While catching up on the excitement of Easter news this morning I came across this post about Amazon.

Apparently there was a ‘glitch’ in their catalogue and they accidentally removed a large number of gay/lesbian titles from search results, sparking a wildfire of speculation about their prejudice, incompetence or general ignorance.

The lack of an official response from Amazon, either by announcement or to individual emails from customers only fuelled the fire and as rumours erupted across the internet one can only imagine the clammy palmed execs panicking at Amazon HQ.Once they got this one out the damage had been done.

The Scale of Fail

This incident just underlines the importance of communication, particularly online. News spreads fast nowadays thanks to blogging and social media networks – and if you don’t tell people what’s going on there are thousands waiting in the wings to speculate on your behalf. Not usually positively.

As an agency we’ve been trying to impress this on our clients for some time to ensure they are never left in this situation – if it can happen to Amazon it can happen to you too!

I’ve seen people wearing the little necklaces and bracelets, thinking ‘hey that looks nice’. Then I notice the little ‘wwjd’ inscribed somewhere and suddenly I’m think ‘oh, one of those types’.

This morning however, I had a revelation. I think that Jesus really can offer some guidance to me and to all of you.

Communication and gregarious interaction is massive online, and it is ever growing. Our desire to meet and interact with one another has driven a huge outpouring of social media networks all engineered to bring us closer together, help us find old friends and generally stay in touch as much as we can.

As a result of the bolding mass of humanity now on these networks, companies and brands are starting to catch on to spread the word about their products and services. Some might want a wide audience, some a very specific one, and it’s hard for them to know which network to pick that will show them a return.

Jesus was a man who loved communication; he spent most of his life spreading The Word. All he had to do it were his feet, his voice and a small band of followers. So this morning I asked myself, if and when Jesus returns, what would He do? Which social media network would he choose to spread His love?
To help Jesus out when he does get back, I’ve taken the liberty of going to Google Ad Planner and Google Insights (as I’m sure He would) and grabbing some data. This is only a sample of the social networks available, I’m sure the research performed by Jesus Himself will be much more thorough.

Bebo
Many people consider Bebo the children’s social media network, but Jesus would like to teach people from an early age how to respect each other and live in harmony. The domain was registered in October 2000 and has a homepage PageRank of 7, so Jesus knows this is an authoritative site.

Traffic to Bebo

As you can see Jesus could reach a massive 21 million unique visitors over thirty days and the time on site would give Him a good while to get His message across. We should also consider that the daily unique visitors has decreased at the start of 2009, which might temper Jesus’ decision.

Bebo Demographic Information

We can see that our earlier claim is true; Bebo does have a very young user group, most of whom share their house with other siblings. As such Jesus could reach a lot of young people through Bebo. There are also a greater proportion of female users, who are likely to spread the Word even further. The affluence of the households also shows that the purchase of a Bible would not strain the budget too much.

Facebook
Facebook is an altogether more grown up network than Bebo, almost like a walled in internet in its own right. Facebook has a weighty Pagerank of 9 and the domain was registered in 1998, so Jesus is sure that it’s even more of an authority in the world of the internet.

Traffic to Facebook

While traffic has dropped slightly in Jan09, we can see a massive increase in Facebook visits, surging to over two million in late 2008. This means Jesus could reach a massive audience. He could upload photos of His return (by linking his Flikr and Facebook profiles) and promote his other social media profiles from here. The expansive Facebook profile would provide an excellent introduction to Jesus; the man behind the legend.

Facebook Demographic Information

We also see that there are a large number of 25-44 year olds using Facebook, who are perhaps looking for direction in life. Most have an income between £30,000 and £50,000 so they could probably afford to make a donation or even sponsor Jesus’ comeback. In general the members of Facebook report themselves as more educated than those on Bebo, so Jesus can reached a more learned crowd here. The majority of Facebook members do not have children however, so Jesus might not reach as many of the younger generation on here as He could on other networks.

MySpace
Myspace used to be an incredibly popular social media netwotk; it was one of the forerunners on the internet. If Jesus has come back five or six years ago it would have been the perfect place to launch His comeback from. While it is still a strong domain, the visitors have dropped off in recent months:

Traffic to Myspace

As we can see Jesus could only reach a fraction of the people here that He could on Facebook. The advantage of Myspace is that Jesus could upload his sermons here and promote them from his other social media profiles. Should he wish to generate some revenue for his good work, He could even sell them through Myspace Music. To fund His good work.

Myspace Demographic Information

There are a roughly equal number of male and female users on Myspace and the predominant age group is 18-24, so Jesus could reach a younger, more diverse crowd here. The largest income group is £0-£15,000 however, so they may be less inclined to make a donation or buy a Bible.

Friends Reunited
An often overlooked network; Jesus might want to see if he could reconnect to some of His friends (or more likely their prodigy). Friends Reunited is the weakest of the older networks, with a Pagerank of just 6 depsite being nine years old.

Traffic to FriendsReunited

Friends Reunited has suffered from the growth of networks like Myspace and Facebook, however Jesus might still want to reach the niche crowd who use this social network. While it is unlikely that any his old buddies would still be alive, maybe people are looking for him?

FriendsReunited Demographic Information

There are a large proportion of middle aged female users on Friends Reunited, who could be the perfect audience for Jesus. They have a larger income, they are looking for friends, and the majority do not have children in the home. The majority of users only have some college education, so they may be looking for somewhere vocational to apply themselves. Friends Reunited could be the ideal place for Jesus to begin gathering a new flock.

So what Would Jesus Do?

Now I don’t want to put words into the mouth of The Lord, however I believe Jesus would use a combination of these networks to boost His presence online. He would pick one (possibly Facebook) with a large user base and functionality he could use (such as photo, video and file sharing, account linking) as a base, and syndicate news through the other networks.

He would probably also set up a YouTube account to upload his teachings to, a Twitter account to answer ad hoc questions and keep everyone in the loop and possibly even a Digg/Reddit account to show his followers what He approves/disproves of quickly and easily.

Once Jesus was up to speed with developments since His death, I would imagine he would start His own blog, using that as a base for teachings and updating His social media profiles when new content appeared. This would give Him a strong social media network to distribute His views through a number of media, to a number of demographics and a huge online audience. A network like this would let Him interact with more people, more directly than He ever had before.