To monitor your online reputation check out some Web tools that do just that. We use Google Alerts here at nineteen05 and simply subscribe in our RSS reader to get updates daily. We have several set up for our business name, staff member names, and some key terms related to our business. Some of the tools in that review are free, others can get quite expensive. For churches I would recommend the free options.

Free Automatic Alert Options

• Google Alerts – Searches blogs and more
• technorati.com – Blog Search Engine
• keotag.com – very simple, but lacked ability to search all sources at once
• monitorthis.info – Blog Search Engine (found out of date entries)

Yesterday it was announced by Pepsi Company (the owners of Tropicana brand Orange Juice) that the new packaging/brand that they rolled out in January for Tropicana will be removed. Over the last two months Pepsi has undergone a very aggressive re branding campaign of many of their largest products (Pepsi brands, sierra mist, mountain dew).

Now in a statement released by Pepsi Co and an article in the NY Times Pepsi says they are rolling back the brand to the much more familiar orange with the straw in it. So what was the problem?

The most telling of the criticism in the Times piece was this:

“Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. “Because I do, and the new cartons stink.”

It got me thinking about the marketing that the church does. Rewording their question for a church marketer becomes something like: “Do any of us in church marking actually spend time with people outside the church?”

Churches don’t have the budgets and numbers to work with like Pepsi company so it is important that we ask very pointed questions about our desired audience to reach. There also needs to be some interaction between the people creating those campaigns and the market that they are geared towards.

In some cases this will mean designing for Christians (in the case of a youth retreat or conference), and in others for non Christians with the promotion of a sermon series or other outreach. The failure of the Tropicana re branding can help us to remember, it’s about those we are targeting, not about us designing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Following up our post on the Evolution of Video is this 4 minute video (by MadV)  that uses a communities response to a video to form this compilation of hope. I found it very inspiring, I also tried to find the original video clip but it was taken offline for some reason (likely when the owners account was hacked last week).

While there is a lower production value due to the heavy use of web-cams, the impact more than outweighs that drawback in my opinion. Your thoughts?

Everyone hopes that the ministry they lead will have an effect on influencing the lives of those they are ministering to. It is at this point that the church holds up the importance of community to bring about these changes. More and more we are learning empirically that intimate friends improve ones health and well being. This then becomes our goal; building communities of intimate friends.

With so much technology out there, how should we go about utilizing these tools for those we are ministering too?

I want to start by displacing a common marketing myth, that it is all about branding. While I don’t discount the importance of branding (just one journal article on the effects of branding on consumer behavior – Chicago Journals) we are beginning to experience a huge shift away from the traditional model.

The Two Marketing Models

The traditional model has revolved around getting their logo/brand (not always synonymous) in front of your customers. This has led to the advertising industry which has heavily focused on print, television, and product placement to create interactions with their customer. While this model will likely never completely go away, it is on the decline.

The new model acknowledges the root of the traditional model of an interaction with their customers. With the advent of truly interactive mediums, mainly on the Internet right now, we can return to that root and create meaningful interactions with those we are ministering too.

The Problem

There is always a hesitation when it comes to the Internet. The fear that the relationships are superficial and that change can be faked. While those are valid concerns, they are (I believe) out weighted by anyone who is genuinely desiring to be closer to Christ. Our job is to be focused on those people in any work we do online.

Upcoming Posts

When talking about platforms to use the list seems endless, and it is growing everyday. Our series will touch on the major players in this online realm:

• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Video Sharing (YouTube, Google Video)
• Facebook/Myspace
• Twitter (micro blogs)
• Photo Sharing Sites (Flickr)

We’ll also look at a few relevant concerns about extending your ministry onto the web:

• Managing your Online Identity
• Healthy Relationships/Boundaries
• Time Management

If you aren’t subscribed to our feed get signed up now to make sure you don’t miss any of the coming articles in the series.

I bring this up today because the FCC is in the process of defending Net Neutrality against Comcast this Friday. We’ll post the results of their ruling them.

Currently every bit of information sent over the Internet is treated the exact same, no priority is given to anything. The email the US President goes just the same as one I send. Some congressmen/women in D.C. believe in-correctly that the volume of traffic currently experiencing is causing massive delays in the deliver of some of these information bits.

To be far, there is more traffic on the Internet than ever (thanks to video sharing sites like you-tube). Yet everything is still clipping along just fine.

So why the problem here?

Major tel-com companies stand to make millions, if not billions, if net neutrality falls apart. It would allow them to set a priority level for ever bit of data that goes across the Internet. This priority will come at a premium price beyond the reach of the Church (save maybe the holy sea).

This will create a two-tiered Internet where the tel-com companies are able to charge on both sides of the service. Companies that host websites would potentially be able to pay for premium service, as well as someone browsing the Internet.

So, how does this affect the church?

One of my biggest passions right now is to see the church take the Internet and become a driving force of net-culture. While this is a huge hard to measure goal, if net neutrality falls apart (as Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska wants) this will become out of reach of not-for-profit organizations like the church.

Imagine if now in addition to creating dynamic content for a web-outreach or documentary to be posted online you need to raise more money to allow people to view it. This doesn’t help anyone but the companies with deep enough pockets to do whatever they want anyway.

What do we do?

As of now there isn’t much to do aside from be informed and join the coalition over at SaveTheInterenet.com.

While looking over some site statistics for clients this week I was reminded of a often forgotten web truth.

Most users spend under 10 seconds at your site.

This means we have only an instant to communicate our message to our end users.

Think of it this way, if you are still reading this post you’ve already invested nearly30 seconds. The first ten seconds you (if average) didn’t get through the first paragraph.

For blogs and long articles these numbers are a bit different. Jakob Nielson put together some information on the subject. This graph is from his site shows how little a user will read of the amount of content you publish.

Notice that no-one read the whole page.

Not much time is it? This is why design is so important. Graphics and Video communicate much more quickly than words do. In the hands of a skilled designer. Their whole job is to strip down your message to the bare essentials and then create a way to communicate that message clearly and graphically.

Ways to Improve your Home Page

• Take away everything that isn’t crutial to your core message
• Give clear cues as to exactly what you want the user to do. (“Come to our church!”)
• Look over your stats to see what your users truly value on your site. Make that very accessible. (google analytics does a great job with this)
• If you have content that should be top priority but isn’t, make it by putting it front and center.
• Give easy access to everything else through your menus and links. Don’t forget to see the first point.