Stephanie Winans

Business & Marketing Strategy Consulting

character

8 Quick Tips for Better Air Talent Blogs and Morning Show Websites

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Blog smog. You aren’t a blogger. Why should you worry about improving your writing skills?

As radio companies put more emphasis on digital growth, you are now responsible for website traffic and social media engagement in addition to on-air ratings.

Becoming a better blogger will give you organic content for your social networks, increasing web traffic as users are enticed to click through. Better blogs may also forge stronger relationships, turning casual listeners into P1s.

Convinced? Read on. (Unconvinced? Keep reading!)

Before we get into the tips, let’s define “blog”. According to Google, a blog is “a website on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a regular basis.” For radio, that includes your talent blogs, as well as the content you add to your website to reflect that day’s show topics.

So your entertainment buzz, stupid news, phone topics, and audio clips count as blogs, too.

Here are eight tips to improve your talent blogs and the content you post from the show each day:

1. Focus on Your Headline. When you plan your show, you write teases to keep people listening. With blogs, you write headlines to keep people reading. It’s really not that different.

2. Include your opinion. Often you blog about pop culture, music, or current events. Listeners can find these stories anywhere, but they found it on your website because they have an affinity for your brand. Along with Gotye’s new video or news about John Travolta’s massage misbehavior, include your opinion the way you would on-air. Don’t blog just to meet a corporate requirement or to provide listeners with strong content. Use the opportunity to showcase your character and create a connection with listeners that will keep them coming back- to your website and to your show.

3. Define your goal before you begin. Are you writing to inform, entertain or inspire? Read your blog when it’s done and make sure it cuts through in the way you planned. Will your readers learn something (about the subject, or about you)? Will they laugh? Will they be entertained? Will they be moved (to tears, or outrage)?

4. End with a call to action. Write to Done has a great blog on this that says “you need to make the reader take action”. Ask your reader to leave a comment, or to tune in to tomorrow’s show to listen to the topic on-air. For example, end your blog with:

  • “Are these masseurs telling the truth about John Travolta? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.”
  • “Listen tomorrow at 7:20 when we talk to Gotye and ask him about the ex that inspired this song.”

5. Respond to blog comments. Your blog is an opportunity to engage listeners. Call listeners by name. Continue the conversation with your reply. Be personable.

6. Craft Your Social Media Tease. An enticing on-air tease often makes a great tweet or Facebook post. Like on-air teases, your social media teases should pique the reader’s curiosity. Ask a question, develop a creative headline, and use images to increase traffic to your blog from your social profiles.

7. Be Enticing, Not Misleading. As this blog by Daniel Sharkov suggests, make sure you can back up the claims you make. Writing headlines that are enticing but misleading will only annoy your listeners and keep them from coming back. Follow Huffington Post on Twitter for a good example. Their tweets are creative and intriguing, but never misleading.

8. Measure. Don’t wait until your contract is up for renewal to find out how you’re doing online. Track your website traffic. Use Facebook Insights (or other third party measurement tools). Let the analytics guide your content. Listeners will tell you which blogs they find interesting. You just have to listen (or study the stats).

Have other tips to share? I’d love to hear them. Leave a comment below- I promise I’ll respond.

A 12 Month Resolution for 2012: Build Your Own Personality Brand

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If you were asked to define your personality brand in 3-4 words, could you do it?

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a “name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

The key word in this definition is distinct. Today everyone has an opportunity with social media to strengthen and distinguish their personality brand.

A brand is the personality behind the name. Defining your personality brand doesn’t end when your show is over. What you do online should reflect your on-air character and strengthen your brand by sending a consistent message to listeners.

Make your online presence a focus for 2012. It’s an important part of radio today, and could be considered a strength when your contract is up for renewal (or if you find yourself on the job hunt).

Here are social media tips to take you through all twelve months of 2012 (so no giving up on this resolution after January):

 

January:   Define your character in one phrase. (If you’re a Randy Lane Company client, you already have this down.) What adjectives describe you? Are you serious, comical, conservative, hip, edgy, fun? Use these to develop a “tone” for your brand voice. Listeners should get a sense of your personality by the way you write.

(While we’re on the subject, read Angela’s article on How to Write Funny if comical is in your character.)

 

February:   Set goals for yourself. Do you want to increase your number of Twitter followers, Facebook likes or YouTube subscribers? Are you interested in developing relationships with listeners or others in the radio industry? You can’t measure progress if you don’t know what your personal goals are.

 

March:   Choose a social app to help you easily manage various social networks. You’ll be able to manage your own accounts on different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and manage the station accounts as well from one interface. You can also schedule some of your tweets and posts so your message reaches a larger percentage your audience. Here are a few of my favorite apps:

Many apps will even tell you when your audience is “listening”, which helps you understand the best times to post a status update or tweet.

 

April:   Develop a minimum frequency goal and stick to it (permanently). How often will you be tweeting or posting on Facebook? Regardless of your time constraints, setting a frequency goal will ensure your accounts stay active and don’t look stale.

 

May:   Share your opinion this month. What’s your take on the topic you’re posting about?  Provide the information along with your thoughts on it. Your opinions are part of what make your voice distinct.

 

June:   Create organic content by making a hot topic your own. For example, when Scarlett Johansson’s nude pics leaked, Nat from Breakfast with Nat & Drew, Virgin/Vancouver, took her own Johanssoning picture. Instead of her butt in the mirror, though, it was a donkey (still an ass!). This was a fantastic way to put a personal touch on a hot topic.

 

July:   Share what you’re passionate about this month. Love cooking? Make a video of yourself preparing your favorite recipe, and share it with listeners via your social networks and station website.

 

August:   Be self deprecating. Find a way this month to showcase your endearing flaws online the way you do on-air. If you’re known for having great hair, share a picture of the oh-so-rare bad hair day.

 

September:   Give listeners a peek into what you’re up to off the air. Use pictures and videos to show what’s going on behind the scenes.

 

October:   Network with others in the radio industry. LinkedIn and Twitter are great for finding people you would like to meet, or reaching out to someone for the first time. Building relationships within the industry is important because you never know when that person could be your next co-host, PD or GM.

 

November:   Use social media for show prep. Following shows you admire can be the catalyst for brainstorming on topics, features and contests. With Twitter, you can favorite tweets and look back at them when you have time.

 

December:   Focus on your listeners. Talk with them, not at them. Developing meaningful relationships with listeners can convert them into brand ambassadors, and give you a sense of what listeners like and don’t like about your show.

 

Just a reminder: All content should support the brand essence of your show and station, as well. If you’re posting on the station or show accounts, what you say represents more than just your personality brand. Keep this in mind if you want to keep your job!

Have other tips to share for 2012? Leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.

 

– written for The Randy Lane Company

 

From On-Air To Online: Creating Online Content Around Your Character

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If you’re using your website and social media correctly, I should have a good sense of your character just by assessing your online engagement.  What you do online should reflect your on-air brand.  Does it?

Your character is well defined.  You’ve worked hard to create on-air content that showcases your character.  The content was well executed.  Your show is over.  You’re done, right?  WRONG!

We’re all wearing so many hats in radio; it’s hard not to think of blogs, social media, videos, as one more duty.  Stop thinking of digital as another job.  You’re already doing all the prep; so think of it as the last step to work you’ve already done!

In building content around your character, there are two types of content to consider- the content you share and the content you create.

1.  SHARING CONTENT
Most of you are already sharing content online, but there is a way to share content that reflects your personality.  Anyone can post a link.  Only YOU can post a link, along with your perspective on the topic.

Listeners can get the same content on their own at tmz.com or yahoo shine! What they’re interested in is the conversation (with you!) around the topic.

Use topical stories to define your character online the way you would on-air.  During your show when you discuss a topic, you don’t just state the story in facts.  You give the facts and your two cents on the story.  The same goes online- post the content, along with your opinion on the topic.  Share your opinion and suddenly you’ve started a conversation.

2.   CREATING CONTENT

Put your own spin on a hot topic by creating a parody video or picture.                                                                                                          When you share content, think about how you could take it one step further and create organic content based on a topical story.

For example, Miguel from That Guy Kramer at Island 106/Panama City recreated the viral eHarmony video with Debbie the cat lover.  He dressed up as an obsessed Harry Potter fan and made his own quirky video.

Another recent example comes from Jay Styles and Nick Fox at 97.5 WABB/Mobile.  When fried kool-aid was trending on twitter, they made it on-air, and created a video tutorial for curious listeners.

Take show features one step further by adding an online element.
When prepping for the show, ask yourself “What online element can I add to this feature?”  You don’t have to create new material, but add a visual to what’s been said on-air.  It only takes a minute to take a picture- maybe 20 to create a video.

You’re already doing the prep, so a few extra minutes can multiply your mileage out of a topic!

For example, The Dave Ryan Show at KDWB/Minneapolis did an on-air bit called The Summer Bucket List.  Dave and Lena talked about things they wanted to do before summer is over, and encouraged listeners to tweet their lists, too.

It went viral, and two weeks later, the online content is still going, with content being added by the show and listeners as things off the list are crossed off.  Dave took video of himself grilling a steak and Lena took video of herself in dance class.  This went from a one-break bit to two weeks of serial content, all thanks to the addition of an online element.

Let them behind the scenes of the show. 
It’s no secret that listeners love seeing what goes on off the air.  Share stories, pictures or videos to give them a peek “backstage”.  This will make them feel like they’re part of the show!

You can also let them in on what you’re doing when you’re not at work.  Listeners feel like they know you from listening to the show, so posting about your personal life enhances that “closeness”.

Help showcase your co-host’s character. 
Help each other by making posts that accentuate the character of another show player… This will in turn highlight your own character.  It’s a very natural way to showcase your brand, and the show brand as a whole by emphasizing the dynamic between characters.

The Dave Ryan Show hosts are great at this.  For example,  Lena googled “ugly shirt” and found a site that sells ugly shirts (Dave’s fashion is a character flaw).  Dave ordered the shirt and surprised them by wearing it to work.  Lena took a video, and asked listeners to send in jokes about the shirt to win concert tickets.  The video not only tells us Dave is unfashionable, but that Lena is fashionable.   The content is about Dave, but we’re laughing at Lena’s humor.  By showcasing Dave’s character, Lena has reflected both her own character qualities and the dynamic between her and Dave.

BE SOCIAL
The thing to remember is to be social.  Respond to listener comments and questions.  Treat social media like a cocktail party, where your focus is on conversation.

For example, don’t post content asking listeners for their opinion and fail to respond once they give it.  That is the equivalent to meeting someone at a party, asking them a question, and walking away after they answer without a word.  It’s rude!  Facilitate the conversation-  it only takes a second to respond.

CHALLENGE YOURSELF
For the next month, challenge yourself to do one thing each day to extend your brand online. If you do it for 30 days, you’ll realize it’s not hard.  It’s fun, it’s addicting.  You just have to make it a habit.  The results will surprise you-  you’ll get more mileage out of your bits,  you’ll connect with your listeners and learn what they like.

Focus on:
-Taking Show Features 1 Step Further
-Putting Your Own Opinion Or Spin On Hot Topics
-Showcasing Someone Else’s Character
-Behind The Scenes Sneak Peek

No rules- just do it.  Be Real.  Be Social.  It will give you what Dave Ryan calls the addiction factor, and make you Irreplaceable, putting you at Randy Lane’s ultimate level of morning show performance.

 

-written for the Randy Lane Company panel at Morning Show Bootcamp 2011