Brian Flatgard Annual Report: 2023
View reports for our 2023 assembly on our assembly mission and ministry stories page and in this collection of blog posts.
Brian Flatgard, Director of Communications
We include quite a bit in our news system, which consists of our site’s blog and calendar, as well as posts to Facebook and our weekly newsletter. Since we revamped our system, we’ve posted over 5,000 times in our blog, with 300 newsletters.
One of my favorite parts of my job is the enthusiastic thanks I get from folks who probably didn’t think we’d include them in our news system. I like to think that these organizations know they have a partner in the Grand Canyon Synod. It goes a long way to checking the box in the “Connect People” column of our strategic plan.
But I’ll admit I sometimes wonder if our work is meaningless and going into a void. Does anyone read these posts? Is anyone being impacted by this? If so, is it just one or two people?
To understand our influence better, we've studied the performance of our weekly newsletter. It gives us insight into how our efforts are received, although we realize that the analytics are not perfect due to increasing privacy features and the nature of how our content is consumed. If anything, our engagement numbers are likely higher.
Our newsletter currently has around 1,700 subscribers, reaching roughly 5% of ELCA members in our synod. Out of those who receive it, 31% opened our most recent newsletter each week and about a quarter of those clicked a link. While we're not producing viral content, that's not our aim. Our purpose is to amplify the messages of the global church, the ELCA, Region 2, and our synod’s ministries and partners.
Moreover, we’ve observed the occurrence of what we term the "long tail" - a large number of posts that receive only a small amount of traffic. But these "little clicks" are essential to us! They represent the diversity and breadth of interests among our community members, and they are the lifeblood of our church.
To me, these small interactions are the heartbeat of our synod. Each link click represents a moment of engagement, a quest for knowledge, a spark of curiosity. In short, they are evidence of a vibrant, engaged, and curious community of faith.
Looking ahead, our commitment is to continue sharing, connecting, and uplifting. We hope to enrich our news system and keep the lifeblood of our synod flowing.
Thank you for being part of our journey, and please share your news by submitting items at www.gcsynod.org/share. Let's keep amplifying the messages of the global church, the ELCA, Region 2, and our synod’s ministries and partners.
PS: This yearly wrap up was adapted from a January report I wrote for the synod council. You can read that original report here, which includes a detailed breakdown of one of our newsletters, as well as a summary of our previous year.
