Tag: digizine

The future of magazines?

February 15, 2011 / / 3 Comments

I made fun of myself in my last promotion (HERE) of the Small Groups Digizine.  I’ll not do that again, thank you very much.

But I will heartily recommend the new edition!  Partly because it’s free (you can snag your copy HERE)…mainly because it’s awesome.

Sam O’Neal and the SmallGroups.com team have done a phenomenal job compiling a great resource for small group leaders and pastors.  I really think that this format (the digital magazine, a.k.a. the ‘digizine’) could be the future for many magazines, because of the speed of distribution and the low cost of production.  In addition, the interactivity is so much greater than reading a traditional magazine.  Instead of reading Sam’s editorial intro…you can watch it.  Instead of a mere reference to worship songs…you can listen to them right there in your browser while reading the rest of the content.  It’s heaven for a multi-tasking, multi-sensory generation.

But I’d like to offer a couple of suggestions for improving the digizine in the future.

Room for improvement

1. Social media – give me a chance to interact with my online community while I’m reading.  I’d love the chance to link to direct

2. iPhone/iPad app – I tried viewing this on my phone, and, yes you can pull it up…but it’s tiny.  If you try to zoom in, things get wonky.  If you try to view it in landscape mode, it shows 2 micropages at once.  I’d love to be able to read this more easily on my iPhone…maybe even in an app (I don’t think there’s another small groups app out there).  And I could definitely see something like that driving the reader count through the roof, even for archived content on SmallGroups.com, as the app links to “suggested resources.”

3. Publish it more often! You guys are onto something big here…capitalize on it!  Twice/year isn’t enough.

4. Add more hyperlinks. Make this digizine even more interactive, providing links back to SmallGroups.com and outside sites.  You’re being incredibly generous in offering this resource for free…but providing links for other resources, sites, and ideas is a way to take generosity to the next level.

Have you grabbed your free copy yet?

 

SmallGroups.com & Goofy Words

August 11, 2010 / / 4 Comments

There are certain things I say that make me feel like I’m giving up my man card.


I tweet.

I use Hootsuite.

I have Twittelator on my phone.

Scripty (as in Scripty Goddess’ scaler HERE) is a tool I use on my blog.

Accountabili-buddy (a word my small group has coined).

Part of me likes Ikea.** (see below)

I have never seen Godfather.

I own Crocs.

I tend a garden.

I read a digizine.

It’s after saying the above phrases that I have to go outside and blow something up.  Or go grill something.  Or smoke a cigarette.

I’ve found myself saying “Digizine” more and more often.  Sometimes, it’s just random…while I’m walking around, before I go to bed, after I eat dinner.  It’s kind of fun…go ahead, try it.

I’ve been saying “Digizine” more and more because I’m completely blown away by SmallGroups.com ‘s new digital magazine (get a copy HERE).

Why is this digizine so great?

The content is superb. This issue contains articles by Sam O’Neal (managing editor of SmallGroups.com, a division of Christianity Today), John Ortberg(pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, and author of numerous books), and Pat Sikora (founder of Mighty Oak Ministries).

The advertisements are great. Since I live and breathe small groups, ads that are about small groups are right up my alley.  They appeal to small group leaders and small group pastors.

There are videos embedded in the digizine. You’re not going to get that in a magazine.  And if you could…it would be weird to see a small video screen in a magazine you get in the mail.  So instead of just reading an interview with Mark Batterson and Heather Zempel, you can actually watch it…right there on the same page.

It’s digital. Anything that’s digital is cooler, right?  Case in point: digital clocks.  Digital means means I can read it anywhere…and not wonder, “Where did I leave that magazine?”

But here’s one thing I wish was included:

Social networking ability. Give me the ability to tweet (see…there I go again…giving up yet another man card) what I’m reading.  Make it easy for me to share this content with my followers.  I want to share insights I get from around the internet…this digizine doesn’t readily give me that opportunity.

You need to get this free resource.  If for no other reason that it gives you the opportunity to tell people you read digizines.

**Let it be known, I am a man.  When I get stuff from Ikea, I don’t even use the instruction book.  Bam.

 

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