Work Harder and Smarter

I read a blog posted on BIA's website this morning. Paul Marszalek wrote an article entitled "The New Radio Model: The People Solution". In his article Paul calls for the reinvention of radio and challenges the industry to determine what the customer needs and deliver it, even if it means learning new skills. He believes if exisiting management and talent doesn't 'get it' their jobs will soon be filled by people who do.

I could not agree more. The days of 4 and the door is out. Today's talent must be willing to actually work at their craft. You need to deliver more than just your show. Here are some ideas to help you keep your job. Believe me if you don't begin to do them, we will find someone who will.

1. Do your show prep. Spend at least an hour before your show, looking at what's going on both locally in the World. Deliver what's most important to your listeners.

2. Throw yourself into your show. Plan your breaks, edit your calls, and deliver gold every break.

3. Learn new skills to support your show AND the station. You can learn how to shoot and edit short videos, learn html to help with the web effort or teach yourself how to really use PhotoShop.

4. Read all the industry trades you can find. Really understand what the industry is doing both wrong and right. Use this information to put a new, creative twist on for your show or for the station.

5. Don't be afraid to experiment with new media like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Podcasting and Video Blogs delvier your unique show content in many different ways. Take your content to where the audience is already - don't assume they will find you. You'd be in LA if that were the case.

In a nutshell, deliver content to the audience that they like and content they want to share and talk about. Not everything will be viral, but it only takes one great element to make you famous. Work at your craft and don't relax. There's a bunch of people out there that figured it out after they were let go and they'll take your job in a heartbeat. Get to work.

How did you hear?

This past week, the world lost a lot of really unique public figures. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays all passed away within days of one another this past week. The most shocking was arguably, the passing of Michael Jackson. The world stopped in its tracks and reflected on his brilliant career and (sometimes) bizarre personal life. The untimely passing of a public figure, like Michael Jackson will be filed and recalled in your mind something like this… “Do you remember where you were when you heard Michael Jackson had died?’ This question is interchangeable. How about John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, the Challenger crew, or now Michael Jackson?

For me, there is one theme, and while I am too young to remember the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, I can tell you not only where I was when I learned that the others had died, but also how I heard about it.

Elvis Presley passed away the summer of 1977. I was working for my uncle that summer and he always had the radio on. I heard about Elvis’ passing on the radio. Only much later did I learn that the king passed away on his thrown – so to speak.

In college I worked for a Union 76 gas station in Phoenix and it was a cool winter night. I was behind the desk studying for finals in my down time between customers (we had both Full and Self Serve). KZZP was in the background. Imagine was on the radio… the announcer came on after the song and announced that John Lennon had been shot. I heard it on the radio. I thought at the time how ironic it was that the news story had come down at the same moment that Lennon’s song was being played. Later I realized that it wasn’t irony, but the theater of Radio.

In 1985 I was just waking and listening to KFQD. Marcus in the Morning came on the air and went straight to Dave Dorn who had breaking news. An uneasy tone in Dave’s voice caught my attention. He announced that it appeared that Challenger had apparently exploded shortly after its launch and we were waiting to learn whether the crew had survived. I did something new… I turned on the TV and watched CNN’s live coverage of the tragedy. But again, I heard about the Challenger tragedy on the radio, from my friends.

Last week I had KDGL on in the background of my office. Radio is my constant companion and I listen many hours a day. Brad Mercer came on the air and announced that Michael Jackson had been rushed to UCLA Medical Center and it didn’t look good. I waited through the next song. Brad announced that Michael was dead. I heard about it on the radio, and in the early moments after the announcement, I turned to the internet to find out more, and no news source or Google search had any more information than Brad had. I continued to work and listen as more information became available.

Late last week and over the weekend, I began to ask friends family and colleagues about not where they were when they learned of their loss, but ‘how’ they learned of it. Almost without exception, it was by listening to the radio. And it occurred to me, that our companion, the background music in our lives, the friend in the dark – is unrivaled in delivering information instantaneously - from a friend’s lips to your ears.

I learned about the passing of Billy Mays from my 17 year old son. Who learned of Billy’s passing – by hearing it on the radio.

Monetizing Facebook

From the old bulletin boards of dial up in the 80’s to Twitter in 2009, the social networking phenomena continues. Founded in 2003, MySpace was the big breakthrough in social networking and by 2006 was the most popular social networking site in the United States. MySpace was taken over by Facebook in April of 2008. Today, Facebook has 200M active users worldwide.

While MySpace is popular with Gen Y, college, High School and younger life styles, and built on a music discovery premise. Facebook was the first social network to be embraced by a large demographic cross section which appeals to any social group imaginable.


Using Facebook for your Radio Station

Facebook can be a valuable imaging and marketing tool for a radio station. While radio itself is broadcasting – or one way communication to a vast audience, Facebook can allow the radio station to take on an image that is more personal and interactive.

Personality or Show Facebook Pages
Build a page for a show or personality and get to work inviting everyone in the local community. Talk it up on the air. Post daily bulletins about your show, new music you’ll be playing, contests to listen for, or current events relevant to the listening community, or silly questions to spark interaction – have fun. Don’t over post – it’s the quickest way to have friend hide you on their page. One a day for each personality or show is plenty. Keep building the friends list.

Radio Station Facebook Pages
Build a page for each radio station and get to work inviting everyone in the local community. Invite everyone from a competitor’s radio station. Post daily bulletins about the station, new music you’ll be playing, contests to listen for, or current events relevant to the listening community. Again, don’t over post. One a day is plenty. Keep building the friends list.

Build the Friends List
Invite everyone in the station’s service area. Some of them are tough to tell where they are located. Ask current friends to invite their local friends. Don’t be shy about asking for friends. Invite everyone from a competitor’s radio station. High numbers mean more money.

Monetization
Facebook Friend Mobilization would need to be tied into an event or remote to work best. It’s an extra service that can be offered to the advertiser as an option on top of the remote package, which includes the commercial schedule, personal appearance, swag from the station and dog and pony show that goes along with it. Don’t bonus or give away your Facebook Friend Mobilization power.

You’ve sold the Facebook Friend Mobilization option to the advertiser… post a couple times the day of the event, maybe 3, but make sure that what you are giving your friends, in return for taking time from their day to visit your advertisers place of business, is truly a great offer or of substance to the majority of your friends. Your goal is response and there’s no quicker way to get it than with a killer offer. Don’t bother to post something you know won’t work – you know what won’t work. It’s not doing the advertiser any good, and just bothering your friends.

Once each show and station Facebook is off the ground, the friends list can be used as leverage to mobilize the listeners or for a call to action. Ask the listeners to join you at Bob’s Auto Care for a $10.69 oil change. Many users access their Facebook by mobile phone and are notified instantly. Notify them an hour before the event (… Join me today at noon…), as soon as the event starts (I’m here now and there’s a line forming… get here quick…), and halfway through the event (… there’s still time).

Each personality or show will have X number of friends add all the personalities together for more value to the station, “Join The Eagle 106.9’s Kayla Stone at Bob’s Auto Care for a $10.69 oil change today form noon to 4 pm.” Post to every personality and show’s Facebook. This type of post is a form of endorsement by the talent. Consider offering compensation for an endorsement to the talent. Remember, their friend list is comprised of listeners who like the personality or show and have trusted them to access their personal information on their own Facebook page.

The experience should always be of value to the friend – or it’s not a good offer. Make sure the client’s offer is compelling enough to mobilize a friend. Did I mention the good offer part?

Twitter
Twitter can be used to post on Facebook. If you tweet, it will show up on Facebook. You can tweet from any mobile device, including a regular cell phone. Set up a Twitter account for each show, personality and station. Use Facebook as the basis for monetization, but having Twitter followers has the potential to build numbers as well. Twitter doesn’t seem to have the same ability to personalize the experience for followers, but can be used to send a quick message.

Other Facebook or Twitter Ideas
Use Facebook to acquire news stringers. When you see news happen, let us know on Facebook. They can even take a picture of the traffic jam, fire, or protest.

Use Facebook for News and Sports updates. Quick updates – Knews Updates – Knews Sports Updates – have someone who is going to the big game update the site by text.

Use Facebook for an exclusive site to introduce new music, movies, shows and entertainment.