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?

If you spend even minimal time on social media or social networking sites you’ve undoubtedly seen scores of self portraits like the one of me here. Spend about 16.3 seconds on MySpace and you’ll find plenty of these.

My wife and I were recently eating dinner at Panera Bread and saw a girl sitting in a booth by herself snapping pictures of herself just like this. Panera has Wi-Fi so it’s a natural spot for web saavy people to eat, hang out, and apparently snap pictures of themselves. Just today I was driving through Brentwood and saw some teenagers hanging out the side of a car taking pictures of themselves like this too.

I’ve come to a conclusion about these images: they are a picture of an entire generation. Think about it…if you’ve never taken a picture like this (particularly for the purpose of putting it online) you’re missing an entire movement in the way people are relating to each other. There’s certainly nothing special about the pictures themselves, but if you’ve got a picture like this it’s a symbol that you’re “in” on the new wave of relational networking. It’s like this self-shot-picture phenomenon is a mark of a generation like poodle skirts and leg warmers.

The point here is simply this…there’s a lot of talk about the adoption of technology, but there seems to be less talk about the culture woven throughout the technology. These images merely represent a slice of the culture. To understand the technology thoroughly we have to look to the culture in which it’s being adopted. For now, maybe a picture is not worth a thousand words but instead a thousand pictures are a glimpse of an entire generation.

In my daily work I have a chance to interact with a lot of graphic designers. Our company has three designers on staff…two for print design and one for web design. Add to that a full arsenal of freelance print, web, and video design specialists along with an occasional art director and I’ve got a world of creativity around me on a regular basis.

I don’t know if I’m simply more aware of good design (and bad design too) now more than ever or if it’s just becoming so pervasive (it’s probably both or these) but design for everything these days is HUGE! Look at how important design is to so many of the products we have. Every coffee company in the world has adopted the Starbucks style of coffee packaging. It was a design that’s come to symbolize high quality coffee and now even the old school coffee companies like Folgers are on board with this…they call it their gourmet coffee. Here’s another example…look at Apple computers, they’re a combination of both good form (visual design) and function (ease of use).

This trend toward high quality design is inherent in many things web 2.0. Yes, there are certainly some exceptions like MySpace, but for many sites it seems clear there is specific attention given toward and open, intuitive design. That design is often combined with a plain-talking, straight-forward tone. There are four things I’m seeing regularly in many of these sites:

• An attention to the use of white space - The attention to using white space is most noticeable at Google, but I’m seeing it all the time like at eBible and myChurch. One great thing about a lot of white space is that it leaves little room for doubt as to what is most important on your site…and that’s a good thing.
• Predominant graphics - Many of the good web 2.0 sites focus on showing a few predominant images rather than multiple (and often smaller) images. Compare Flickr to Kodak to get the idea. Again, the focus is on directing people down a very specific road rather than the “shock and awe” approach where you overwhelm them with information or options.
• Straight-forward information - The straight-forward information an approach that communicates “mean what you say, say what you mean” kind of attitude. It is also a non-corporate approach…which is also fitting for most web 2.0 organizations. I love the way FeedBurner uses this tone on their site.
• Simplicity - It’s all about ease of use and accessibility. If the person can quickly find what they’re looking for then the site is sufficiently simple.

The distinctions are becoming so stark that the very design of any organization’s website communicates a lot about it. Does your site say you’re accessible and personable or rigid and corporate? Does it communicate with clarity or confusion? Does it show that you’re clunky or nimble?

With the trend on an every growing importance on good design, it would be worth a little extra consideration toward your next project..particularly if that next project is a website. It will say more about you than you can anticipate…so will that be a good thing or a bad thing?

I saw on Voxacious today that the band, The Shins, just did a novel thing over the weekend for the creation of an upcoming music video. Basically the idea is that people who were at the show could film it and then upload the video according to some instructions posted on MySpace and the band was going to use the fan-generated film to create music videos for their upcoming album.

This is a great example of user-generated content in an offline kind of way. Kudos to the band or whoever thought this up. Not only will they get the raw footage for their own videos but this same film will soon find its way on YouTube, MySpace, and numerous other social media and social networking sites to spread it even further.