Is Internet Radio an Effective Marketing Tool?

This post was written by Elijah Young and published in the Social Media Examiner.
If you’re not a huge fan of writing, it’s probably safe to say that you’ve considered speaking your content instead of organizing it into written words. If that’s true, then you’ve probably heard of several podcast-type platforms, all the way up to the big dog in the industry, BlogTalkRadio.
Because demand is the main driver of more podcasts, platforms have evolved to add a number of social and practical features to entice would-be hosts to join their community. Today, we add a new face to that group with Spreaker. Spreaker gives you two immediate calls to action. First, “Free the DJ inside you,” which doesn’t really appeal to the inner marketer in me. Second, they ask you to “Talk to the world.” Not a bad start, but I wanted to see if Speaker was all taglines and hullabaloo before I passed a final judgment.

Reasons to Give Spreaker a Try

Fun Interface/Tools

Spreaker just looks cool. When you pop open the interface you actually feel like a real DJ… for a second. Spreaker gives you the option to record your session for future posting, or you can be brave and record a live session immediately. Be warned that if you record a live session, it will be automatically posted on your Facebook wall, so be careful when you test the platform out for the first time.

You have clear areas to tell you how much time you have left, and how much time there is until the next commercial break. Spreaker handles all commercials, so it’s kind of like a DIY (do it yourself) Talktainmentradio.com. You also have the option to upload samples of music for your show into a toolbox for use at any time, and even a pool of sound effects to integrate into your broadcast.

Great Tutorial Videos

One of the issues marketers have with this medium is that often there isn’t enough direction from the makers of the platform you’re using on how to use it effectively. Spreaker really stood out here. In six very helpful videos, you feel like a Spreaker pro in less than half an hour.

Unfortunately, this is the end of the good news…

Reasons to Give Spreaker the Boot

Nothing New

Notice that the previous section is really short? That’s because there’s really nothing more to say about Spreaker. It’s a DJ-type platform with a mixer that lets you record “shows” and add soundtracks as you wish. Sound familiar? Of course, there are tons of platforms out there that do the exact same thing (minus the mixing live). Spreaker seems to have focused a lot of time on the “fun” aspect of their platform, and might have slacked on the side where they offer something new or different from their competitors. When you’re in an industry with a large entrenched competitor like BlogTalkRadio, it’s important to carve out your niche and differentiate yourself, which brings me to my next point:

Is this for marketers?

Looking through the existing shows on Spreaker.com, you’ll notice that they’re about 90% radio shows (with music) and 10% talk shows. There’s probably a reason for this. Spreaker is carving out its niche to be music-focused, and it’s being adopted well by that niche.

Unfortunately for many marketers, that’s not a realistic avenue to use when reaching your customer base. Even their blog posts unapologetically lean towards the music mix radio shows, not showcasing a talk alternative until recently. Sometimes you just need to read the tea leaves…

In my testing of the platform I ended up feeling more like a DJ and less like a communicator of anything valuable. Don’t get me wrong, I like Spreaker and Spreaker is fun to use. I’ll even go as far as saying Spreaker is a great niche platform; unfortunately, I believe that the general marketer is not included in that niche.

The Final Judgment

For the general marketer, Spreaker is the Easy-Bake Oven to BlogTalkRadio’s Cameron Mitchell Restaurant, minus the burned fingers. This is a tool that can entertain you and your friends for a while, but I fear that it will end up tucked away in marketers’ “online closet of abandoned platforms” when the novelty wears off, and it will.

This is a tool that caters to music mixing and, to be honest, that’s not what many of us are looking to do with an online radio show. I imagine that the sound effects and cool tools are fun to play with, but they don’t offer any long-term benefit to the user or the listener. At the end of the day, an awesome-looking embedded audio widget isn’t enough to choose Spreaker over a tool like BlogTalkRadio in terms of functionality and community.

Spreaker makes the mistake of thinking that it’s competing with terrestrial radio… on the Internet. The problem is that terrestrial radio is competing with tools much more advanced and is just now beginning to catch up in the social space when it comes to distributing content online. Spreaker seems to have forgotten about the 800 lb. gorilla already dominating online audio (as well as the myriad of second-tier competitors). They’ve chosen a foe they can beat handily, but that unfortunately is irrelevant.

Have you used any online radio show recording program to promote your brand? If so, which one? Let us know about your experience leaving a comment.

3 Social Media Lessons To Be Learned From The Google vs. Facebook PR Fiasco

In case you haven’t been following the story, PR agency giant Burson-Marsteller admitted last week, amidst great gnashing of teeth and ludicrous scandal, that they were hired by Facebook to circulate anti-Google privacy stories. Facebook paid Burson to try and plant anti-Google stories in major media outlets, but the ham-handed employees at the center of the campaign refused to disclose their client--Facebook--to reporters, a clear violation of industry ethical standards. This is a pretty big black eye for the PR industry. It’s also a very teachable Social Media moment.

Google wants to play in the social network space, Facebook doesn’t want them to, and some PR agency thought it was a smart business decision to take money to get in the mud with the two of them. Burson thought this was a good idea? This agency, one of the most powerful PR agencies around, had just won the SABRE North American Agency of the Year award days before the story broke. Did they really think they were going to get by with this type of shenanigans? And these questions lead to the teachable moments:

Lesson #1 – Know Your Influencers in Social Media

Burson-Marsteller made several slip-ups but one that is worth noting is that they deleted a Facebook post from Jessica Murray. She is the Global Community Manager and social media goddess for the international professional group SocialMediaClub.org. Jessica knows her stuff, she comments on professional conduct in the social media industry, and she is connected to tens of thousands of professional level social media business people through her extended network. Jessica noticed the deletion and was not amused. She used her influence to spread the word about the mess. "That was wrong," a Burson representative told Wired. "We`ll be reaching out to Jessica, and we`ll let her put her post back," the representative said, adding that the company`s Facebook page has received "a lot of profanity."

Not all Twitter and Facebook freaks are alike. The agency kind of screwed with the wrong one with their behavior (and Jessica was likely not the only one the agency treated this way!), so know your influencers. You might not be able to shush out every little homegrown blogger that happens to go viral, but it’s wise to hedge your bets when the big guns show up to visit.

Lesson #2 – There is No Such Thing as a Secret Anymore
In the old day pre Web and social media communication was slow, towns were poorly connected (if connected ever at all), plenty of people couldn’t read or “do numbers” and much of the inner workings of business were kept on a need to know basis. It’s not those times anymore so wake up! There are very few industries that actually need secrecy, so it’s time to ditch a business model that requires it.

The only way Burson could have possibly thought their stunt would work is if no one found out. Have they heard of the Internet? HELLO! You think when it’s easy to google just about anything and anybody who’s nobody gets paid for dirt, just to feed the 24/7 global information beast, that news about a Google-Facebook tangle wouldn’t surface? Do you think those secrets will stay secret when you snub people like Jessica? The audacity is staggering. Relying on secrets is not reliable at all in the new Social Media World Order. Get rid of it where you can. Be social, be open, be actually transparent, and be real.

Lesson #3 – Grow a Pair and Learn to Say No
There’s always going to be mismatched agencies and clients. If you are a PR professional and someone asks you to do something, like black hat SEO or tricky trick accounting, don’t take the client. And if your marketing and advertising agency advices you to throw enough numbers at the wall and see what sticks, any publicity is good publicity, and hey, let’s spy on your competition, better think twice about working with them.

Legal guidelines and a sound social media policy is required to handle these situations. Taking the gig in the first place was a bad idea and then how Burson’s social media department handled the situation made things worse. Without either the courage or a policy, employees will wander as they will in the Social landscape and make decisions that aren’t in alignment with your mission. Don’t let them. Whether you’re in PR or Social, you should learn to say NO.

PR isn’t News – Get It!
PR people want what we do to seem like objective news, but it’s not. It might be news, but it’s not reporting and it often steps into advertising and spin. It’s especially not objective news when there is an agenda laying underneath the PR release that is nefarious or at best opaque. Every honest PR person knows this. Every Social Media professional knows this.
If the conduct of the PR industry gets sideways with the ethos of Social, someone will get hurt. Don’t let it be you. Learn from this fiasco and do better.

Picture courtesy of Creative Commons attibution license by qwrrty

Hasta La Vista, Baby! Arnold’s Next Act Gives PR Lessons for Scandal

“I’ll be back.” Given the disgust and anger (yet no one seems surprised) spewing across the Twitosphere, there are plenty of people who would prefer that Arnold Schwarzenegger said “hasta la vista, baby,” says Ashley McCown, President Solomon McCown & Co.

But, he is walking in the well-worn steps of other cheating pols and celebrities who have made it back on the main stage. Cheating on your wife and even fathering an illegitimate child is no death sentence for our public figures. Just ask Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich who is now married to the woman he had an affair with or Eliot Spitzer. CNN gave him his own show just two years after his scandal went public and he left his office in shame.

Like it or not, Arnold will be back.

What matters, from a crisis communications perspective, is what he does in the immediate days and weeks to come. So let me offer up a three-act script …

TRUE LIES

Everyone is marveling at how Arnold managed to keep this under wraps for 10 years, but now that it is out, the odds of other allegations surfacing just went up. Way up. There have been rumors of affairs and groping for years, which he always dismissed. He won’t be able to do that any more. One of the principles of crisis communications is to put the bad news out before others do it for you and take responsibility. Looks like Arnold did that or was forced to do that over the weekend.

The media will be on a search and destroy mission. If there are other skeletons in the closet, they will find them. Or other women who kept silent all these years will feel emboldened or will be enticed to come forward. Remember all the other women Tiger Woods slept with? Arnold needs to get out of the media cycle as soon as he can, so if there is more, he should: Put the bad news out there himself.

By doing so, he would avoid a slow drip of more salacious allegations that will keep “Arnold” at the top of Google searches for weeks to come.

John Edwards can hardly be considered the poster boy for good behavior, but he has managed to stay out of the limelight since Elizabeth’s death and focused on his family. Out of respect for his wife and family, who he has deeply hurt, the newest member of the Bad Boys’ Club should: Keep a low profile.

That’s not easy in Hollywood, but he is an actor after all. Every public outing he makes will be scrutinized. If he smiles, he will be criticized for being callous while his family suffers. If he looks serious, inferences will be drawn about how he is coping.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

The reality is there are plenty of people and organizations that may want to keep their distance. Top of the list: the Republican Party. Fathering a love child with the housekeeper is not exactly in keeping with the party’s family values so he won’t be headlining fundraisers any time soon.

Arnold should weigh each public appearance carefully before stepping out, first and foremost for how it impacts his family. Secondarily, he needs to consider the impact his presence may have on charities and other organizations that in happier times thought he would be a draw. Now, he is more likely to draw a media scrum. As a result, he should: Bow out of public appearances for charities and others.

And what about the Hollywood movie machine? Arnold is starring in two upcoming films and producers have been quick to say the scandal will have no impact on filming or release dates (even though Arnold apparently queried his agency, CAA, about the possibility of putting these projects on hold late Thursday). For the long term, “Cry Macho” producer Albert Ruddy put it this way: “This is not gonna be a black eye for a guy with an astounding career.” He’s probably right.

ERASER

The Arnold scandal may lead the news for now, but barring any further revelations, the story will recede. There will be the obligatory “bare all” interviews with the housekeeper and at some point Arnold will do his own mea culpa interview. While we may not forgive or entirely forget, at some point, we won’t care anymore. And sadly, there will be another celebrity scandal to take its place.