IMC #6 Communicating without words

Kent Shaffer of Bombay Creative and Church Relevance
Communication Without Words

We live in a culture where actions speak louder than words. (ala St. Francis of Assisi)

"Let all the brothers preach with deeds."

Every touch point of your organization communicates a message. Physical property. (landscaping, building appearance)

People can hear in 15 seconds what it takes us 2 minutes to say.
So if you want to effectively communicate to an audience, our preaching
and teaching needs to always use multiple channels of communication. –
Lyle Schaller- Church Consultant

Since more than 50% of US households now have high-speed internet…
people are used to "clicking and going." Think about a browser on your
site… you used to have the first paragraph. Now you have .7 seconds.

3 ways to communicate your message without words.

1. The power of art. First, it communicates subject matter. Second, the WOW factor. (asthetics, impressing people.. even though this doesn’t make a lasting impression, it is an important impression) People see about 5,000 ad messages today. In order to make your message stick out, you have to use art.  First things people can recognize in a logo… shapes, then colors, the content. Never forget the power of color. In a culture, colors communicate a lot subconsciously. Shapes, like on the FedEx logo, can communicate your message without words. Type… the font… is magical. It not only communicates a word’s information, but it conveys a subliminal message. (Erik Spiekerman) Your design steers the eyes of your viewer. On a website, people use an "F" format for reading. Put your highest impact content at the top… below #1, their eyes will naturally not be drawn to that. With photo placement, putting it on the right vs. left makes a difference as well. Be careful with how many elements of "attracting the eye" you use as it can overwhelm. Warm colors (sidebar colors) tend to draw attention to "add to" something.
2. The power of environment: It effects how people interact about it. (ala the Tipping Point and Blink) Uses sight, hearing, touch, taste, small. (Atmospherics is the marketing term for this) This is why copying effective methods doesn’t work because the environment is more important than the method. (ala pulling something from culture for a church) Design your site and physical building to control the psychology of what you are trying to do. (Like a mall building a confusing building in order to get you to stay longer) If you want to put something on your website… make sure you consider it as part of the whole site and not just where it is convenient… where will that location on the site be optimized? Check out Clicktale.com for this. Things like flooring can direct people. On a website, you can use a web environment to dictate people’s response. (Interesting theory) Music in a physical location effects how long people stay/leave a physical place based on speed of music. Touch doesn’t effect websites, but it dramatically effects how people perceive your message in your church. Taste… Psalm 103 says that God’s Words are "sweeter than honey." Make an effort to use taste to communicate God’s message clearly. Smells… get your people at the church thinking about your message as they enter the building. Such as in the retail marketplace… Bloomingdale’s puts a coconut smell in the swimsuit area to put people in the mood to buy for the beach.
3. The Power of Behavior: If you learn people’s behaviors online, you can optimize your site to match users behavior. "Christian life itself should be our greatest work of art." (Francis Schaeffer) Your website/ministry must be friendly. (Surprising Insights from the Unchurched) Conducted a survey on "come back people" at a church… this is what they listed as reasons they came back. #1 is friendliness of a church. #2 is doctrine. #3 is the pastors and their preaching. You need influence to reach people. This is what really matters in a ministry! Your online ministry is about reaching actual, real life people. The best way to create influence with your online ministry is to create relationships. Build a human contact with your online users… the human factor. Do some personalization… allow and encourage people to build some "welcome ____." Social networking creates relationships around your organization. (Which is why forums and facebook and other stuff works well.) In an online world you can never force a users to do anything… but you can move them, motivate them, and become a change agent for good.

Art & Environment online go together. They are inseparable. The artwork becomes your environment. "If you build it, they will come…. maybe."

3 areas to focus on:

1. Create a WOW! (ala Seth Godin?)
2. Use branding. (Al Reis?)
3. Create a good user experience. (Make sure your navigation makes sense to users)

Think of your website as having limited real estate. Each thing you add takes away some of the attention of your users. Narrow, narrow, narrow the focus. Look at the big picture.

7 steps for a community site

1. Define your purpose. (Guard it with all you’ve got.)
2. Define the user experience you want. (Maybe limit options?)
3. Evaluate your system. (Is it working? Are your users using the community for your intended experience? But also allow for users to move things too.)
4. Tweak it. (Figure out how to get users to help your site reach the site’s purpose. Maybe create a new format to reach your purpose.)
5. Observe it.
6. Tweak it.
7. Observe it.

A community site can offer tremendous value, and it can also become pointless and dissolve if you don’t constantly evolve… re-casting the vision ala Nehemiah.

Protect the online community and its culture like a pastor protects his flock. Protect your people from wolves… corruption or unintented uses of your community.