Tim Draper's Advantage And How You Can Use It

2-21-2103

Remember those old TV ads: "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen"? In just a couple of weeks, at Radio Ink's Convergence, Silicon Valley venture capital legend Timothy Draper will take the stage. When Tim Draper speaks, it's such a rare occasion, he's in such rarefied air, everyone stops to listen.

Why? Think about this: Since before the dot-com boom, virtually every major tech firm has come to Tim Draper, hoping to get him to invest. He's invested in many of the businesses that are household names today, and he's the inventor of the viral marketing concept.

To this day, everyone wants Tim Draper to invest. Not only is he a rainmaker, his investment in a company signals that company may well be about to become the next Facebook, Google, or Apple. He has been pitched by every hot startup in Silicon Valley ? and that means he sees every business plan and every trend, and he can tell you exactly what's next. He's the best-connected man in the tech world.

Why is this important to you and to your radio station? Tim will stretch your brain and expose you to concepts you've most likely never heard of. The things or companies that are coming. Would you have an advantage if you knew about the next major trend to be embraced by consumers? Do you want to be among the first to implement the next big thing in your market for your station? Tim is all about the consumer experience and about revenue.

You'll learn volumes by listening to what he has to say. You can hear Tim Draper, and other Convergence keynoters like John C Dvorak, Leo Laporte, and Norm Pattiz talk about what's next, how it applies to you today, and what you need to be doing now to generate new digital dollars. Give yourself and your station an advantage. Hop out to Silicon Valley for Radio Ink's Convergence. Just two days away from the office will give you fresh new income-generating ideas you can implement as soon as you return.

Convergence Early Bird Discount Ends Friday

See the Full Convergence Agenda HERE

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Dashboard Delivery is Radio's Biggest Advantage.

5-18-2012

When the most cutting edge minds meet in Santa Clara June 4th and 5th at Convergence 2012, a big topic of conversation will be the digital dashboard. Long gone are the days when vehicles roll off the assembly line with only an AM/FM stereo and CD player in the dash. Automobile manufacturers have recognized the importance of technology, to the consumer, and are dedicated to giving their customers everything they want. And, what they want is more. In the upcoming issue of Radio Ink magazine, Senior Group Manager for Blue Link at Hyundai Michael Deitz said what consumers see - and expect on the dash - has become a major factor in deciding on the purchase of a car. And auto manufacturers also believe the way radio will compete with new technology is to get with the program when it comes to HD radio.

New research from Mark Kassof & Co. reveals that radio?s availability in vehicles is its biggest edge over new audio technology such as Pandora. But is radio without the benefits of HD enough? Pandora listeners were asked: ?What is it about radio that makes it better than Pandora?? Availability in cars and trucks was volunteered by 13%...more than any other response. Closely related, 5% indicated that radio is available and accessible everywhere. And 6% find radio more convenient and easier to use than Pandora. You can read Kassof's entire study HERE

Kassof has done two previous studies on Pandora as part of his ListenerThink series, and every one leads him to more questions.  "The one we did last month indicated a strong preference for Pandora over radio among its listeners. Radio has real benefits to sell in its battle with Pandora. It has a number of advantages over Pandora. Marketing these edges it has over Pandora is the key to contending with it, in my opinion. And by "marketing," I mean promotion and product. Radio has to deliver on those aspects where listeners give it the edge -- like localism, information and personality, to name just three.

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Hyundai's Dietz says getting HD radio into the mainstream is going to be vital to compete on the dash. ?I think it really comes down to having album art as well as information about the song and the artist available and having richer content in its delivery. HD radio currently offers that as a mechanism because that is one of the areas where traditional radio is seen, really as inferior, among people who really are listening to audio. If they are using their iPod or using Pandora, they have much richer user interface design. I think that is the area where radio is catching up at this point. We offer Pandora and we are still looking at iHeartRadio and if that?s appropriate for our audience. I think you probably see more diversification when it comes to audio listening as we quote unquote evolve. It wasn't that long ago that we just had AM radio and then evolved to AM/FM. HD radio is another way that it is evolving. You also have satellite radio. We have Sirius XM that we offer in our vehicles. We made that standard as a brand some years ago. We responded really, to market demand and added in Pandora. I think you will see more and more of these internet based radios also coming into the vehicle.?"

And, Dietz says the infotainment on the dash, while maybe not as important as gas mileage, has become a trigger point. ?I would say that it is now becoming expected as a cost of entry. I also think it's become maybe a purchase trigger, where consumers will decide if car A doesn't have it, then they will go with car B. They expect to have a high level of technology in the vehicle and they expect that it be robust enough to be operating correctly, and also be easy to operate. I think consumer are really smart. They expect that they know that they have to drive first and then utilize their entertainment.?

Kassof tells Radio Ink, the Radio industry has plenty to worry about. "Because the very aspects of radio that give it an edge over Pandora  are aspects of radio that have been watered down and taken away. Major groups are cutting, cutting and cutting some more...which may help the short-term bottom line, but certainly not the product. Many stations aren't as local as they used to be.  Many don't provide the information and community connection that they used to.  Many have dumped personalities (and personality right along with it). So at the very time radio is most challenged by alternatives, many stations are relinquishing the very aspects of radio that its challengers can't duplicate!  Face it, if all this just comes down to who plays the most music, that's a losing battle for radio, long-term."

(5/18/2012 1:28:52 PM)
With the rash of recent pro-HD Radio articles and "studies", iBiquity appears to be in real trouble. Also, the recent push to get HD Radio into cell phones is a good indicator, too. I have also read that the automakers are having all sorts of technical problems with HD Radio. Since multicasting has been a bust for HD proponents, all bets are now on that silly Artist Experience, which most stations haven't even implemented, and it will never work properly. Outside of the glossy HD Radio paint, consumers just want better content on their favorite analog stations. Consumers have shown complete apathy towards HD Radio, and that is why iBiquity is trying to force it through the automakers. HD Radio is a seriously flawed technology and nothing will fit it. HD Radio has just been a huge distraction and embarrassment for the radio industry, and I'm sure the butt of many jokes.
(5/18/2012 11:52:35 AM)
Earth to other Old White Guys- if you are 20 years old you could care less how much your data plan costs. You don't have a land line, you might not even have cable, but you live on your cell phone 24/7.

Seriously, $20 dollars for extra data matters to a 20yo? Only in your dreams.

(5/18/2012 11:42:01 AM)
I like Pandora. At home. Or when my computer is connected to the network via Wi-Fi. I have decent external speakers.

In the car, forget it. I'm not using up my precious wireless data on streaming Pandora. I'm too cheap to be willing to pay for 30MB/hour for Pandora.

I connect an iPod Touch, via Bluetooth, to my car radio.

When wireless data is plentiful and cheap Pandora will flourish.

My next vehicle will have HD Radio. I can live without it for now.

(5/18/2012 11:32:23 AM)
Hyundai thinks that album art is important to drivers?! Give me strength!

The fact is that HD Radio is becoming mainstream, but not as fast as iBiquity or HD stations would like. The advantages are the sound quality and the additional content choices--album art is pretty far down the list.

Free broadcast radio has weathered the proliferation of non-free alternatives very well. Look how poorly satellite radio is faring. Pandora costs you data if used over 3G/4G.

(5/18/2012 11:25:11 AM)
You don't need a study to see the advantages of terrestrial radio; look at how poorly Pandora and is doing financially.

I have HD Radio in my Toyota. Advantages: 1) no ads on HD2. 2. Genres on HD2 not available on analog/HD1. 3. Superior sound quality on HD, with no static. Negative: reception can be spotty.

If not for HD I would connect my smart phone and listen to music from a MicroSD card. I'm not buying more wireless data to listen to Pandora!

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Immediacy Now Social's Advantage

The other day I was driving into Atlanta, listening to the traffic report on the local NPR station.  Apparently, there was a major accident directly ahead of me that had the 3 right lanes closed.  The announcer was very clear in pointing out 3 right lanes were still closed. I should have gotten off at the next exit and started taking the back roads.  But prior experience compelled me to stay the course. 

Traffic was actually moving pretty well, so I was soon at the location where the accident was ?still? being cleared.  All lanes were open.  No emergency vehicles, no wrecked cars?nothing.  Moments later, yet another traffic report alerted me to the 3 phantom lane closures.

From experience, I?d come to start assuming that what I hear in radio traffic reports probably happened 20-30 minutes ago.  I?m sure there was an accident.  I?m sure 3 lanes were closed.  But it was old news.  All of us in that area knew it, but the radio station didn?t.  Radio wasn?t giving the latest information.  They were giving the illusion they have the latest information.

Here was yet another example of something radio used to be valued for and do so well?live, useful, accurate information.  Infinitely faster than newspaper and television.  A lifeline in a world with no phones in cars.  But there?s a new media in town.  And people do have phones in their cars?really smart ones.

Take an inventory of all the information your station does or could disseminate:
? Weather
? Traffic
? Breaking News
? School Closings
? Album Releases
? Concert Info (including parking)
? Local Festival or Even Info (including parking!)
? Artist News
? In-town Celebrity Sightings
? Significant Deals from your Advertisers

This is all really valuable stuff to your listeners.  Are you going to make them wait until the end of an 8-song supersweep to get it, on the outside chance they?ll catch and comprehend it during the jock?s 7-second ?information break??  And will the jock have the most current info, or will they be reading off a card written last night?  Or is there a jock at all?

If you don?t embrace the immediacy of information at the same speed and accuracy that smartphone users can now collect and share it amongst themselves, your reputation as an information source will continue its slide into irrelevancy.  People will get the info somewhere else.  The only good news is you won?t be alone; the 30-minute network evening newscasts will slide into irrelevancy right along with you.

Takeaway: I don?t care if your religion dictates you play the Adele song 10 times in a row?the world doesn?t stop, and your station had better be posting and tweeting accurate information live and instantly so that your brand remains a go-to source for it.

Mike Stiles is a writer/producer with the social marketing tech platform, Vitrue, and head of Sketchworks comedy theatre. Check out his monologue blog, The Stiles Files.
Find him on Facebook or on Twitter @mikestiles

Links:
Adele: www.adele.tv
Vitrue: www.vitrue.com
Sketchworks: www.sketchworkscomedy.com
Stiles Files: www.mikestiles.com/stilesfiles
Stiles Facebook: www.facebook.com/mike.stiles

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5 Ways To Use Social Media To Your Advantage

by Loyd Ford

What value do you place in learning new things and how do you see your job or role growing in this business over the next  three to five years?  We are standing at a value crossroads in this business today and no matter who you are you need to develop new abilities and be able to showcase those abilities to those making critical employment and business value decisions.  How you see social media and how you effectively put that to work for you can play one critical role in adjusting your sails for continued success.  However, you must be able to frame the issue of social media as a true value for your employer.

Clearly, we are in the broadcast business.  Fanning success for Facebook and Twitter has no importance for broadcast brands. However, the different social media platforms should not be ignored.  To show true value in the use of these tools, you must first not mistake the value for the price.  Our jobs are to maintain and generate new value in the broadcast brands we use to reach listeners and help advertising clients build their businesses.  That has not changed.  Continuing to focus on our business while using new tools to help us get there allows us to generate steady (and improving) revenue and build value in our market.

Programmers know that what comes out of the speakers is of premium value to their brand.  The same content-based focus is true in your outreach in social media.  If you put a page up on Facebook and simply add a few promotions, there is no value. If you work to build your Facebook page and not your radio station, you also lose.  Social media does not have the same value as a big television campaign, a direct marketing campaign or an on-air promotion because these things all fill a different role in your success.  Treat social media differently.

Learn and have your team learn to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms to help you truly engage listeners with fun content that really engages them while returning them to your brand.  Social media can make your listeners feel closer to you. 

Here are five (5) ideas you can use in your social media to bring listeners closer to you.
1. Post engaging questions on your Facebook page about heart string oriented news stories (local if possible) and when possible encourage listeners to check out photos/additional content on your website.
2. Post videos in which you relate directly to something that impacts your life and your listeners? life.  This is personal (but should be something you don?t mind making public; this can be a child?s graduation as an example).  People love and respond to real, but make sure it relates to the audience you are trying to attract.
3. Post content focused on saving money for specific reasons tied to emotional aspects of your life (college education for children as an example).  Don?t just post money savers.  Tie it to the human need listeners can relate to and comment on.
4. If you have availability, post content asking listeners to submit a question to the new artist you will visit backstage while they are in town.  Then, follow up by posting the video of the artist and yourself backstage answering the question.  This makes it more personal.
5. Post a frustration that you may have in your personal life (again, that you can and want to make public) and ask advice on handling the subject.  When doing this, always turn it back to the listeners.

The value of social media should be based upon relationship with the personalities on your radio stations.  But don?t value social media as a trick.  Listeners want to connect to humans.  Be authentic and sincere in helping listeners find what they are looking for in the ?social media space.? Our real goal should be to provide what listeners are entertained by in social media while attracting them to our personalities and softly nudging them back to our brands when they make the choice every listener makes in the ?radio space.? 

Does your team have a plan that everyone understands for engaging Facebook ?fans??  Does your team have a specific goal in mind when they use Twitter?  Is your team skilled at using video and giving content to listeners that both entertains them and that brings them back to your station?
Reach out to Loyd via e-mail HERE
Visit his new Facebook page HERE

(8/4/2011 4:48:57 PM)
No worries. I mean that our job is not to increase the worth of Facebook and Twitter. Our goals must be or should be trained only to use these tools to increase and intensify our relationships with listeners.
(8/4/2011 11:36:35 AM)
When you say, "Fanning success for Facebook and Twitter has no importance for broadcast brands" what exactly do you mean? I'm thinking I'm in violent disagreement, but maybe I'm missing your point. Thanks.

Max

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Embrace Social Media and Blogging to Create an Advantage

by Kerry Brewer

The latest studies and research show that stations that use blogging and social media to supplement their online presence, gain more in listener loyalty than stations that do not. The use of social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can be very creatively used by any radio station today to not only instill listener loyalty, but to drive branding as well. As a matter of fact, by not embracing social media and blogging, you are telling today?s progressive online listener that you do not care to cater to their demographic requirements.

One of the great benefits of embracing social media to promote your station and its online streams, is that it is free. I definitely do recommend however, that if you are going to use social media, and particularly blogs, that you need an in-house staff member that knows the details of your marketing mission and can effectively create and maintain that online effort. After all, the everyday events, remotes, interviews, guests and promotions that a radio station is involved with on a day-to-day basis, has to be then translated over to these mediums by someone with integral knowledge.

Twitter is perfect for setting up a page to send your playlist information to, and display artist/title/album, album art and/or show information. This is a very easy thing to do. All you do is set up a free Twitter page, and export your playlist metadata to the page using an API script. Ok, so that may not be your expertise, but that?s why you have a tech department, webmaster, or web development firm. It takes 5 minutes and then you can start promoting it, linking it on your site, telling your listeners about it on-air, and by whatever other means you use to get the word out.

Setting up a Facebook fan page is also very simple to create and maintain. Here is another chance to promote your station and events, document interviews and guests, create discussions with fans and more. Facebook also give your listeners the ability to post messages and comments, and also click on your ?Like? button, linking themselves to you. This information is also shared with others and a viral effect takes place, pushing your brand out there even further. Listener-interactivity is the key to keeping listeners? attention longer. The more ways you have to communicate with your listeners, the higher the loyalty rate and recognition factors.

Set up a LinkedIn page if you haven?t already. This may be more applicable to the individuals in the organization, as LinkedIn is seen more as a corporate and business networking platform. It?s a great way for the execs and DJs to establish a profile, backgrounders, create links to your other social media sites, web sites and blogs and further promote your image and mission. LinkedIn also has many industry organizations that you can join and link up with others of the same business and networking mindset. Easy to do, but like the others, it takes time to create and maintain. Again, this is more of an individual thing.

Blogging is one of the easiest and best ways to promote what you are doing on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis. Anyone can set up a free blog using something like WordPress or Blogger, customize it pretty much any way you want, add heading, titles and keywords, and start publishing your own material intra-day of you want. You can set up an email subscriber box so visitors and listeners can join your mailing list and keep up with the station?s events and promotions. You can pull RSS feeds, and even your Facebook and Twitter posts can all be integrated into the blog using simple APIs that are already built-in. The blog allows you the ability to become a publisher in real-time, and at the same time, pull all your social media together into one nice and neat piece of online real estate.

All of these things done together, by the right person, using up-to-date content and information of interest, will definitely help to set you apart from the competition. You need to show the listener that you care about them by using these common forms of new media, which are not-so-new anymore. The right staff member that knows your organization can easily enhance and shape your image like never before. There was a famous Clint Eastwood spaghetti western called, ?For a Few Dollars More.?  All it takes is a few dollars more, or a few hours more, spent on creating and maintaining your social media profile to notch yourself up in the game. It?s not ?new media? anymore, it?s a required action for every broadcaster, big or small.

Kerry Brewer is Sr. Managing Director at Securenet Systems, a leading provider of online streaming services to the worldwide radio industry. He can be reached at kbrewer@securenetsystems.net or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/kerrybrewer.

(5/25/2011 6:15:53 AM)
It’s no brainer to see that social media is here to stay for good. Given vast variety of the existing channels to choose and stick with, it’s time for such a hot space to enter into a new category. There is a need for a portal to provide a quick and intelligent decision for both the consumer and the enterprise about their online connections.

A Platform to Help us to Distinguish Our Quality vs. Quantity Friends, Fans, Followers, and Companies

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Flickr and others have been doing a decent job of providing additional marketing exposure and even in some cases, additional revenue. However, as more and more social networking sites pop up, how do you manage your brand across all these channels? Maybe more importantly, which one of these sites should you select as the one that will help you best reach your target audience?

This glut of information reminds me of the early 90’s when WWW was adopted broadly by the general public. Every company rushed to have a presence, to the point it became literally impossible to find the right information on the Web. That’s when a better generation of search engines – at first the Yahoo! and then Google – entered the market and helped us find the most relevant information by just typing simple keywords in their search box.

Then came Web 1.0 & 2.0 – Youtube, Flickr, myspace, Facebook, Twitter and countless others have turned everyday people into content producers, influencers and experts. We basically tripled down on the information overload How do you know which channels to select for deploying your social media strategy? How do you know which one is the right channel to let your fans and followers to find you, your products, and services? Most importantly, who is Joe Smith that is recommending that person, that company, that product?

I hope my awesomize.me can accomplish such a mission. The site is not another social networking platform. Yet the portal to all your existing social media channels. The platform helps you, your fans, your potential clients to make an intelligent decision as to which company to connect to or follow via which social media channels and why? It’s free!

Elias
CEO & Founder
http://awesomize.me

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