Business & Marketing Strategy Consulting
I had the pleasure of being a guest on It’s Just Business, Wink 107.1/Ohio.
I gave the Business Crash Test Dummy, Kim Turner, feedback on a 
recent issue he had with Yelp. I answered several caller questions about small business and social media, including whether you should self-promote on LinkedIn, the Facebook cover photo no-no’s, and which platforms to choose if you’re just getting started.
To listen, click here.
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:
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.
In early March I read an article about the social media battle many musicians are fighting with their record labels over who owns their social media accounts. I thought, “I hope radio never gets to this point”.
Weeks after I pondered that article, three high-profile morning show hosts contacted me– they are fighting the artist/record label battle with the companies they work for. After creating the accounts on their own, and after years of building their own relationships with listeners independent of station time and resources, stations have begun taking “ownership” of their talent’s accounts by requiring that they meet certain guidelines.
Air talent should always support the station online- by driving traffic to the website, and upholding the station’s brand essence in their own presence and interactions online. It is in their best interest that the station succeeds- both on-air and online.
However, the recent corporate requirements for morning shows are counter-productive. There is a disconnect in what Management really wants, and what they are going to get with these mandatory “guidelines”.
Social media is about personal relationships- between two people, between a person and a brand or business, between a Morning Show and a listener. These relationships, like any relationship in the “real” world, are based on trust. Listeners trust that the Morning Show is going to provide content relevant to the show and in line with the on-air brand. They trust that by liking the Facebook page or following the show’s Twitter account, they won’t get spammed.
One of the requirements recently placed on Morning Shows are rightfully upsetting this balance of trust. Stations are asking their Morning Shows to include a link to the station website in EVERY Facebook post or tweet. Posting irrelevant links that lead listeners on a goose chase for related content that doesn’t exist doesn’t build a good rapport with them. It can also be counter-productive in that they may not click through to the links that do matter after many times of clicking through for nothing.
For example, if a Morning Show uses social media to develop personal relationships with listeners, the host may share things that happen outside of the show or station. A picture of their child doing something funny, a picture with friends on the weekend, a video of their dog at the dog park. It doesn’t make sense to include a link to the station website in a mobile upload of a personal picture. Yet this is what stations are requiring.
Another unreasonable stipulation is that NO link may be posted or tweeted that isn’t a station website link. While Morning Shows should always strive to provide links to the content hosted on the station website, the content may not always be available there. Does that mean it’s not of interest to listeners? Should a Morning Show not post or tweet the news of Whitney Houston’s death because it’s over the weekend when webmasters are off work ( and the news is too new to be posted on the station website, anyway)?
Management is smart to take advantage of the relationship between a successful Morning Show and its listeners. So hold them accountable for a certain number of posts/tweets per week that contain links to the station website. Hold them accountable for a reasonable standard of website traffic. Ask them to include the streaming link when they use social media to ask for opinions on phone topics.
Just don’t create guidelines that violate the nature of social media. That doesn’t increase web traffic or ratings- it turns a P1 into a casual listener by damaging he trust relationship between air talent and listeners.
-written for Radio Ink Magazine
I am passionate about this topic! I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you think air talent (and I) have a right to be upset about these requirements? Or do you think they are realistic? Leave me a comment.
Facebook will make the new Timeline design mandatory for Pages March 30. This means you need to get busy this week setting up your Timeline before it goes public.
If you haven’t done your homework yet on the changes Timeline will bring to your Facebook Page, Scott Sands has a comprehensive list of the changes and what they mean for radio here.
The main focus of apprehension is the Cover Photo, which is the huge banner visible at the top of each Timeline. The rest of the Timeline changes involve Facebook taking the (hopefully brilliant) information you already have on your Page and displaying it in, you guessed it, a timeline.
COVER PHOTO EXAMPLES
While many stations and shows haven’t made the switch yet, there are some who have jumped the gun and made Timeline public.
The radio cover photos I’ve seen have a visual focus on one of the following themes:
Before you design your cover photo, here are some examples you should check out to get your creative juices flowing. Click the links in each category to view live examples of what other stations and shows are doing with their Timeline design:
It’s All About the Morning Show
Both stations and Morning Shows themselves are using the cover photo to promote morning air talent.
We’re Focused on the Music
Stations are using the cover photo to promote the music, similar to station website mastheads. If you have the file used to create your station’s masthead, you can use some of the same images to design your cover photo.
Love for the Logo
Integrating your logo in the design is a great idea, but get creative instead of stretching the logo to fit the dimensions.
We’re Promoting Something
Use your cover photo to promote an on-air contest or to support the station’s branding efforts.
Unique Designs
Get creative! The sky is the limit. Spend some time brainstorming before you get started. Ask yourself, “what are we known for? what do we want to promote?” and let the answers guide your design.
Show Me the Money
These stations are using their cover photos to advertise a sponsor or sponsored promotions. Before you follow suit, read these guidelines to ensure you’re in compliance with Facebook’s rules! If you decide to go this route and include a sponsor in your cover photo, integrate the logo into your design so the cover photo still looks like one for YOUR station.
HOW TO DESIGN YOUR COVER PHOTO
Ideally, you should custom design your cover photo using a program like Adobe Photoshop. If someone on your team has graphic design skills, use these dimensions to ensure your cover photo looks great on your Timeline:
If graphic design isn’t in your skill set, don’t panic. Email me for a custom design quote or try one of these apps to create a sharp design for free:
Leave a comment below with a link to your Timeline so I can check it out. Learn anything when designing yours? Share your tips, too.
While you’re on Facebook, check out my cover photo and The Randy Lane Company’s, too.
Did you know you can’t discuss ratings on your social networks? If you don’t think it’s a big deal, ask Oprah, who was under fire from Nielsen for tweeting “Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Nielsen box” last month.
Arbitron’s updated policy Social Media Do’s & Dont’s lists ways you can preserve respondent anonymity, avoid rating distortion (any station activity that may affect the way diary keepers record listening) and rating bias (any activity that may prompt a station’s listeners to participate in Arbitron’s survey).
This would include thanking listeners for a successful ratings book. Arbitron thinks this may encourage listeners to reveal that they were part of the survey, compromising anonymity.
Arbitron monitors both station and air talent social media accounts, so check out the policy here to ensure you’re in compliance.
-written for The Randy Lane Company Content Ideas