You may have noticed that the format has changed in Hennepin Happenings. This blog post is a quick tutorial to understand how best to navigate the new format of the newsletter, and how it relates to the blog content on the website. We still open with our most important messaging, Grounding in Faith by one of our clergy. Each week it will continue to be the anchor of the newsletter.
Blog definition
is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page.
Immediately below Grounding in Faith is a blue side panel on the left listing the most current events. Each event title is clickable to our events page on the website. If you like to plan out further always check out the Events page! To the right of the events listing is what is happening on the upcoming Sunday, in worship and beyond, along with a volunteer spotlight, a drive that may be happening, a vote, or other church business that requires some action.
Below that is a space for the news of the week. It will focus less on events because the best place to have the most current information on those is through the events calendar, but may highlight new classes or sign-ups. It will also highlight concert and art opportunities. We tracked how many people click through Hennepin Happenings to get to the longstanding Zoom meetings and it has been zero for the past month, and very small before that. We will limit these articles in the newsletter. However, this will open up more opportunities for more in-depth editorial articles because we can post them to our blog. Even if they are not in Hennepin Happenings, they will be listed on the blog space in perpetuity!
The blog itself has categories that filter the content so it is easier to find specific stories. The stories will also be “tagged” so searching will be simple and effective. And they are listed in reverse chronological order so you can scan through the lists starting from the most recent.
Why are we changing the format?
We are changing the format for several reasons.
- Readability: we need to cover a lot of information and this will be a better way to convey it.
- Accuracy when events change: Our teams are very flexible and try to accommodate all changes, but for the communications team this can mean finding and changing details in over 10 forms of distribution. If we only have to change things on the website and then link to it, it decreases the amount of errors. It also means that an article is always up to date!
- Richer content: It opens up space for more editorial content, and because it is easily updated, we can recirculate stories much more easily.
- Easier to maintain: The formatting in Hennepin Happenings is very labor intensive, and having the link through allows for much more flexibility in the storytelling and uniformity in the look of the newsletter.
- BEAUTY!: There are so many options that we haven’t even begun to explore that will make the articles more dynamic in style and visually and contextually rich!