Many of my current conversations start with “we need our own app.” I usually answer this question with one of my own, “why do you think you need an app?” The usual answer is something similar to what junior high boys give their parents when they want a new game console: “All the cool kids have one.” But before you try to keep up with the cool, rich kids of technology, I would suggest you take a step back and think about creating a mobile strategy first. Much like creating marketing pieces without an integrated marketing campaign is not a smart idea, creating apps without first designing a mobile strategy is not a good move. Sometimes your best app is not an app at all, but a killer mobile version of your site. Recently, Google put out some good thinking on mobile strategies. Following are 4 questions you should consider…

I have spent the last few days in Singapore listening to reports from around Asia on TWR‘s outreach efforts. There’s an amazing amount of work being done in this region of the globe for the advancement of the gospel including work in closed countries like North Korea, Myanmar and China. TWR is the largest Christian Broadcaster in the world reaching out to over 200 languages in some 160 countries through radio waves, television, print and internet. It’s truly an amazing organization. As I sat with leaders of 12 different countries/regions one common theme began to appear: mobile is our new frontier. TWR Partners of 12 different countries in Asia While radio is still the only way to reach millions in some cultures, mobile phones now make up the fastest growing communication device in the world. Even remote places in India and Africa now have affordable cell service with data plans.…

We just launched our first iPhone/iPad app a couple of weeks ago. This is a media-rich app that allows the user to watch videos, listen to audio, read notes, share information as well as bookmark favorites for access later. The Met Church in Houston, TX was our pilot church– you can find it in the app store under “The Met Church.” This app works together with our online “Media Machine” which The Met uses. They upload media files only once and the Media Machine takes care of their website media, Podcasts as well as the iPhone/iPad apps. While it’s an easy process for our clients, it’s quite of feat of programming prowess for our team. Our challenge was not only creating the app, but making it interface with our existing platform and making it seamless for our clients using our back end we call TAG Tools. We’re a learning organization…