Articles

During graduate school, my research mentors hated Martin Fishbein because they could not supplant his research with voodoo statistics and esoteric articles that challenged his propositions. Fishbein masterfully combined communications theory with sociology to make a simple, eloquent and yet powerful communications model. Fishbein (and his co-researcher Icek Ajzen) developed the Theory of Planned Behavior, which stated that if people hold beliefs that a certain behavior would lead to a desired outcome, then they would act on those beliefs through intentional behavior. To make this easy, if someone believes they will make a pile of money on the stock market, then we can predict they will make an investment.

I want to follow up on the second Little W: “What do you want them to do?” I have heard some people answer this question with: “Duh, become a Christian.” Actually, we need to do more than “get them saved”— as important as that is. This article will tackle the context of “what you want them to do” as it relates to “high-level decision-making.”

Social media ROI is what you get back from all the time, effort, and resources you commit to social media for making disciples of Jesus Christ. Second thing that is good to mention before we try to find an answer to this ROI-question; a lot of people reading this article are part of a ministry and not into business. That means that the return you are looking for is most of the times not money, but disciples making disciples (Matthew 28). Still it is good to think about this question because it can help to understand if it was worth the money and effort you have invested so far!

Ready for a dirty little media secret? Media content does not really matter. OK—it matters some. But what really matters is having a follow-up strategy in place before undertaking a media strategy.

When people talk to me about their media strategy, I often think about the “Three Little Ws” and then ask them questions related to the concepts embedded in the Ws.

Paul had a clear mandate from Jesus that was validated by a vision and a miracle: to bring the gospel to the Gentiles (as recorded in Acts 9). OK, a few kings and sons of Israel were in the mix, but Paul writes in Galatians that he was the apostle to the Gentiles. He was passionately convinced that his mission was primarily to the Gentiles. So, if his ministry was to the Gentiles, then logically Paul would focus his efforts to get “the biggest bang for his buck” and communicate to as many Gentiles as possible.

“You don’t tell people what to think, but what to think about.” Content is important, but only to the degree that you get people to engage in post-media conversations.

We are now in the third era of communications that some call the social media era. This new era is by and large unrestricted communication and can open previously closed doors to the unreached. As media purveyors, we need to be cognizant of the new foundations and practices this opportunity avails us.