Young Adults and Word-of-Mouth

On another blog, I have been musing about word of mouth, young adults and how to promo events. This year, I made a decision to NOT do a print brochure for a young adult event that I have been chairing for a couple of years. It wasn't particularly popular with the Baby Boomers who help to facilitate the event, but I was (and still am) convinced that the cost-to-benefit ratio for a full color glossy brochure just didn't justify the brochure.

Then Michael sent me this post from an unrelated-yet-related blog, with this quote, which was quite insightful:

MySpace is over, it's just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That's how they hear about music, bands, everything."

If the conclusions drawn by these high-powered, high-paid "gurus" is correct, we have some homework to do, in order to understand how to get the "word" out about events for young adults. What do you think is the way to infect the word-of-mouth machine with info about new and upcoming events and the like?

A good belly laugh in the morning....

Today, I saw a funny YouTube clip that Paul put on his Facebook account. I clicked on one of the related links and got a real belly laugh out of this one! Have a look!



hahahahaha.....I hope you enjoy as much as I did this morning!

Genealogy in the comics!

Some of you would know that I have Genealogy (Family History) as one of my hobbies. Erika, my 11 year old daughter, has also taken a fair interest in my research as well. A fellow genealogist made note of the above "For Better or Worse" comic strip yesterday. I enjoyed reading it because it reminded me of the enjoyment that Erika and I get out of doing genealogy together. :-)

Like the family in the comic strip, I find that far too often there is more than we can fit in a day. It is really encouraging to have something that Erika joins in with me, and says, "That's OK, Daddy. I've got time."

Nostalgic for WA already -- the mourning process...

I had my last concert today with A Cappella PRAISE and have started to feel quite nostalgic about our life here. We are mourning the fact that we are going to be leave Western Australia, and it is really coming home to me of late! This morning, at the concert, the Director asked me - on the spot - to introduce a song.

It was "Ride the Morning Winds", and it was fitting that I should introduce the song because of all the upheaval in our lives right now. I cried right through the song, having introduced it based on our situation at present. We have so many things to do before we hand over the keys to our house in late October....so many unknowns, so many goodbyes, so many plans to make....well, it is overwhelming at times. Most times, actually. The song talks about the fact that regardless of WHERE we are or WHAT we are doing, we are not alone, God is there with us. ("I can ride the morning winds and you are there, I can sail the farthest seas and you are there...I can never be lost from you.")

Well, as I said, I was feeling nostalgic, so this evening, I asked the family if they would like to go watch the sunset over the ocean. We rode out to Coogee Beach (the one on the WEST coast, for you Sydney-siders!) and watched the sunset. It was so beautiful, and it is one thing I will DEFINITELY miss! It was neat because Erika -who tends to live in denial at the moment - said, "Can we do this a lot more before we leave?" It was a special time for us, and we look forward to doing it more because we will be HOURS from the coast in Virginia, not minutes! ...and it will be the East Coast too, so we won't get any sunset over the ocean.... I wouldn't say that sunsets over the Blue Ridge mountains aren't spectacular, but we will sure miss the Indian ocean!

An interesting thing happened while we were on the end of the jetty...like the people in the photo. A guy came up from the lower deck to speak to us. He wanted to give us an invitation to his church. I think it is probably the first time we have had that happen in our time in Australia! He was very personable, and didn't shy away at all from the "unique" nature of his church. He talked about the miracles that happened there all the time. The brochure they are handing out is a bit overboard about the supernatural, but I would be interested to know how many people respond positively and end up a part of the church. The guy gave a very positive reflection of the church, I thought. :0)