Recently I was the guest of honor on a call for digital players in the Christian radio space hosted by Chris Laney of Digital Frontiers Media.

Among the questions:

• Most major research companies state that by 2015, more then 80% of first time traffic to a website will be via mobile. How do you think radio is doing with developing strategic action plans regarding mobile and in particular Christian radio?
• I am sure you hear this as much as I do that stations feel like they “need” a mobile app? Have you found that the mobile app market is becoming saturated and what stations or things have you seen made things stick out above others?
• One of the biggest issues regarding Christian radio when developing a strategic digital strategy is finances. Many are listener supported and don’t think they have the money to invest in the digital realm. Do you believe we are well past thinking about it and it should be a must and how do we convince some of these old school radio people that think its a waste of money?
• How great is the potential for digital advertising if done right? Success stories?
• If there was one thing you think that Christian radio is lacking behind Mainstream radio, what is it?

Although this conversation is focused on Christian radio it is relevant for any format.  Check it out.

And especially enjoy the part where I point out that every household already has an average of two radio mobile apps – both in their driveway.

Sharable version:

Alternate version:

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What’s the best way to develop new talent?

Is it to steal from the switchboard and upgrade to sidekick?

Is it to place a blind ad in an industry trade?

Is it to hire or voice-track a good-enough talent from another market where that talent’s awareness in this market is zero?

You could steal somebody from across the street.

Or you could do what Phil Becker did.

Phil went to the Internet.

But he didn’t recruit just anybody.  He went for the locally-based YouTube talent who already has an audience and a following – over 250,000 YouTube subscribers and more ethan 100,000 Twitter followers to be exact.

And she’s 16 years old.

Phil is GM/Director of Content for Oasis Radio Group and his new talent, Andrea Russett, is the newest star at Oasis’s HOT 107.9 in Fort Wayne, IN.

Watch this chat with Phil about what his team did and just how well it’s working:

Prefer audio?  Try this:

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(You can subscribe to all the MRM video and audio via iTunes and get the goodies before everybody else.  You can also get advance notice of this content if you “like” MRM on Facebook or follow me on Twitter).

I am amazed that more broadcasters have not already done this.  Internet celebrities live in every market in the country and few would reject a decent radio gig.

The talent gets more exposure – especially more local exposure – and a new audience.  The station gets more exposure, too – and offers something worth talking about for every current and potential listener who thinks that they, too, could one day become famous.

Well done, Phil.

(An aside:  If you pay close attention you will notice something important: Andrea doesn’t have a “website.”  She has multiple digital platforms unified by the “brand” which is Andrea herself.  Broadcasters could learn a lot from this 16-year-old).

“A display ad on Facebook is a lifeless emotionless waste of marketing dollars.”

That’s how one radio industry analyst colorfully put it.

Although one might ask exactly where isn’t a simple “display ad” a “lifeless emotionless waste of marketing dollars”?  And just how emotion-packed and full of life is a Google ad?  Yet that would hardly be called a “waste.”

The debate over the wisdom or foolishness of advertising on Facebook is wrong-headed and self-serving and replete with too much premature chest-thumping and grave-dancing.

So GM drops a chump-change investment in Facebook advertising in favor of a much larger investment in the brand and customer management power of Facebook.  Granted, Facebook makes money from the former, not the latter, but that’s Facebook’s problem and Facebook’s fault.  Facebook didn’t do a good job servicing the needs of this client, and so they got “fired.”  That says less about the “effectiveness” of Facebook overall than about the dynamics of this particular relationship.  Haven’t you ever lost a client?  Does it mean your brand doesn’t work for advertisers?

I would bet all the money I have that GM will be back advertising on Facebook. In a different way, at a different time, and quite probably under the direction of a different agency.  But they’ll be back.  And what should radio conclude then?

We need to stop dismissing popular competitors for advertiser attention and start learning from them.

This morning on MSNBC Joe Scarborough was chuckling about how nobody clicks on Facebook ads.  Well nobody clicks on Morning Joe ads either – nor on your TV spots, but that isn’t so funny, is it, Joe?

The larger puzzle is not whether Facebook ads work, it’s whether or not brands want to spend their money in advertising or in marketing. Confuse the two at your peril.

The marketing dollars invested in Facebook by GM are growing even as the ad dollars are shrinking.  That tells us marketing dollars on Facebook are working for GM even if the company momentarily concludes that ad dollars aren’t.

Today, brands can be their own media platforms, and in that audience playground mediated by platforms like Facebook, the best ad dollar spent may be the one tagged “marketing.”

Are you helping your clients market or helping them advertise?

Value to clients is about more than running ads.  And value to consumers is about more than simply playing music.

That’s the new world of radio today.

No longer is there a “sales side” or a “programming side.”  Nowadays there’s only one “side” and it’s the “value side.”

Value to clients and consumers at the very same time – mediated by your brand.

In the digital space, its all about value – not about interruptive ads stuck in the middle of valued content. In many ways, the client’s content IS the valued content. Watch this brief overview of the “value side” and why it’s the only side any of us should be on.

The video is part of a live Q&A with Federated Media managers hosted by Federated’s James Derby (thanks to Federated and to James for a great conversation).

Watch:

Prefer audio?  Try this:

Download mp3

(You can subscribe to all the MRM video and audio via iTunes and get the goodies before everybody else.  You can also get advance notice of this content if you “like” MRM on Facebook or follow me on Twitter).

A recent Mediapost piece commented on the inevitable consolidation of players in the every-day-a-new-entrant social TV space.  This is the ecosystem surrounding your favorite shows and fresh ways to interact with them and with your friends in their presence via second screen digital platforms.

The whole notion of social interactions surrounding entertainment brands is something I have been talking about for some time, and it remains an area relatively unexplored by radio broadcasters.

But the Mediapost piece makes an important point:

Viewers need clear locations to get their social TV media fix – not just separate “silos” of TV program information. Say hello to another Hulu-like problem.  Social media platforms are like any other mass entertainment business – they need scale. All this comes from the main instigators of TV content – big media companies who also need scale, as do TV marketers.

Radio has scale.  And to the degree that radio has the kind of content that makes one station – or the radio medium itself – unique from any other station or medium, scale amplifies the value of that content.  And the only thing harder than creating great content is creating great content that scales.

If a tree falls in the forest nobody hears it, no matter how splendid it may be.

For example, the greatest perceived threat of Pandora to radio is its fast track to scale, not simply the value proposition of personalized radio. Personalization is common.  Scale, that’s scarce.

Scale is radio’s most precious resource.  And it is one largely provided by our legacy monopolization of consumer ears, especially in cars.

Now is the time we must continually earn that scale, that reach.  And we will have to do so by focusing intently not on what our industry needs and wants but on what its consumers and advertising partners need and want.

This is a time of incredible opportunity for radio because it’s a time of incredible opportunity for entertainment brands that scale.

Use it wisely.