Fork In The Road Music » Communication

5 Statements That Should Change The Way We Do Communications

Russell Martin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:02:24 +0000

I recently decided to create a separate blog called Simple Church Communications. It comes out of my own learning about church communications, and the needs we have to look for new effective ways to tell our stories. Most recently I wrote about What the “Social Media Revolution” Means for the Methodist Church. Here is the first part of what was said:

The updated “Social Media Revolution” video by Erik Qualman is a fast paced, fact filled, and eye opening. Beginning with the question “Is Social Media a Fad?” it goes on to show, through a variety of statements about current social media use, how social media is here to stay.

Although the video was more intended for businesses, it got me to ask the following question.
What does the “Social Media Revolution” mean for the church? How does it, or should it impact how we do advertisement, outreach, publications, even worship services?
In the video he mentions 42 different statements. I want to look at 5 specific facts, or statements, and see how they can have a huge impact on how we do things.

The five statements that I picked were…

96% of adults under 30 are on a social network

Fastest growing facebook demographic is females 55-65

The second largest search engine is Youtube

78% of people trust friends recommendations, 14% trust advertising

We will no longer search for products and services, they will find us via social media

I believe these 5 statements, when applied to a church setting can have a profound impact on where we spend our time, energy and money in our communication efforts. To read the reasons why, and to check other articles visit simplechurchcommunication.com

Splitting My Blog In Two- Simple Church Communication

Russell Martin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:34:17 +0000

You write about what you know. When I started Forkintheroadmusic I was basically just leading worship both in churches and out at camps, and retreats. Since that time I have become increasingly interested in how we as a church communicate. Because of that interest I have taken on some communication responsibilities in our church, and for our district. I have also been asked to lead a few workshops dealing with communication in the church.

For a while I tried to combine both of these topics into this blog. As I have continued to write though I have thought about the fact that even though I have interest in both of these areas, my readers probably do not. Readers of the Fork In The Road blog, which talks about worship leading, youth worship teams and my personal music ministry, do not necessarily want to learn about how to create a website, or the differences between a facebook page, or facebook group.

That is the reason I have started simplechurchcommunication.com. The purpose of the site is to provide a place to ask questions, give answers, and share resources about communication.

Stuck in the Blog?- Write a Weeks Worth of Headlines

Russell Martin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:53:28 +0000

For a while I have struggled to write consistently. I would have great ideas in my head but could not translate, and transform them into articles when I had time. And when I think about it, the time was there, just not the drive to make use of it.

Then I was reading Michael Hyatt’s post called “Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? and I got to #7. -You Don’t Create Catchy Headlines. In it he refers to Brian Clark’s Copy Blogger article, How To Write Magnetic Headlines where he says, “on average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest.” Michael surmises that “This means your headlines are the most important thing you write.”

So that’s what I did. All of those headlines, and topics I have had floating around I wrote out and created drafts for each. Then I created a simple post. “10 Posts I Want to Write in the Next 10 Days”. Since then, each day I sit down and choose one to write on. I can choose any one I want, but I have to choose one. Creating the headlines first has helped me to draw more focus and direction to what I am writing. Choosing one a day, and letting you, the reader, know whats coming has helped me to focus more on writing consistently. Which helps to correct Mistake #1- You Don’t Post Enough.

Now to keep from making Mistake #3, I will stop for now.

So what do you do when you get stuck writing?

How do you help break the mental writer’s block?

10 Posts I Want to Write in the Next 10 Days

Russell Martin — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 06:09:41 +0000

Here are 10 posts I would like to write about in the next 10 days.

1. So Your Leading Worship for Church Camp- Packing List, What to bring.

2. Leading a Youth Worship Team – Kids Mentoring Kids

3. 5 Ways to have a Bad Week of Church Camp

4. What I Learned from My Dog – Always be Ready

5. So Your Leading Worship for Church Camp – A Day in the LIfe

6. Instrumental Reflection #25

7. 5 Ways to Have a Great Week of Camp

8. Instrumental Reflection #26

9. Worship Recap 5.2.10

10. A New Project- The Piano CD

As you read this list, what post are you looking forward to?

What else should be on the list?

Are Flash Websites Disappearing?

Russell Martin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:09:52 +0000

Do you agree with the following statement? ”Flash is not dead, but Flash websites are.”

I found an article entitled Is Flash Dead? by Nick Asolas in which he gives a few reasons why completely flash websites are disappearing.

Out of all his reasons, User experience jumps out at me.. check this out

“As the internet matures, we are realizing what the important things are. Basically, user experience dominates. You create a website to sell something or to move people and if the average user has a hard time finding and using your site, then you lose big points. I can’t explain it, but Flash websites are typically all over the place and the navigation options can be clumsy or cheesy but never in between.”

So, do you use an all Flash website for your church or ministry? Why or why not?

Creating Powerful Passwords

Russell Martin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:33:58 +0000

PC World just posted a great article on how to, or not to create your passwords. The full article “Hacking Passwords” by David Coursey is definately worth reading. I wanted to share with you just a small section of their tips.

Imperva provides a list of password best practices, created by NASA to help its users protect their rocket science, they include:

It should contain at least eight characters
It should contain a mix of four different types of characters – upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special characters such as !@#$%^&*,;” If there is only one letter or special character, it should not be either the first or last character in the password.
It should not be a name, a slang word, or any word in the dictionary. It should not include any part of your name or your e-mail address.

Following that advice, of course, means you’ll create a password that will be impossible, unless you try a trick credited to security guru Bruce Schneir: Turn a sentence into a password.

For example, “Now I lay me down to sleep” might become nilmDOWN2s, a 10-character password that won’t be found in any dictionary

Oh and one more tip.. writing down your passwords and taping them to your computer screen… not the best idea…

Lessons from Camp- Part 2

Thank You for Saying Thank You

Russell Martin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:27:30 +0000

To those who have said thanks:

Thank you. The other day you took the time to send an email saying how much you enjoyed the service. You stopped me in the parking lot and said how good everything sounded. You sent a message on facebook saying how the service moved you. However it was, you said thanks. Your words of appreciation do mean a lot. Just by taking time to say 2 words you give encouragement and strength that last a long time.

So again.. thanks for taking the time to say “thanks.”

What I Am Reading-Freebies, Printing Press and Questions

Russell Martin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:48:16 +0000

Thought I would let you in on a few different blogs and articles I have been reading lately-

1. The Internet is Not Your Delivery Boy- From Church Marketing Sucks I learned that the internet is not just the 20th century printing press, but should be so much more. It’s not about informing but connecting…

2. Freebie Friday- Tim Schmoyer from Life In Student Ministry shares different freebies each week. Last weeks was #152: Dallas Theological Seminary Courses on Itunes-

3. Finally David Risley in a guest post from ProBlogger asks the question, “Are You Talking At or To Your Readers” in a recent post. I wonder how many of the questions, and lessons learned, in this post could be applied to churches too?

Help Me Save a Life

Russell Martin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:27:39 +0000

For the past two years I have been supporting the “Nothing But Nets” campaign. The campaign raises money to provide mosquito nets that protect from Malaria with the goal of wiping out the disease on the continent of Africa.

Between now and Christmas I want to raise enough money to buy 1000 nets. At $10 each that makes a total of $10,000

Wow, you might say that’s a lot of money but think of it this way.

Between now and Christmas is around 45 days. That means if you saved 22 cents per day between now and then you would have $10 for a net.

I figure that I have about 2000 people I am connected to between facebook personal page, fan page and twitter. If only half participated we would reach the goal.

How you can help:

1. Donate: I have created a netraiser team called Fork In the Road. You can help support me by making a secure online donation. Click here to donate.

2. Forward, Retweet, Repost: Send this on to your friends in your social networks. Get them to help.. who knows we could pass 1000 nets easily.

3. Start Your Own Team: Why not start your own effort with your church, youth group, or among your social media friends. It doesn’t matter who raises the money, just that they get raised.
For more information on how YOU can participate in Nothing But Nets, please visit www.NothingButNets.net

Thanks for your support!

What I’m Reading-Revolution, Connection and Forgiveness.

Russell Martin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:50:04 +0000

Revolution, Connection and Forgiveness. This is what I learned from reading blogs over the past few days.

First Kem Meyer posted a video called Social Media Revolution. If you thought social media was a here today, gone tomorrow venture then think again. I have seen this video before but it is definately worth reviewing.

Second, you can tell from my change in layout that I hit a wall with my blog and needed a change. Darren Rowse talks about the Getting Over the 6th Month Blogger Itch. Its a bit of encouragement for those of you needing a little push to keep going.

Finally, a new blog I have begun reading recently is Withoutwax.tv by Pete Wilson. In this one he talks about being Fast to Forgive. When we hold on to grudges and hurts usually we are only hurting ourselves. This is a great reminder to just let go and forgive.