Fish Where The Twits Are

Sorry to have not posted in a few weeks, I’ve been bit by the Twitter bug. Let me tell you how amazing a rabbit hole this new micro blogging sensation is. It won’t make sense right away but give it time and you’ll soon realize the amazing power of Twitter. Here are a few best Twitter practices to get you started:

1) It’s a community, you have to follow people and give relevant information to the community in order to earn followers. It will start slow but if you stay with it you’ll begin to see accelerated follower growth.

2) Have a plan, be known for a few focused topics that make you but be careful, constant self promotion will not keep followers. A 1 to 5 ratio of self promo versus topical focus is a nice balance.

3) Check out some of the services that are out there:

a. Highly recommend Tweet Deck, will change Twitter forever for you!

b. Use an auto responder to be more instant for new followers, make the message interesting. I use Tweet Later but only for the auto respond option.

c. Use a tiny URL service that allows you to track link clicks, I personally love bit.ly.

d. Put it on your phone, awesome if you take public transit. I have a BB and use TwitterBerry. My buddy @clybecker (that’s Charlie’s Twitter handle or address in non-Tweet terms) has an iPhone and really enjoys TwitterPhone.

4) Finally check this article and the video I posted before. This will help covers some of the basic.

You’re saying great but what does this have to do with the radio industry; did you see Lily Allen’s Twitter fun on her West Coast US swing?

Now imagine this in radio land then think about tastefully tying in a sponsor with a clickable link?!? What is the value to a brand of being pushed in front of a passionate audience in an interactive manner today? Personal devices are becoming more important than any other possession. Radio needs to learn to stay on, interactive, and engaging on these new personal devices, it’s critical in my opinion.

If you make the leap to Twitter please search me out, my handle is @joshdirks.

Now What I Know......

Most of the things I spoke about in the last post you could get in an interview with a radio exec or by studying radio as an industry. There might be a little apologist in me but before I'm classified as such please let me state a few things I have learned about radio. I don't know of any website in the world that has the hyper local drawing power of radio. Hold on, I'm talking about targeted, specific web pages within minutes, hours, days, and weeks. This by my definition makes radio hyper local in nature as it is delivered today. It is the task of radio and marketers to augment their beliefs about radio and embrace this new opportunity. If radio websites could be turned into hyper local, turn key, social and search portals the bounds are limitless.

But I also mentioned marketers above; this groups needs to get their mind around creative and stop half baking the stuff at low cost only to be disappointed by the performance. If you are trying to reach Gen X or Y you better be willing to reach into you pocket. Creative needs to be targeted, relevant, and rewarding. Yes, I said rewarding, even if you are selling caskets find a way to make them laugh if you're going to market on a radio website. The best creative performance I have seen has been thought out, well targeted, and costly.

OK done with my rant, back to my point of radio is hyper local; going to a station event is a wild experience. It's a culture unto itself and I'm not talking about only a heavy rock or rap event, I've seen AAA formats who hold events that rival any 70's love fest. I do not say these things to be disparaging, this is a marketers dream. Hasn't the rant about online marketing always been that it cost a ton and reached people in BF Egypt? Radio provides a mega phone that multiple times an hour screams come to our website and do X. Additionally radio activates people all the time on how to spend their dollars; to what extent you ask? Please read the above about marketers and realize this was not intended to just online marketers. Web is not the only medium that has horrible, wore out, so tired a marching band could put it to bed, creative all over it, it's sad! This is probably why a universal expectation has never been published by either industry but it's a real interesting question. At least if you dip your toe into online marketing you get quantifiable results. As to prove this is not a jab at radio I'll post a blog soon on why radio needs to seriously think about how to do the same or except that the high dollar mark in radio has come and gone.

In summary radio provides an online environment but its existence is symbiotic with the on-air and on-site products that the medium offers. Are all necessary, no, but good marketing dollars say it doesn't hurt. If someone gets their head around the opportunity that radio provides if done correctly, tested properly, and syndicated dynamically the bounds are endless. If I could give you an opportunity to reach people online and in person would you not jump at that chance? If you are still with me after tonight, thanks for taking the time.