How to promote your church, organization yourself - podcasting and advertising

Words are more powerful than weapons.

Erling lea erling1975@gmail.com

How to promote your church, organization or yourself – podcasting & advertising Erling Lea erling1975@gmail.com Edit LHL 8h

Words are more powerful than weapons. As a long-time media influencer, I would like to share some ways you can promote your work on social media. Communism took over about 40% of the world, using propaganda to focus on social ills and weapons. Hitler used propaganda to destroy the will of the Jews. If you see the photos of them as they are being sent to concentration camps, notice how sad they looked unable to protest or resist the Nazis. The propaganda had destroyed their sense of identity. China has been very successful in their use of propaganda to make the West believe that the world will be destroyed by air pollution. Fake news has caused western nations to create many strict environmental regulations for themselves. Meanwhile, the Chinese pollute more than anyone. Of course, in China the government controls the media, so you never hear about it. Most wars start because of propaganda. Today, with so much fake news, it is hard to get clear, unbiased facts anymore. That is why there are many alternative online media sources that people go to in search of facts. I do trust one traditional news outlet, that is, The Washington Times, which has a reputation for unbiased news. I could go on and on about how people use media to promote fake news and propaganda, but my point is that the word is powerful, and that we should use it for good causes. My point in writing this article is really all about what you can do. Please email me if you have any questions or want more information. I get a lot of junk mail these days, so please put an eyecatcher in the subject line, and email me again if I don’t reply. You can also message me on Face Book messenger. We shouldn’t waste our opportunity to make a difference, especially when speaking out is so effective. 1 General guidance about creating and posting your material I have broadcasted many videos over many years, and I had a rule. If people can see the speaker well and hear what he or she says, without being distracted by a messy background, then just leave it as it is. If the content is good, and the basic presentation is professional, then your high- tech equipment is not really that helpful in attracting people to your content. Haven’t you seen a bad movie that was very expensive to make? The reason movies flop is because of a lousy story or lousy content. All the tech in the world cannot save a lousy story. If you decide to make a home studio of your own, again, I recommend that you keep it simple. Many people use bookshelves with many books and photos of themselves with some famous guy. If you are a lawyer or something, this can be good to attract clients, but if you are trying to relate to a broad audience, I don’t recommend it. I suggest instead you make your home studio

feel cozy. (You want to avoid filming in your bedroom or the kitchen, or in any cluttered place, or you will make your production look cheap and unprofessional.) Find a nice corner in your living room, find a nice comfortable chair and have a real or artificial plant next to you on a table, and drink some coffee or tea while you chat. Dress nicely, but you may want to choose casual clothes. All of this will create a nice atmosphere, and viewers will feel relaxed and comfortable as you speak. Use a clip-on carpenter light near the camera for lighting (available at Home Depot for $15.) This provides plenty of light and is safe and simple. If you need to move your table or chair to other places in your home after your shoot, then you can put a mark on the floor, or you can use gaffer tape, since that doesn’t leave residue. You can also just take a photo of your arrangement. Avoid putting personal photos in the background that reveal your location or expose your family members on social media. It is very difficult to video yourself, but I have seen many who do a good job with it. Good sound is important. Somebody promoted a very good small clip-on blue tooth microphone that cost about $25 on YouTube. A friend of mine uses this mic and does family counseling on Tik Tok. She records everywhere, even in her car or in the park, and the sound is good. She has many followers. Framing your image is another important thing to think about. The speaker’s eyes should be 1/3 from the top of the camera monitor always. If not, you get all this empty headroom. That looks unprofessional and people will just scroll away. The distance between your eyes and the floor should be the same as the camera lens to the floor. If it’s too high, your camera will point down at you. When the camera points down, you look unimportant and weak. If it points up at you, you may look powerful, but even so, it’s clear and comfortable for people if you have the camera at eye level. Lighting is best kept simple. Have your light source next to the camera. It doesn’t need to be too strong. A carpenter’s light will do, and they are cheap and safe and clip on to anything. Too many pictures of any one person, especially if posted too often, will usually create a negative effect, at least here in the West. In Asia or other cultures, it may be different, but here, if you want to promote someone by putting their photo on social media, you need to include some text next to the image, something short and simple, that takes less than ten seconds to read. Unfortunately, many young people’s attention span is less than ten seconds these days. Have you not noticed young people sitting with their phones, constantly scrolling? One program a week is enough. If your process is too complicated, or if it takes too much time for you to set everything up and finish for the day, then you will get burned out quickly. You can even do three or four programs in one day, and that will cover the month. If you do a live program, try to have it regularly, at the same time, so people can listen regularly. I have some friends that are doing this with good results and with many followers. Another important tip to make your posts effective is to remember that the media is all about presenting new material. For example, the JFK assassination has generated about a thousand books. New books and movies keep coming out, and it never stops, because there is always some

new information or theory about it. This never-ending search for new material leads paparazzi and other nosey people to harass celebrities. I have sympathy for them and wonder how they survive all the attention, since they are just humans and have feelings like the rest of us. It’s also important to choose your content carefully. Don’t say or imply things that you can’t prove. If you create a video, remember to check it a few times before you post it on social media to be sure that there is nothing that can create problems for you. Many news stories and issues circle around for about three days. If you see something upsetting on social media, usually three days later it is forgotten. Usually, people forget what they see on the news almost as easily as they forget what they ate. But even so, you can have a personal impact on people’s understanding by expressing your take on things. If you mention something you read in a book, just mention the book’s title, or any other source you may be quoting. Talk about your personal experiences and your opinion. Don’t go too far to the left or to the right politically. If you remain moderate, you will engage more people and leave everyone open to whatever you may want to say in the future. Focus on the issues that interest you rather than on specific political parties or individuals. Remember not to show your personal contact info, like your phone number or address. It’s ok to mention your email, and you may want to have an email dedicated to the program. But be careful about revealing your location. Unfortunately, there are all kinds of weird people out there, and you don’t want them to visit you. Sometimes you do meet very good people. I suggest that you exchange emails for a while before meeting anyone in person. Often on live talk shows, the host may have a caller who sounds nice in the beginning, but after a few minutes, they turn around and start to curse the host and others out. These days, most call-in shows have a 5-10 second delay in their broadcasting feed, so they can cut someone off if they begin to say odd things. If you have guests on your show, keep the conversation lively. Avoid pauses and don’t ask yes or no questions. It may be hard to film two people without two cameras and a crew, but it can work. And ladies, if you wear a skirt, choose one that is knee length. If your skirt is too short, you may have some weird guys looking only at your legs and not paying attention to what you’re talking about. It’s good for your own protection to avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention. I suggest that you make your program no longer than 20-25 minutes. Viewers tend to get tired after that and look for something else. On talk shows like Dr. Phil, the host has new guests come out every 15 minutes or so, to keep the show interesting. But these shows have a huge cast and crew. It is better to keep your work simple at the beginning, and over time, you will post a lot of different kinds of material. You can even post a still image for just a few seconds on TikTok or YouTube. Sometimes I print out a few words on colored paper (my personal favorite color for this is yellow) and take a photo of it on my phone. I post these images, either as independent posts or as comments on someone else’s post. The main thing is that you get your ideas out there. After a while, you will get several shows and images that float around on social media all over the world. People speak English in many countries on every continent, and you can develop followers everywhere. 3 Legal Concerns

Generally, when you are in a public area it is ok to take a video of yourself without anyone’s permission. Just be careful not to post a video of yourself in front of a sculpture or artwork unless you have written permission from the artist. Unfortunately, some lawsuits have happened over this kind of thing. If you have a guest on your show, he should fill out a release form. I can email you one or you can find one online. Be sure to have him print his name, date it, and sign it. Keep these permission documents. (I still have mine on file) The reason for this is that the guest may later become negative over something you said, or anything that they decide that they don’t like. For a short Q&A on the street, you don’t need any permission forms. It’s also important to choose your content carefully. If you say or imply things that you can’t prove, then you can have legal problems. An old friend of mine, Alex Jones of Infowars, got sued for $1 billion over a fake new story (search Alex Jones on YouTube). 4 How to promote yourself, church or your organization If your pastor wants to his sermons recorded, it is best for him to assign one person who will remain in charge of this responsibility. In my experience, people who offer to “help out” usually don’t plan to commit to more than a couple of events. It’s important to find one person who is willing to be consistent and responsible. If you do have volunteers to help out, then the helpers should have simple jobs to do, so they can have a positive experience and remain interested. It’s best to keep it simple. Don’t overdo it with gear. Remember that the content of the church service or ceremony is most important. I used to run into producers who had been told to get this and that and the other kind of equipment. This approach often leaves you with a bunch of very expensive video gear and no video production. If your church only has one camera, just tell the cameraman to zoom back slowly and pan side to side sometimes, about every 2-3 minutes, to show a broader view of your event. This keeps your recording from getting boring. If you have another camera that can catch the faces of the congregation, then it is a good idea to put up some posters that mention to everyone that they are being recorded and that their image may be posted to a social media platform. If anyone objects, then they need to let the cameraman know, so he can keep them from being in any shots. This doesn’t happen very often, though. Try to make your recordings either 25 or 55 minutes in length. Usually if you air footage from an event on TV, you will have a 30- or 60-minute slot, so your runtime should conform to one of those times. The additional 5 minutes allow time for the opening, for the credits at the end, and for contact information. If your speaker talks about something controversial, just remember to tell them that he or she should mention that they are expressing their own opinion. Once you air something, anyone might pick it up and post it somewhere else, without your permission. If the speaker says clearly that they are expressing their own personal opinion several times, this can prevent problems for your church or for whatever organization that the speaker represents.

Ask the members of your congregation if they could share the recording of the service to about eight or ten people on social media or through email. You can get burned out if you try to do everything yourself, but if everyone shares the weekly church services with ten friends, that’s enough. This will give it a life of its own, and it will float around on social media. It is wise to keep your recordings under 25 minutes. Too much exposure on social media can sometimes make people feel irritated by seeing too much of your content. People can feel that you are trying to force your opinion on them. There are many people who do post a huge number of videos, but they sometimes stir up fear, resentment, or other negative emotions. If you do this, you may cause people to feel angry toward you. You never know the negative impact that this can have on your life. 5 Response to your programs Don’t worry about whether anyone responds directly to your programs. It is not that important, because you will recognize that you have had influence when you see your ideas reflected in other posts on social media, in print, or in conversations you hear around town. The most important thing to remember when you are posting on social media is that you pray a lot before you speak, because you never know who is listening. You may move somebody’s heart and give them life-changing guidance. If you feel inspired to say something, don’t be afraid to say it. Even if you have no personal contact with the people in your audience, you may meet someone down the road who says that you helped them when they were going through a hard time. The word is powerful, and if used right, your words can have great influence. Some people may want to respond to your videos with their questions or comments, so it’s a good idea to provide an email address. This is a common way for online influencers to relate with their viewers. I have influenced many political decisions, but I was very aggressive during those times. I don’t recommend doing that unless the situation is very urgent. I did this once because of an issue that was important to me. I took a whole day to email, send personal messages, and to comment on people’s posts. I hammered my viewpoint through these different platforms because the situation was urgent. I don’t usually recommend expressing yourself so adamantly, but if a war is about to break out, or politicians are contemplating a very bad decision, sometimes a strong response can be effective. In the west, compared to the east or to other more traditional cultures, the media has a lot of influence, sometimes even more than politicians have. There, the media outlets may have so much power that they could create and sensationalize fake news, without anyone challenging their content. Here in the US, some politicians and media outlets have had to answer for wrong information that they promoted. I know all their tricks and games, and people don’t trust the mainstream press or the politicians anymore. That is why many small broadcasters like yourself can have much more influence now. Some influencers have become more powerful than major networks. People have had enough of extremism on both sides, and they are demanding that the media outlets become more moderate. Many people have stopped watching mainstream news outlets, and instead are searching for other news sources. Now is the time for your voice to be heard. We have a greater chance than ever before to have an impact on the way people see the

world. It’s a good idea, though, to avoid the mistakes that the mainstream media has made. In other words, keep your content relatable for most people by avoiding extremism and by avoiding negative emotions like resentment or anger. Self-control is very important when you are building a following. Most people in the media industry say that it’s best to stick to something you are familiar with and that you know well. Most radio programs stick to a specific subject and reject callers who want to speak about unrelated topics. You can choose religion, family counseling, psychology, food, or anything else, but stick to your subject so that your audience can count on you to talk about the things that made them interested in your show to begin with. Keep the same simple set up and stay with it. You can see that approach used by successful TV shows. If you stay consistent and interesting, then some media professional may take notice and invite you to host a new TV or radio show. I have seen this happen. Denzel Washington once said that if you hang around the barber shop long enough, you will get a haircut. 6 Things you can do through your local church If you have a church building near a busy highway, you can put up a sign for people to read as they pass by. You can put up a few interesting or thought-provoking words. Many churches do this. Be sure the letters are big enough to be read easily from the road. Don’t put more than people can read as they pass by. I have a rule that the text on a street sign should be just long enough so that people passing by can read it twice. You may want to check your sign by driving by it and noticing whether it’s easy to catch the meaning as you pass it. If you change the text every week, you will make the people in your neighborhood curious about what you will say next. If you touch their hearts, they may visit your church. Avoid putting your church’s name on this sign. You can have a permanent sign or some other way of displaying that practical information on the building itself. It’s ok to display the pastor’s image, or that of the founder of your organization, but be sure there are a few good words next to the picture, and not just the pastor’s name. You may be surprised that on busy roads, forty or fifty cars pass by in just one minute. Some street signs in pedestrian areas have fifty to one hundred people walking by in that time. Why not put something on your sign that God has inspired you to say? Pray and listen to what God wants to tell the people this week, just as if you were giving a sermon. 6 A few last thoughts Back in the days before the internet opened the opportunity for people to express themselves on many different public platforms, I aired footage on public access TV. In those days, five members of my church aired 5,000 hours of programming in ten cities all over the US, and in some other countries as well. I have a short demo video called TP time demo with video clips of different programs I broadcasted in the Texas area. I hope this helps you in your outreach. I did not go to college or study journalism. I was self- taught and I learned as I went. I read many books and went to weekend workshops, and I finally

wrote a booklet about broadcasting. If you would like to read it, email me with the subject line, “How to do cable TVs.” I will email it to you for free, together with some other things I wrote about dealing with freelance writing and media influencing. If these things interest you, let’s keep in touch. I like to help people get in touch with others who are developing a media following. Freelance writing can be tricky because many newspapers and TV outlets only take your ideas and then write their own story. The film industry does this also. It’s a big problem everywhere, but some newspapers will accept and print your whole article, as is. I have experienced both situations. I’m kind of stubborn (a bad quality that I developed from being a boat captain for many years). I am strong headed on some issues, but my wife/editor Laura Lea does a very good job to polish up my work and make it look more professional and moderate. She edited this piece for me as well. It’s nice to have support and get a second opinion occasionally. Media has a lot of influence these days on everything. Whether fake new or authentic information, we deal with it every day: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sometimes I feel like we are in WW3 through our words. Don’t worry, though, but just focus on whatever subject you are familiar with and that is of core importance to the impact you would like to have. There are people who will cover just about any subject out there, but you have something special that you want to say. Focus on your unique message. For example, if you promote a book that you like, then hold it up long enough so that your viewer can see it clearly and can read the title twice. Take care of yourself so that you can continue posting over time. If you get burned out, maybe post photos of books you like, or post something you have written in the past. Be creative. Media is all about surprising people with new or interesting material. Stay the course, and people will hear your voice. Again, I hope this can help you with your outreach. Feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or testimonies. God Bless you all. Sincerely Erling Lea Free booklets I can email you: I have two booklets: How to do cable TV and How to become a media influencer. I can also send you samples of articles I sent to the news media. Please give me your name and email address and I will send you these digital documents on request. Book on Amazon. The Impact of the Spiritual World on Your Daily Life. Written by Erling Lea Edit LHL 8h