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Recently, I logged on to Facebook to get an update on what was going on in my live feed and as I scrolled through the list, it struck me that I have developed some distinct patterns as to how I peruse that feed.
On any given day, that feed might present around two to three hundred posts to me and I really don't have time or desire to read each one individually. So, without even realizing it, what I've started to do is to perform triage on the posts as I scroll through the list. I realized that within a split second, my brain evaluates whether or not I wanted to read a post based on who was posting and what the post looked like (length, graphics associated, etc...), without ever reading a word of the post proper.
Furthermore, what has also happened over time as I've performed the above-mentioned triage, is that I've begun to categorize people as either those that post things that bring value to me or those that regularly say stuff that don't bring any value to me or that I can't contribute to...and for those in the latter group, I nearly always skip over them.
The reason I tell you this is to provide a really clear example of what happens with the messages we send.
When we as an audience are bombarded with information...and we are all the time...our minds find ways to perform triage on those messages so that the unrelated and inapplicable ones get discarded in favor of spending the time and brain power to digest those that might be of value to us.
So my question to you as a ministry or non-profit is, as you consider using or are already using properties like Facebook and Twitter, or taking up blogging, do you stop to think about whether or not what you are about to communicate is really and truly of value to your audience?
Often, the reality is that the messages that get communicated by organizations are more about the organization than they are about the audience. This is a sure-fire way to find yourself pouring more-and-more time into an unsuccessful online strategy. Bring value to those people that you are reaching out to. Provide offerings that motivate and enliven them and then continue to add value to it.
The thing you do, whether it be running a church or feeding starving children (and anything in between), isn't all about you. It's about who you serve and in a lot of cases, who helps you to serve them. I suppose we all like to think that those two perspectives are synonymous, but in reality, often they are not and the only way to make them mean the same thing is to actively work to be all about others.
Getting that in perspective will totally change how you communicate and what messages you send as a ministry or non-profit...and the happy by-product will be that you will undoubtedly be more successful at what you do.
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Andrew said:
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Andrew said:
Great point Derek.
Direct mail is a disaster in the first place as a means of creating brand loyalty, but then to not honor clear requests from your constituents to be removed is tantamount to a second and third strike all in one.
To the ministries that do this...in the brand game, you just stuck out...and got caught looking.
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Derek said:
I think this has roots into the direct mail world too. My wife and I make contributions to various ministries/charities and now our mail box is crammed all the time with requests for more giving. This still occurs even as we write letters and make calls requesting to be taken off of mailing lists. It is very off putting to us when those requests go unfulfilled. Now we just recycle half of our mail without even looking at it. Plus those ministries are wasting time and effort on sending out mail that just gets recycled.
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Derek said:
I think this has roots into the direct mail world too. My wife and I make contributions to various ministries/charities and now our mail box is crammed all the time with requests for more giving. This still occurs even as we write letters and make calls requesting to be taken off of mailing lists. It is very off putting to us when those requests go unfulfilled. Now we just recycle half of our mail without even looking at it. Plus those ministries are wasting time and effort on sending out mail that just gets recycled.
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Andrew said:
LOL - Nice ending there Chris.
Perhaps I'm fighting a losing battle though. Maybe the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" should be my new writing mantra.
...still mulling and stewing it all over...
Thanks for your input!
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Andrew said:
LOL - Nice ending there Chris.
Perhaps I'm fighting a losing battle though. Maybe the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" should be my new writing mantra.
...still mulling and stewing it all over...
Thanks for your input!
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Chris said:
I would agree that as a society we have an ever shortening attention span. Whether it is good or bad, I don't know, it can definitely be bad - I think politicians get away with way more then they would have 100 years ago just because they know the public wont care in 48 hours. I think where a point can be made succinctly - it should be. So, I don't offer up anything useless in the way of a solution, is the short answer. :-)
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Chris said:
I would agree that as a society we have an ever shortening attention span. Whether it is good or bad, I don't know, it can definitely be bad - I think politicians get away with way more then they would have 100 years ago just because they know the public wont care in 48 hours. I think where a point can be made succinctly - it should be. So, I don't offer up anything useless in the way of a solution, is the short answer. :-)
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Andrew said:
Glad to hear that it's of service to you Jaunita!
And Chris, despite the fact that I realize you're kidding around a bit, I think you make an interesting point. If you read the whole post, you'll get that what I was driving at was that people should take their audience into consideration when posting content to Facebook/Twitter/Blogs...
Your comment raises the issue that perhaps long posts are a deterrent to getting people to read your content...great point.
But I also wonder if feeding people's tendency to require shorter and shorter messages is a good thing. I sometimes worry that we're training ourselves to hate reading (a very worthwhile and important skill that can have important by-products such as improved grammar, spelling and communication capability - a skill-set that is quickly being lost).
...being a verbose individual, I often wonder about the balance here...
I'd love to hear feedback on it.
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Andrew said:
Glad to hear that it's of service to you Jaunita!
And Chris, despite the fact that I realize you're kidding around a bit, I think you make an interesting point. If you read the whole post, you'll get that what I was driving at was that people should take their audience into consideration when posting content to Facebook/Twitter/Blogs...
Your comment raises the issue that perhaps long posts are a deterrent to getting people to read your content...great point.
But I also wonder if feeding people's tendency to require shorter and shorter messages is a good thing. I sometimes worry that we're training ourselves to hate reading (a very worthwhile and important skill that can have important by-products such as improved grammar, spelling and communication capability - a skill-set that is quickly being lost).
...being a verbose individual, I often wonder about the balance here...
I'd love to hear feedback on it.
On Tuesday, December 15, 2009, Juanita Brooks said:
thank you, this is very helpful to me, it gives me direction that I need now
On Tuesday, December 15, 2009, Juanita Brooks said:
thank you, this is very helpful to me, it gives me direction that I need now
On Monday, December 14, 2009, Chris said:
I have to confess...I started reading this post but then realized it was on the longish side and so I kind of skimmed the rest...I guess you made your point...atleast I think you did, I didnt really read the whole thing :-)
On Monday, December 14, 2009, Chris said:
I have to confess...I started reading this post but then realized it was on the longish side and so I kind of skimmed the rest...I guess you made your point...atleast I think you did, I didnt really read the whole thing :-)
Recently, I logged on to Facebook to get an update on what was going on in my live feed and as I scrolled through the list, it struck me that I have developed some distinct patterns as to how I peruse that feed.
On any given day, that feed might present around two to three hundred posts to me and I really don't have time or desire to read each one individually. So, without even realizing it, what I've started to do is to perform triage on the posts as I scroll through the list. I realized that within a split second, my brain evaluates whether or not I wanted to read a post based on who was posting and what the post looked like (length, graphics associated, etc...), without ever reading a word of the post proper.
Furthermore, what has also happened over time as I've performed the above-mentioned triage, is that I've begun to categorize people as either those that post things that bring value to me or those that regularly say stuff that don't bring any value to me or that I can't contribute to...and for those in the latter group, I nearly always skip over them.
The reason I tell you this is to provide a really clear example of what happens with the messages we send.
When we as an audience are bombarded with information...and we are all the time...our minds find ways to perform triage on those messages so that the unrelated and inapplicable ones get discarded in favor of spending the time and brain power to digest those that might be of value to us.
So my question to you as a ministry or non-profit is, as you consider using or are already using properties like Facebook and Twitter, or taking up blogging, do you stop to think about whether or not what you are about to communicate is really and truly of value to your audience?
Often, the reality is that the messages that get communicated by organizations are more about the organization than they are about the audience. This is a sure-fire way to find yourself pouring more-and-more time into an unsuccessful online strategy. Bring value to those people that you are reaching out to. Provide offerings that motivate and enliven them and then continue to add value to it.
The thing you do, whether it be running a church or feeding starving children (and anything in between), isn't all about you. It's about who you serve and in a lot of cases, who helps you to serve them. I suppose we all like to think that those two perspectives are synonymous, but in reality, often they are not and the only way to make them mean the same thing is to actively work to be all about others.
Getting that in perspective will totally change how you communicate and what messages you send as a ministry or non-profit...and the happy by-product will be that you will undoubtedly be more successful at what you do.
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Andrew said:
Great point Derek.
Direct mail is a disaster in the first place as a means of creating brand loyalty, but then to not honor clear requests from your constituents to be removed is tantamount to a second and third strike all in one.
To the ministries that do this...in the brand game, you just stuck out...and got caught looking.
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Andrew said:
Great point Derek.
Direct mail is a disaster in the first place as a means of creating brand loyalty, but then to not honor clear requests from your constituents to be removed is tantamount to a second and third strike all in one.
To the ministries that do this...in the brand game, you just stuck out...and got caught looking.
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Derek said:
I think this has roots into the direct mail world too. My wife and I make contributions to various ministries/charities and now our mail box is crammed all the time with requests for more giving. This still occurs even as we write letters and make calls requesting to be taken off of mailing lists. It is very off putting to us when those requests go unfulfilled. Now we just recycle half of our mail without even looking at it. Plus those ministries are wasting time and effort on sending out mail that just gets recycled.
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Derek said:
I think this has roots into the direct mail world too. My wife and I make contributions to various ministries/charities and now our mail box is crammed all the time with requests for more giving. This still occurs even as we write letters and make calls requesting to be taken off of mailing lists. It is very off putting to us when those requests go unfulfilled. Now we just recycle half of our mail without even looking at it. Plus those ministries are wasting time and effort on sending out mail that just gets recycled.
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Andrew said:
LOL - Nice ending there Chris.
Perhaps I'm fighting a losing battle though. Maybe the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" should be my new writing mantra.
...still mulling and stewing it all over...
Thanks for your input!
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Andrew said:
LOL - Nice ending there Chris.
Perhaps I'm fighting a losing battle though. Maybe the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" should be my new writing mantra.
...still mulling and stewing it all over...
Thanks for your input!
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Chris said:
I would agree that as a society we have an ever shortening attention span. Whether it is good or bad, I don't know, it can definitely be bad - I think politicians get away with way more then they would have 100 years ago just because they know the public wont care in 48 hours. I think where a point can be made succinctly - it should be. So, I don't offer up anything useless in the way of a solution, is the short answer. :-)
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Chris said:
I would agree that as a society we have an ever shortening attention span. Whether it is good or bad, I don't know, it can definitely be bad - I think politicians get away with way more then they would have 100 years ago just because they know the public wont care in 48 hours. I think where a point can be made succinctly - it should be. So, I don't offer up anything useless in the way of a solution, is the short answer. :-)
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Andrew said:
Glad to hear that it's of service to you Jaunita!
And Chris, despite the fact that I realize you're kidding around a bit, I think you make an interesting point. If you read the whole post, you'll get that what I was driving at was that people should take their audience into consideration when posting content to Facebook/Twitter/Blogs...
Your comment raises the issue that perhaps long posts are a deterrent to getting people to read your content...great point.
But I also wonder if feeding people's tendency to require shorter and shorter messages is a good thing. I sometimes worry that we're training ourselves to hate reading (a very worthwhile and important skill that can have important by-products such as improved grammar, spelling and communication capability - a skill-set that is quickly being lost).
...being a verbose individual, I often wonder about the balance here...
I'd love to hear feedback on it.
On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, Andrew said:
Glad to hear that it's of service to you Jaunita!
And Chris, despite the fact that I realize you're kidding around a bit, I think you make an interesting point. If you read the whole post, you'll get that what I was driving at was that people should take their audience into consideration when posting content to Facebook/Twitter/Blogs...
Your comment raises the issue that perhaps long posts are a deterrent to getting people to read your content...great point.
But I also wonder if feeding people's tendency to require shorter and shorter messages is a good thing. I sometimes worry that we're training ourselves to hate reading (a very worthwhile and important skill that can have important by-products such as improved grammar, spelling and communication capability - a skill-set that is quickly being lost).
...being a verbose individual, I often wonder about the balance here...
I'd love to hear feedback on it.
On Tuesday, December 15, 2009, Juanita Brooks said:
thank you, this is very helpful to me, it gives me direction that I need now
On Tuesday, December 15, 2009, Juanita Brooks said:
thank you, this is very helpful to me, it gives me direction that I need now
On Monday, December 14, 2009, Chris said:
I have to confess...I started reading this post but then realized it was on the longish side and so I kind of skimmed the rest...I guess you made your point...atleast I think you did, I didnt really read the whole thing :-)
On Monday, December 14, 2009, Chris said:
I have to confess...I started reading this post but then realized it was on the longish side and so I kind of skimmed the rest...I guess you made your point...atleast I think you did, I didnt really read the whole thing :-)
Great point Derek.
Direct mail is a disaster in the first place as a means of creating brand loyalty, but then to not honor clear requests from your constituents to be removed is tantamount to a second and third strike all in one.
To the ministries that do this...in the brand game, you just stuck out...and got caught looking.