As a myParish app user, you already know how valuable the content can be to your faith community. However, if you spend a little bit of time getting to understand the analytics part of the app, you’ll be able to communicate even more efficiently with your parishioners.

It’s tempting, when looking at analytics, to focus only on how many users we want to reach. While we do want to evangelize as many people as possible, being familiar with the analytics will allow you to do so much more. Simply having a lot of people download the app doesn’t mean you are communicating well with all of them. Taking time to look at the analytics will help you, as the app manager, do the best job possible in reaching out to your faith community.

Below is some general analytics information to get you started. Being familiar with this information will help you manage the app more effectively.

We’ll be sending more app and analytics information in the future. However, if you have questions, you can always reach out to us at 1-800-997-8805. We love to help people!

NOTE: When viewing any of the following analytics, remember to adjust the Start and End dates to your desired date range. The Start date must be AFTER August 20th, 2015.

Users

A high percentage of Returning Visitors and a consistent number of New Visitors is ideal for your parish’s app.

NOTE: Numbers will only be reported accurately back to August 20, 2015 when these analytics were implemented.

Map

The US map is meant to give you a rough idea of the geographic distribution of your app’s users. You may hover clusters or dark circles with your cursor to zoom.

NOTE: Some small inaccuracies may appear here due to Google Analytics not always correlating  city names with the correct state.

Engagement

This tab shows the number of app users for your parish’s app by day, week, or month, as well as the average number of sessions (times using the app) for each user on each of those occasion (day, week, month).

NOTE: A time period of 2 months or more is best viewed in Month or Week mode.

Sessions

This tab will show you the total number of times people used your app each day this week versus last week. You can see if usage of your parish’s app is consistent week to week or if spikes appear because of special events or increased engagement such as messages sent with push notifications.

Screens

Here you can see the amount of time users spent on different features of your parish’s app over a period of time.

Year over Year

This tab shows how the number of parishioners actively using your app varies month to month. After your parish has used the app for one whole year (post Aug. 20, 2015) these stats may be helpful in identifying seasonal usage trends and variation year to year.

As you dive into numbers, percentages, and averages for your parish’s app, remember to keep an eye out for potential areas of improvement in communication and evangelization with your parishioners and visitors. And remember to contact us at 1-800-997-8805 if you have specific questions.

Bulletins are still a great (and often expected) form of communication to parishioners, and as such, it is a good idea to make them easily accessible on mobile devices. When your bulletin is available in your parish app, it is easy for parishioners to find, if they forget to pick one up on Sunday or are out-of-town or visiting a different parish for a special occasion.

This year we have worked hard to make the bulletin manual upload capabilities for myParish app simple yet robust and flexible for special circumstances. Bulletin customers of Diocesan & Trinity Publications will still have their bulletins uploaded automatically for each Sunday, but can add special uploads manually if desired. Let’s take a look at the improved manual upload feature now.

After logging into the Administrator Portal for your parish app, select the CHURCH page from the top menu. About two-thirds down the CHURCH page you will see the BULLETIN UPLOADS section (below).

Uploading a New Bulletin

Three (3) things to keep in mind when adding bulletins to your parish’s app:

• You can upload bulletins for any day of the week
• Bulletin file must be PDF format (.pdf)
• The app will display up to six (6) bulletins (current bulletin plus five past bulletins)

For each bulletin you want to add you will need to assign a Bulletin Date, a Publish Date, and Browse or Choose the bulletin file from your computer.

1) Always start by selecting a Bulletin Date. This is the date of the bulletin (usually Sundays). You can select any past or future date. If a bulletin already exists for the selected date, the “How To” box will notify you that There is a bulletin for this date already and will give you directions for what you can do with the existing file (see below for more details).

2) Next select a Publish Date. This is the date you wish the bulletin to be made available for access in the app. This allows you to upload this coming Sunday’s bulletin ahead of time.

3) Last you will need to click the Browse or Choose File button. This will open another window on your computer allowing you to pick the file you want to upload to the app. (Note: the file will need to be in PDF format for the best mobile viewing experience.) After selecting the file you will need to click the button with the cloud and arrow  in order to complete the upload process.

Changing a Preexisting Bulletin

If you have previously uploaded a bulletin, you can Preview the bulletin before it is published, Update it with a different publish date, or Remove it completely from the app (this may also be used to change the bulletin file that appears for a specific date).

To make any of these changes to a preexisting bulletin, simply select the bulletin date that the bulletin appears on. After selecting the date, the “How To” box will notify you that There is a bulletin for this date already and will give you directions for what you can do with the existing file. Three new buttons will also appear allowing you to make the changes, as seen below.