New Persuasion

Missionaries Can Teach Communicators a Few Things

If communicators want to learn some lessons on reaching new audiences, they could study what modern day missionaries are up to.  Not to say I completely agree with their mission - to me, it seems disrespectful of local religions to come in and say that you've got the best one yet.  But I do admire their persistence and their wide use of communication tools, both old and new.

From the Washington Post article:

Using technological devices ranging from simple cassette tapes to solar-powered audio players and an iPod-like gadget called the Bible Stick, Christian groups are spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to make one of the world's oldest books accessible in remote corners of the planet...Complete versions of the Bible can now be downloaded onto cellphones in parts of Africa. To reach those who can't read -- nearly one-fifth of the world's population, according to the United Nations -- Christian groups are rapidly increasing production of audio and video versions.

Jill Fallon, over at Business of Life, writes about the movie that's been seen by 5 billion people.  Star Wars?  E.T.?  Titanic?  Nope.  The Jesus Film - no, it's not Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ - it's the 1979 version, filmed on location in the Holy Land, starring a no-name cast.  It's also, according to The Washington Post, been translated into more than 1,000 languages.  Where did this movie come from?  The BBC says:

"[It's] the work of an American evangelical organisation, Campus Crusade. Funded by its supporters and well-wishers, it sends teams around the world, even where they are not particularly welcome. There they record new translations of the film, organise screenings to inquisitive crowds in improvised cinemas, and distribute copies to whoever they can."

Because of their zeal, missionaries leave no stone unturned in their effort to bring their message to everyone in the world - communicators should pay attention.

MegaChurches and MySpace

Ilya Vedrashko over at the Marketing and Strategy Innovation Blog writes about product placement in megachurches.  He points to a Knowledge @ Wharton article:

"Advertising has begun to seep into churches, and the phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down, say academic, religious and marketing experts...Now some advertisers are taking the next step: marketing products -- like an SUV -- with no intrinsic religious value through church networks."

That advertisers and companies want into these communities doesn't surprise me.  What surprises me is that these religious communities are letting them in.  Then I thought that in a way, megachurches in the U.S. remind me of the mega-social communities online - particularly MySpace.  Here's what they have in common:

• Both have religions - in the case of megachurches, it's Christianity, and on MySpace it's music.
• Member demographics are more similar than you think: 
  • Megachurches -"... tend to attract "relatively modern, high-tech, middle-class, well-educated, upwardly mobile, suburban family types.."
  • MySpace - "Internet users between the ages of 35-54 now account for 40.6 percent of the MySpace visitor base, an 8.2 percentage point increase during the past year." (from Paul B. Walker at The Zone Read).
• Advertisers want access to members - (from Knowledge @ Wharton article):  "They offer a particularly tantalizing opportunity for those intent on network or 'word-of-mouth' marketing, a strategy that capitalizes on social relationships to spread product information and influence purchasing, according to Wharton marketing professor Patti Williams. 'Megachurch members are drawn together by a strong common bond. Networks that exist naturally facilitate word-of-mouth marketing, because people tend to share information with those they are close to,' she says."
• Members can join smaller communities centered around certain interests -MySpace has band fan clubs, Megachurches have weight loss centers and football games.
• Both have gotten too big for the individual member.  That's my opinion anyway - MySpace has over 100 million members and Megachurches are defined as having a Sunday seating of over 2,000 members.  That's just too many for me to be me.

I have no idea what I'm getting at here.  Isn't this what blogging is for - to put out half-baked ideas?  Maybe it's that these two social networking communities could learn from each other, but I'm not sure.  It just seems interesting to me.