“If you have an answer to the question, ‘Who are you like?,’ you have a problem. — Merlin Media CEO Randy Michaels 

“Personal branding is not about fabricating a persona; strong personal brands are based in authenticity. You can’t start building your brand until you understand who you are, what you want and what makes you exceptional. What are your superpowers? What do others think about you? Don’t create an image; be yourself — your best self. As writer/aviator Anne Morrow Lindbergh once said, ‘The most exhausting thing you can be is inauthentic.’”  – from TheLadders.com career website

What about you, Spoken-Word-Media-Guy?  Guy-who-makes-his-living-by-talking?  What are you doing to expand your “virtual brand?”  Here’s a tip: Use the freedom that podcasting offers to do something different from what you do on the radio. Surely, there is more to you than politics.  Right…. right?  Try using the podcast to tap into your other passions.

I know.  You won’t make money right away with a podcast.  Probably not.  But you need to consider the wisdom of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who tells his staff, “We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”  Bring passion and hard work to your project and it will pay off.

Got an idea, but not sure how to proceed?  I’d love to talk it out with you.

Thanks to Don Anthony’s Jockline Daily for hipping me to the Mohr story.

If you haven’t seen it, watch it right now.  If you are responsible for audio content creation in any way — news director, program director, podcaster — this could be the most valuable nine minutes of your day.  The lesson is simple: Writing is the be-all and end-all of great content.  This is an especially timely lesson in this day of limited resources. The words matter more than staff size, more than budget, more than the length of the newscasts, more than access to actualities. More than anything.

One great news writer can be a difference-maker.

I experienced this firsthand at WGST/Atlanta where I was lucky enough to work with David Hull, a former CNN Radio anchor with a gift  for  tight copy that was at once both conversational and near-poetic.   His newscasts were very often the highlight of our morning drive show.  I don’t have any David Hull audio handy, but here’s another powerful example of the power of pen and microphone

“Radio has got to become more of an engagement vehicle. Engagement is critical for advertisers today. A lot of people listen to radio in the background and it’s not intrusive, and it’s not engaging. It is more passive. How do you make radio more engaging? So, I think return of investment proof and engagement proof is critical. If you can prove that, they will be buying radio all day long.”

No format is better positioned for engagement than spoken-word.  Is your show and/or station making the most of this advantage?

Zarrella says,  ”I looked at more than 100k randomly chosen active Twitter accounts and their Tweets. I analyzed the percentage of their Tweets that contain a link… [and] I found that accounts that had high link-percentages between 60% and 80% had the most ReTweets…If you’re interested in ReTweets, broadcasting lots of interesting content works much better than ‘engaging in the conversation.’”

The key there, of course, is “interesting content.”   Read his full report HERE.

Zarrella’s website is packed with useful insights on how to use social media more effectively, including writing and timing tips.  Check him out at www.danzarrella.com.

By the way, have you signed up for the Talkfrontier.com RSS feed?   Do it and you’ll get a steady stream of useful insight and advice for spoken-word media professionals delivered straight to your email box or RSS reader.

“There is a difference between passion and anger.  Passion is strength without anger.  It is the foundation of moral authority.  People are drawn to passion, they are repulsed by anger.”

Does anger have a place in talk radio?  Absolutely.  But as the Renaissance physician Peracelsus noted, “the dose makes the poison.”  Applied authentically, righteously and judiciously, anger can make for some compelling radio.  But when it is used as a core ingredient for a show, anger can quickly turn toxic and stunt or kill the program.

Any idea where this quote came from?  If so, please let me know so I can give credit where it’s due.  Email me at randall@talkfrontier.com

Steve Allen

Before devoting himself to the art and science of social media, Steve Allan programmed radio stations in DC, Detroit, Boston and Cincinnati and held corporate programming positions with AM/FM and Clear Channel. As a former radio guy, Allen despairs at the medium’s apparent lack of  understanding of social media.  Too many stations/personalities continue to use Facebook, Twitter, et. al, as just another place to plug upcoming guests or deliver news headlines.  While there’s no wrong way to use social media, those are probably the least effective ways to employ this powerful new medium.  In this exclusive piece, Allen suggests five ways that talk stations and hosts can  better harness the power of social media.

Seventy-one percent of US Internet users have a Facebook account and half of them visit it every single day. According to Nielsen, the average Internet user spends over seven hours per month on Facebook alone. To say that Social Media has become the water cooler of social interactions is a gross understatement.

How are you harnessing the power of social media to improve the content and reach of your show? More importantly, are you using social media as a tool in your creative arsenal?

Here are 5 things you can do – right now – to make your performance stand out.

Socialize – Stop sending listeners to your website and start inviting them to join you on Facebook. Your GM will hate this but he is swimming against the tide. Radio stations drive listeners to their websites for one reason only – to increase visitor count and page views so they can sell banner ads. This process has nothing to do with engaging your fans and making them more a part of your show. It does nothing to increase the emotional bond between host and fan. Website interaction is generally a one-way street while Facebook can create a conversation and generate real time feedback.

Think of it this way. Which is more powerful – 1,000 unique visitors or 1,000 Facebook fans? Calm your GM by telling him that you’ll drive your fans to his website.

Test topics – Assuming you have built a strong fan base (think of it as a good AQH) you can use that audience to test topic. Ask questions and gauge reaction. You’ll find that there are many fans out there who will converse with you in Social Media who will never call you on the phone.

Replace the bad phone call – How many local talk shows have a trained call screener whose sole function is to separate the wheat from the chaff? Today’s overworked show producer generally does not have the time to truly determine if that next caller is entertainment worthy. However, by using social media you will actually see good, repeatable comments and be able to attribute them to real people (or at least their handles).

Spread the word – Getting people to talk about you is the most powerful form of marketing. Getting them to spread the word about you to their social networks puts that marketing on steroids. As a talk show host you are (hopefully) a content creator. People love to share great content. This is the equivalent to the old politician’s trick of shaking hands and kissing babies.

SEARCH – Everyone Google searches.  That is what we all use to find information. But how does that help you know what your audience is talking about? It doesn’t.  But these tools can assist you in finding out what topics are being discussed in your market. After all, shouldn’t your content reflect your audience’s interests?

Google Real Time – This is a topic search to find out what is being said in, well, real time. You pick the topics and the engine reveals the conversations.

Samepoint.com – A multi-functional search engine that specializes in social networks. Like Google Real time – you pick the topics.

Twitter – Set up your search function on your Twitter account to list your local market. You can go deeper by using the advanced search. This helps you find what the biggest trending topics are in your area.

These serve as a great starting point to learn what people are talking about and can help you decide what topics are important to your show.

Social media can be a difference maker for you and your show. It brings you closer to your audience than ever before. In turn, they get a better feeling for who you are than they ever could. Social Media is not just an essential part of your show prep – it has become part of the show.

For more insight from Steve Allen check out his blog http://smthree.wordpress.com or visit his website www.smthree.com.

Simone

The march issue of Newsmax magazine includes my profile of Mark Simone, the go-to sub for Hannity, Imus and Levin.  Here are some excerpts from the Director’s Cut…

Colleagues praise Simone as talented, versatile, reliable and professional.  But the real key to his success is humility.  A substitute host’s job is simple enough: Keep it between the ditches until the beloved star gets back – don’t take chances, don’t show off.  Yet very few radio pros are willing or able to execute that direction.  Ego and ambition muck it up.

“It’s not easy to be a fill-in guy,” says Simone’s boss, WABC-AM Program Director Laurie Cantillio. “Mark has a good understanding of that role.  He never tries to upstage the host.  He understands the audience for each show and adjusts accordingly.”

“A lot of guys try to make a name for themselves [when they fill-in],” says Simone.  “The secret is that you have to know the [regular host] really well and with every decision ask yourself what that host would do.”

Simone prides himself on his ability to perform on short notice, like the time he got called at 2:40pm to fill-in for Hannity at 3pm.  An excellent memory for facts and figures dramatically reduces the amount of time he needs to prepare for a show, he says.

“Warner Wolf said I’m like a relief pitcher,” says Simone, referring to the veteran New York sportscaster and “Imus in the Morning” cast member.  “The starters need a couple hours to warm-up, but I can be ready in eight pitches.”

Simone’s easy confidence and versatility flow from a lifetime of varied experience…  Simone got his first taste of talk radio in 1980 at a rock station, WPIX-FM in New York City. “I worked a Sunday shift and I noticed the studio had phone lines and a delay system,” he says.  “So, I started taking calls.”  Thus was born “The Simone Phone,” which he believes was the first FM talk show.

Simone eventually moved to WNEW-AM, where he did a comedy show with Steve Allen that was briefly syndicated.  That  experience paid off a few years later when he was working at WABC, Hannity’s flagship.  As Simone recalls, he was tapped to fill-in for Hannity primarily because of his experience doing a network program, which requires the host to execute with precise timing.

Simone describes himself as a right-of-center independent and acknowledges that his political views aren’t fully aligned with those of Hannity and Levin.  But he keeps any differences to himself when he’s subbing. “If I disagree with the host [on a topic], I just stay away from that issue,” he says. “You aren’t there to promote your own agenda.  You wouldn’t come on a music show and play a different type of music.”

So, has the ultimate back-up ever thought about joining the starting line-up with his own network show?  Simone says he’s been approached with both local and national opportunities but “nothing was really appealing.”

The Super Sub pauses, chuckles and adds,  “But that might be less work, actually.”

In recent days Simon has appeared on KOGO/San Diego, KTLK/Minneapolis and WRVA/Richmond.  Next week he will be heard on WHO/DesMoines. What’s the lesson of Simon’s rocket-rise from talk radio wannabe to the verge of stardom?  Simple: Have a unique perspective and work your tail off.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a good talent coach and career advisor.

Roll Call, a newspaper for Capitol Hill types, recently ran a most tiresome story – yet another breathless report on how much influence talk radio supposedly has with members of Congress.

“Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity can mobilize more voters than any press release or floor speech, so Members find themselves needing to be responsive or face their wrath,” a Republican strategist told Roll Call.

Maybe.  But the lawmakers’ response clearly doesn’t include voting as directed by the talk radio audience.  Atlantic.com talk radio fan/critic Conor Friedersdorf argues in a recent blog post that conservatism was much more successful before the advent of national talk radio.

“To listen to [some conservative hosts] talk, you’d think that the conservative movement hadn’t a hope of accomplishing anything until Rush Limbaugh became a nationally syndicated broadcaster in the early 1990s. Don’t get me wrong. I share the opinion that the American media of several decades ago had its ideological blind spots. And I’m thrilled that the Internet has given the public many more options for news and opinion than ever before, especially for conservatives and libertarians.

“But… [i]n 1980, before the talk radio explosion, Fox News, or Power Line, Ronald Reagan won the White House. Four years later, despite his detractors in the establishment media, he cruised to a second term. Now skip ahead to the time after talk radio’s rise. It’s been a terrible period for the conservative movement’s professed goals: despite Congressional wins in 1994 and presidential victories in 2000 and 2004, we’ve seen the size and scope of government increase, the erosion of federalism, and an explosion in the national debt.

“So… for conservatives out there who care about actual policy accomplishments and the health of the country as opposed to returning Team Red to power – who want to shrink government and protect civil liberties – what evidence do you have that talk radio is a useful ally, let alone an essential one?”

Anyone want to take that one?

Read Friedersdorf’s post HERE.  It includes a thought-provoking analysis of an on-air conversation between Salem talker Hugh Hewitt and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK).  The two are at complete cross-purposes.  Coburn seems to view talk radio as a tool for solving the nation’s most serious problems (with GOP solutions, of course).  While Hewitt, clearly more concerned about ratings and revenue, stokes the more emotionally resonant “They-are-going-to-ban-talk-radio” topic by demanding the issue get top priority from Coburn and his colleagues.