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November 29, 2005
Communicating Through Desktop Wallpapers
(Filed under: Examples)I love cheap and easy ideas. They don't cost much time or money, and while the benefits may not be enormous, it only takes a small return to make a small investment worthwhile.
Tim Schraeder from Riverside Community Church in Peoria, Ill. shares one of those ideas with his church desktop wallpapers. The church has had desktop images for a while, offering generic wallpapers with the church logo.
But now Tim is taking it to another level, offering monthly wallpapers with the church calendar and upcoming events. It's an especially cool idea for the holidays when there are all sorts of extra services and changing service times.
It's nothing huge. I doubt many people would be willing to change their wallpaper once a month (I hardly change mine once a year), but if it helps just a few people connect with the church and stay in the loop, it's probably worth it.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at November 29, 2005 8:51 AM
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» Church Communication Through Wallpaper from Forks in the Road
No not wallpaper for your walls, I am talking about wallpaper for your PC. I found a story over on Church Marketing Sucks and being the geek that I am thought to myself; “Wow! That is an excellent idea!”
Basically the gist of the story is ... [Read More]
Tracked on November 30, 2005 10:14 AM
» Decorating a site for Christmas from Craig Palenshus' Church Web Adviser BLOG
I came across some pretty cool Christmas Web site decorating ideas recently. The first was brought to my attention from a story on Church Marketing Sucks about using desktop wallpaper for your PC to help others stay connected with the [Read More]
Tracked on December 2, 2005 7:41 AM
Comments
being a tech geek, i personally think this is a fantastic idea. i wonder, though, if this is something that you're everyday-Joe will be able to connect with.
Posted by: patrick at November 29, 2005 10:42 AM
patrick, I don't think it is an idea the everyday Joe will connect with. But that's OK. It's not a huge time suck project either. A couple hours once a month and you're done. If it connects with the dozen techies in your church, then you've just connected with a dozen people.
That's worth it to me. It's the little things. (as long as the effort involved doesn't become overbearing)
Posted by: kevin at November 29, 2005 12:36 PM
So, how about CMS wallpapers?
Posted by: s. zeilenga at November 29, 2005 12:56 PM
Doh! I knew I forgot to mention something.
You can check out CMS wallpapers at the bottom of our Spread the Word page.
Posted by: kevin at November 29, 2005 1:01 PM
This is a great idea, and we have some on our church's student website, but one thing to consider is the legality of using stock imagery for the desktops. Most image providers restrict how you can use the image (i.e. it must be smaller than 640x480 for the internet). The reason I mention this is that I've seen one of Riverside's images in a stock photography bank before.
I guess the best way to do this would be to use original photography.
Posted by: Andrew at November 29, 2005 2:00 PM
Is there anyway to automate the background change process? So... the average Joe just lets the script download the newest background each month...
Posted by: AverageJoe at November 29, 2005 3:55 PM
Wow! This is one of the best ideas ever - as a technophile and internet junkie I connect with this. I make a living on the net and a lot of moms and nerds would use this. I just have to say it again - wow!
Posted by: Shawn Raloff at November 30, 2005 3:49 AM
I think this is an awesome idea. Tech-savvy is getting less "tech geek" and more everyday. Has anyone heard of a little-known music tech thingie called an i poo, an i pod...i can't remember...;)
Way to go Tim!!! (Ah the mems of Joyce conferences and Outback...)
Posted by: Kelly at November 30, 2005 12:43 PM
I have started throwing a couple of options for desktops on my client downlaod pages when I do identity or marketing campaigns. Most of the time, it just involves stretching one of the designs across the right background color in Illustrator (which is where I do most of my commercial art anyway) and save it to the right dimensions. Especially for campaigns- be it in support of a new service, capital fundraiser, or special event- it allows all of the in-house computers to be little digital billboards to advertise the event.
I never thought of doing this as a sort of digital newsletter. Great idea.
Posted by: corey at December 1, 2005 6:01 PM
I had taken a bunch of "artsy" photos for church, and after seeing this entry, I was inspired. I put up some desktop wallpapers of my own on my church's website. What do you think?
Posted by: Ted Carnahan at December 5, 2005 4:06 PM
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