I would like to find out how much of an impact Methodist bloggers can have on spreading the word if we all join together. How big of an impact do you think we could have? To get an idea, and to hopefully gain some concrete evidence of how Methodist bloggers can help get the Methodist message out there, I invite you to participate in an experiment with me.
This past Saturday I posted a link to a YouTube video that I recently discovered promoting a book that I co-authored called Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition: John Wesley’s Sermons for Today
All of this has stuck in my mind over the last few days. I have been wondering if people at Discipleship Resources and other arms of United Methodism that are involved in publishing and communications understand what a resource they have in all of the Methodists who maintain great blogs. My guess is that they don’t realize the potential that exists for bloggers to be a serious avenue for getting the Methodist message out there.
Now let me say that while I would certainly like to see folks like Discipleship Resources and Abingdon have more success in selling books in mainstream venues like Barnes and Noble and Borders, this is about more than selling books. I believe that the Wesleyan tradition has an important contribution to make to the Church and to the world. Currently, I think that institutionally the United Methodist Church could be doing a better job communicating our message.
So, I would like to try an experiment to see what potential Methodist bloggers have to spread the word and get a message out there. I would like to see how much we can increase the views of the Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition YouTube video in two weeks. If you are willing to help here is what I would suggest: First, post the video on your blog. (The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ISKTrScpzQ) Second, write a post that either links to this post or summarizes in your own words the experiment to see how much social capital Methodist bloggers have. Third, one week after posting the video write a follow-up post that reminds people about the video and the experiment.
If this experiment has significant results, I plan on trying to get in touch with the folks at Discipleship Resources and the GBOD to let them know the difference that plugging into the Methodist blogging world made. I would also suggest they create a forum from learning from you all about how they can better communicate through social media and the internet.
So, here is the video:
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If you would like to save time, you can copy and paste this as the post: (you can also change any part of it that you would like to)
Kevin Watson at https://deeplycommitted.wordpress.com has started an experiment to see how much social capital Methodist bloggers have. This experiment was prompted by the feeling among some Methodist bloggers that United Methodism does not always do as good of a job as it could at getting the Wesleyan message out there, particularly on-line. So, he wants to see how many views a YouTube video can get if Methodist bloggers work together to promote it. The experiment is to see how many hits the video will receive in two weeks.
If you want to participate you can: First, watch the video below. Second, copy and paste this entire post into a new post on your blog and post it. Third, remind people about this experiment in one week.
Based on the results of the experiment, Kevin will get in touch with the folks at Discipleship Resources and let them know the ways in which Methodist bloggers are often an underused resource.
Here is a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ISKTrScpzQ
Kevin M. Watson 
Done. h/t to Joseph Yoo…
Done, Kevin, right here: http://friarsfires.blogspot.com/2009/01/do-you-see-what-i-see.html
But I have to confess no optimism that GBOD has the capability to respond or to use online social networking in any timely and effective manner. I expect to see them establish a Xanga or LiveJournal site just in time to greet whatever networking wave follows Facebook…
Matt and Brett – Thanks for participating in the experiment.
kevin, i think i mentioned how umcom had me take down the gene cotton clayride video a few years back. that was a sad time because if you typed in methodist or methodism in youtube search that was the number one result and got a few thousand views a week. how great to have such a great piece of our collective energies to show people, but they just didnt get it. they didn’t ask for some website redirects or added info to the video, just that is needed to come down. they still work within a world that things are owned. probably is that the church isn’t owned, its God’s and as we move into the future creative commons will rule.
i just read that just through donations wikipedia raised over 6 million dollars (their yearly goal) 5 months before the end of their operating year. you can make it work in a new model of sharing. i think Jesus would have liked that.
i like the challenge. do i need to repost since i already helped start the movement?
Gavin – I did not know the background to the Video you mentioned in your comment on one of your previous posts… and it does sound like an unfortunate story… and I am sorry I missed out on the video.
You bring up some interesting points regarding creative commons, there is a lot there theologically.
I will leave it to your discretion to decide if it would be helpful to repost the video. You have certainly made a crucial contribution already. Perhaps you could post a reminder next week. In any case, thanks for helping stimulate me to think deeper on this.
i mentioned over of revcamp’s blog, that to hit more of our mainstream of methodists (that avg age of 55-60 yr olds, i think that is around accurate) it needs to hit the email fwd. problem is, i don’t know if it is remarkable enough for people to do an email forward, not to mention it has the pitch at the end… but then again, some people have no real critique of what they do or don’t forward.
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Gavin – That is a fantastic idea! And you are sadly right about the things that people will forward… I think you are right that starting a forward message could have an even bigger impact (but if it came from Methodist bloggers, it would still be an expression of the connections that we have and the impact that we can make).
I’m in! thanks for the encouragement!
Thanks for joining in Jack!
Kevin, I posted your request on my blog (though I don’t think I have a wide audience on my blog)! Also, Steve Rankin posted something last week that was similar to your thoughts about Discipleship Resources…here’s the link:
http://steverankin.blogspot.com/2009/01/barnes-noble-reality-check.html
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I’m game… I haven’t been blogging too much, but I think it is a great experiment….and by the way…a nice way to do some viral marketing too 😉 I don’t mind because I have the resource and am thinking about using it in my church.
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