by Peter Horton

Can You Hear Us?

One of the items that the UUCD Board spends a lot of time on is how the congregation communicates to each other and with the greater community. Can you hear us? Are we efficient and effective with our communications? Here are some things to ponder:

Sesame Street broke ground decades ago because they followed the model of modern advertising, information was bundled into approximately one minute segments. As we know, it was a huge success. The trend of condensing messages has continued. Experts recommend that a message on Facebook be no longer than 40 characters. Not 40 words, 40 characters. Wow!

What about our signage on Clapboard Ridge? At 40 mph (the average speed on Clapboard Ridge) letters should be at least 6 inches high and no more than 20 – 30 characters.  Everything else is a blur.

UUCD’s Comment is cherished by a number of our congregants but, sadly, ignored by many. 200 emails get sent out regarding the Comment. 50 to 70% of those emails are opened. And a small group of folks actually click on the hyperlinks. Even more revealing, less than 10% of the readers open the full pdf document and those folks are usually the authors of the articles in the Comment. More than likely the pdf version of the Comment will be discontinued sometime next summer. The Comment articles and messages will appear exclusively on our website.

And what about social media? Currently we have weekly posts on Facebook and Instagram (thank you Melody Levy for the amazing and attention-grabbing visual design). Do you know you can “share” the weekly Facebook posts with your own Facebook followers? Very few of us do. Are we reluctant to broadcast our religious preferences? Maybe.  

We’ll never be done talking about and strategizing on ways to communicate.  One thing is for sure, we are looking ahead of us, not behind.