Why Fit In When You Can Stand Out
Why fit in, when you can stand out. #ideas #creativeideas pic.twitter.com/gvk22PH36x
— David Tyler (@DavidTylerVO) October 27, 2015
How Social Media is Reshaping the News
On the surface social media has changed the way news travels, the prime example being the “Arab Spring” four years ago where street level news cascaded to a world wide audience in real-time. But lurking below the obvious trend, is a burgeoning maturation that will affect the way broadcasters do their jobs.
Social media as a source for news has been growing and like it or not it has changed the way people consume broadcast news…or at least what they are expecting from broadcast news.
If your TV station or network is still doing news the “old” way, which is to say assuming viewers are not exposed to top news stories throughout their day, how loyal do you think your viewership will be by the time you hit the air? Will they mutter “I already know this” and change the channel?
The Numbers
When you consider that 64% of Americans are using Facebook and half of those users say they get their news there, you’re talking about 30% of the general population who get their news from Facebook. That’s nearly 90-million people! Likewise, 51% of the population are using YouTube and some of them are even buying views to grow their channel as buying youtube views is a neccessary evil due to the endless competition on it. Out of those 51% a fifth of whom report that they get their news there, that works out to 10% of the population. While 19% of the population are using LinkedIn vs. 16% using Twitter, more twits use the site to get their news than LinkedIn users…about 8% vs. 3% of the general population. (Pew Research).
With growing numbers like that, if you haven’t already, you need to re-evaluate the way you’re presenting the news to your viewers.
The Big Question
The big question you need to answer is how can you use your resources, writers, researchers and talent to bring the viewer more than they could get through social media? How can you add value? Ask yourself what are viewers coming to see when they tune in, a rehash of what they already know or something more in-depth…more detail…more something?
Are you delivering? If you’re not, what can you do different?
Steps To Take
Here are some things to keep in mind:
- be aware of what news stories are trending on social media (local, regional, national)
- understand why those stories matter to your viewers
- decide what you can do to add value to those stories in a way social media can’t
Social media will never replace traditional journalism. Truthfully, social media as it is now is pushing journalists to do better and that’s a good thing for everyone.
How has social media reshaped the way you prepare and present the news? Leave your comment below.
The Problem with Small Businesses Marketing Strategy
When it comes to getting new customers my mantra has always been “stop communicating, start connecting” and there is no better streamlined tool for doing that today than social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter.
The problem starts when small businesses focus all of their attention on that aspect of marketing and push aside the other 80% of their marketing strategy! And so it becomes imperative of one to be able to perfectly elucidate the a company’s vision & motives. If you think what you write as the company’s vision isn’t upto the benchmark or upto your satisfaction, then you always have the option of hiring business plan writers online.
Rich Gordon, a professor at Northwestern University and Zachary Johnson, the CEO of Syndio Social released a study that suggests that 50% of small businesses website visitors arrive through social media means as compared to only 18% for large business websites.
What it may look like is that small business is using social media more effectively than large business but in fact what this data tells me is that when it comes to marketing themselves, small businesses seem to rely far too much on social media, only a part of which, constitutes what’s on this Salesforce blog explaining proper customer engagement.
How are large businesses attracting customers to their website the other 81.3% of the time?! Imagine how much you could increase your bottom line if you could learn to do the same thing….but on a small business marketing budget.
Bottom Line: Watch, learn and mimic how large companies market themselves in the offline world to increase YOUR bottom line.
Effective Radio Imaging is ‘Brand Advertising’
One of the biggest misconceptions of what radio imaging is, is that it’s ‘marketing’ when in fact it isn’t at all, it’s ‘advertising’.
The difference between marketing and advertising is that marketing talks about the company (in this case the radio station) where advertising talks about the consumer (in this case the listener) selling the positive attributes of the product, your radio station!
Radio listeners are a hardened bunch, which comes from years and years of being bombarded with messages not just through the radio, but through the TV, on billboards, even in public bathrooms. Everywhere they go someone is trying to sell them something! Radio listeners have become quite adept at using their bullshit alarms. When they hear BS it shuts out the message. Radio imaging that takes the ‘marketing’ route is automatically ‘STOPPED’ from entering the brain and your message that you are “The Rock Station the REALLY Rocks!” is lost in the ether.
There are two kinds of advertising:
- ”call to action’ advertising and
- ”brand’ advertising.
In the case of radio imaging ‘call to action’ ads are your typical: “Listen at 5 for the Drive at Five” or “coming up in the next 30 minutes your chance to win…” a message that asks the listener to do something (listen) at a particular time of the day or to do something specifically as it relates to the radio station.
Effective radio imaging is ‘brand’ advertising
In order to do effective brand advertising you need to first understand how you are perceived by your listeners. I’ve said it many times before “branding starts in the listeners mind”. Once you understand that you can build on it and then help the listener to expand what he believes to be true about your station with each progressive imaging liner…with each progressive imaging campaign.
If you want to win the hearts of your listeners you need to get into their minds. And the key to getting into their mind is not through marketing…it’s through brand advertising.
Consumers don’t buy products anymore they buy brands. What are you doing to build your radio station’s brand?
5 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Radio Imaging
THINK OF RADIO IMAGING as the packaging around your radio station.
Imagine for a minute, a box of Tide, Coca Cola or Wheaties sitting on the grocery store shelf in a plain brown package with black crayon lettering and drawings to describe what’s inside: Soap. Soda. Cereal.
These companies put a lot of money, time and research into their products, why would they give up when it came to creating it’s distinctive packaging?
Why should you…?
Download this free report and get your radio imaging back to where it should be…the distinctive packaging for your product.
5 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Radio Station’s Imaging (.pdf 520kb)
DOWNLOAD NOW
Is Your Message Relevant?
Whether I’m lecturing on the subject of radio, writing for media or how to market your small business, one of my main mantras is that sex doesn’t sell…fear sells! It’s one of those pesky survival instincts that we still carry around from our caveman days.
If your message isn’t relevant to my immediate situation (and survival) I won’t pay attention to it. Craft your message so that it’s relevant to my immediate situation and your message will be burned into my memory.
What’s On Their Mind
Think about what’s on the mind of your potential client as they are discovering your message. Are they exposed to your message while reading a magazine? What’s the subject of the magazine and how can you craft your message to coincide with what they’re thinking about? Perhaps they are exposed to your message in the form of a poster in a hockey arena…how can you create a relevant message to sell your product/service?
Being Relevant
If you’re a home decorator and you’ve decided to attract all of the hockey Moms of your neighbourhood at the arena with a poster, play up the fact that while they’re “…stuck here at the arena, who’s updating the look of your home so you won’t look ridiculous when all the other hockey Moms come over for coco later”…?
How can you make your small business message relevant for the places you’ve decided to do your marketing?
One marketing message for all situations won’t work, you need to make it relevant!
