Monday
Mar292010
"What Would Google Do," Part 2
Monday, March 29, 2010 at 12:14PM
It's taken me forever to get back to this! There's never enough time in the day...
So, in my last article, I quoted from What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis the Five Demands of the Link Economy. And I would like to go through each of those and how the church can possibly learn from them.
The first demand is "First, you must produce unique content with clear value; commodity content will get you no links or Googlejuice."
Before we discuss how the church can learn from this demand, it's important to understand what Googlejuice is, and what Jarvis means by commodity content. When someone says they're going to "google" something, that means they're going to go to Google.com and search for it. Googlejuice is basically where you, your company, or your brand, shows up in those results. If you have good Googlejuice, you'll show up on the first page of search results, or maybe even the top 5.
The importance of Googlejuice is sometimes overlooked by non-profit organizations--especially those like the church who spend so much time, energy, and sometimes money (We pay more than $300/month for our AT&T Yellow Page ad) on marketing. The craziest part is that in monetary terms, Googlejuice doesn't cost a thing! My generation and younger (30 and below) doesn't look in the phonebook for a church. They google it. And if you can't be found by Google, you might as well not exist. But to get Googlejuice, an organization or website must produce quality content. Quality content is linked to and shared. And that's what gets you a decent search return at Google (or Bing, or Yahoo!). That's Googlejuice.
Commodity Content is a little more icky. I say that because this concept can really hit the church right between the eyes. A commodity is basically a product (not a service) used by consumers. But as Jarvis uses the word, a commodity basically equates to mass production--a redundancy of the same thing, if you will. Content creation and consumption on the internet these days is pretty cheap. And that means there is so much, that it takes quality to really stand out. But, the reason this is icky for the church is because so much of what we do is the same thing: cookie cutter Christmas pageants, the same worship songs (or the fact that there's no original worship songs in most churches), the same ole presentation. We bring a message of life that is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But the lackluster way we go about it has become dull and crusty--a commodity.
If the church (or, perhaps more specifically, a church) wants better Googlejuice, we must focus on quality. Gone are the days for overlooking the church's online presence. Gone are the days of "cattle-call choirs" (if you don't know what that is, consider yourself lucky). Gone are the days where hand-written signs on the church door is acceptable (yeah, that may be a little specific, but I hate those...).
We serve a God who will be returning for His bride very soon--and we are getting lost in all the rest of the noise. It's time to step-up our game. It's time to focus on quality instead of quantity. It's time to allow the talents God has given us to truly shine so that He may get the glory for it. It's time to create something of value.
Man, I've really got to step-up my own stuff if I plan to meet the standard I just called for...
The Second Demand of the Link Economy is "you must open up so Google and the world can find your content."
Stay tuned...
So, in my last article, I quoted from What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis the Five Demands of the Link Economy. And I would like to go through each of those and how the church can possibly learn from them.
The first demand is "First, you must produce unique content with clear value; commodity content will get you no links or Googlejuice."
Before we discuss how the church can learn from this demand, it's important to understand what Googlejuice is, and what Jarvis means by commodity content. When someone says they're going to "google" something, that means they're going to go to Google.com and search for it. Googlejuice is basically where you, your company, or your brand, shows up in those results. If you have good Googlejuice, you'll show up on the first page of search results, or maybe even the top 5.
The importance of Googlejuice is sometimes overlooked by non-profit organizations--especially those like the church who spend so much time, energy, and sometimes money (We pay more than $300/month for our AT&T Yellow Page ad) on marketing. The craziest part is that in monetary terms, Googlejuice doesn't cost a thing! My generation and younger (30 and below) doesn't look in the phonebook for a church. They google it. And if you can't be found by Google, you might as well not exist. But to get Googlejuice, an organization or website must produce quality content. Quality content is linked to and shared. And that's what gets you a decent search return at Google (or Bing, or Yahoo!). That's Googlejuice.
Commodity Content is a little more icky. I say that because this concept can really hit the church right between the eyes. A commodity is basically a product (not a service) used by consumers. But as Jarvis uses the word, a commodity basically equates to mass production--a redundancy of the same thing, if you will. Content creation and consumption on the internet these days is pretty cheap. And that means there is so much, that it takes quality to really stand out. But, the reason this is icky for the church is because so much of what we do is the same thing: cookie cutter Christmas pageants, the same worship songs (or the fact that there's no original worship songs in most churches), the same ole presentation. We bring a message of life that is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But the lackluster way we go about it has become dull and crusty--a commodity.
If the church (or, perhaps more specifically, a church) wants better Googlejuice, we must focus on quality. Gone are the days for overlooking the church's online presence. Gone are the days of "cattle-call choirs" (if you don't know what that is, consider yourself lucky). Gone are the days where hand-written signs on the church door is acceptable (yeah, that may be a little specific, but I hate those...).
We serve a God who will be returning for His bride very soon--and we are getting lost in all the rest of the noise. It's time to step-up our game. It's time to focus on quality instead of quantity. It's time to allow the talents God has given us to truly shine so that He may get the glory for it. It's time to create something of value.
Man, I've really got to step-up my own stuff if I plan to meet the standard I just called for...
The Second Demand of the Link Economy is "you must open up so Google and the world can find your content."
Stay tuned...
Reader Comments (2)
good stuff, I might have to go get that book!!
[...] 5 demands of the Link Economy, according to Jeff Jarvis’s book, What Would Google Do. The first demand was “First, you must produce unique content with clear value; commodity content will get you [...]