MikeOn

Behavior By Design

Tue, 29 May 2012 17:37:38 -0400

Yes there is a reason that Facebook has triple-downed on photos. There is a reason why Pinterest is off like a rocket as the #3 sharing site on the web. There is a reason behind YouTube and Twitter obsession. But what everyone will find interesting is the science…the “why” behind the addiction users have to these sites. And it is an addiction. Don’t just post stuff. Find out what kind, what time, how often and what else you need to make your site a habit. Radio can use this science to its advantage also. Listen to Behavior by Design.

http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/05/first-video-of-my-behavior-by-design-talk-creating-addictive-products.html

Why Social Media Exists

Wed, 23 May 2012 13:38:00 -0400

The essence of why social media exists in the first place is…explained largely by science.

I have always said that unless we know “the why” the rest is just data of diminishing value. I discovered these studies last night. They focus on the neuroscience that will help us understand “the why” behind Facebook and other social networks where we enjoy seeking and liking.

To over simplify this research, it comes down to “the need for emotional gratification”. To quote one study – “Using products or services for emotional gratification is nothing new; some of the most valued things on earth are those that have the ability to transport us quickly from pain to pleasure. For example, we laud the ability of painters or musicians to move us with their art. Facebook, and the companies like it, are the new tools we use to quickly elevate our moods”.

Your Brain on Facebook…”We’re giving people something that deeply excites the brain in highly condensed form, which keeps them coming back. After all, the brain is built to minimize danger, and maximize rewards”.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/your_brain_on_facebook.html?awid=4944464826693272441-3271

Spotting the Next Facebook: Why Emotions are Big Business…”The power of this universal human need for social acceptance and connection helps explain how the company grew well beyond college campuses and now touches one in eight people on the planet”.

http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/05/spotting-the-next-facebook-why-emotions-are-big-business.html

Social media are like candy for the brain…”researchers found that the act of disclosing information about oneself activates the same sensation of pleasure in the brain that we get from eating food, getting money or having sex. It’s all a matter of degrees of course”

http://sunsent.nl/JHCmTp

These are amazing revelations broadcasters can use in the decision process as to what content is relevant in connecting to listeners. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube whether intentional or accidental all have these triggers in common. Radio has always had this ability to “elevate moods” with music but listeners want more now. Will we give it to them on their terms?

Are You In A Technology Loop?

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:35:13 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jT0JT3N47g

Relevance and Cannibalism

Fri, 11 May 2012 17:13:12 -0400

I’ve concluded that people leave relationships of any kind due to “lack of relevance”. At some point because you weren’t sensitive to or in touch with the current or changing needs of the target customer you become irrelevant to their path in life so the relationship changes for the worse and then dies.

There is such clarity in this quick Bloomberg interview with Ashton Kutcher. He really gets the state of media as it is at this moment. At the 1 minute market he talks about fragmentation. At the 2 minute mark he talks about the need for cannibalization. (Apple is a cannibal!) Anyone who owns a media channel of any kind should listen to the points he’s making. This is who you’re competing against for relevance in the lives of you customer.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/92430555/

Dear Radio...

Wed, 09 May 2012 18:48:00 -0400

Dear Radio…

The question that has been on every tongue at any and all gatherings of broadcasters: “Is Pandora radio?” The question I ask myself is “Why does radio care what Pandora calls itself?”

One of the things I learned early on in my tenure at The Research Group and then spent many years teaching others was the concept of strategic warfare…more specifically the rules of defense. How do you defend when under attack? One of the keys is to “know the difference between useful and useless attacks and allow useless attacks.”

According to Jacobs Techsurvey 8 – even Pandora users are split but leaning “NO” as to whether the Internet pure play should be considered “radio” – 43% “yes” – 49% “no.” Radio let Pandora miss-brand themselves.

Also according to Techsurvey 8, of the main reasons why they’re AM/FM listeners, favorite songs and DJs are on top of the list. Pandora lets algorithms pick the music and they have no talent. They are not human, yet that’s what listeners want in their local radio station. Radio, let Pandora be a science project.

It’s time for self-examination. The very first rule of defensive marketing warfare is defending what’s important to the base target user. For radio, that would mean re-investing in talent and listener research because this is no time for guessing what consumers want. The key is about radio remembering what radio is - what radio does best - and that’s to serve listeners. In order to do that, we need to know them on a more personal level than ever before. Radio seems to have lost focus on its purpose. It often appears to be focused on maximizing shareholder value, selling things and getting ratings. Radio’s real purpose is to inform, entertain and provide solutions for listeners. Shareholder value maximizes, things sell, and ratings happen as a byproduct of listener obsession and satisfaction.

You have important, relevant emotional characteristics that Pandora does not. The biggest advantage is that listeners trust you. So, the important question to be asked is, “Is radio losing that trust? Trust is earned every day. Radio is not sharing with or touching listeners like it once did. How can we be a constant companion when there is no one on the air, no one replying to emails, or even answering the phone? Back announcing is not sharing. The less we share relevant information or make them laugh, the less emotional connection there is. When we lose relevance, we lose emotion, we lose trust and we become more Pandora-like and the relationship withers. In the words of Gary Vaynerchuk, “If you’re not entertaining or have expertise you’ve got no shot”. This is also how radio will lose the dashboard.

Warren Buffett just invested $142M cash in a newspaper company serving 63 markets in the South! I thought newspaper was dead? Buffett said “In towns and cities where there is a strong sense of community, there is not more important institution that local paper”. No one is saying these kinds of things about radio. This is exactly what people should be saying about radio.

Your future success will depend on how many people decide to interact with you. Listeners will continue to engage with you if the content/reasons are relevant and personal (what’s in it for them?). What are you doing every day to provide solutions to problems and improve people’s lives? When you have real answers to these questions only then will the platform to connect on matter. This is how to stay relevant in cars.

Are you going to be neutralized by the Internet or use it in combination with your well earned advantages? Bottom-line for radio: stop worrying about Pandora. If you need to look over your shoulder then keep your eye on Facebook, Amazon and Apple. They are changing your listeners’ worlds.

Dear Pandora...

Tue, 08 May 2012 02:54:00 -0400

The question that has been on every tongue at any and all gatherings of broadcasters, “is Pandora radio?” The most recent answer based on research not opinion is both yes and mostly no. According to Jacobs Tech Survey 8 – even Pandora users are split as to whether the Internet pure play should be considered “radio” – 43% “yes” – 49% “no.” Pandora boasts it’s a new kind of radio. (What does that even mean?) It’s my opinion the question is irrelevant. The questions I ask myself are “why does Pandora want to be radio” and why doesn’t Pandora want to be Pandora?

Chris Spiek of the Re-Wired Group said in a Forbes article recently – Branding experts and customers agree that the world doesn’t need another “me too” car, music site or energy drink. Imitation may be flattering but it isn’t inspiring.” To quote Mike McCue Flipboard Co-founder, “I’d rather compete with 1,000 copycats than 1,000 innovators”. Stanford Professor Steve Blank talks about the four paths of startups. Pandora, please watch and see if you recognize your path.

(http://bit.ly/K8Bp4B).

Did I miss the research data that said radio listeners are clamoring for “a new kind of radio”? Seth Godin is famous for telling business to invent a new category so you can own it. Create your own path. Apple is the best example of this but the Internet has many more. So why would Pandora want to compete in a category that’s full? Not to mention a category that many think is irrelevant or at least less relevant every day with all the new digital choices people have now.

It’s my belief to succeed you obsess over your customers and not divert your focus to the competition. Its clear Pandora branding doesn’t match the Pandora user perceptions. Pandora your users have defined you and I’ve not heard one person say “Pandora is a new kind of radio”. You are what many wish radio should be. The good news is again according to Tech Survey 8 - nearly half of those who listen to Pandora believe your music is better than the stuff they hear on commercial radio. From a business POV you have a very unique and engaging sales story and it’s not commodity ad sales. You can hyper-target active listeners in specific zip codes and zero in the local business message with documentable ROI which traditional radio has not found a way to do. You have so many unique qualities and benefits in product, service and sales that are so…Pandora. Imagine Pandora-like experiences or partnerships with Pandora-esque products and services (think Fab.com - Thrillist.com) where you charge a premium.

Pandora, be proud of what you are…celebrate your uniqueness, your individuality. You own a category and you don’t seem to realize it. You have risen to the rarified air of a one name brand. No explanation necessary. When people say Pandora…it’s understood. I have my own Pandora incubator, my 18 year old son. To him Pandora is about music discovery. Now that’s a personally relevant benefit. That’s “what’s in it for him”. Whether its classics or new music…what’s new music to him he finds on Pandora.

Pandora, you are succeeding because you are different than radio in ways that are very relevant to those who love you as Pandora NOT because you are a new kind of radio. Stop telling people what you want to be and hear your users when they tell you what you are to them. Facebook never said they were better than MySpace…they just were in personally relevant ways. So be the best Pandora you can be…not a better than radio Pandora. Remember in the movie Social Network when Sean Parker told Zuckerberg to “drop the the…just Facebook”? Link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEgk2v6KntY

Drop the radio…just Pandora.

Radio - You Want Answers - Here's Three

Tue, 08 May 2012 02:30:31 -0400

It’s seems fruitless sometimes to search for solutions when as an industry we don’t fully understand the problem or want to admit there is one (just hire a couple of teenagers and we’ll be fine). If anyone in our industry is not familiar with Clay Christensen then they need to watch this video, “How to escape the innovators dilemma”, and then read his book. It will be the first step in creating a strategy that has a chance of succeeding. This is the best 14 minutes you will spend today.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/02/keen-on-clay-christensen-how-to-escape-the-innovators-dilemma-tctv/

Or this white paper from HBR – “How P&G Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate”. It explains how Procter & Gamble created a “new-growth factory”-a network of novel structures and capabilities to rapidly shepherd new products and even business models from inception to market.

https://archive.harvardbusiness.org/cla/web/pl/product.seam?c=18228&i=18230&cs=40b0d52f8060e76e36e8371e3310d9ba

Then finally watch Gary V one more time as he talks about “ninja units” as a way to get things done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FubJDOEs-4c&feature=related

There is a common thread in these examples… separate “units” to address new challenges. In the words of Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”…”You want answers? You want answers?” This is the answer…just maybe not the answer anyone wants to hear.

Radio Needs A New Business Plan

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:47:27 -0500

In response to Fred Jacobs blog post “Zuckerberg by the numbers”, which was about the letter to investors Mark wrote explaining the mission of Facebook

(http://jacobsmediablog.com/2012/02/10/zuckerberg-by-the-numbers/)

I asked the question - Are we seeing a pattern on the way business is done today? Fred responded – “There is something going on here and it goes to the heart of how businesses are operated. I believe it may have been possible to ignore Zuckerberg a few years ago, or question whether Facebook was a time suck or something your kids did. Today, there is no mistaking that social, service, connection, and community are at the heart of successful enterprises”.

In that letter to investors Mr. Zuckerberg Mark stated –

“Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected”.

It’s also clear that Mr. Zuckerberg learned a lot from one of his mentors, Steve Jobs. In this letter Mark said “I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond maximizing profits.

To paraphrase, Mr. Jobs said in an interview in 1995…

”what ruined Apple were values brought in from the outside by John Scully. Management cared more about their own glory and wealth that they did about what built Apple in the first place. The original trajectory of the original vision was to make this thing (computers/Next) into an appliance and get it out to as many people as possible. What they should have been doing is making rational profits and going for market share”. Apple did return to the core values of Steve Jobs, which were “everything revolves around the customer experience”. Today Apple is bigger than Google and Microsoft combined.

I feel any business in any category should read, absorb and adopt this manifesto as THE way to do business. It’s clear it’s the way successful business is done today. It’s the exact mindset that brought me into radio 40 years ago. It’s what traditional media needs to get back to if we want to remain relevant. But it won’t be without its challenges due to a traditional top-down management mindset where the leaders in too many cases are not product people.

Felix Salmon wrote a post about how Mark Zuckerberg shouldn’t listen to management gurus. It was in response to advice from GE legend Jack Welch that a multi-billion-dollar company like Facebook needed a seasoned, professional CEO in charge.

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/02/10/why-mark-zuckerberg-shouldnt-listen-to-management-gurus/

Jack and Suzy Welch believe extra management has to be marbled throughout the organization, to be found everywhere as “frequent, rigorous performance reviews”.

It’s also far from clear that the best way to motivate a Silicon Valley engineer is to dangle an annual bonus in front of his face and tell him that if he works hard he could get an extra couple of months’ salary at the end of the year. Rather, the best way to get the most out of engineers is to surround them with other great engineers, in a collegial atmosphere where everybody works hard and everybody does really well building great products that everybody is proud of. Managing a company like Facebook is all about creating a magnetic culture — a place where employees love to work, and where they’ll tell their friends that they’re having a great time and that they should come join them. At Facebook, the ability to continue to attract Silicon Valley’s best coders is very high up Mark Zuckerberg’s list of priorities and concerns.

Jeff Jarvis wrote a brilliant piece yesterday – “the temporary pop-up corporation” – He states –

The average lifespan of a Fortune 500 company is now only 15 years. Whole industries are dying. Mr. Jarvis says – “I have been arguing that vertical industries will be replaced by horizontal ecosystems made up of three layers: (1) platforms that enable (2) entrepreneurial ventures to be created at low cost and risk and (3) networks (e.g., ad networks) that, when needed, bring these ventures together to reach the critical mass that firms used to provide”.

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2012/02/09/the-temporary-pop-up-corporation/

Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) tweets –

There are no more jobs. There are no more bosses. There are only clients and customers from now on.

Your boss/client has to feel lucky to have you AND vica versa.

What we all want is to be a valued member of a winning team on an inspiring mission.

The patterns I see - a group mission to serve people, a total commitment to the user experience (listeners), recruit top talent and give them a work environment that is significantly different than traditional management practices of the past in an effort to bring out the best work they’ve ever done.

I think the Internet engineers of today equate to the great air talent of radio in its prime. Most of that talent is gone now. We have national stars but where are the local market heroes?

What has happened in radio is the equivalent of Nordstrom having no sales people on the floor accept a few hours in the morning and afternoon. It’s like Zappos not having anyone answering their phones. It’s like Apple shutting down the genius bar. Would these brands survive this type of short term thinking?

What is the vision for broadcasters whether you have a network of stations or a combo? What is the mission and why should anyone care? It’s my opinion that radio can become this horizontal ecosystem using its promotional platform and network ability to share digital solutions to improving their lives. There is a roadmap to follow.

Someone said it and I fully believe that community is our greatest asset! I think our mission is to give community a voice. Our clients are our listeners. We must obsess over the listeners in our community to inform, entertain and improve their lives. By serving our local community of listeners…sales happens…the community prospers…the mission continues.

Focus On The Good Stuff

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:58:03 -0500

This post was inspired by Fred Jacobs at jacobsmediablog.com

Mark Parker tells the story about a call with Steve Jobs shortly after being promoted to Nike’s top spot CEO. And Apple’s “master of the universe” gives Parker some great advice about how to approach his new CEO job. The message? “Nike makes some of the best products in the world… but you also make a lot of crap. Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”

To better understand what the crappy stuff is…here is a thread on the issues that broadcasters face to remain relevant today. The question is how do you know what is the crappy stuff? Who is to judge of what’s a key listener benefit versus a feature that may have less relevant value? In many cases we have let PPM become the editor in chief it seems. It’s time to do our own homework again.

With Steve Jobs it always started with the customer experience and works backwards to the product. What incredible benefits can we give the customer? Here it is in his words –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE&feature=related

See if this thought from Mr. Jobs resonates with you concerning radio when he talked about what went wrong with Apple. He said the Apple became stagnant and its differentiation eroded. The way forward is not to slash and burn but to innovate.

More in his own words (5:30 into the interview)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGciAnjEf0g&feature=related

In Steve Jobs thinking, cutting out the crappy stuff would start with core values. Core values are not product features or why you’re better than the other guys. Core values ask the question “what do we stand for”.

Here is the first marketing meeting Mr. Jobs had when he returned to Apple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmG9jzCHtSQ

As I interpret this in reference to broadcasting, it means to honor the community. It means to celebrate the people in the community. Apple wanted to change the world. Radio should focus on changing the world as it relates to our local community. As an industry radio still has the opportunity to affect change in a meaningful way. Remember one more thing Steve Jobs said – “great things in business are done by a team. No one Beatle was ever better than the group”. Let’s rebuild our teams and reclaim our relevance.

"You like me, you really like me,"...not so much!

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:16:00 -0500

Broadcasting is still acting like the narcissistic jerk on a date who only talks about himself and never listens. Such a bore! When will broadcasters start really listening to the people we care about most? The listener.

When you read the Internet guys approach to social media they all say some version of this – Stop “pushing” out messages and start “participating” in a conversation that will “pull” people to you. I had an air talent ask me the other day about what to do on Facebook or Twitter. They didn’t know what to write. I said no one needs you to write anything. No one is sitting and waiting for your post. If you want to start a conversation then ask a question, listen for answers and respond. When you respond you’ve started to engage. You know the old cliche’ -”Ask for advice and you have a friend for life”…it works.

Resist the urge to say “follow me on…, buy my stuff, listen to my show, like me on Facebook. Why should anyone care? What’s in it for them? It’s all about them! Have you provided context that might resemble a reason they should give you any of their valuable time? Just because they liked you on Facebook doesn’t mean they really like you.

Fred Jacobs blog said – “Learning how to communicate on Facebook is a key ingredient to achieve successful interactivity”.

Here’s the “how to do it” through a couple of resources that will help everyone develop a strategy for using internet tools like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc.

Amy Porterfield has helped Tony Robbins and many other with Facebook. She did this hour plus talk on Problogger.com (another site everyone should read regularly) and it will give anyone the necessary strategy to tackle this platform. Notice right off the bat she talks about “superfans”. Sound familiar?

http://fbinfluence.com/proreplay/

Then there is one of my favorites, Gary Vaynerchuk. With 900,000 followers on Twitter, a $60 million dollar wine business and clients like the New York Jets who pay $20-$30K a month for his advice on how to handle social media and engage football fans, he has credibility like few others…watch this never seen @cnn interview

http://youtu.be/JaJUhVY1URk

Most questions on how to build a social media strategy will be answered with this information. Now go like someone else by solving a problem and stop worrying about how much you are liked by others.

Steve Jobs Interview ’95 Unabridged

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:05:00 -0500

This interview from 1995 is 83 minutes of vintage Steve Jobs. But as I listened to Mr. Jobs talk about the demise of Apple I couldn’t help but relate it to broadcasting and what has been happening to our industry really since consolidation. At the 39 minute mark the discussion turns to “what ruined Apple”. Every time Mr. Jobs says Apple insert radio or broadcasting and see if this story resonates with you the way it did for me. Here is the narrative of what he said in this segment-

“What ruined Apple wasn’t growth…what ruined Apple were values. John Sculley ruined Apple. He ruined it by bringing a set of values to the top of Apple which were corrupt and that corrupted some of the top people who were there and drove out some of the ones who were not corruptible and brought in more corrupt ones. Then paid themselves literally, collectively tens and tens of millions of dollars and cared really more about their own glory and wealth than they did about what built Apple in the first place…which was making great computers for people to use. They didn’t care about that anymore. And they didn’t have a clue about how to do it and didn’t take any time to find out because that’s not what they cared about. They cared about making a lot of money so they had this wonderful thing that a lot of very brilliant people made called the MacIntosh and they got very greedy and instead of following the original trajectory of the original vision which was to make this thing into an appliance and get this out to as many people as possible they went for profits and they made outlandish profits for about four years. One of the most profitable companies in America for four years and what that cost them was their future. Because what they should have been doing is making rational profits and going for market share which is what Apple always tried to do. There is no way to ever get that moment in time back and its really sad”.

Listen to the full interview here - http://huff.to/rTjUUa

Your customer won’t take a bullet for you

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 02:13:00 -0500

I had a long conversation today with a Mid-West medium market cluster manager. Inevitably the topic turned to how difficult business is. He talked about how managing the relationship between local business and the listener has never been harder.

That continues to be the big disconnect…thinking we ever had any real ability to manage or control the business or the listener. I have been saying for a long time the paradigm has to change. Kathy Sierra is the one who provided the clarity for me. Like Kathy says - “Use every nanosecond of your social media time to help people become better at something for themselves. Understand and design for Social Objects. Relentlessly ask, “How are we helping our users kick ass? What can we inspire, amplify, teach, enable, empower?”

It’s time broadcasters used their platform in a way that helps listeners kick-ass! Read this post and get clear on what our mission really is!

http://bit.ly/nheF8f

90% of marketing managers plan to...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:15:00 -0500

…use mapping technology in the next year but…

I have been writing regularly about the power of a geo-location tool for broadcasters to know where listening is taking place. (mikeanthonymedia.tumblr.com)

While others are considering mapping technology, the opportunity for radio to lead remains.

Research from Google’s Enterprise division and Vanson Bourne has revealed the growing popularity of mapping technology to help shape marketing strategy

http://bit.ly/rZtpdR

Startups Need a Voice (A Network)

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:33:00 -0500

The Problem - Start-ups Need a Voice (A Network)

A quick glance at Bob Pittman’s personal investment strategy and you see it’s a who’s who of Internet success stories. His involvement in Lerer Ventures for example (DailyCandy/Thrillist etc.) is a blueprint for what radio could and should be doing when it comes to funding or partnering with startups.

When you look at the business plan of most start-ups, the cost of customer acquisition is a critical line item in evaluating the potential success of the concept. In the case of Groupon for example, customer acquisition/marketing is now their largest expense. Radio’s promotional platform is a strong solution that is not being considered by either side. Why isn’t a broadcast company who could provide a network of radio stations with targeted audiences looking to be the voice for customer acquisition for a start up?

Ben Lerer of Lerer Ventures lamented that they do not have the all-important advertising and media connections to help juice those young companies’ revenues or pave the way for partnerships. This is opportunity.

The Solution - Independent Agency for Startups

Create new networks connected by station format and target audience. Develop a Classic Rock Network, AC Network, Talk Network, Country Network etc. Anyone can participate in their format category. The agency will discover and make the connections necessary to scale new businesses across the network for a revenue share of products or services sold.

Let me share a couple of examples of start-ups that radio could have been in on the ground floor in their development. Look at these start-ups and you’ll see the potential.

#1 – Ecomom.com was founded to address the connection between the health of our children and the environment. They want to be the Zappos of a mothers needs for her baby. I saw founder Jody Sherman talking about his new company a year ago when he was looking for help. He has second round funding so far.

#2 – BillGuard, (tracks your credit card statements and flags suspicious purchases so you don’t get ripped off) was launched at Techcrunch Disrupt NY in May. When I saw their product presentation I emailed a friend who was watching the event, that I thought BillGuard could be the next LifeLock success story. He agreed. 6 months later they have had two rounds of funding.

DailyCandy sold for $125 million to Comcast. With the promotional power of the Clear Channel network of AC stations or News/Talk for example, can you imagine how large and active DailyCandy’s user base could have been? The sale price would have been much different. Thrillist.com is a major success already but what if it was a link on every rock stations web site in the network and was continuously promoted by air-talent all day?

There are literally thousands of startups looking for a voice. Radio would have immediate relevance, mobility and a new revenue stream by partnering with those who address a consumer problem with an Internet solution.

Who (besides me) in broadcasting can say they are familiar with or following 500Startups, YCombinator, TechCrunch Disrupt or The Launch Conference? The largest companies of the last 10 years didn’t use traditional media as a primary way to scale their businesses. Most of them were Internet companies that all started out as an idea. A radio guy, Mr. Pittman has been ahead of the curve here while the entire industry is missing a golden opportunity.

Music Industry in "Tectonic Shift"

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:43:15 -0500

Adam Klein, chief executive officer of EMusic, talks about the outlook for the music industry. New research says there is a huge untapped business model for music.

Radio are you listening?

http://bloom.bg/tCf6oT

Twitter Looks to TV, Media Partnerships for Growth

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:18:00 -0500

Twitter is becoming a big star on TV–and now the online-messaging service wants to shine even brighter.

Radio what’s your move here? Internet titans are looking to partner why aren’t you?

http://on.wsj.com/ryxTyq

The LOVE Model

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 01:11:00 -0500

I’ve only recently discovered the writing of Nilofer Merchant by following HBR on twitter. This is article from 2009 is one that anyone in broadcasting can learn from. Understanding the five phases of the LOVE model gives you a framework to develop broadly beneficial relationships with the people who are most critical to the success of your business. The LOVE model helps you to understand how to move your best customers from merely transacting into the role of business advocate.

http://bit.ly/leQJMD

A King of Connections Is Tech’s Go-To Guy

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:00:00 -0500

Great article in the NYT over the weekend. If broadcasters want to know what’s next check out what Reid Hoffman is thinking -

Today, Mr. Hoffman senses that a new Web is stirring. In the same way that social media redefined the Internet, he sees another tectonic shift on the horizon.

http://nyti.ms/sqs06y

Location is the Game

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:25:31 -0500

There are two popular visions within the gurus of the Internet. One is called “The Alive Web”, real time interaction anywhere (Om Malik). The other one is known as “Proximity as a Service”, where you are and what’s going on around you that could be of interest to you (Dave Matthews). What they have in common is the idea that if your location is known then you can be connected with people, things or experiences nearby that are of value or interest all in real time. Simply put – wherever you are, you’ll know what’s happening around you and you can then choose to be part of it. Foursquare is king of the hill here but there is a mountain of opportunity.

Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley expressed in a recent interview, “One of the biggest hurdles about Foursquare is you need to remember to use it”. Another comment was “Foursquare is still in the building mode and the focus is on scaling the business”.

What’s the answer? Foursquare should consider a partner who lives in the local community and could give “check-ins” personal relevance and frequency at the same time. Consider that this promotional platform still has 93% of the population using its service every week. No one in the digital world is considering old school radio.

What’s in it for Foursquare? Radio can give Foursquare the frequency of use they’re looking for not to mention immediate reach to a targeted audience. Its proven radio can activate and drive listeners to places of interest at any moment. Using a check-in tactic, radio can create a real time, alive, listening organism that would be of tremendous value to business on a local and regional basis.

What’s in it for radio? In partnering with Foursquare, broadcasters will learn many new things like – “Where are they listening? What’s going on around them? Who is around them that they know or want to know?” Using a check-in app you can create a live, real-time geo-location map of where the audience is listening. Since every station has a different target audience, each will want to its own real-time listening location map of consumers. Overlay the listening map with a local business map and you’ve begun to connect different targets of consumers with business in a whole new way.

I’ve shared the fact that 80% of a person’s income is spent within 10 minutes of where they live so the importance of real-time location listening data takes on a new level of importance.

Whether Foursquare wants to be the player with radio or not, there is a new business model here. Active audience mapping through checking-in could be a real-time ratings service more valuable than Arbitron’s passive electronic monitoring. A geo-location app would also put radio in the hands of the consumer. Radio wants to be mobile…now it can be in a relevant way. Location, location, location. This is information you can’t get from any ratings service. There are others with geo-location technologies if Foursquare doesn’t see value in partnering. Radio it’s time to disrupt the game.

The Actives

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 23:38:44 -0400

Strategic planning meetings in radio like most industries have used “The 80/20 Rule” as a path for creating strategies that focus on the 20% heaviest users. In the case of radio, it was usually to own at-work listening or appeal to contest players in order to win the ratings game. I have directed more than my fair share of these meetings. But after continuing to study successful Internet businesses and what startups are focused on IMHO, there is a new 20% that broadcasters need to pay attention to.

Actives!

In the Internet world the key to success, to profitability is “the active user”… the ones who react to your product or service offer and spend. Even though the big Internet sites may have huge user databases, they are most concerned with the very active users inside that database. Time and money are spent studying their behaviors and actions. They assign values to these customers. It’s different than cume vs. core. In this case, a much higher value and attention is placed on actives than passives. The more they learn about actives, the more they can focus on content that causes commerce. Frequency of “ka-ching” is the only measurement metric that’s hard proof of ROI.

In the digital world, the question is – what is relevant that I can share with the customer right now that is local, timely and actionable, (actionable means it causes commerce)? For broadcasters, the challenge is to identify who the active listeners are and obsess over them. Fred Jacobs identified this “New 20” as I call them in Techsurvey 7 – “those who want relationships with stations, are active in social media, and love to share.” Fred agrees that these consumers can tip the scale in the right direction.

For more perspective, all broadcasters should watch the “Music’s Digital Future” panel at F8, Facebook’s developers’ conference from a few weeks ago.

Since most of your listeners are on Facebook, knowing what they are planning next would seem to be prudent. On this panel was Lady Gaga’s manager, Troy Carter, one of the creators of Spotify, Justin Osofsky, and Bob Pittman from Clear Channel, each talking about the future of business from their POV. Watch the entire panel but specifically at the 17:56 point, listen as Lady Gaga’s manager talks about where they are focused. With 13 million followers on Twitter and 43 million fans on Facebook, Troy said, “Lady Gaga is so big the challenge now is how do we laser focus on the community and make it less passive?” The answer: They are going to laser focus on the super fan (the most active) as opposed to the passive person who may like only one single.

Troy made another critical distinction about communicating with the community when he said, “It’s not about Gaga talking to the community, it’s about the community talking to each other, sharing information about Gaga and the things she does.” They understand it’s about the bond with the super fan that creates the brand within the entire community.

Justin indicated that Spotify believes the roadmap to their success is all around the personal playlist and the ability to instantly share it with friends. The magic is that activity between people.

Bob Pittman is the only broadcaster talking about going beyond the towers and transmitters by using the scale of the CC network of stations to create events and products the listeners can interact with and be part of on their own terms. It started with iHeartRadio that extended into the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.

What is not being talked about is how Pittman is ahead of the curve in what I think is the key to broadcasting’s future… partnerships. Pittman bagged the elephant of partnerships right out of the box teaming with Facebook for the iHeartRadio show. He has also extended the iHeartRadio relationship with Microsoft and Xbox. Another elephant. He also landed a whale crafting a relationship with deals platform LivingSocial. Radio doesn’t have to create digital products or services; it needs to partner with digital businesses already created but that’s for another discussion.

Facebook is focused on looking for more ways to increase engagement with its active users, involving the Mt. Rushmore of social activities like music, movies, games, photos and books. They’ve even created a “time-line” so you can have an active history of personal events.

Even Seth Godin has decided he is not focusing on reaching strangers (anyone who has never read his work). So instead of finding readers for his writing, he’s now writing for his readers (actives). According to Seth, if you need the masses to succeed, you will feel pain and it’s going to get harder!

Broadcasting, at the other end of the spectrum, seems to be more passive and less active with its audience since the incorporation of PPM, as the standard for audience measurement. Radio is spending an unbalanced amount of its time and resources trying to affect a totally passive measurement tool in PPM. We are now seeing more passive programming, using less talent in all phases of broadcasting, and engaging the audience less frequently. It’s not Arbitron’s fault that broadcasters misinterpret the use of the data and put so much on the line in order to get a great score in PPM.

PPM in the most simplistic terms counts (records) how many radios are on in the presence of a meter, turned on to what stations and for how long. That’s it. PPM is about passive exposure to a signal and does not identify the “activity” of the listener. In April, Amber Nashlund wrote a great piece on why “counting isn’t measuring.”

PPM provides no information that helps you identify or engage the active listener. If you obsess over the active listener and serve them – ratings will happen. For proof, look at some of the big PPM success stories – they are stations like KISW, WMMR, WDVE, and other stations that are all about being “active,” rather than “passive.”

In the meantime, Internet businesses and startups are growing by being laser focused on solving real problems for active users and engaging those who spend the most time, and then money on their sites. Broadcasting’s revenue pie, on the other hand, continues to decline year after year and owners would do well to consider that there might be a new and more profitable 20% to serve.

Study the focus of people who have already scaled their businesses. Watch and read what Seth Godin does, what Lady Gaga is doing on Facebook, how Spotify is building its user base and connecting listeners, the partnerships that CC is creating outside of broadcasting, and the new layers of engagement Facebook is adding to its platform (which they plan on turning into ancillary businesses and revenue streams). The most successful people in these business categories are providing the roadmap.

Why are broadcasters so set in their ways and unwilling to follow? For radio there is a steep learning curve in order to remain relevant. The good news is the active customer will tell us what we need to know to succeed. We just have to ask them.

In the words of Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street…

”Bud Fox, this is your wake up call.”