Serving Up Suggestions To Your Audience By Tapping Your Audience with Social Proof

Kenny Jahng —  2012/10/23 — Leave a comment

One of the biggest tools you can utilize in your communications when trying to get people to consume content, sign-up for your program or attend an event is SOCIAL PROOF.

So what is it and how does it look like when put into action on the web?

Well, social proof (of some nerdies call it “information social influence”) is taking a scenario where the end user is given some choices (buy something, attend something, sign-up for something, etc) and presenting some traction data, show the other people “like you” are doing X, Y or Z.  Basically. this helps people psychologically take the risk to move in the same direction as the others doing so.  Usually, this is more effective in circumstances where the choices might be a bit ambiguous or if there isn’t a clear demonstrated need to participate (it’s not mission critical).

Shopping is one environment that is a great example.  Here’s a great example of Crocs using it in a customer email blast:

 

social proof with social media - facebook twitter pinterest

 

Do you see how they are presenting the highlighted products based on the “MOST ______ed” across the three major social networks?

But it’s not limited to shopping obviously. when you provide social proof, it taps the assumption that the people around you are making good choices and removes some of the needed decision discernment.  Social proof increases confidence in the behavior being presented as a successful one.

 

Billions Served social proof example

There are many ways social proof can be offered.  Five different ways social proof is expressed are:

  1. Crowd-based social proof -- This is the Crocs example above.  Using the masses to signal suggested choices is highly effective.
  2. Celebrity or high influencer social proof — traditional endorsements leverage the high-profile individual’s brand equity by association to provide the proof to the audience
  3. End user social proof — This can be featuring user reviews.  Displaying Zagat or Yelp review counts and specific examples is an example of this.
  4. Expert or authority social proof — Using the testimonial of a sector expert or someone positioned with authority on the category or topic related to the behavior being proofed
  5. Personal friend networks social proof — you’ve seen Facebook ads feature specific friends within your own personal network that have already “liked” or purchased something.

Whether you are trying to increase the effectiveness of your donor development communications, registration for specific events or fundraisers, or even take up a new praxis or discipline, social proof can be a powerful tool to employ across your communications efforts.

What specific marketing communications project are you working on now that could benefit from integrating social proof?  Share your live examples and we can help brainstorm how to maximize the impact.

In Church Marketing, Social Media, Tactics and Tools , , ,
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10 Free Tools To Help You Create Your First Set of Infographics For Church Communications

Kenny Jahng —  2012/09/17 — 2 Comments

Visual communications is simply taking over.  We’re moving away from text to more images, more video and more photography to tell the story when we communicate on the web, mobile and offline.

What’s one tactic that you already know about, but probably really haven’t integrated into your communications streams for your organization?  I’m betting infographics is one of them.

Infographics are popular because they attract attention and people actually pause and take a look at them.  Check out this recent infographic as an example:
Churches-and-Social-Media

 

So how do you go about venturing into the infographics world?

Check out this quick hit list of 10 infographic resources (free!) for your first one:

  1. Free Vector Infographic Kit – 50 basic vector infographic elements from MediaLoot — free. You should download.

  2. easel.ly – Create infographics online – beta is free.  NICE service.

  3. Infogr.am - Create interactive charts and infographics.

  4. iCharts – Charts online.

  5. Gliffy – Flowchart, org chart, diagrams, charting software.

  6. Hohli – basic 3-d charts.

  7. Gephi – Open source data visualization

  8. Tableau Public - Free site – charts-friendly

  9. Prefuse – Information visualization software.

  10. Many Eyes – data-heavy visualizations

Have you created infographics for your ministry communications – external or internal?  Please drop a link to your infographics in the comment section below!

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It’s Time To Start Thinking About Christmas Again

Kenny Jahng —  2012/09/01 — 3 Comments

We’re about at the end of summer.  Soon enough we’ll have fall weather around and before you know it, Christmas will be here again.

Time to start thinking about Christmas and what your church will be doing this year.

Last year, at Liquid Church, we hosted our first ever Silent Night Virtual Choir which allowed all of our NJ campuses as well as our Church Online campus to participate.  Check out the final rendition from last year:

What is your church planning for Christmas 2012?  Would love to hear your plans or even brainstorm new ideas right here in the comments.

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Educational Scholarships for Christian Women

Kenny Jahng —  2012/08/31 — Leave a comment

Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer and beginning of the Back to School Rush. For young women pursuing educational degrees in seminary or other graduate programs, they’ll probably find that they might be in the minority on campus. What they might also find is that many organizations are out there to help support the process of education and leadership development. I recently ask Jennifer Lewis to share some options to pursue for christian women in particular.

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This Video Will Change Your Behavior For The Rest Of Your Life

Kenny Jahng —  2012/08/08 — 2 Comments

This is one of the silliest TED.com videos ever.

But it’s one of the most impactful ever because it is so dead-simple, yet it works.

Get ready to repeat these two magical words as you watch the video:

SHAKE

FOLD

I love the reasoning for shaking 12 times. Why 12? Because the number 12 —  is the biggest number with just one syllable. HA!

The best part?  It really really works!  It’s kind of amazing that you can get dry hands with just one sheet of paper towel.

It’s mind boggling that if we can get down to 1 towel per person over the course of a year = 571,230,000 lbs of paper saved.  Wow.

Will you try the SHAKE & FOLD yourself?  Please let me know by dropping a quick comment below.

 

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Evergreening Praxis: Doing The Wave

Kenny Jahng —  2012/08/04 — 1 Comment

It’s that time of year again — time to take a breather from the hub-bub and schedule in some renewal.  For me, summertime is both hectic and calming.  The daily grind seems to take on a relaxed nature to it, even though you’re cranking out your work.  With the kids out of school, routines are mixed up and there’s less pressure to keep on going, thus more family memories end up being made it seems.

If you’re someone like me that enjoys going full tilt with what you’ve been called to do vocationally, you also need to do what I call evergreening.

One way to do that has been to get out of my comfort zone and attend an event or conference where everyone in the seats don’t look exactly like replicas of *me* — get into conversations with people that live life differently.  See things differently.  React and think differently.  But love some of the core things just the same.  This summer, that’s Wave Conference and the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, so I’m hoping to get some rejuvination and inspiration through such an experience.

 

When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone? What do you do for evergreening?

In Ponderings
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Social Media Parenting

Kenny Jahng —  2012/08/03 — Leave a comment

If you’re a parent of a pre-teen or teen, you probably have already seen your kids rush to answer that text, IM or Tweet or Facebook message.  For many in the Google generation, checking Facebook for messages is more important than checking email.  In fact, Facebook has automatically issued everyone a @facebook.com email address in hopes to solidify its top of mind and centrality in online communications between friends and associates.

It’s more important that ever for parents to understand what’s at stake and what’s to gain by appreciating and even jumping into social media if you haven’t already.  You’re read about online safety before here.  But beyond safety, is there anything else to gain by embracing social media as a parent?

Recently, Peter Gowesky of TheSaltLick.tv interviewed me on the subject.  Take a looksie here and come back to chime in with your own thoughts.

Should Parents Engage in Social Media?

 

If you’re a parent, have you friended your kids on Facebook or Twitter?  Why have you personally engaged with your kids using social media?  Or why have you avoided embracing it to date?

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Spin the Traffic Generating Wheel for a Non-Profit Website

Kenny Jahng —  2012/07/31 — Leave a comment
Today’s guest blog post covers some of the large buckets of activity a webmaster or owner of any given non-profit website needs to consider.  If you’re interested in submitting a guest post, check out www.Godvertiser.com/guestblogger
If you are working for a non-profit organization you need something that will help bring new visitors to your front door on the web. The “traffic generating wheel” is one way to help get new traffic to your website.
So are you ready? Let’s spin the wheel for your non-profit site. . .
church-marketing-wheel

Goals

To have a goal for your website might be the most import step on the wheel: Why do you have this website — very specficially?
For a non-profit website it is even more important. You don’t have a website because you think your group is cute or funny or interesting. What is your real goal? What is the most important goal?
Maybe to get more members for your organization? Sign up for a newsletter? Sign up for an event?  Volunteer recruiting? Donor development? Define which is your top priority and the rest will start to fall into place.

Analytics

A lot of organizations forget about this step. But you shouldn’t start to do anything before you have your analytics on your website.
You need to know where your viewers are coming from. What are they reading on your pages?
If 80 percent of all the readers consistently visit a specific page on your site – you might have to make that a first priority on your site.
If your goal is signups for a newsletter – you will need to know which traffic source brought the people to your site – so you can start speeding up this process.  Are they all coming from Facebook? Or Google+? Or Twitter? Why spend 10 hours a week doing marketing on Facebook if all your sign ups comes from Twitter, right?
You will also need analytics to find your keywords for your pages. Which keywords did your viewers type in Google to find your site?
Which keywords are relevant for your site? Sit down and brainstorm this – and then go and check if the competition comes up for these keywords. If the competition is high you might have difficulties to get into top 10 for these particular keyword phrases.
So instead of “donation” you should maybe optimize for the keyword phrase “good donation” or “cat donation”. Normally its easier to get into top 10 for a keyword phrase than just one word keyword — called a long tail search.
Well you get my point – never work on a website that has no analytics.

Content

Some people start to write before the analysis is done – but that is not a great idea. You will need to write your content to match your keywords being targeted.
So before writing a page on your website – you should write down what the main keyword phrase for each page should be.
You might ask me – “Henrik – how can my content drive traffic to my site today?” Well it will not bring you traffic today or tomorrow – but if you write focused content that the search engines can tell represents the right keywords phrases, you will usually get traffic within 3 or 6 months.
You also need content for your article marketing and for input to the social networks.  So start writing strategically and you are on your way.

Design

Ready for design?
The design can actually be very important for your traffic generating too. It might not bring traffic to your site, but it will lower your bounce rate (we SEO guys love this — the rate at which visitors arrive and then “bounce” away to someone else’s site) and if your site is awesome they will return to your
site.
So don’t confuse the viewer. Make sure your navigation is clear and clean. If people have to wonder where to find your content – they will just leave and find another page.  User testing is a great way to ensure you are getting it right.
And if you don’t believe me check out the duration – the time – people spend on your site. I will guess that between 25 – 40 percent of the people will leave your site again before 10 seconds.
Design is important for both non-profit and profit organizations.

Social

Now here most non-profit organizations have the potential to really rock.
Typically the organizations that do social media well have a lot of members. So now you will have to really use this marketing channel. A typical Facebook user has around 190 friends – so if one of your members starts to write about a subject, 190 people read about it.
This is the modern day form of word of mouth method.
Last time I checked Facebook they had 845 million accounts. In the world there are around 7,000 million people – so 12 percent of all people in the world have a Facebook account. Impressive I will say.
Social media is the step on the wheel where non-profit organizations really can make a difference.  Compelling content about your audience, staff, etc can really help leverage the word of mouth power available.

Links

Just some few years ago backlinks counted for around 50 percent of the ranking algorithm. But the algorithm is constantly changing and the social media are also more important these days. So maybe the backlinks now only count for around 40 percent, or 30 percent, or 25 percent.
But even 25 percent is a lot.
So you will have to make a plan for getting backlinks. Let me just give you some ideas here. But start writing down a plan.  Here are some tactics to consider including in your plan:
  • Blogs – start a blog
  • Free linking – use Google Groups, Yahoo Answers, Squidoo page, Wikipedia (write a page about your organization with a link back), social bookmarking
  • Freebies and giveaways – make a contest, make something interactive on your page or a whitepaper.
  • List lovers – we are all list lovers so write a “Top 10 …” or a “How to ….”, Build a 99 list, a list with 10 myths for your category, do an interview with a specialist or a guru in your line of business/organization
  • Local links – get a link from your local chamber of commerce (if its really want), relevant city and state governmental site, local library website…
  • Signature in emails – If you have many volunteers make sure you have the link in all the mails.
But remember to start writing down an action plan.  Plan the work and work the plan.

Conclusion

The traffic generating wheel is a helpful framework for all organizations. The idea is that if you just start trying to get backlinks to your site – but your design/navigation is so bad – people will just leave your site quickly again. And if you haven’t got a goal for your site – why do you really need backlinks at all? – Get the point?
So good luck with the traffic generation wheel. Ready? Now it’s your turn to take a spin.
All the best to you
Henrick Sandberg headshotHenrik Sandberg runs the website www.Seocustomer.com where you can find more content about SEO, PPC, Social Media Traffic
and Link Buidling.
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4 iPhone Apps for Reading the Bible on The Go

Kenny Jahng —  2012/07/30 — 2 Comments

Today, we have a guest post about using the iPhone to access The Bible.  There are tons of great Bible apps out there.  I have a bunch in a folder on my iPhone.  Here’s 4 iPhone apps you might want to download and try out.  If you’re interested in submitting a guest blog post, check out the guidelines I’ve written up to help you get started.

Getting to know about religion or Bible is a top interest for many around the world and now, accessibility is not an issue for anyone anymore. For example, with Apple’s iPhone, looking up verses of the Bible is just a few touches away. Now, the Bible can be carried with ease and can be referred to anywhere and at anytime of the day. There are numerous applications which are available for the iPhone, but then a few stand out to be one of the most preferred apps amongst many:

YouVersion1. The Bible – The Bible app has been developed by LifeChurch.tv and is one of the simplest and popular apps available at the app store. One special feature in this phone is the ability to access hundreds of different versions of the Bible.  A wide array of passages can be selected for future reference and reading plans are easy to follow with this app. Many versions of the bible are present which include the NIV, ESV, NLT, NKJV, NASB and the CEV bible translations. A keyword search facility makes it easy for users to search a particular verse and go through with ease. This app also has few versions of the Bible in Spanish and the German Language.

BibleVerseofTheDay2. Bible Verse of the Day – This splendid app allows a user to take a break from the busy and demanding lifestyle to go through a verse from the Holy Bible. This app is a self-functioning one and does not need any updates or a live connection to the internet after being downloaded. Features of the app include reading random verses from the Bible and e-mailing them to friends on the list. This app costs under a dollar and is available at the ITunes App Store.

HolyBible3. Holy Bible – The Holly Bible app mainly features almost 23 Bible translations. The ability to read the original and the translated text keeping it side by side is truly commendable. Specific passages can be selected and bookmarked for further reference. This app is a free one in the App Store.

The church iphone app4. The Church – This app is known for its features and functionality which can help Christians around the world to start their own prayer journals, receive inspirational quotes, and memorize verses. This app also comes with a tithe calculator and has an offline Bible too.

Sapna is an online manager at Taaza.com, an portal / horizontal site. Significant verticals include Jobs, Classifieds, News, Education, Photos, Movies, Travel, Shopping and Finance.

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3 Ways Pinterest Can Drive Traffic to Your Non-Profit Organization’s Website

Kenny Jahng —  2012/07/28 — 1 Comment
Pinterest is an image sharing social media platform that helps companies connect with their target audience. Non profit organizations can use it to promote their campaign and collect money from donors. I’ve blogged about churches starting to use Pinterest before.  In this guest post, I have asked Hema Gupta to discuss some of the techniques for driving online traffic towards a non profit website. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, please review the guidelines
Pinterest used by non-profits
We have social media networks like Facebook and Twitter for business promotion, then why Pinterest? Facebook fan page and Twitter connections bring clients, yet Pinterest is creating a buzz among social media lovers and corporates alike. The image sharing, intuitive and bright UI of this latest social media network gives it an edge over its contenders.
While Pinterest is growing rapidly and people love this image sharing platform, business houses have not explored its full potential yet. It’s quite surprising that non-profit organizations are not using this platform for promotion and fund raising, and missing a huge opportunity to reach millions of donors.
If you are wondering how an image sharing (rather pinning!) website can help the serious cause of a non-profit organization, here is how:
Creating Brand Identity and Spreading the Issue- This site is used by millions of users all over the world. Therefore, when you post something, it captures global attention. If you run a NGO, pin relevant images, documentaries and reports. Pinterest users may click on the glossy and happy photographs more often than dark and gloomy ones, but when an image is soul touching, users are bound to notice it.
  • We all know a picture can spell a thousand words and break the boundaries of social-cultural differences. When you post an image of a nuclear disaster or a child refugee, it grabs immediate attention. It creates curiosity among viewers and they will probably visit your site to know more about your organization. However, it is important not to present your organization as needy. Tell the story behind each photograph and highlight the solution so that people can help you in your mission.
  • Showing What You Do- People love a brand that has a human face. When you show the logo and ask people to donate money, it may not appeal to them. Instead of displaying a corporate image, upload some pictures of your organization’s work. Show what the volunteers are doing on the field, how you are fighting against pollution/poverty or anything else. Make people believe in your work so they understand that their contributions won’t go intro wrong hands.
  • Fundraising Prospects- Pinterest can be used to drive the “social” traffic to your website for better income. If you want to sell goods for charity, create an e-shop page and collect money for your campaign.
You can also use this site as a monitoring tool and shape future strategies. Take a look at the items people are pining from your site, where they are sharing it and the discussions about those pins. Following this strategy, you can get an idea of your brand perception and plan the future campaign promotions accordingly.
Pinterest has really opened a new door of possibilities for all types of businesses. All you need to do is set your own path and make the voice of your non profit’s mission heard.
Hema Gupta is an accredited social media marketing expert at Webguru India. She often likes to write contents on several subjects regarding website design, search engine optimization and social media updates during her free time. For more information she suggests to visiting here.
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