COUNTDOWN TO A CONCERT; T minus 16 days and counting.

 

Today is Friday, January 3, 2014. I am not sure if I’ve been specific about the big cause tied to all our concerts, that being raising awareness and encouraging child sponsorship for Compassion International. Their work to bring new hope to many orphaned children in third world countries.Both Randy Stonehill and Phil Keaggy have been involved with this ministry for many years. These concerts are just one more way to gather a captive audience and let them know about the “least of these.” No arm twisting or guilt tripping is allowed. my hope is that people will begin to see beyond themselves and respond in love.

Why bring that up now? Well, I was asked by Compassion today about the status of the concert and if we needed sponsorship[ packets sent. That prompted a call to Phil Keaggy’s road manager to inquire if he was bringing them. The short answer is SnTRadio.com will provide a sign up table and Compassion will provide packets and volunteers. Either Randy or Phil will make an appeal to the audience from the stage. In the end, we hope several children receive sponsors. That’s is why we give Compassion International sponsor credit… so they have the opportunity to have a table at the event. They do not pay anything for that status as it is given to them as part of our “good works” outreach. We are excited that generous hearts will respond to the need of these precious children.

So even if you can’t make the Phil Keaggy – Randy Stonehill concert in Orlando on Saturday, January 18th, please go to http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm?referer=127385 and consider the opportunity to show Compassion for yourself and your family. You can make a difference in a child’s life.

Today we also saw the response to a post Randy Stonehill made on Facebook promoting the concert.  There were over 100 Likes and a few nice comments mostly from folks outside Florida who wish they could make it. I was very grateful for Randy making that post. Its good to see an artist support the promoter’s efforts. I have spent a lot of advertising dollars to raise awareness for these concerts because it usually takes a minimum of 6 exposures to a message before a person will decide on an action.In this crowded and over saturated media blitzed world we live, it takes many more because people forget what they have seen and heard in 24 hours. So it takes a lot of repetition to make any kind of an impression in a person’s mind. Even in social media like Facebook and Twitter, it takes a lot of tweets and posts to motivate a person to take action. (so Randy and Phil’s social media people need to do a few more posts and tweets each to help get the word out.). It’s OK, I sent both of them “Please Help Us” messages to do just that. 

The life lesson for all you social media users is that you need to be creative in the way you send out those six or so messages to make an impact on your target audience. Just don’t repeat like a parrot, say it differently each time if you possibly can. And above all, be engaging and say it with love. More tomorrow. Have a great first weekend on 2014!    James Burkhardt

#Phil Keaggy, #Randy Stonehill, #Compassion, #concertsinOrlando