DOPCANDY

I am now hooked on the mobileyouth webpages.It’s fascinating stuff. I love their approach… this has got me thinking and reflecting…

I am not advocating a wholesale marketing approach when it comes to participation and engagement with young people and faith. However, i am intrigued that there are specific ways in connceting with young people at this current time. The habits and practices of young people, especially with regard to technology, are often at odds with our shapes and models of ministry… and yet if we don’t know where people are or how to connect to them are we missing out or becoming less relevant.

What strategies and tools do we need for connecting with young people… or any people come to think of it!?? I have always believed that a cyber-based ministry is a poor substitute for the real thing… but that technology can sustain and enrich relationships once they have been made. There is the whole angle of working safely with peer2peer technologies etc that needs to be thought through – my friend Max Cross is a good source of info on this. I hope that for those of engaged with young people and their discipleship there are ways of understanding youth culture and communicating within it… I would hate people to think that marketing is the way forward as I am little bit cynical about that…BUT we need to be aware of the times and not miss opportunities where they exist!

Mobileyouth have produced a list of their top twenty blogs on youth marketing… some make interesting reading:

* Barking Robot by Derek Baird
* Big Brand on Campus by Benjamin Leis
* Canadian University Marketing by Morgan Coudray
* Change.org’s Millennials Changing America Blog by Alex Steed
* China Youth Watch – China Youthology by Lisa Li Yi
* Digital Youth Research @ Berkeley
* Gen Y Music Marketing and Social Media by Greg Rollett
* Hard Knox Life by Dave Knox
* How to Break Anything by Kyle Studstill
* Mediasnackers by DK
* Millenial Marketing by Carol Phillips
* Reach Students by Luke Mitchell
* Shaping Youth by Amy Jussel
* TeenLab at Alcatel Lucent by Jennifer Carole
* The Marketing Student by David Fallarme
* Three Billion by Paul MacGregor
* Tyler Reed (Younique)
* Youth Marketing Buzz
* Youth Media Reporter by Ingrid Hu Dahl
* Ypulse by Anastasia Goodstein, Meredith Sires and Casey Lewis