Does Your Digital Outreach Tell the Truth?

I recently submitted another article for Outreach Magazine's website. I took a little different angle this time from previous articles. Rather than discussing new technology specifically as I've done in previous articles I thought it was time to address the disparity between how some churches portray themselves online verses the actual experience when a person arrives at the church. Here's a little bit of the article:

It's tempting to create an image of what you want your church to be, rather than what it is. Though your intentions may be pure, you're not helping your prospects gain an accurate picture of your church. If you paint an inaccurate picture, then aren't you guilty of false advertising?

Web 2.0 tools can be used to communicate anything you want. And therein lies the opportunity for inadvertent false advertising. Though you may want to make some changes, don't show your community what you hope the church to be in a few years. Rather, show them all the great things about your church today. If your church needs to make changes, then make the changes within the appropriate avenues in the church, but don't convey those changes until they’re nearly complete.

You can read the full article here.

Cadbury gets creme egg on its face

Just last week I wrote an article that included these lines:

Here's the thing about blogging, it's a great medium that facilitates conversation and understanding, but if you're not telling the whole truth, you're going to wish you never said anything at all. Whether you get busted in your own blog's comments or on someone else's blog, I can almost guarantee you'll be caught (probably by another blogger) if you give half truths, misleading statements or outright lies.

These same principles of truth and the Internet apply to video as much (if not more) than in blogging. Tonight I discovered this case in point from the video below:



When you visit the Cadbury FAQ page you find this:










In the grand scheme of things who really cares about the size of chocolate and creme eggs? The bigger lesson here is that truth has always been the best (and I would suggest only) option. Now, with the Internet it's just going to be more obvious when you've decided not to do it.