Part of what I do here is to help churches and other religious organizations get a handle on digital communications and their presence in this arena.  Many times I talk to people and they respond with “we need a website” or “we need to be on social media”.  However, without a plan or strategy they don’t have a clear roadmap on what to do or how to get started.  I will talk about planning and design, identifying your audience, goals, etc., with mixed results.  So I went to this conference workshop called ‘Is it Time to Redesign Your Website?’ which was presented by Farra Trompeter of Big Duck and Kira Marchense of Environmental Defense Fund.  I was hoping I could get some new tips on how to help get the message out about web design.

I got more than I bargained for.  It was the best!  The greatest takeaway for this was the incredibly cool flow chart on how to do a web redesign.  If you are thinking about doing a website, either brand new or a redesign, check out the flow chart before you start.  It will save you hours of time, money and frustration.  Trust me on this.

Yesterday’s “Brother, Give Us a Word” offered this definition of “mission,” a sometimes ephemeral concept for me:

“Mission is primarily about making the presence of God incarnate, that is, visible and tangible, in a particular place and a particular time, where ever “the Body is lacking”and therefore most needed.”

I have just returned from the Episcopal Communicator’s Conference in Kanuga, NC.  This is an annual conference where many of the communications people from the Episcopal Church come together for workshops, plenary talks, renewal and fellowship.  It is a great opportunity to share ideas and recharge for the work we have to do in the coming year.  One of the themes that came out of this year’s conference is “Communication is Mission”.  I’d like to share an experience that happened for some of us after the conference that helped to bring that message home.

Yesterday we left the conference and headed to the airport in Asheville, NC.  Four of us, Norah, Bill, Melodie and myself were on the same flight to Atlanta.  While we were sitting in the waiting area at our gate, a young man came up to us and asked if we were on the flight to Atlanta.  After replying that we were, he asked if we could watch over his mother who was traveling to Atlanta and then to Frankfurt, Germany.  She was on her way home to Moldova and spoke only Moldovan and Russian.  Her son wanted to make sure she was able to get on the plane and make her connection in Atlanta.  We told him we would be happy to oblige.  He brought his mother over to us.  She looked just like the babushkas that you see in the films with the kerchief tied about her head, clutching her two carry on bags.

We smiled at her and then her son said his goodbyes to her.  It was a touching moment as tears welled up in her eyes when she kissed her son goodbye.  She sat back down and stared out the window waiting for the plane.  We would periodically glance over and smile just to let her know we were watching out for her.

Naturally, the plane was late.  Every time the gate agent came on the PA with an update, she would look at us for explanation.  We would try and use hand gestures to explain what was going on with no success.  Suddenly Bill had this great idea.  Why not use the iPad to communicate with her?  Brilliant idea!  I quickly connected the the WiFi in the airport and went to translate.google.com.  I set up the languages as English and Russian (no Moldovan option) and typed out “flight delayed because of rain, will be here in 25 minutes” and hit the translate button.   She read the Russian translation and while I don’t know how good the translation was, she got the drift.  A man sitting next to us saw what we were doing and said “my wife speaks Russian, let me get her on the phone and she can explain further.”  He hands her the phone and the woman of the other end is able to further clarify what is going on.

I find out that another cool thing that the iPad does is it allows you to customize your keyboard based on language. This internationalization allowed me to convert the keyboard to Cyrillic (Russian), so she can now type in Russian and use the Google program to translate back into English.  Pretty cool stuff!

So now we are ready to board after an hour delay.  I walked with my new friend to the ticket counter to board our flight.  She reached into her bag for her boarding pass and hands it to the ticket agent.  She is not on this flight, but the next flight that went to Atlanta!  I explain to the agent that we were asked to make sure she got on the plane and can she get on this flight?  By now, my babushka friend is getting quite confused and agitated.  I typed on the iPad “they are changing you to this plane. no problem.”  She read out loud each translated Russian word and surprisingly, “no problem” in Russian sounds just like it does in English!  She relaxes, we get her boarding pass and luggage transferred.  As we walked to the plane, she looked at me and says in Russian “no problem?”  I smiled back and replied “no problem.”  We got on the plane and I explained the situation to the flight attendant.  He gets her seated and puts her bags in the overhead.  I tell her “no problem” one more time then head to my seat.

When we got off the plane in Atlanta, I immediately looked for my friend to help her in the next part of her travels.  Fortunately, an agent for the airlines was waiting for her with a wheelchair to take her and her bags to the gate for her flight to Frankfurt.  I smiled, took her hand and wished her a pleasant trip.  The iPad was not used in this case.  The look of gratitude in her eyes transcended technologies and the language barrier.  Communication is mission.

Five Tips to Stay Current Without Getting Overwhelmed:

1. Survey the landscape. In your free time, find a way to experiment with emerging devices and technologies. You don’t need to camp out overnight in front of an Apple store before the launch of every iPhone – just know what they’re capable of.Observe how your friends and family use technology and social media. That’ll clue you in as to how people are integrating these tools into their lives.“It’s almost like how you used to need to know about the latest pop star to have a decent conversation around the water cooler,” Hosein said. “Now you need to know what people are using, technology-wise, to get a sense of how you need to position your company strategically as well. That fluency is important.”
2. When it comes to social media, ask the right questions. The raw power of social media to unite and engage the masses – whether it be Facebook, Twitter or YouTube – cannot be understated. But increasingly critical to social media proficiency is the ability to gauge how well your strategies are working.According to Hosein, never has more data been available about our behaviors and preferences.Sifting through all of that information to reach any kind of valuable conclusion requires more than good analytics tools: you need to ask the right questions.To illustrate this point, Hosein uses the example of Visa. The financial services giant hired an agency to study its social media impact during the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The numbers spiked enormously, leading Visa executives to believe their engagement efforts had paid off.

   In reality, it turns out people weren’t just interested in Visa; many were looking into visas to China for the purpose of attending the Games, according to Hosein.

   “If you don’t ask the right questions, if you don’t put the right terms in, and don’t think about other possibilities as the right answer, you’ll be led down the wrong road,” he said. “It’s like doing a Google search. You need to put the fence around your search so it leads to the right conclusion.”

3. Master the art of storytelling. Technology has given just about everyone a voice. As Hosein puts it: “It’s now your grandmother in her home putting out YouTube videos.”The downside is that the sheer volume of these voices has created an overwhelming din in the digital sphere. In order to break through, Hosein suggests going back to the basics: mastering the timeless practice of storytelling and producing narratives with a beginning, middle and end, along with a compelling, emotional hook.Hosein, author of Storyteller Uprising: Trust & Persuasion in the Digital Age, has counseled corporate leaders from the likes of MasterCard, Microsoft Europe and CVS/pharmacy on creative approaches to thinking about and managing their creative communications.“Every individual, every company or organization is now a media creator or media organization, no matter what you’re doing, if you’re an engineer, a lawyer or a business person,” Hosein said. “Companies are beginning to grasp that storytelling is the key. And they’re even creating positions within the organization like ‘storytellers-in-chief’ to actually figure this out.”
4. Learn a little of this and little of that.An important part of storytelling in the digital age is being able to convey ideas across a number of platforms.Hosein believes everyone – even top executives – can benefit from learning to shoot and edit video, capturing audio and familiarizing themselves with code. Only by understanding the power of different forms of storytelling can they grasp how it can be integrated into an organization’s overall strategy.Injecting a bit of the creative process into leadership keeps things fresh, innovative and entrepreneurial, according to Hosein.“I mean if kids can do it and teach themselves, you can too, and you absolutely have to,” he said.
5. Find time to power off. Every so often, take some time off and unplug.Even Hosein – a social media buff who heads a high-profile graduate school program and hosts the Four Peaks TV show – allows himself a once-weekly break from the glare of his favorite tech gadgets.“Being connected all the time doesn’t necessarily bring about great ideas,” he explains. “Some of the best ideas come to me when I’m in the shower or on an airplane, where I can’t connect. So it’s really important to do this stuff in moderation.”

Province III of the Episcopal Church have come up with something that is a good starting point for the church.  Building Faith, a blog moderated by Sharon Ely Pearson has a post that I offer as a beginning to that conversation called Social Media: Safe Church.  Check it out.