One thing I really like about connecting with people through blogging is that you build relationships that are mutually beneficial. One such relationship for me is with Jon Haarstad. Though we’ve never met and live thousands of miles away (he’s in Portland, Oregon while I’m in Nashville) we’ve traded numerous emails and exchanged a lot of ideas.

He recently sent me a link to a Pixel Acres blog post that dissects the visual elements of web 2.0 design. I recognized some of these elements in a previous post but didn’t go to the sheer depth or show examples like the Pixel Acres post. It’s certainly worth a look for anyone trying to understand web 2.0 better and for the experienced person it will just solidify a lot of things you’ve already observed. If you want to go all out on web 2.0 just do everything they outline here and you’ll be set for your beta launch in no time.

When I was in graduate school the public relations tract (which I was on) fell under the College of Journalism. At the time I didn’t really like that because I wanted more business experience and I knew some other schools linked their PR programs close to their MBA programs. I later got (and am still getting) that business experience but have looked back in appreciation for being around the journalists for those two years. One thing I learned from them is that the media, any media, has a hole to fill…they called it the “news hole.”

Journalists obviously want to find something interesting to fill the news hole so they look to things that will provide the most interest to the widest number of people like a local connection to a big story or a scandal or something with high drama. When there’s not something like that to be found the next best thing is to look at the broad categories of things that interest people like personal relationships, celebrities, pop culture, and so on. Two categories that are going to be high on most journalist’s lists are “religion” and “technology” so you can imagine the sheer joy a journalist will have when he or she can find a story that covers both of these categories.

It is with that in mind that I’ve felt for quite some time there are many opportunities for churches to boost the buzz about themselves in their communities if they are willing to begin using some of the new technology (specifically web 2.0 tools) available to them. I’ve seen numerous articles about churches who started blogs, podcasts, etc. for outreach purposes and they became local (and sometimes national) news stories. It’s a formula that seems too easy to be true yet I’m seeing too many cases to dissuade me of this assumption. A few days ago I came across another article (via Church Marketing Sucks) that affirmed this to me.

Community Bible Church (CBC) in San Antonio has been doing a series about protecting your space, called it “My Space” and used a lot of discussion about MySpace.com. You can read the full story here. At last count I saw where five different bloggers had picked up on the story which only spread it that much further. In fact, two of the blogs receive significant traffic and likely hit an audience more interested in the story than the San Antonio paper did.

In the interest of full disclosure, CBC is a client of my employer and I was visiting them a month ago as they were about to begin this sermon series. After having talked to a staff member today I can affirm that they were not seeking this press coverage but have seen a significant interest in the series as evidenced in the number of people corresponding with the pastor on his MySpace page. Incidentally, I was also told that the pastor is actively talking to people on MySpace daily. Way to go Pastor Robert!!

Ok, back to the topic at hand…the point here is that the “churches + technology = news” equation isn’t a magic formula, it’s simply meeting a need that journalists have by providing a single story with two engaging hooks. If you’re trying to generate some buzz in the community about your church consider this equation. If you’re using a lot of new technology already, you might be missing out on an opportunity. Why not place a call to the local newspaper or TV station? After all, they have a news hole to fill…why not give them something to fill it with? If get even a handful of curious visitors come to your church wasn’t it worth it implementing some technology you should be using anyway?

Purpose Driven, the organization started by Rick Warren, has announced that it will be closing down its operations. According to Jon Walker their pastor of strategic communications (and a former Nashville local I used to see at Panera Bread near my house all the time), “Purpose Driven as an organization, in a sense, really doesn’t exist anymore.” You can read to full story on Christianity Today.

I am proud to announce the birth of our daughter Audrey Hope on Tuesday the 21st. Mother and daughter are doing great and we’re glad to be back home.

If you’ve ever had a new baby you know it takes a while for life to feel normal so MicroExplosion will be slim for a bit but will be back soon.

I saw on Geekcorps (think Peace Corps for the uber tech savvy crowd) that they had a team in Mali build some WiFi enabled TV receivers for the people in a village. Here’s the story. Aside from the interesting technology that was used here to pull this off in quite a MacGyverish fashion, it made me wonder if there are any churches outside of Mali that could begin to broadcast back to the people in this village in their native language. This was just another great reminder that we can reach the world from wherever we are through online broadcast…even in the most remote places in the world.

I found a very cool site today thanks to Lifehacker. It’s a music website called Musicovery that let’s you discover and listen to music (like a radio) based on the style of music you’re looking for and the general mood you’re in. You can also choose the era of music you want…so if you want to get really specific you can choose calm, jazz music from the 60s and you get a great Stan Getz recording of Night and Day.

Overall this concept is very interesting and applicable to people like me who have times when you’re looking for a specific feel of music but don’t have an artist or song in mind. Also, the design of the site is very compelling as it maps out the song selections. On the downside, it looks like the actual library of music is fairly limited, but to the average music lover it will more than suffice as a handy resource when you’re in the mood for something new.

My friend Chris has officially stepped into the world of video blogging at PourOut.com. Today he and some friends went to a local Best Buy to interview people waiting for the PS3 to go on sale first thing tomorrow morning. It’s pretty nuts really. Here’s the video:

I’m not a gamer but I always find the hype around these kinds of things very interesting. If anything this affirms to me what I hear about the rising number of options from the traditional media. It also says a lot about the increasing number of distractions we have available to us today. If you’re with a church or ministry the PS3 is just one more thing competing for the attention of some of the people you’re trying to reach. So is there an opportunity here? I think so…

Think about this, with the growing numbers of distractions there are just as many opportunities to reach those people with a niche missions approach. This is nothing new to churches. Look at all sports, art, music, and hobby groups that churches create or participate in. With every emerging diversion the church has the opportunity to reach out to the unchurched people engaged in those activities.

On a random side note that’s slightly related, have you heard of machinima? It’s essentially small videos and/or short films made using preexisting video from something like a video game. If you ever played Contra (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, START) with the sound off and had some friends make up their own dialogue for the game you kind of get the idea of what machinima would be. I know it doesn’t sound too interesting but it’s actually quite popular now. I’ve just recently watched a few episodes of one of the more popular machinima series, Red vs Blue, and it’s actually funny. There’s something to this, I just don’t quite know what yet.

…it’s actually pretty funny and scary how close it hits home to the heart of a blogger…

Last month I had two blog posts on TiVo…one about why it could be dying and another about how it can survive through the influx on online video. Today I saw an article from The New York Times that gives us a glimpse of TiVo’s determination to stay in the game. Here are a few interesting excerpts…

• TiVo plans to introduce features that will allow people to use its digital video recorders to watch some video programming from the Internet on their televisions.

• Until now, TiVo has not been able to tap into the explosion of Web video — clips uploaded by amateurs and, increasingly, professional segments made for the Internet. The new features, which are set to be announced today and introduced early next year, are intended to change that.

• TiVo also said it would introduce a service that will allow users to upload their own home movies and have them sent to the TiVo recorders of friends and relatives. Users who want to send will need to sign up for a $4-a-month service offered by One True Media. Receiving the videos is free.”

So what does this mean to you? Well, if you’ve got an interest in video blogging, online video as a distribution method, or just a desire for creating content online then it looks like there’s a possible outlet emerging for your content down the road where people won’t have to watch it on computer screens anymore. Sounds promising to me.

A while back I said that friends don’t let friends post banner ads. I’ve also discussed that banner ads are a bad idea…so if you weren’t clear as to my general thoughts on them…I not exactly a fan. Last week a friend sent me a link to a study that was taken nearly three years ago that gauges people’s perspectives of various Internet advertising formats. What is most interesting is that despite all my disdain for banner ads…they’re actually the most favorable form of ads on the entire list. The most obtrusive ads, like pop ups, are ranked the lowest. Here’s the link if you missed it.

Two things came to mind when I saw this:

• With the way technology has changed and the influx of text ads since this study was taken, I cannot believe that the numbers would be any better now. Three years ago people wouldn’t have been as familiar with text ads (and therefore not known there was a better, less annoying way to do online advertising).
• Let’s say these numbers are still valid…look at the percentage of people who are not “very positive” about the selected ad methods. In every single case you are more likely to get a negative response than a positive response…so why would you do it?

I talk about all of this to say that if you’re considering spending money on Internet advertising, particularly the forms mentioned in this study, there are better things you can do like blogging which won’t cost you anything but will take some time to develop…and therein lies the problem.

Many organizations and marketing departments actually have more money than time. Yes, they’ll say they don’t have any money but what they have even less of is time. They have deadlines, timelines, and deliverables that they’re trying to manage and all the while they can say (quite honestly) that they don’t have time to set up blogs for the very products or services they’re spending all this time on. The downside to blogs is that they aren’t usually quick impact promotion elements, which are what many marketing people need…after all, it’s in their timeline. So when they choose these methods, are they really saying that they prefer to annoy a segment of customers with minimal opportunities for return on their investments in order to fulfill their well prepared (though ill conceived) plans? Possibly.

The impact of blogs for promotion will rarely be immediate but you won’t be frustrating people either. In the long run you’ll connect to more people for longer through the blogs but you have to be in it for the long run.