Tag: "Chris Miller Digital"
Stop Using This Word and Start Getting More Website Hits
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
Owner
SHAKER HEIGHTS — How can you get more website visitors? Here’s an idea you can start using right now.
Quit using the word “details” when you talk about your site on the air. You know what I’m talking about. How many times a day does your station say, “for all the details, log on to radio103.com!”
That’s EXACTLY what I need in my life … more details.
Short Ideas for a Short Week
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
Owner
SHAKER HEIGHTS – “Sorry, I quit paying attention!”
What attention span can we ask for these days to sell something? One of my clients created a 40-second video for an email project, and I was momentarily concerned it was too lengthy to keep people watching. Another client buys two :60 spots back-to-back on TV to show mini-documentaries.
And yet … we’re still offering to sell :60 spots, loaded up back-to-back, as if it’s 1990.
Good luck selling a lengthy ad online. When YouTube lets us skip the rest of an ad a few seconds in, and Facebook measures your ad in characters instead of columns or inches, don’t six-minute sets of :60s make you at least a little nervous? Roy Williams, the “Wizard of Ads,” says “Clarity is the new creativity.” Or, if I lost you during that last sentence, “Less is more.”
It’s Boston, but is it the Herald?
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
Owner
SHAKER HEIGHTS — As you read here in TALKERS, Boston Herald Radio debuted on Monday 8/5. The internet-only radio station plans to draw on talent and content from their print and online editions to create a new Boston-based news/talk outlet.
A newspaper used to be just something you held and read. TV news was what everyone sat down and watched a half-hour of on the tube back in the day. Radio news was the immediate one, the one that could go with you. Those days are gone. We’re no longer defined by our method of distribution.
The Social Media Trick You Don’t Know
You Know
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
Owner
SHAKER HEIGHTS — One of the hot phrases in social media and content management right now is “call to action.” It’s a phrase I remember hearing not long after I first got into radio. However, now it’s a major buzz word in the digital media world, where it’s a new and rapidly evolving concept.
As I learned it in radio, it was a phrase that basically asked for the sale for whatever was being promoted at the time. “So join us at noon and phone in your request.” “Make sure you come early for this special sale.” “We’re offering free trials of this special new weight loss product, but only if you call before midnight.”
A call to action is the tool that turns a flat spot, promo or jock liner into one that directs the listener to take some action. Thus, it takes something ineffective and makes it effective.
“I Knew You’d Like This, and that No One Else Would Show It to You”
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
SHAKER HEIGHTS –People sometimes pooh-pooh the power of social media because of the relatively small number of followers we have. However, did you know that you can turn a thousand Facebook “Likes” into a reach of a million over a year’s time? That kind of reach can then deliver millions of impressions in a year, too.
Every good programmer has a solid knowledge of what tactics work to deliver better Arbitron numbers over time. If you’re a PD, that’s just part of your job. Well, Facebook has a similar set-up that you can take advantage of to create more engagement, which then drives your social media stats up … and creates more brand usage for you. If you’re doing it right, that is.
Five Practical Digital Lessons Radio Can Learn from the Obama Campaign
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
SHAKER HEIGHTS — Politics aside, Barack Obama’s winning presidential reelection campaign has some great lessons for us about how to use these wacky new digital tools we have. There’s been a lot written about the campaign’s data-mining and information overlays and Facebook’s “open graph” and more. However, we’re not going any of those places now. Let’s stick to what you can do today.
Media All Fits Together
It’s easy to think about all the things we do as separate parts. Our on-air broadcast, on-site promotions, website, social media, email and texts can all feel like different projects. Meanwhile, our heaviest listeners and biggest clients want to use all those parts as interlocking pieces of a whole.
The Obama team didn’t start by thinking about what should go in a TV spot, what would be fun to do door-to-door and what might get some likes and shares on Facebook. They thought about what they needed to do to get members of certain demographic groups to come out and vote for the president. That goal drove what content was on each platform … and how those platforms fit together … and helped lead to their success.
How to Get a Brand-Building Website
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
SHAKER HEIGHTS — Maybe you have corporate people who have some control over the content and appearance of your website. Maybe you’re the lone person at your station that really cares about the website. If you’re in either one of these groups, you are not alone … not by a longshot!
I often hear digital issues spoken of in grandiose terms, so let me pass on a few practical website tips you can do at the station level, no matter what your corporate interactive people are doing. They’re often brilliant experts on the web, but they’re not experts on radio. They’re also certainly not experts on how the two fit together.
What’s the difference between your site and Google, YouTube and Facebook? Those sites have a clear reason for being, and clean, well-organized content. Get your page looking more Facebookish or YouTubeEsque, and you’ll go a long way towards building your website numbers. Here are some nuts-and-bolts actions to get more people back more often and clicking on more stuff.
Twitter Secrets Unlocked!
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
SHAKER HEIGHTS, OH — I’m going to give Twitter some love, by telling you three ways to use that platform to help build your radio brand.
BULLETIN SERVICE
“Bulletin” may mean different things for different formats or situations. On Twitter, you’re much less likely to get people to click on links than on Facebook. However, Twitter is a good way to rapidly send out information of some value to your fans. It might be a news or traffic headline, or when a new song will play, or when you’ll play a big contest next. I’ve been increasing Twitter fans for one client by making their Twitter feed about one thing and one thing only, and promoting that on their Facebook page.
See, we often treat Twitter as the little sister to Facebook. It’s not the same thing, and your opportunity is to make your Twitter feed clear and distinct from what you do on Facebook (or anywhere else). That’s why one big way to increase the value of your Twitter activity is to make it about something in particular. Many people are already using Twitter for information updates about things they’re interested in, so you’d be fitting in with their expectations.
