Loyd Ford wrote a great article at www.radioink.com today about using social media for contesting. He makes some good points and his advice is very good. I disagree with him that social media is not advertising. Everything we do is advertising and sales. We want to promote ourselves in everything we do. We are selling ourselves to our audience, to our customers, to our co-workers, to our bosses and even to our families and friends in an on going basis. However, what I think he meant was that we should not just be posting commercials about ourselves. People don't want to read commercials, they want to read content. He is right that social media is about engagement. And contests are one way to get engagement. However I think he left out something very important that everyone seems to forget about: The Rules.
Just as a radio station has contest rules, social media sites have rules regarding running contests and/or promotions using their platform. It is very important for station managers, program directors and promotion directors to familiarize themselves with the rules regarding promotions/contests of the Social site they are using especially if they do not have someone running their social media. No one wants a call from Facebook or Twitter Legal, nor do you want to wake up to find out your page or account has been shut down for violating the sites terms of service. Familiarize yourself with the social platform rules. If you are uncertain, and don't have a social media manager, make sure you are doing things right by running your contest by your own lawyers, who also should be familiar with these rules.
Facebook has strict contest and promotion rules found here: Facebook Rules. Twitter is more friendly to contests and promotions: Twitter Rules.
Every station should have a social media manager either on staff or contracted. And I am happy to assist you. I can even show you how you can get an ROI from your social media channels.
What is your experience using social media to run contests?
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Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Tuesday Talker Tips: #2 Training your body
Like an athlete, to be a successful talk host you must train! Going for a daily jog is good for the mind, body and spirit but that is not what I am getting at with my talk host tips. We are thinking outside the box to make you think, act like and be a successful talk host. This is an ongoing series of radio talk host tips for those of you new to the format and even for the experienced pro.
Are you doing the necessary things to train your body to be at maximum efficiency while you are doing your show? Not that you are doing anything physically strenuous, especially sitting for 2-3 hours per show but your body does need care in order for you to perform your best during those hours on the air. It has to be trained to support you. Yawning, belching, smacking your lips because you are parched are all no-nos. No one wants to hear those noises, and microphones tend to amplify them. So, make sure you get a good nights sleep, make sure you do not eat less than an hour before your show and PLEASE do not eat during your show (unless it is part of the show and listeners know that). Finally keep a glass of water close by and don't be afraid to sip it but don't guzzle as that will cause belching! Also, no soda/pop/carbonated drinks less than an hour before or during the show either. That carbonation can sneak up and out at an inopportune time!
Do you have any experience about these tips that you can share with the other readers? Please comment below.
Are these tips helpful? Would you like more? Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS to get them as they are published. You'll get these tips weekly and throughout the week, I'll provide you important insight about broadcasting you should know.
Are you doing the necessary things to train your body to be at maximum efficiency while you are doing your show? Not that you are doing anything physically strenuous, especially sitting for 2-3 hours per show but your body does need care in order for you to perform your best during those hours on the air. It has to be trained to support you. Yawning, belching, smacking your lips because you are parched are all no-nos. No one wants to hear those noises, and microphones tend to amplify them. So, make sure you get a good nights sleep, make sure you do not eat less than an hour before your show and PLEASE do not eat during your show (unless it is part of the show and listeners know that). Finally keep a glass of water close by and don't be afraid to sip it but don't guzzle as that will cause belching! Also, no soda/pop/carbonated drinks less than an hour before or during the show either. That carbonation can sneak up and out at an inopportune time!
Do you have any experience about these tips that you can share with the other readers? Please comment below.
Are these tips helpful? Would you like more? Subscribe to the blog via email or RSS to get them as they are published. You'll get these tips weekly and throughout the week, I'll provide you important insight about broadcasting you should know.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Tuesday Talker Tips: #1 Training Your Mind
Like an athlete, to be a successful talk host you must train! Going for a daily jog is good for the mind, body and spirit but that is not what I am getting at with my talk host tips. We are thinking outside the box to make you think, act like and be a successful talk host. This is an ongoing series of radio talk host tips for those of you new to the format and even for the experienced pro. Subscribe to the blog to get these tips as they are published. Also get my opinion on the radio industry and more directly in your email.
Being knowledgeable about your topic is important, so reading up on it is obviously one way you should be training your mind. However there are things you subconsciously do that can undermine that knowledge and make you sound less than intelligent. I am talking about verbal pauses, the "uhs" and "ums".
You need to train your mind to not verbalize that your are thinking, and possibly stumbling over what to say next. It is better to be silent for a moment than to sputter verbal pauses. Training your mind to not allow verbal pauses is not too difficult, but it will take a lot of practice.
You should already be recording your shows and have a neutral party listen and critique you. Remember, getting critiqued is a good thing. It helps you understand your weaknesses and helps you develop them.
Listen back to your shows yourself and listen for the patterns of when you make those verbal pauses. Make note of those instances and provide yourself with strategically placed reminders of what not to do. For example, maybe you make verbal pauses just before you introduce your guest. On the introduction bio sheet of your guest, make a note "no verbal pauses" as a reminder to yourself. Don't be rigid about practicing, as you will sound rehearsed or mechanical. Also don't draw attention to your verbal pauses by saying something like "oops verbal pause there, sorry".
It could be very helpful to have notes strategically placed where you generally look during the show, as a visual and constant reminder.
More tips to follow!
Being knowledgeable about your topic is important, so reading up on it is obviously one way you should be training your mind. However there are things you subconsciously do that can undermine that knowledge and make you sound less than intelligent. I am talking about verbal pauses, the "uhs" and "ums".
You need to train your mind to not verbalize that your are thinking, and possibly stumbling over what to say next. It is better to be silent for a moment than to sputter verbal pauses. Training your mind to not allow verbal pauses is not too difficult, but it will take a lot of practice.
You should already be recording your shows and have a neutral party listen and critique you. Remember, getting critiqued is a good thing. It helps you understand your weaknesses and helps you develop them.
Listen back to your shows yourself and listen for the patterns of when you make those verbal pauses. Make note of those instances and provide yourself with strategically placed reminders of what not to do. For example, maybe you make verbal pauses just before you introduce your guest. On the introduction bio sheet of your guest, make a note "no verbal pauses" as a reminder to yourself. Don't be rigid about practicing, as you will sound rehearsed or mechanical. Also don't draw attention to your verbal pauses by saying something like "oops verbal pause there, sorry".
It could be very helpful to have notes strategically placed where you generally look during the show, as a visual and constant reminder.
More tips to follow!
Monday, August 13, 2012
A Reply to Fred Jacobs on Radio's Social Media Value
On Fred Jacob's blog today he talks about social media "friends with value".
This is somewhat misleading. After all, what station is actually running a proper social media channel to convert their own listeners into fans of their advertisers? So, first let's understand the difference of "influence" and "value". If you are tracking the virality of your station's posts, you are tracking "influence". If you are tracking specific ad campaigns that you are running on your social media channel for your advertisers, then you are tracking "value". But stations are not currently running ad campaigns for their advertisers on their social media channels. From my observations, stations are only interested in reposting the latest memes.
Sites like Klout and PeerIndex have been measuring influence for several years. And national brands are clearly interested in the influential social media leaders. But influence is not enough. Influence itself does not bring home the bacon. You can have a highly influential social media leader following you, but you have to know what they are influential about, and be selling something in that niche. If Lady GaGa tweeted that Pennzoil was on sale at Autozone, would her followers really show buying power? The same can be said of a station's audience influence. Will the station's influence and it's audience influence alone bring home the bacon for the brand?
Stations actually do not need followers with influence. What stations need to do, is a better job of connecting their followers to LOCAL advertisers through their social media channels. Of course using the "influencial listener" model, stations even have an opportunity to connect LOCAL non-listeners to THEIR advertisers, if done properly. But stations are not connecting their listeners to their local advertisers. Instead, right now stations seem more concerned with reposting the latest memes (no ROI there), and that is a misguided use of social media for radio stations because it does nothing for the station's advertisers. If I were an advertiser, I would ONLY advertise on a station that would actively bring their social media followers to my business or at a minimum, my website (not my Facebook page).
I can actually show stations how to get an ROI with their social media. I've written about it in Radio Ink and Allaccess. Contact me if you are interested in a free evaluation.
At a time when most radio brands are doing a reasonably good job of amassing “likes” on Facebook, the missing piece is connecting with these fans to achieve this outreach goal. Keeping in mind that most stations are scrapping for every available marketing dollar (and often coming up short), taking advantage of your “audience’s audience” just makes sense.
And now thanks to Google Wildfire, we can even calculate the ROI of brand advocacy and outreach programs.
This is somewhat misleading. After all, what station is actually running a proper social media channel to convert their own listeners into fans of their advertisers? So, first let's understand the difference of "influence" and "value". If you are tracking the virality of your station's posts, you are tracking "influence". If you are tracking specific ad campaigns that you are running on your social media channel for your advertisers, then you are tracking "value". But stations are not currently running ad campaigns for their advertisers on their social media channels. From my observations, stations are only interested in reposting the latest memes.
Sites like Klout and PeerIndex have been measuring influence for several years. And national brands are clearly interested in the influential social media leaders. But influence is not enough. Influence itself does not bring home the bacon. You can have a highly influential social media leader following you, but you have to know what they are influential about, and be selling something in that niche. If Lady GaGa tweeted that Pennzoil was on sale at Autozone, would her followers really show buying power? The same can be said of a station's audience influence. Will the station's influence and it's audience influence alone bring home the bacon for the brand?
Stations actually do not need followers with influence. What stations need to do, is a better job of connecting their followers to LOCAL advertisers through their social media channels. Of course using the "influencial listener" model, stations even have an opportunity to connect LOCAL non-listeners to THEIR advertisers, if done properly. But stations are not connecting their listeners to their local advertisers. Instead, right now stations seem more concerned with reposting the latest memes (no ROI there), and that is a misguided use of social media for radio stations because it does nothing for the station's advertisers. If I were an advertiser, I would ONLY advertise on a station that would actively bring their social media followers to my business or at a minimum, my website (not my Facebook page).
I can actually show stations how to get an ROI with their social media. I've written about it in Radio Ink and Allaccess. Contact me if you are interested in a free evaluation.
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