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Maps of War has a has a 90 second animated map depicting who has conquered the Middle East over the past 5,000 years. If you like history, it is worth the watch.

Special thanks to information aesthetics for highlighting the map.

When people Google your church, what do they find? Many churches are lucky if they can even be found using a search engine. Yet other churches have the unfortunate problem of being surrounded by numerous links of bad publicity and negative opinions.

Jim Kukral of MarketingProfs:DailyFix explains that:

Google can help determine perception by dissemination of negative reviews and commentary about your brand. I define perception as a part of marketing, not brand. In other words, I believe you cannot fully make a judgment on a brand until you experience it first-hand. Everything up until that moment of experience is marketing/perception.

In other words, bad press and negative opinions hardly affect those who have experienced your church already. However, this negativity will affect the perceptions of every potential guest that considers visiting your church.

It is the same concept discussed in Church Relevance’s April 2006 newsletter, Design is Credibility - strangers to your church will judge your church by the quality of the design and marketing materials used to reach them and by third party opinions including Google search results.

A few tips on how to avoid negative search results include:

1. Watch what comes out of your mouth. You still need to stick to your guns when it comes to God’s Word and expect some persecution for preaching and living what it says. However, don’t say something stupid or offensive from the pulpit because you wanted a few laughs from the congregation or because you decided to go off on a rabbit trail of personal opinion that doesn’t have to do with Scripture. There are churches which have made those mistakes and consequently suffer some bad publicity at the top of their Google searches.
2. Emphasize the good. Learn the art of public relations and send out press releases whenever your church is doing something newsworthy. It is a great way to build awareness in your community about your church and even attract a few new guests, but good publicity can also create some great news stories to be found the next time someone Googles your church.
3. Improve your website behind the scenes. A good website is not just in the aesthetics but in the coding as well. Search engines read HTML text so do not expect a 100% Flash website to be easily found. CSS websites (a type of HTML code) are very search engine friendly, and a well-coded CSS website will greatly help your church climb to possibly the first listing in search results.
4. Consider some Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is as Wikipedia describes “is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings.” This can get very expensive if you hire someone. However, if you are already a little web savvy, read The Ultimate SEO Checklist by SitePoint to begin learning how to do-it-yourself.

Also, keep in mind that different search engines give different results. Check out all the major ones. It’s not the end of the world if you have bad search engine rankings or even negative publicity. It happens. But if you can do something about it, do it.

Guy Kawasaki recently moderated a panel of six young adults from Silicon Valley whose ages range from 15 to 24. It was called Next Generation Insights, and some of Guy’s insights include:

• They send as many as 4,000 text messages per month from their phones.
• They watch one to two hours of TV per week. And they use Tivo or a recording device to fast-forward through commercials during that short timeframe!
• They all have iPods, and they are very loyal to Apple.
• They buy approximately forty songs a month on iTunes.

Marketing executive Tom Hayes’ thoughts on the discussion are:

• They don’t watch a lot TV or employ much traditional media.
• They don’t tolerate commercials and don’t have to.
• They are very mobile.
• They are social and private at the same time.
• They reject overly slick (inauthentic) content and messages.
• Instead of search and sell, they are into “discovery.”
• They rely more on “alpha consumers” for their buying cues–people they admire, celebrities.
• They want active interaction, not passive purchasing.
• They have set boundaries outside of which your pitch is a violation.
• All they hear is noise–so quiet down.
• They are into sharing.  Referral is a form of sharing.
• They can be reached by “work of mouth,” so actively campaign.
• Tap into their social capital fund, be a friend.

Additional highlights from the discussion include:

• Text messaging is about pithy messages much like instant messaging rather than lengthy, formatted messages like email.
• MySpace.com is a way to communicate, an escape from responsibility (an aid to procrastination), a means to climb social ranks, and a way to reconnect with old friends and acquaintances.

So this is what Guy found out about the next generation. What have you discovered about them? And how accurate do you think the insights from this discussion group or your perceptions are?

Perhaps it is an accurate picture of this demographic from the Silicon Valley region. However, I think the responses would vary, sometimes greatly, depending on what region and core cultures are being interviewed. Nonetheless, it is a very interesting panel discussion. Use it as a starting point in your church’s quest to better understand this young generation and how to reach them.

The problem with communicators is they sometimes get stuck using and reusing the same element of communication. It may have worked well once, but odds are it does not work most of the time. What’s wrong is that one or more of three import communication variables is off. These variables are the keys to custom communication, and as Return Customer recently discussed, they are:

1. Timing is Critical. What is the best time to deliver the message? This is not a one time question but should be asked in each new situation. Timing is the key to people being ready to receive the message.
2. Tailor the Message. Make the message important by personalizing it by appealing to the needs and preferences of the person or group receiving it. Tailoring is the key to the message fitting in people’s lives.
3. Adapt. Life isn’t scripted. It is full of surprises. Adaptability is a mindset that mentally prepares you for the unexpected situations which cannot be planned for. It allows you to quickly adjust as needed. Adapting is the key to the delivery surviving.

If you appropriately time, tailor, and adapt your communication, you will maximize the impact of your message. Of course, it is much easier said than done, but at least you now have the foundational principles. And practice makes perfect. Keep honing these three communication skills and eventually you’ll implement them by reflex.

Preschoolers have been using interactive audio books for years. But now a non-profit called Books of Hope has found that leveraging the technology enables them to bypass low literacy levels and provide Africa with valuable health care literature.

 

These interactive, multilingual speaking books are designed to communicate through pictures and both spoken and written words, and early research has indicated that the books significantly improve awareness, comprehension, and retention of the health issues addressed. Perhaps this technology or many similar emerging technologies could be used by missionaries and churches to create resources to better spread the gospel regardless of language or literacy barriers.

Although the above Wikipedia world map shows the areas of low literacy rates being Africa and the Middle East, keep in mind that the United States also has its share of illiteracy and language barriers that could greatly benefit from hearing the gospel through merged communication channels such as an interactive audio book. Consider it a major upgrade to the traditional gospel tract. Emerging technologies are enabling churches to easily reach people who were once inaccessible or difficult to reach. Get in a habit of dreaming how to leverage new technologies to enhance your ministry.

Special thanks to Springwise for highlighting Books of Hope.

According to the September 4th issue of Fortune,

The MySpace user base is changing. Some 87% of users today are 18 or older; 52% are 35 or older, according to comScore.

The research is quite a contrast from the teenie-bopper stereotypes that is typically assumed to make up the over 100 million MySpace users. Although MySpace has its share of negatives, some ministries are learning how to use the social network to reach new people. However, the ministries doing so seem to be youth groups or college & career groups like previously mentioned Guts Church (Tulsa, OK). Yet the above statistics clearly show that roughly 52 million users are over 35 years old. Yes, there are some ministries catering to this demographic on MySpace, but there is still a huge vacancy in the opportunity to reach them.

Keep in mind that MySpace is not just for teenagers and college students. People from every background use MySpace including the people that your niche of ministry is trying to reach. This does not necessarily mean that your area of ministry should create a MySpace page, but you should at least consider it weigh the pros and cons of if doing so will help you accomplish your ministry’s mission and reach more people. The article also states, “On a typical day, (MySpace) signs up 230,000 - roughly the population of Scottsdale.” For now, MySpace looks like it is here to stay.

On a side note: If you MySpace, be sure to visit ChurchRelevance.com’s profile.

Special thanks to Mark Vanderbeeken for highlighting the article on MarketingProfs:DailyFix.

Planning a worship service isn’t what it used to be especially if you are a worship leader at a big church. But now there is a website to help worship leaders manage all the details - WorshipPlanning.com. It is a web-based service that allows all the bands, singers, speakers, A/V techs, and anyone else involved to:

• view and/or update the latest service plans
• read and post to message board discussions
• upload and share files (notes, charts, songs, etc.)
• suggest or search worship ideas
• print a worship order sheet

The goal is to centralize the plans so the worship contributors can access them anytime, from anywhere. They even have a section for online surveys, a service statistic tracker, and peer reviews. You can sign up for a year’s subscription for less than a dollar a day.

The mall, Disney World, and other attractions can often become a source of inspiration for churches looking to create an engaging or appealing atmosphere. Yet there is some danger in merely copying what you like if you do not understand the science behind why it was done in the first place. The corporate world creates environments not only for appeal but to generate specific responses from the individuals who interact with them.

For example, one church I have visited incorporated floor to ceiling mirrors in their hallways, but I am sure that they were unaware that mirrors make people slow down (which can lead to some frustrating hallway congestion for church visitors). Knowing the science behind corporate environments can not only save your church from creating facility problems but also enable your church to create more user-friendly churches. Of course, churches must never use this knowledge to take advantage of people as retailers do. Instead, it must be used to create a more user-friendly experience for guests.

Coolz0r recently highlighted an A-Z list of Retail Tricks to Make You Shop that offers a few techniques that can be used by churches to learn how to avoid creating frustrating facilities and instead create user-friendly environments. These techniques include:

• Flooring - Types of flooring are often used to direct customers as a retailer wants around the store. Department stores make great use of the difference between carpet and linoleum to subtly steer customers around and hold them in certain places. Occasionally you will find random rugs and mats laid out in aisles of supermarkets to slow traffic.
  For Churches: Your church’s flooring will determine how people will navigate and occupy your building. Look for ways to ease post-service congestion.
• Line of Sight - Advertisers make great use of line of sight, by working out, or subliminally pushing, a customer to a particular position. The customer will then find promotional material or displays directly between them and where they wish to go, the stairs, exit, cashier etc.
  For Churches: Put information desks, kiosks, maps, and other information vital to guests in their line of sight.
• Mirrors - Mirrors slow people down. Due to humans vain nature mirrors are regularly used on the front of shops in shopping centres and high streets to slow down the traffic and make people spend time in front of the shop.
  For Churches: If your church uses mirrors for decoration, be sure they are not causing traffic problems.
• Right - Upon walking through the Zone of Transition (see below) most customers will veer to the right (US research). Some think it is because the majority of people are right handed.
  For Churches: Be sure that your signage and other important information accommodate people’s tendency to go right. However, be sure to first observe how people interact with your facility. People may not go right if other variables are strong enough to counteract this tendency.
• Visual Prompting - Using the lines between laminate flooring, or carpet patterns shops often try to guide you around as they wish. WH Smiths on Oxford Street in London has a giant arrow cut into the carpet with laminate floor guiding you straight to the centre of the store. Niketown also uses this idea with lines across the floor silently ushering people.
  For Churches: Again, consider how your flooring navigates people.
• Xylophone - Instore music is set at a tempo to relax customers and slow their sense of time. Often music is wordless in order to avoid making customers think, instead just setting the tempo of shopping.
  For Churches: If your church plays music, be sure it is not creating undesired results.
• Zone of Transition - The area just through the doors of a shop, which it takes a customer to acclimatise to the shop surroundings and truly enter the shop. Merchandise, baskets and promotions in the area are lost on the customer, who has not fully transferred from outside yet.
  For Churches: Guests will be disoriented when they first enter your church. Do not place guest information right past the doorway or they probably will not see it.

If this interests you, read Why We Buy by Paco Underhill. It will teach you principles of how to observe how people interact with your church. A few nuggets from this book include:

• There are certain physical and anatomical abilities, tendencies, limitations and needs common to all people, and the retail environment must be tailored to these characteristics.
• To say whether a sign or any in-store media works or not, there’s only one way to assess it - in place. On the floor of the store.
• You can’t just look around your store, see where there are empty spots on the walls and put signs there. Every store is a collection of zones, and you must map them out before you can place a single sign. Each zone is right for one kind of message and wrong for all others. Putting a sign that requires twelve seconds to read in a place where customers spend less than four seconds is just slightly more effective than putting it in your garage.
• When it comes to positioning a sign, the difference between an ideal viewing spot and a terrible one is often just a few feet.
• The smart store is designed in accordance with how we walk and where we look. It understands our habits of movement and takes advantage of them, rather than ignoring them or, even worse, trying to change them.

How well is your church designed for human interaction?