I was listening to a recent episode of Marketing Over Coffee and they mentioned the results of a demographic study (Pathways to College Network is the reference, I think) of MySpace and Facebook. Here’s what they said citing the study…

“MySpace tends to be more minority than caucasion, more female than male, and tends to be people from more lower income households. With Facebook the opposite is true. It’s more caucasion than minority households, older, and wealthier.”

Pretty interesting. I haven’t heard either of the two social networks so distinctly segmented along these demographic lines. If this is true, it gives some perspective on which social network is more fitting for your next promotion depending on your target audience.

I spent some time on Google Trends today as I was thinking about web 2.0 tools for marketing compared to traditional marketing methods. You may recall I consider traditional promotion strategies the big fish of marketing (and I advocate going after the far more numerous small and medium size fish.) In my first test I compared direct mail, tv ads, billboards, and radio advertising.

One note about Google Trends before we proceed…this is just showing the relative quantity of Google searches on the given search terms. It may be easy to dismiss this but as Steve Rubel said in this post, “search engines show us what’s on everyone’s mind,” and it’s therefore interesting to note the trends of the collective thinking.

Here’s what the trends show over the last four years in these traditional marketing areas:

What you see here is that all but billboards are down from four years ago. Direct mail seemed to fall slowly and then hold fairly even in 2007. TV ads appear to have the most dramatic swings. Incidentally, notice the spike in TV ads early each year. Those are Super Bowl commercial searches for sure. Radio was down a little but steady for the last four years, though clearly below the other three areas.

After I looked at these four areas I included the term “web 2.0″ to see if that mere term competed with these traditional mediums. Here’s what I found:

Web 2.0 really didn’t take off until late 2005. By early 2006 you see that it eclipses the four traditional terms and then clears them significantly through 2006 and 2007.

Just for fun I tried one more trend comparison by throwing “blogs” into the mix. I dropped radio ads from the comparison since it was at the bottom of the pile and here’s what I found:

With “blogs” included it makes everything else just look silly. I was actually surprised it was such a huge difference. More surprising to me was that it was higher even back in 2004. We know that there were less than six million blogs at most in 2004 so it’s a bit curious to me, but quite interesting.

So what can we derive from all of this? At the very least we know there are far more searches for “web 2.0″ and “blogs” than than any of the traditional marketing methods. Even if all those searches weren’t marketing related (and we know that’s the case), the phrase web 2.0 is a business, marketing, and technology term. We can discern that the collective marketing and business interests are greatly interested in web 2.0 from these trends and if that’s where they are, it’s reasonable to look more seriously at them if you still have doubts.

One final one for kicks if you’re interested. Who do you think wins in a match up of MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Google, and blogs? See it here.

For over a year now I’ve been a vocal advocate for all forms of new media. One of those areas I’ve advocated and written about on numerous occasions are social networking websites and MySpace in particular. The benefits of social networking sites are numerous. You can connect with people you wouldn’t otherwise know and cultivate opportunities for ministry with those relationships. The downside, however, is that MySpace appears to be increasingly filled with provocative ads that, quite frankly, I don’t need to see.

When I set up my MySpace account over a year ago I remember thinking that some of the ads were on the edge but didn’t seem much beyond what you would find on television at any given time. Since then, however, MySpace ads have gotten worse. Some of the new ads are videos of women essentially calling out to you to click on their ad to visit the site they’re promoting…which is usually a singles site.

Last week I recommended one of our clients change course from creating a MySpace ad for the first time. The client had been prepared to build a MySpace page based on a my recommendation several months ago but given my new concerns for the site I suggested they use some alternative social networking websites. They agreed and may actually go a step further by taking down existing MySpace pages they have.

I’ve said in the past that MySpace is a good ministry opportunity and I still believe there is a lot of ministry potential. Where there are people who don’t know Christ, there are opportunities for ministry. Unfortunately, the purity hurdles that a Christian man will have to cross to begin to engage that community within MySpace are higher than I’m prepared to go. I don’t know how to reconcile the spiritual needs within MySpace and my personal desire for purity so for now my solution to this problem is to leave MySpace.

A few years ago I switched from Hotmail in favor of Gmail for similar reasons and I’ve never looked back. If MySpace didn’t target men with sexually provocative ads and could curb the regular solicitations from women who want me to check out their webcams I might come back to it but for now (and maybe forever) I’m leaving MySpace. I’m not going to shut down my account, but I’m not going to be active within it either. I’m moving my social networking completely over to Facebook and LinkedIn. You can find me there. If MySpace makes significant changes I may be back, but in the mean time it will have to be your space. It’s not my space anymore.

Several months ago I was asked to put together a resource for LifeWay Christian Stores that would explain web 2.0 to pastors (and other church staff people). The booklet was used as a promotional giveaway at the recent Southern Baptist Convention in San Antonio. Today I learned that the resource is now available as a download. You can get it here. If you want a physical copy of the giveaway booklet I’d be happy to send one to you while my small supply lasts (if you’ll cover the postage). Feel free to email me for that request.

Be sure to drop by the LifeWay Envelope Services new blog, Do More Ministry. They sponsored the development of the booklet and are providing the free download.

Here are the booklet chapter titles…

Web Two Point What? A Pastor’s Guide to New Media
1. Are You Ready for Web 2.0?
2. Stats: The Growth of Web 2.0
3. What is Web 2.0?
- The Technology Shift - 6 Categories of Web 2.0
- The Content Distribution Shift
- The Culture Shift
4. Seven Strategies to Effective Blogging
5. How to Respond to Attack Blogs
6. Should I Use MySpace?
7. How to Create a MySpace Page
8. Drinking From the Fire Hose

I’ve been working on something with a friend for the last couple months called MySliceofPi.com. MySlice is going to be an interesting experiment in online property. Think of it as a little online billboard an owner maintains with a message and link of their choosing. We expect some people will see a monetary and/or promotional value in this to promote a product, blog, website, service, organization, etc. Others may use it as a messaging system to make a simple public statement…maybe something that makes sense to everyone or perhaps something that is really only for their friends to understand. We’ve come up with a bunch of ideas (“Pideas” actually) for ways people may use this.

We’ve already had some questions about why a digit is purchased rather than given away. The answer is twofold. First, we’d like to make some money off this. I’m personally planning to give 100% of my share to my church for at least the first 2000 digits that sell. The second reason is that if this thing takes off then the people who got in early will have something of a higher value than the people who got in later and the money is a barrier to people erroneously claiming a bunch of digits and turning this into a massive spam page. We have, however, made some digits free for the taking. All the zeros are free so check the site regularly to see when the next zero is available.

We know people have lots of ways to communicate online. We’ve got MySpace profiles, blogs, instant messages, YouTube, Facebook, email, photo sharing, etc. Sure, you don’t need another way, but we think there will be some people who’ll gravitate to the unique nature of this and get on board. If you’re one of those we encourage you to grab your slice of Pi.

I recently pulled stats for some work we’re doing at White Post that cover the growth in blogs, online video, and MySpace. These are all really interesting and I’m going to let the numbers speak for themselves…for now anyway.

Worldwide Blog Growth (source: Technorati)
January 2004 – less than 2 million blogs
July 2004 – 3.5 million
January 2005 – 6 million
July 2005 – 12 million
January 2006 – 24 million
July 2006 – 50 million
October 2006 – 57 million

Worldwide Online Video Growth (source: ComScore via Reel Pop)
October 2005 – less than 25 million online video views per day
January 2006 – 125 million online video views per day
July 2006 – 700 million online video views per day

United States Online Video Viewers (sources: eMarketer; US Census Bureau via Business 2.0)
2003 – 52 million (32% of U.S. Internet users; 19% of population)
2004 – 69 million (41% of U.S. Internet users; 25% of population)
2005 – 89 million (51% of U.S. Internet users; 32% of population)
2006 – 107 million (60% of U.S. Internet users; 38% of population)
2007 projection – 123 million (67% of U.S. Internet users; 43% of population)
2008 projection – 137 million (73% of U.S. Internet users; 47% of population)

MySpace.com registered users (sources: MySpace, Blog Herald, Business Week via Joe Suh)
May 2004 – 2 million
April 2005 – 12 million
October 2005 – 33 million
January 2006 – 48 million
July 2006 – 90 million
November 2006 – 131 million
February 2007 – 160 million

In the coming weeks Greg Atkinson (from ChurchVideoIdeas.com) and I are going to do a joint blog post about some new online video editing tools that are available. Since Greg’s got the video editing expertise he was kind enough to do this with me. He’ll be providing a review of the tools and I’ll sit back and enjoy the ride provide application of the tools for churches and ministries.

In the mean time here are a few thoughts regarding online video:

Embed! - One of the biggest advantages to online video today is that it can be embedded into people’s blogs, websites, MySpace pages, etc. courtesy of those nifty embed links. If you’re going to put video online don’t limit people to only viewing it on your own site. Let them grab it and post it themselves. You’ll extend your reach exponentially. If you’re determined to get people to your site through these videos then put the address on the beginning or end of the video.

Wear it out. - All the old barriers to using online video are down. You can host the video for free, get free bandwidth, get free online video editing tools, and get cheap digital cameras. All you need to do is make the time to do it. If you’ve been doing video for the church or ministry for a while and you’re not putting it online then shame on you. You’re missing a great opportunity. If you haven’t been capturing video of your church or ministry, just start doing it. Get in the habit and then begin working to sharpen your skills to make remarkable videos.

Let go. - I recently heard someone say they could post embedded video to their site but if they found someone had misused it they could somehow take it down or pull the video back from the misuse. This is 100% false. If you put a video online in any form there are tools that can allow someone to capture it. Once that video has been captured someone can use it for whatever they want to. If you have deep concerns about online video misuse you probably don’t need to even dip your toes in these waters. My suggestion is to put video online and let it go…set it free. Let people grab those embed links and post them to their blogs or MySpace pages. Don’t let the slight chance that the video could be misused to prevent you from doing it.

In December I was told about a social networking site I was unfamiliar with called Hi5. Hi5, it turns out, isn’t familiar to most people in the United States because we’re using sites like MySpace and Facebook. What I discovered however is that Hi5 is huge outside the U.S. The pastor who introduced me to Hi5 learned about it from some missionaries in El Salvador. Over the weekend TechCruch posted that Hi5 may be second only to MySpace in social networking usage.

The application here for American churches or ministries is that if you’re working with a church plant or mission outside the U.S. and want to create a social networking profile to connect with that people in that country then MySpace will likely not be the best place for you to go. If anything, this reinforces the fact that the opportunities for global ministry networking via the web are plentiful. It also reminds me that just because something can be a useful tool in the U.S. doesn’t mean it’s the best solution in the rest of the world.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released the findings of a recent study of American teenagers and their use of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. The study found that More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites. The numbers are significantly higher for older (ages 15-17) as 70% have created profiles on a social networking site. Here are some other interesting points from the study:

• 66% of teens who have created a profile say that their profile is not visible to all internet users. They limit access to their profiles.
• 48% of teens visit social networking websites daily or more often; 26% visit once a day, 22% visit several times a day.
• Older girls ages 15-17 are more likely to have used social networking sites and created online profiles; 70% of older girls have used an online social network compared with 54% of older boys, and 70% of older girls have created an online profile, while only 57% of older boys have done so.
• 91% of all social networking teens say they use the sites to stay in touch with friends they see frequently, while 82% use the sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person.
• 72% of all social networking teens use the sites to make plans with friends; 49% use the sites to make new friends.
• Older boys who use social networking sites (ages 15-17) are more likely than girls of the same age to say that they use social networking sites to make new friends (60% vs. 46%).

I discovered a new website today via TechCrunch. It’s called LoopNote and looks very interesting…particularly for churches.

LoopNote is essentially a group notification system that allows anyone to create a “loop” to which people can join (and thus are in that particular loop). The “loop” can be about anything. It could be for a band that wants to notify people about upcoming shows or a community sports team that wants to give updates on games or rain outs.

What will make LoopNote work is that it allows you to choose your method of notification. If you want email notifications, you’ll get an email. If you would prefer a text message on your cell phone, you’ll get it that way. If you use instant messaging a lot, you can get it that way. Or maybe you just want to get it through an RSS feed…and that’s available too. With so many options to get the message it seems like a handy way to reach more people effectively.

Though this technology is nothing new to people familiar with similar features on social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, the unique thing that LoopNote presents is this technology without the need to be a part of one of those networks.

Churches in the Loop?
Here’s where I think churches could find a benefit with LoopNote…churches are:
A) organizations that require regular communication to people about a variety of topics
B) notorious for not communicating well
That being said LoopNote seems like it would have a variety of uses in most churches. Here are a few examples:

• Small Group notifier - whatever type of small group/Sunday school method your church may take, this could be a great way to communicate with the people in the groups
• Worship Service announcements - recap Sunday’s announcements on Monday with a loop reminder
• Weekly message announcement - at the end of each week the church could send a message to the loop with the coming Sunday’s message title and a brief statement about what you could hope to learn or some questions for consideration leading up to Sunday.
• Playdates - I know my church has groups of moms who designate different days to get their kids together to play. With the text message feature, this loop would get the word out about last minute changes more effectively.
• Staff communications - in larger churches things change really fast and staff are not all in the same offices together. The staff could set up a private loop to be notified of everything from urgent needs to staff meeting changes.

On a side note, I don’t know that the creators of LoopNote intend for the system to be a content distribution mechanism, but it certainly could be. For instance a church could use LoopNote to send out daily or weekly devotionals.

LoopNote looks like it’s got some significant promise. It’s early on (they just launched for the public) and the adoption level will make or break it, but the idea seems solid and looks like it could really meet a need.