Church Online Tip #31 – Have a Backup Plan


Today’s Church Online Tip is this:

Have a Backup Plan

 

Something is going to happen. It is going to crash. Something is going to break. Something is not going to work like you had planned.

 

Here are some questions to ask yourself before an emergency:
  1. What if we Livestream our service from our auditorium and our stream goes down?
  2. What if there are problems with our Streaming Provider one Sunday?
  3. What if one of the platforms we stream on isn’t connecting the way it should?
  4. What if Facebook or YouTube flags our content and shuts down our stream?

 

 

Let me give you a few things to try that could prevent your world from crashing:
  1. I would have a backup service as one complete Backup Service ready to go if something is not connecting right in your auditorium. Worst case scenario, you can stream that video of an older service to your streaming platforms. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than no service.
  2. Have the support number for your Streaming Provider handy and know exactly who to call if something goes down. I would have 2-3 places you can go already handy – like a phone number and their online chat service. The less you have to search for that in a crisis, the better.
  3. I would strongly suggest you stream your service to multiple platforms – Send it through your streaming provider, but also stream as a premiere or live to Facebook and YouTube. It gets your service to the most people at once, but it also helps with a backup plan. You can say “Hey guys, we’re having some technical issues with Facebook today, we would love for you to check us out on YouTube or at church.com/live”.
  4. If Facebook or YouTube flags your content, you might not be able to stream on that platform that day unless you tell them you have permission to stream the content you’re streaming. It’s honestly a toss upon when they will respond to you to get you back up and running. The best thing to do here is to make sure that you have all your licensing in place before Sunday, so that if a platform flags you, you have your documentation ready if needed.

 

So, my Church Online Tip for you today:

Have a Backup Plan

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