Does Your Association’s Communication Target the Right People?
A perspective for local denominational organizations/judicatories on how they best empower their churches to serve from the base of their local context.
Synopsis: People are often inundated with information in the digital world, making it easy for important information to be overlooked. But how can associations distribute a newsletter that is both attention-grabbing and informational?
Rundown: Articles on Baptist associations are often applicable to the local denominational organizations/judicatories of various denominations. They may be called associations, districts, classis, synods, and by other names. They are typically organisms more than organizations. Relational more than functional. Regional and national expressions of denominations are more organizational and functional.
GBJ Blog Post 114 includes—a Column, personal Reflections from George, and questions for your Reaction.
(This column appears this week in the digital and print edition of The Baptist Paper. Access the column in the digital edition HERE. The Baptist Paper is a publication of TAB Media. Request a free trial HERE. See all TAB Media columns written by George Bullard HERE.) (Subscribe to this Substack Blog using the “Subscribe now” button below.)
Does Your Association’s Communication Target the Right People?
A layperson catches up with her email one evening. She thinks through each email, deciding to either read it, save it or delete it.
She comes across the monthly newsletter from her association, hesitates and then deletes it.
“There is never anything of interest to me in that newsletter,” she mumbles. “I ought to unsubscribe.”
With the bombardment of information in our digital society, how do our messages break through in ways relevant to recipients? How do they provide high value to them and not just tell them what we believe they ought to know?
(Continue reading HERE.)
Reflections from George:
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”. — George Bernard Shaw
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” — original source disputed
These two quotes have haunted my communication efforts throughout my life. They speak to or imply the issue that true communication is received, understood, and appropriately acted on.
Too many supposed communicators want to tell people something. They are not as interested in people receiving something that fits their life and context, and adds value to their situation.
Too few congregational leaders see information and knowledge sent to them by their association or other denominational organization/judicatory as a top priority. When this is the case, then the communication must be sharp, clear, relevant, and beneficial. Most especially the needs of the recipient must be clearly in the mind of the communicator.
Reactions:
You are invited to share some reactions (comments) to this article and my reflections. Here are three questions to guide your reaction:
Are you communicating the right information to the right people through the right medium?
What is the evidence or proof for this?
What feedback loops do you use to verify this? Or do you not care? You just wanted to tell your audience something you thought they ought to hear.
Relevant questions I will add to. Who is your target audience and do you know the way they BEST communicate? Have you as a church leader studied HOW they communicate? Are you aware of the number of seconds that it takes them to delete a message and within those seconds deploy the tools that will grab their attention? Al super important questions. We can never assume that our target audience is like us. We need to study THEIR habits in order to properly reach them.