Kem Meyer on Less Clutter & Noise

Let’s be frank…

Love the original context here about online giving. This is fresh. It grows trust with unsterilized copy and refreshing honesty. I don’t feel like someone is talking AT me or wants anything FROM me. It engages me.

You’ll find this tone throughout the entire site… although I highlighted online giving because it’s the hardest thing to talk about effectively.

Well done, Knoxlife Church, well done.

I want to associate with organizations that have personality

Case in point... this simple form letter is so refreshingly original and unpredictable it makes me want to buy more. I'll recommend this company to people because of this email alone. How much money and time did it take to create a new fan? Slim to none.

There's not enough personality these days. Have some fun. Take some liberties. Loosen' up. Where are you missing these simple, small opportunities for big impact in your church?

Do you want to collide cultures to impact culture?

Yeah, but how? Glad you asked.

Many consider South by Southwest (SXSW)to be the best interactive media conference in the world. (To get an idea...just look at some of the speakers from last year.) Unfortunately, SXSW has had little if any content for churches in the past. You can change that.

We should be able to go to one place to not only learn from technology leaders but also share unique content about how to leverage the best technology for ministry. All in one place. Come on. Let's be smart about this and help leverage culture to save culture. All you have to do is vote.

EVERY VOTE COUNTS. (As a matter of fact... go ask your mom to vote, too.) Out of 2,200 submissions, only 300 make the cut.

FIRST STEP: Create a free profile for voting. You'll get an email confirmation and then...

SECOND STEP: Hit each link below and click the "thumbs up" icon to vote for each church panel below. Hit each link (all four of them) and look for the "thumbs up" icon at the top of each page to vote.

1. Creating Authentic Online Community: Tony Steward, Carlos Whittaker, John Saddington, & Cynthia Ware (moderator) 
2. Technology For Results Not Profits: Bobby Gruenewald, Brad Abare, Kent Shaffer, & Terry Storch (moderator)
3. LifeChurch.tv - Reaching 2 Million+ With Technology: Terry Storch, Tony Steward, Bobby Gruenewald, & Kent Shaffer (moderator)
4. Pushing Technological Change Without Alienating Your Co-Workers: Me & mystery experts

 

VOTING CLOSES SEPTEMBER 4. I know you have it in you (and so do your friends). Everybody you know is already voting for their favorite on American Idol every week. This is cooler than American Idol. It is. Don't argue with me. Spread the word and help us rock the vote!

Information Obesity

I got to share an excerpt from Less Clutter. Less Noise. over on the Catalyst blog today. Freaky to see my picture next to some of my heroes. Thanks for the opportunity, Catalyst!

Seven quotes from the Leadership Summit 2009

I LOVE learning environments. To make the most out of them for ME, I've adopted a controlled note-taking format. I can't chew on everything presented during a conference or workshop or book. Extensive note-taking is too heavy for me to carry and too much to implement. For this year's Leadership Summit: Seven quotes I'm going to chew-on. THIS, I can do.

1. Bill Hybels

"The pace at which I'm doing God's work is destroying God's work in me."
1 Chronicles 29:12

2. Tim Keller

"Are you doing stuff for others or is the stuff you're doing for them really for yourself? Don't go into the ministry to save your soul."
Romans 1:17

3. Jessica Jackley

"The secret to changing the world is a change of mindset."
Psalm 19:7-8

4. Harvey Carey

"Nothing is impossible to those who believe. When you reach outside your grasp--outside your capacity--you will see amazing results."
Matthew 17:20

5. Dave Gibbons

"When we love those who are hard to love, hard to get close to, completely unlike us--people will notice. It's completely abnormal. That's our calling. What's noticeable about being normal?"
John 13:34-35

6. David Gergen

"Leaders can be so activistic they don’t reflect, journal, write, discuss, etc. It’s easy to confuse motion with progress."
Mark 1:35

7. Chip & Dan Heath

"Am what I'm doing TBU (True But Useless)? That's worth asking."
Matthew 6:22-23

(Last year, my notes looked like this.)

Making love last...

Maybe we’re asking the wrong questions. Instead of wondering how to FIND or MAKE someone into the right person, what if we ask how to BECOME the right kind of person? Whether you're married or single or dating ... want to spend four weeks with us wading through the FICTION to find the TRUTH? I'm really looking forward to this.

Could you limit every email to 3 sentences?

Sentenc.es; a disciplined way to deal with email. Could you do it?

I got an email from Matt Knisely with this in his footer

"Q: Why is this email 3 sentences or less?

A: http://three.sentenc.es"

I'm going to try to adopt it as my personal policy. Let's see how it goes.

How do you "do" press releases?

"I know the fundamentals of a press release. But, I wonder about the practical philosophy behind it. Do you need press releases to get news coverage? Are there principles to follow that makes an editor treasure a press release instead of trash it?"

I invited Jami Ruth as a guest blogger to answer this question. Before she joined the communications team at Granger, she spent several years as an account executive and media relations rep at a local ad agency. She's been the driving force behind organizing our press strategy and strengthening our two-way relationship with our media outlets. Here's how Jami answered...

"No strategy is a bad strategy. So rather than ignore the media or worse yet, bombard them with self-centered tidbits, our strategy is to ask ourselves a few questions before we ever send out a news release.

1. Why? Every contact with the media is an opportunity to tell our (God’s) story. If we're doing something worth talking about...people will talk. It’s not publicity for publicity’s sake. Awareness is not the win. The win is interest that compels people to give God or church a chance. While media publicity can effectively help with that at times (it's like free advertising) we are never in control of the message. We can provide talking points but reporters don't accept "scripts." We're ok with that, though. It's authentic.
   
2. What? We want to be proactive with the media, but only send out news releases for events that are truly newsworthy and of interest to the general population. Events that qualify impact a practical community need; physical (feed the hungry), emotional (marriage or family series) or intellectual (job seeker workshop). The news isn't "here's what we're doing." The news is "here's how the community is going to be different and here's ways you can be a part of that." If we send out a large volume of releases, we're adding noise--not value. Noise gets ignored.
   
3. How? It's important to build a trustworthy consistent rapport with the local media. It's a two-way relationship. They trust us because we respect their time and guarantee a consistent, professional contact person who puts them in touch with the right spokesperson at the right time. We do that by centralizing media publicity and routing inquiries through the communications team. Not only are we able to time the volume and release dates to make sure they're appropriate and newsworthy, we're also able to work with the senior management team to select best spokesperson person for interviews, quotes, etc. (The communications team isn't the spokesperson. That's not our job.) To help equip anyone involved with interviews, we developed a spokesperson tip sheet.

Samples:

• Media spokesperson tips
• News release

Church Communications Strategy Coaching Network

There are times in my life when I need a good coach. I've talked about it before. The benefits of an ongoing professional alliance with one person (or a small team) creates unique benefits I can't get in other learning environments. Because of coaching networks in various seasons of my journey, I've been able to:

• gain clarity
• focus my efforts
• sharpen my awareness
• accelerate my personal progress
• increase my personal effectiveness
• improve the quality of my own life
• positively impact lives around me

Let me assure you--this isn't marketing copy with weightless bullets. Anyone who knew me before and after every coaching season saw tangible, extraordinary results. Not only am I thankful for those opportunities; I'm an advocate for others to find them.

Why? We just can't do it alone. Coaching networks are challenging, rewarding, provoking and empowering. It's a one of a kind experience. One person put it this way "You will dream bigger dreams, have insights, uncover and hopefully remove limitations." I would have to agree.

Recently, we've been having quite a few conversations around here about how can we facilitate more coaching offerings for the people who have reached out to us. Even with tight budgets and tight schedules, there is still a demand. I'm getting several messages every month with requests, and have been for the past couple of years.

So, I'm going to give this a try. It might be my turn. I'm launching a coaching network this fall for Church Communications Strategy.

Are you a:

• Pastor, creative professional or ministry decision-maker who influences and supports local church communications before, around and after the weekend message?
• Director who leads talented, uncoordinated teams of artists (words, images, technology, etc.) looking for ways to equip them through change—from chaos to coordination?
• Ministry professional facing the challenge of clearly communicating everything that’s happening in the life of your church across departments and campuses without shutting audiences down in the process?
• Leader in a season or crossroads who need customized, focused, up close and personal attention?
• Influencer who is highly committed to strategic, interactive, out-of-the-box opportunities to roll-up your sleeves and let down your guard with peers you can trust?

It might be your turn.

Are you an executive pastor? Well, then, YOU might need something different.

Pigs flew and I went on Christian TV...

Speaking of The Last TV Evangelist ... I went way, way, way outside my comfort zone a few months ago and was a guest on The Harvest Show. It was a whole new level of "putting myself out there" and I was nervous about it. But, I believe the local church is the hope of the world and it needs some help. The conservative Christian subculture is probably the most important audience that needs to break through the clutter to build trust instead of walls. Thanks, Kelly & Corey, for the opportunity to talk about it.