Why most newcomers join

Newcomers to your church or campaign are not likely to make friends with the old-timers. They are more likely to make friends with other newcomers. Who wants to hang out with the old guard?

Help new visitors or new customers or new employees socialize with each other -- they will learn the ropes from each other and stick around.

New Customers Matter

Been reading a great blog lately by Kevin Hillstrom lately called Mine That Data. Kevin is a consultant and expert in catalog marketing. This post on acquiring new customers really hit home. There are health signs for any organization. Attracting fresh blood is almost always a key one.

Each Person Matters...on Twitter?

Great post by Roger Ebert on Twitter. Twitter may not be for you, but it sure is for me.

Tips for using LinkedIn well

LinkedIn is a useful tool when looking for jobs or helping friends look for jobs. If you don't have a full profile on LinkedIn, I encourage you to set one up now. Here's why:

Many of us work as knowledge workers. It's harder to show evidence of what we've done or what our accomplishments are, since many of them seem intangible. So, we need to find a way to show more evidence of our experience and accomplishments.

LinkedIn allows you to describe your full career history and to focus on your accomplishments. You have space to tell stories about your achievements. You can include links to your writing. You can go into detail about the sales you've closed, the money you've saved, and the lives you've changed.

The other important piece of evidence you can show is a recommendation. Each person you've worked with matters when you're looking for a job, because their testimony means something to the people in their network. And the testimony you give about your colleagues says something about you: you are the type of person who is confident enough to share praise about other people and will vouch for others.

Finally, you can keep tabs on your high school and college friends and see what it is they're doing for a living and a career. Catching up is now easy! 

Teammates matter

For the first time since I was in middle school, I got to be part of an actual soccer team. It was a team at my work, playing weekly games at one of the city parks. Soccer is my favorite sport to watch, and while I felt very out of shape, I had an absolute blast getting back on the field.

Our team won quite a few games, and made it to the finals in the playoffs. But what was most impressive to me was that everybody played, everybody had a chance to contribute, and we all became friends during the 8 weeks together.

The next season starts in just a few weeks! What are you playing this fall?

Does each social media platform matter?

I guess we'll find out.
plus.google.com

EPM, social media, and small talk

It's been a busy winter and spring for me, as I have changed jobs twice since Christmas. My new role at Grubhub.com started just a few weeks ago, and as I run into people at parties, I'm amazed at how easy it is to talk about these changes. Thanks to Linkedin and Facebook, my friends and family already know the basics. It makes small talk so much easier when we meet in person, because we have ideas about what to ask the other person and go deeper in the story.

Announcing my job change on Linkedin and starting to connect with new colleagues helps a lot too - I can find out some of the basics of my coworkers and they can find out more about me, which helps us find things we have in common.

Here's a newsflash: people care about you. Tell them what's up.

Celebrities matter too

I had a chance recently to have coffee with the author of one of my favorite books. It made my day. And he invited me!

Several months ago, I read the book Predictable Success by Les McKeown after hearing Les on a podcast I liked. I found the book very helpful, and thought it did a good job of explaining some of the situations my organization was facing.

I don't know why I did it, but I found his email address in the back of the book and wrote him to thank him for writing it and how his book had helped me understand my job better. He wrote me back hours later - thanking me for reading it and asking me to stay in touch! Months later, when he came to Chicago for a consulting appointment, we met for coffee.

As I get to know more writers, musicians, comedians. programmers and other creators/creatives, I'm finding that all of them, no matter how famous we might think they are, crave feedback from real people, and they appreciate it.  Twitter is the perfect example of this  - I've received replies from several people I would consider celebrities. Their jobs may seem mysterious, but it's all just work, and they like for it to be appreciated.

So, email your favorite author, or send a tweet to your favorite band. They'll appreciate it.

EPM Tip: Show up to parties

Want to make someone’s day? Show up to their party.

Even if you can only stay for 30 minutes.

Even if you have four other things to do that night.

Even if you are not close friends.

Even if you don’t feel like going out.

Inviting people to a party is risky, because if folks don't show up, it feels like being rejected. When you show up to a party, say hi, and eat some food, you are being kind at a time when it matters a whole lot. 

EPM and 1,000 true fans

1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly

It would be criminal to write a blog called Each Person Matters without going back to the article "1,000 True Fans" by Kevin Kelly of Wired Magazine.

In the digital age, we talk a lot about the "long tail" of a distribution - the seemingly infinite number of people, products, books or songs that we can now access thanks to the internet. The digital jukebox at the bar now has 100,000 songs in it, instead of just 50 CD's. Justin Bieber can have millions of followers on Twitter, and each those people can follow millions of other people.

But, if you're a singer, a painter, or own a small business, how does this help you make a living? 1,000,000 Facebook fans would be great to have, but you can't eat a wall post and Retweets don't pay the rent.

Kelly's argument is that each person matters, but you can only guarantee making a living as a creative or entrepreneur if you have some number of dedicated followers who are True Fans.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

If you estimate that a True Fan will spend $100 on your art or product per year, all it takes is 1,000 True Fans to earn a living. How many do you have?

Dots on a map

The NY Times has a fantastic new tool that plots demographic census data from 2005-2009, down to the tract level. Fascinating.

Does each animal matter?

I don't know if I am really ready to ask, address or answer that question, but I figured if I titled my blog this, I can't avoid it. I recently read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

The book doesn't judge people for what they eat, but it does an amazing job of addressing our emotional connection to food, particularly to Thanksgiving turkey. Highly recommended.

Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and the regular exercise of choosing kindness over cruelty would change us. 
----Jonathan Safran Foer

Contact tracking system

I've struggled for a long time to figure out how to keep track of my personal and professional contacts so I can keep in touch with them better. This is a quick description of how I do it at the moment, which seems to be working well.

1. Google Doc
Column A and B - Name - Columns for First and Last so I can sort easily

Column C - Priority - Based on Keith Ferrazzi's A/B/C guidance, I enter the frequency (in weeks) that they should be contacted. For A  contacts, it's 2, 6 for B and 12 for C.

Column D - Last Contact Date - I update this every day or two when I have had an interaction with people.

Column E - Next Contact Due - =Column D + 7*(Column C)

Column F - Overdue? if(Column E > Today's Date,1,0)

Format Column F to turn yellow if the value is 1.

Column G - Mention - here I put a note about whatever I need to mention or ask about next time.

2. iPhone - I save this page as a bookmark on my homepage so I can update info on the train or look for people who are overdue. Quick comment on Facebook or Twitter, invite to coffee, comment on their blog, etc. and I'm done.

People in the future matter

Library of Congress Photo, 1939

A friend pointed out to me this photo set from Flickr of color photos from Chicago in the 1930s and 1940s. I always think of those decades as black and white, since nearly all movies and photos from that era are black and white.

But they weren't. The railyard this guy worked on 70 years ago was in color, just like the office I work in is. The railway tracks he helped to maintain are still here.


It is easy to assume that our neighborhoods and our city exist for us, or maybe our children. But the buildings we build and the choices we make last for generations. 

Matt Yglesias, one of my favorite political writers, writes today about how people resist change in their neighborhoods: opposing tall buildings, new apartments, parks or churches. We are always biased toward keeping things the way they are. Thank goodness we don't always succeed.

Ebert on loneliness

Roger Ebert says more profound things about loneliness and why people matter in this one article than I have in a year of having this blog. Please read it.

Update: The follow up is amazing, as well. 

The next generation matters

This post by my friend Matt got me thinking about the Millennial generation, those young adults who grew up in the age of the internet and are causing a lot of change in some of our oldest institutions.

In the church, this is of particular interest - the Pew Forum found that Millennials are interested in God but not so much in the church. If your business model depends on the next generation joining your church, this is not good news!

Matt's answer makes a whole lot of sense to me: the kids these days want their lives to have meaning. So churches, businesses and non-profits are on notice: if they don't find meaning in your committee meetings, your worship service, your products, your stories or your relationships, they will walk out the door, eyes glued to their phone on the way out. Who can blame them?

Politics should be about people

I used to work in campaign politics. It's a tough business. My old boss lost his third straight run for Congress this week, which was heartbreaking. I know him and his family well now, and I can't imagine sacrificing so much.

Since public policy, government funding and even the power of the sword are at stake in our democratic elections, there's a lot of pressure to win.

When I worked on campaigns, it seemed like I could never raise enough money, call in enough favors, meet enough goals or work enough hours. This led me to lose friendships and treat people (and myself) poorly.

So, whether you're happy or sad about the results this week, give a kind thought to all the "hacks" who can finally get some sleep, at least until the next race begins.

Road Trip Lessons

Last week, I took a long road trip to visit the pastor and leaders at a growing church. They had asked for help with how to revamp some of their media and communications tactics.

I asked them to start by introducing themselves and saying what they liked so much about that congregation. Then, we discussed what a typical Sunday morning is like and what the rest of the week looks like. We then talked about two groups of people: Visitors and Members. My question was: If you divide the week into Sunday morning and "not Sunday morning," what messages do you want to deliver to these people?

We came up with some good ideas:

Members on Sunday morning
enjoy time with your friends here
be welcoming to visitors
recharge here so you can serve during the week

Visitors on Sunday morning
You are welcome here
We are warm people
There are people like you here

Members during the week
Find opportunities to serve
Bring friends on Sunday
Find opportunities to learn

Visitors during the week
Check us out

For each of these points, we came up with some ideas for tactics: email newsletter (members during the week), better website (visitors), using the video screen before worship to promote prayer and spiritual focus (for everybody on Sunday), quarterly mailing to focus on the next season of events (everybody). The group was receptive, and there was no need to have the print vs. new media scuffle that always seems to come up. Instead, we focused on what messages we wanted to deliver and how we might do them.

These house calls are quickly becoming my favorite part of my work – consulting with organizations who are doing good work and trying to reach more and more people.

"Awareness" vs. Paying clients

What is the goal of your communications?

If your answer is to "increase awareness" of your organization or product, how will you know if you're successful?

Make the goal something you can count:
1. More leads for our service
2. More supporters on our mailing list
3. More donations
4. More attendees at the event

Awareness doesn't pay the bills. Paying clients and donors do.

Event Turnout

Sign in, please.

Last week, a leader of one of our church organizations came to me to ask for help in promoting an event they are holding the fall. The request was for me to advertise the event several times in my publications.

This is a common request; there is an ongoing assumption that events must be published in the official newspaper or website several times in order to drive turnout. Problem is:

1) Most people require some kind of personal invitation or connection to respond to an event notice, and
2) People these days are much more picky about the events they attend, so they show up to fewer things in general. I blame the internet and all of its amazing time-wasters.

These trends compel us to use more active turnout methods. Here is the advice I gave this leader, based on what I learned from really great organizers and event planners on campaigns:

1. Set a goal of attendance that you will be happy with and feel is successful. Don't tell anybody what it is.
2. If you have six helpers, divide that goal by five.
3. Tell your six helpers that all seven of you have to turnout that number and that whoever gets the most to attend gets a great prize. Pick a prize that is in line with the mission of your group and that costs a good amount of money (in this case I said $200.)
 4. Give your helpers the flyer and link to the event on your website and tell them to call, email, and/or personally visit their list of potential leads.
5. Check back each week to find out where they are and tell them who has the most RSVPs and is winning.
6. Tell your helpers to try each prospect 3 times before dropping them as a lead (unless they get a firm no.)
7. The week before the event, have your helpers call through their list of RSVPs, confirm people are coming, and ask them to invite other people to join them.
8. The leader should send an email to all attendees 2 days before the event with reminders about what to bring, telling them how excited you are about what will happen, an extra guest or activity that has been added, and give them your cell phone number that they should call if they have questions or if they need to cancel. (It is always best to make people call you to cancel - this in itself will reduce people flaking on the event.)

Only a very small fraction of turnout comes from passive advertising. Turnout comes from personal invitation. You have far more power over who comes to your events than you think–just turn your people loose and you'll do fine. If this seems like a lot of work, that's because it is.

An optimistic view of church communications

This is an article I wrote for my organization's newspaper and online publications.

We can do better than this.

It's gonna be alright. You can do it.

In my time working for the Northern Illinois Conference, I have met with many churches, committees and groups who are worried about communications, worried about social media and worried about where they fit in this digital age. I get a lot of questions about problems, concerns and difficulties with new technology, new devices and new services. The anxiety is palpable.

But take heart, we'll talk about the problems another time. Instead, I want to give an honest, optimistic viewpoint about communications and our churches.

Three reasons why United Methodist churches can succeed in today's media culture

1. We have a clear and compelling message

Our mission has two simple components: Make disciples of Jesus Christ and transform the world. Each church may have its own take on that mission and express it in different language, but when we focus on sharing the Gospel and making the world a better place, that's a message anyone can understand.. We know how to keep our message simple, write it down, repeat it and preach on it.


2. Jesus has a lot of positive brand equity

Christians may fall short of His standard, but that guy Jesus is still top-notch, but that guy Jesus is still top-notch. I'll leave the theology to the pros, but from a communications perspective, the Gospels give us great stories, excellent advice, and very accessible imagery about life and how to deal with the problems we all face. When we we talk about Jesus, people listen. When we follow Jesus' example in our actions, people follow us. Other Christian traditions have some serious problems right now; notice that the media focus is on the failings of their human leaders, not on the source of their inspiration.


3. Each church can specialize to match its market and cooperate to leverage its resources

The rich diversity of our church lets us accomplish our mission in ways that are relevant to our particular neighborhood or town. We use diverse worship styles that are accessible of the people in our congregations. We seek different ways to transform the world, given the unique strengths of the people. Our cooperation multiplies the impact of our talents and gifts.

How your church decides to change the world and share God's love is up to you, but the good news is that you don't necessarily need to know how to use Twitter to do it.

Never Eat Alone

Each person eats. And eating by yourself is no fun. An easy way to build your personal network and be more effective at work is to follow the advice of Keith Ferrazzi's book Never Eat Alone: eat lunch and other meals with other people as often as possible.

This simple action has done so much for my relationships, my networking, and my career. I wish I followed it better, because every time I meet someone for lunch, get coffee with a friend or take the time to eat dinner together with my spouse, I always enjoy it.

Eating with other people doesn't have to be expensive, either. Bring lunches and meet in a park or the break room. And don't be shy about asking your boss, vice-president or CEO, either. Everybody eats!

EPM and Social Surplus

Clay Shirky:

So how big is that surplus? So if you take Wikipedia as a kind of unit, all of Wikipedia, the whole project--every page, every edit, every talk page, every line of code, in every language that Wikipedia exists in--that represents something like the cumulation of 100 million hours of human thought. I worked this out with Martin Wattenberg at IBM; it's a back-of-the-envelope calculation, but it's the right order of magnitude, about 100 million hours of thought.

And television watching? Two hundred billion hours, in the U.S. alone, every year. Put another way, now that we have a unit, that's 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year spent watching television. Or put still another way, in the U.S., we spend 100 million hours every weekend, just watching the ads. This is a pretty big surplus. People asking, "Where do they find the time?" when they're looking at things like Wikipedia don't understand how tiny that entire project is, as a carve-out of this asset that's finally being dragged into what Tim calls an architecture of participation.

The sky is the limit.

EPM in the U.S. Constitution

Each person matters so much that every ten years, the U.S. government counts as many people as they possibly can.

Photo: InflatableCensus by YoAmes, on Flickr

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Community organizers know each person matters

Community organizers got a lot of press in 2008 and 2009, thanks to the Obama campaign and President Obama's experience as an organizer.

A friend of mine who is an organizer described the day-to-day of the job very well:

1. Make a checklist in the morning of all the tasks that need to be done
2. Get other people to do them

Whether it's turning hundreds of people out for a rally, knocking on 10,000 doors for a campaign, or convincing a city councilman to vote for affordable housing legislation, organizers succeed by taking what seems like an impossible project and breaking it down into pieces that are small enough for a volunteer to complete. Activating supporters also increases the power of the organization – more money, clout, and impact on elections.

It's a difficult way to get work done, but when it's successful, great amounts of power are built up. Volunteers have skin in the game. They are committed. They want to help the cause.

What project is your team working on that seems way too big to accomplish? Would it help if you found 15 new people to pitch in?

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