Is Talk Radio Dead or Just Getting Better?

Left For Dead, Radio Adapts
To A Digital World

First it was TV that was going to kill off radio, sending it to an early and untimely death. But radio hung in and even thrived.

Then it was the internet that was going to finish the job once and for all! But radio shrugged (at least metaphorically), adapted and even capitalized on its supposed foe, the internet, to get its message to the masses.

And that's why to this day I can still proclaim that talk radio continues to be a wonderful venue for giving a boost both to your brand and to your credibility as an expert in your field.

In fact, because of the internet, radio is better than ever for that purpose. We're well past the days when listeners had to schedule their time around their favorite radio talk show. Now in many if not most cases those shows are archived on the station's website, so people can listen to the show at their leisure, sitting down to enjoy it hours, days or even months after it originally aired.

Additionally, one way hosts build their audiences these days is through social media, using Twitter, Facebook and other online sites to drive people to their shows. That's good for you as well as for them if you plan to make talk radio part of your publicity efforts.

And if you aren't making use of talk radio, here are a few reasons why you should:

You can leverage those interviews for an extra PR boost. It's great if people take the time to tune in to your interview, but you can make excellent use of the interview for publicity purposes even if they don't tune in. Just by letting it be known that you were interviewed, you add to your credibility. That's because your show host was essentially giving you an implicit endorsement as someone with something valuable to say, simply by having you on their show.

The show can be shared. Not that long ago, anyone who wanted a recording of their interview would pay a monitoring service to record it. Now, though, because so many of these shows are available in online archives, it's a simple matter to put a link to the show on your website or share a link through social media.

You can post it again - and again. Let's say you share your interview on Twitter shortly after the interview happens. That doesn't mean you've used up the interview's shelf life. You can come back a month later and share it again. Three weeks after that you can share it yet again if you like. Many of your followers probably never heard it the first time anyway, so now they have the opportunity. Try to get as much mileage out of it as you can.

The show can be transcribed for additional uses. This is a piece of advice I picked up from my friend and business associate, Steve Kayser. Your radio interview is chockful of content and that means you can get some bonus use from it! Steve recommends transcribing the interview. You will have content that you can edit and rework to use for your blog or for articles on your website. If there's enough content there, you might even break it into two or three blog entries.

At its very basic, talk radio hasn't changed all that much. Just like always, when you do a radio interview you are in the ear of the listeners, getting your message out to whoever chooses to tune in.

It's just that these days radio is everything it always was - and a whole lot more!

Hear, hear!

Marsha

P.S. If you'd like professional help getting coverage in the press, or being interviewed on radio and TV, give us a call. We've been providing this service to clients for 27 years. We also offer a comprehensive social media marketing program for select clients, where we do it all for you. If you're interested in our help, please call us at 727-443-7115 Ext. 231, or simply reply to this email. We'd love to hear from you!