By now, your web guy has sent you a thousand emails praising blogging as a means of getting the word out on your ministry or business. Sure enough blogs are a great way to keep friends posted on your efforts, bring on new folks, and reach more people for Christ than you can through your website alone. But have you ever considered blogging in light of what's being said about you outside the cozy confines of your church, business, etc.?
Introducing defensive blogging.
Case in point, today I searched Google for blogs from a ministry almost all of you have heard of, which will remain unnamed to protect the techno-challenged. The result of my search: no weblogs from the ministry in question and a slew of well-ranked posts from a blog actually bashing the very ministry I was searching for. Your takeaway: somebody's going to be talking about you; make sure that you're at least a part of the conversation.
For those ministries intent on shrewd, biblical outreach, blogs, as with websites before them, are no longer optional. In fact, if you have already or plan to soon achieve any sort of profile, things will be said about you online. And the blogosphere, thanks to Google rankings and more, has a way of spreading the word about you--for better or for worse.
The good news is that offering your own online voice will at least give you a seat at the table and will go a long way toward diffusing unjust criticism and attack. (Notice I said unjust; the rest of you see James 4:7.)
So what's it going to be? Will you use defensive blogging to protect and further the work God's called you to? Or will you skip the blogosphere and allow Satan and even some well-meaning but misguided brothers and sisters in Christ to use their online voices to tear down God's work through you and yours?
Defensive blogging. It's not just for Steve Jobs anymore...
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Defensive Blogging: Protecting Your Ministry in the Blogosphere - Ministry & Business Marketing, Media and Strategy Blog
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Ministry Branding and New Distribution Opportunities for Your Ministry - Ministry & Business Marketing, Media and Strategy Blog
Check out this recent article covering The Daily Show with Jon Stewart offering all of their show archives online (eventually including all nine years of episodes). Now think about your ministry.
Even if you're not a Crown Financial Ministries, which offers many different broadcasts in a variety of formats, your mp3s and videos could get a second life on your website. Imagine folks being able to search your ministry audio/video by keyword, sermon title, date, guest, etc. This could open a tremendous new channel for ministry without your spending a dime on new content or technology.
Take it a step further.
Don't just list your ministry archives. Enable links to clips to be sent by email or (even better) text messaged to the friends, family, and ministry partners of your site visitors. And allow "contagious" site visitors to post your content to their own blogs and to tag your content with their own keywords. (Your web guy should know how to do this. If you're the web guy, just cruise Google for html code on blog links, etc.)
As The Daily Show marketing execs know well, hosting content on your site not only provides you with an easy distribution channel; it helps you brand your ministry. Unfortunately, a simple podcast stream on ITunes a ministry brand does not make. Neither does merely offering your ministry goodies on oneplace.com, no matter how great your content is.
Think back to Southwest Airlines' prescient decision to offer tickets exclusively on their website rather than on Expedia, Travelocity, and other online locales. The result was that the Southwest brand concept remained strong while the brand identities of Southwest's competitors melted into the faceless fare war inherent to travel websites. The lesson: don't depend on other venues to brand you; do it yourself.
It is critically important that we exercise shrewdness in our ministry branding, not over and against other biblical ministries, but so as to mazimize the profit of every opportunity God gives us, (see Matt. 10:16, Col. 4:5). Offering viral-friendly content on your site will allow you to efficiently extend your ministry brand and, in turn, effectively reach many more folks than simple outside distribution alone.
Soon I'll blog about how to best tap outside distribution opportunities, especially for parachurch ministries.
