment online through the website? What about an online seat reservation system? On the one hand, it sounds somewhat crass – Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur and PayPal don’t exactly go together. But if you are accepting payments for seats anyway, it may make sense to provide an easier way for congregants or visitors to pay online.
Tamar Schanfeld
http://www.ShofarSites.com
It would not be too commercial at all! In fact I think it’s great customer service to be able to provide this convenience to the community. It would be worth checking with your synagogue membership management software provider to see if they offer a high holiday seating and payment module (many are launching new web-based add on modules to their products). You could also consider Google Checkout, Paypal, http://www.brownpapertickets.com, http://www.eventbrite.com or similar third party services to get your online ticketing up and running quickly.
Here’s an example of a Darim client using PayPal so their members can reserve/buy tickets:
http://habonim.net/religious_life/holidays.php?page=16585