Dubious marketing techniques
No doubt you’ve heard of Twitter – this year’s big internet phenomenon. Since the back-end of last year a lot of companies have realised its value as a marketing tool: it makes it really simple to get your message out there. Of course the trouble with “really simple” is that it can be abused.
Just to fill you in on how Twitter works: Twitter is basically a short message service which lets you broadcast messages to your “followers” or indeed anyone who might be searching for keywords like “Christian Dating”. There are a couple of ways to abuse the system: open lots of accounts and just keep on resending your Tweets (messages); follow lots of people (expecting that a large number will follow you back) to spam their accounts with your messages.
Clearly the technique is not sustainable and it irritates people – erm, like me 
grr!
So what’s all this got to do with Christian Dating? Well, I’ve noticed lots of such messages on Twitter for BigChurch that do exactly this. At first glance they seem to be legitimate people, but when you look a little closer you see exactly the same messages from dozens of different “people”. These “people” follow thousands of people but tend to just have a few hundred followers.
There is nothing that I have seen that links these Twitterers directly with BigChurch other than they have hundreds of messages with links to their website. I mentioned in a previous post that not all Christian dating websites are run by Christians – in fact BC is run by Penthouse – and if this is a marketing technique being employed by them then it clearly demonstrates why Christians shouldn’t use their service as this kind of behaviour does nothing for our reputation.
I sometimes find Twitterers asking “why are Christian Dating sites spamming me?” It’s a good question, and clearly it’s a practice Christians shouldn’t be using.
On a slightly different tack, I just found a post on “A little Leaven” which shows a rather inappropriate photo in an advert for ChristiansTogether. @PirateChristian suggests “The church sold its soul to lucifer.”
As with anything you buy or any service you use, you need to decide for yourself whether you’re happy to promote it by buying or using it. If you care that the people who pick the beans for your coffee are paid a living wage you buy FairTrade. If you care for your reputation as a Christian perhaps you should use websites that also value that.
I thought I’d post a few examples of the Tweets here:
mary65378 take a look,free dating for church members,christian dating,find love,its great,its free signups all week http://tinyurl.com/cmpxzx
mary65378 couldn’t sleep.so back on the christian dating site,join 4 free,follow me & follow my link http://linkbee.com/UHMP
sara738495 couldn’t sleep.so back on the christian dating site,join 4 free,follow me & follow my link http://linkbee.com/UHMP
mary65378 im getting so much attention,i love this christian dating site free to join,http://tinyurl.com/cmpxzx
sara738495 im getting so much attention,i love this christian dating site free to join,http://tinyurl.com/cmpxzx
Not all Christian Dating Sites are the same
What do you look for when deciding which Christian dating website to use? Perhaps you simply go for the one that looks the best; has the best “user interface” or the most features. Perhaps you try to figure out how big the site is or how many people use the site. Perhaps you’ve been recommended a site by a friend.
These are all useful criteria to help decide, but have you thought about who might be operating the websites? Is it a safe assumption to make that a Christian website is run by and for Christians? Well, apparently, it’s not a safe assumption.
I was rather surprised to learn that BigChurch.com is actually run by Penthouse. Yep! Perveyors of adult magazines. And many of the other big “Christian” sites are run by large companies that run a whole host of dating sites for special interest groups such as Christians and even Gardeners over 50.
For many dating companies it’s not necessary to have the same beliefs as their users. As long as they can categorise your special interest correctly – put the right questions in your profile form – they think that’s enough to satisfy the market.
Does it matter? Well, in the end, only you can make that decision. But it does highlight the need for Christians not just to be taken in by the Christian tag. When you look at a dating site, try to find out who runs it. Look for the “About us” section. Find out if there are sister dating websites – if there are, there’s a fair chance they’re covering the demographic bases.
