Spreading a Message
5 08 2006Guy Kawasaki writes of a summary of Seth Godin’s new book: Small is the New Big. His partial summary of the book:
For an idea to be spread, it needs to be sent and received.
No one sends an idea unless:
1. They understand it.
2. They want it to spread.
3. They believe that spreading it will enhance their power (reputation, income, friendships) or their peace of mind.
4. The effort to send the idea is less than the benefits.No one “gets” an idea unless:
1. The first impression demands further investigation.
2. They already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea.
3. They trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time.Notice that ideas never spread because they are important to the originator.
Notice, too, that a key element in the spreading of the idea is the capsule that contains it. If it’s easy to swallow, tempting, and complete, it’s far more likely to get a good start.
Wow, that says a lot about how we use the gospel to reach people, expecially teens. How many people don’t really send the gospel message out just because they don’t really understand it? Or because they don’t want to spread it? Or don’t think spreading it will give them peace of mind or even power (not so sure about the power idea)?
Then there’s actually receiving a message. Demands further investigation? Most evangelism training I have received focuses on closing the deal, not opening the conversation for the future. Understands the fundamental ideas? This was really proved in London when we tried to share our faith with people from South Asia. They didn’t even know what were asking. Trust is the one area that I beleive is more important in our society today. Few people actually trust the people surounding them, so it takes time to build trust in people.
It seems like the best ideas that help me in the ministry these days come from guys like Seth and Guy. Does that mean anything about the state of the church and its leaders?
It might mean something interesting about modern marketing theory. I think it’s coming closer to the way religions work. What you’re describing is the way their coming closer to a shared wisdom about creating long-term relationships. These books (and the slightly ealier Permission-Based Marketing) are all about creating trust through two-way conversations with individuals.
Marketing people have talked about ‘evangelising’ for years. Maybe their style is simply coming more to resemble the style of those people who’ve been doing it 2000 years.
That sounds slightly whimsical, but I do intend it seriously.
Ian,thanks for posting. I looked your site and think I’ll be visiting often.
As one of the world’s largest messages through history, Christianity has had some great moments in getting a message out. Lately (the past 100 year sor so), though, I think the secular world has been a lot more effective in getting a message out than the church. I see people who are really doing well, but the majority needs to take a hard look at itself.
47% of all churches in the states didn’t have a single convert last year. If McDonalds didn’t sell a single hamburger last year, they would close. That is a red flag to me. So this is me trying to work it out and help others look at how they send messages all the time.
Thanks for that.
I personally think that the climate change in marketing has come about because people have become more and more immune to traditional marketing and advertising ploys. It’s no longer good enough to have a footballer saying this is the sharpest razor in the world. People simply don’t believe it. On the other hand, they will believe a guy down the street who says it’s an OK razor. Hence the stress on viral campaigns and permission marketing.
People crave unmediated, honest communications, not a sales pitch or a call centre flowchart. I expect that applies as much to your business as any big corporation’s.
YES, that’s what I am talking about. It reminds me of a Creating Passionate Users post a while back. Old ads used someone cool to show a product to show how you could be cool too. New ads show an average user using the product and kicking butt.
Much like the Mocrsoft Ipod video. People prefer honest straight ahead messages over well polished manipulative marketing.
Spotted this and thought you might be interested:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/08/digging_deeperchurch_20_does_a.html
Buona fortuna con il vostro luogo. E abbastanza nice=)
Internet Marketing and Advertising…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…