2 Great Ways to Engage Fans Who Don’t Like Your Advertising Campaign (and more)

February 16, 2010 by Douglas E. Welch

I received an interesting message today from a fellow LA Tech traveler. She hosts a major event but was getting some push back on the advertising poster that was designed and released. She asked a couple of questions about how she might deal with this push back and turn it around into something positive.

Off the top of my head I came up with 2 ideas.

First, instead of hiding from the controversy, engage it. Post a poll on the web site and send it out to the mailing list of interested people. What don’t they like about the poster campaign? What would they change? What would they keep? Controversy is great at driving discussion and shouldn’t be avoided. You could be developing some of your biggest fans through just such a conversation.

SurveyMonkey (and many other sites) provide free embedded polls. You can also use Google Docs Spreadsheets to make your own surveys and show live results to those voting.

Second, if the fans don’t like the ad campaign, have them design one of their own. Put their talents to use and have them show you — via text, photos, audio, video, whatever — what they would like to see in the promotion. I must admit this is better to do BEFORE you have completed your own ad campaign, but I also think it is a great response to the people that took issue. Give them a chance to express themselves in some other way than simply saying “I hate it!”

An Example Survey using Google Docs

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Ignoring New Media, in all its forms, is no longer an option for businesspeople

November 26, 2009 by Douglas E. Welch

Ignoring New Media, in all its forms, is no longer an option for businesspeople.

It isn’t a fad.
It isn’t going away.
You can’t stick your fingers in your ears and chant “La La La”

It is changing the way you do business every day.
It is as important as a telephone – a bank account – a storefront.
It is already here and your competitors are already using it to build their businesses.
New Media is instrumental to the continued success of your business.
That means you can’t ignore it any longer.

Over the years it has been possible to drag your feet on new technologies. Our grandparents probably resisted adding a phone to their house, then a radio, then the television. Each new technology was hailed as a fad, an oddity, a toy. New Media is in the midst of that same cycle today. What should be clear, though, is that New Media is a collection of the most useful business tools ever delivered into the hands of business. The impacts of the telephone and television – as much as they changed our world – will be deeply eclipsed by the changes wrought by New Media, in all its forms.

I said it once, I’ll say it again – you can no longer ignore New Media.

Over the years, I have been pretty forgiving of people who decided, either by accident or on purpose, not to have and not to use an email account. I grew up in the years before email and even though I might have found it useful, I could understand how others might not. Five years ago, though, something changed in my thinking. I began to look at people without email as akin to someone who refused to use the telephone. Email had supplanted nearly every other device as my communication medium of choice. It provided an excellent way of communicating with individuals and groups in a way that paper or telephone could not. Not using email today is akin to deciding not to use the telephone in the 1950s. It simply makes no sense.

I have come to the same mind about New Media. To ignore New Media, either by inattention or design, is no longer an option. Those around you have already figured this out – and not just professional geeks like me either. Businesses are learning the painful lesson that newspapers, yellow pages and direct mail advertising are becoming less and less effective every day. They don’t reach the larger world of customers their business needs to survive and thrive. Throwing “good money after bad” doesn’t make sense in a world where you now have the ability to communicate easily and directly with your customers – and they with you. Look around you neighborhood. Do you see stacks of Yellow Pages lying on lawns and porches, or in recycle bins? Are your ads really doing you any good there.

Is this new world frightening? You bet! Change is always frightening — but it is also filled with opportunity. Now is the time to dive into New Media. Every day you hesitate – every day you ignore New Media — is a day when your competitors are moving ahead of you.

So now that you know you can no longer ignore New Media – Get started today!

Start devoting at least 1/3 of your marketing budget to New Media tools
- 1/2 if you can bring yourself to do it. You’ll be amazed at how much more you can do for less.
Look deeply at your current marketing methods and kill off those that don’t bring in a substantial amount of sales
- Stop advertising in the newspaper, yellow pages, etc if they no longer work. You have alternatives now.
Start engaging your customers in conversation, wherever they might congregate:
- web site, email, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of new services yet to be invented
Monitor closely how New Media tools effect your bottom line
- use coupon codes, tracking codes, whatever to get hard numbers on which methods have the most effect

Over the next several months I am going to be challenging you to engage with New Media. I am going to be pushing you – hard – to explore these new tools. I will be providing some New Media prescriptions on how to get moving on your New Media campaigns. I am also going to be dealing some cold, hard truths on why you need to use New Media or risk becoming irrelevant to your customers.

Ready to dive into New Media?

See http://DouglasEWelch.com for all the ways we can work together – online and face to face.

Elsewhere Online: Three Instantly Effective Social Media Strategies

July 29, 2009 by Douglas E. Welch

Looking for a way to use new media/social media for your business. Here are 3 easy ways to get started that take nothing more and a little time.

Thanks to Sally Witzky via Twitter for passing along this article.

Three Instantly Effective Social Media Strategies

No budget for developing a comprehensive Web strategy to engage your customers? Try this trio of simple and quick innovations courtesy of Alexandra Samuel

By Alexandra Samuel

If you’ve got an experienced social media team, a solid budget and an appetite for innovation, you can create an original online presence that engages your customers or supporters in an entirely new kind of online experience.

But many organizations lack the time, budget or experience to start from scratch. That doesn’t limit your social media options to a generic corporate news blog or a standard-issue Facebook page. Here are three great options for robust social media presences that let you manage cost and risk by building on existing tools and established best practices.

Read the entire article: Three Instantly Effective Social Media Strategies

News: SpokenWord.org Web Site Goes Live

February 12, 2009 by Douglas E. Welch

I have been testing SpokenWord.org over the last month or so and I think it is great. I consider a YouTube for Spoken Word new media projects. I think it will really help audio podcasters, especially, get some more recognition. If your shows are not already registered here, my recommendation is to get them there.

Here is the press release with all the information.

Douglas

SpokenWord.org Web Site Goes Live

Marin County, California – February 12, 2009 – There are perhaps millions of audio and video spoken-word recordings on the Internet. Think of all those lectures, interviews, speeches, conferences, meetings, radio and TV programs and podcasts. No matter how obscure the topic, it’s been recorded and published on line.

But how do you find it?

SpokenWord.org is a new free on-line service that helps you find, manage and share audio and video spoken-word recordings, regardless of who produced them or where they’re published.

All of the recordings in the SpokenWord.org database are discovered on the Internet and submitted to our database by members like you. SpokenWord.org doesn’t store media files, but rather the metadata such as titles, descriptions, categories and locations, which is why SpokenWord.org can accept submissions from anyone and anywhere.

SpokenWord.org is particularly useful for those with an iPod, iTunes or other media player. SpokenWord.org’s collections are a terrific way to manage all of your spoken-word programs and subscriptions, which can then be downloaded to your media player as a single feed.

SpokenWord.org is a project of The Conversations Network, a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit best known for its own podcast channels such as IT Conversations (the longest continuously running podcast on the planet) and The Levelator software for podcast, radio and TV audio post-production.

Contact:

Doug Kaye
doug@rds.com
The Conversations Network

New Media Prescription 004 – Interview others

December 4, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

For other entries in this series, See New Media Prescription

If you want to enhance the impact of your new media efforts, and expose yourself to an entirely new set of listeners and viewers, you can’t do better than recording a series of interviews.

Why are interviews so powerful? It is a simple fact of ego. When you interview someone for your show what is the first thing they do? That’s right, they tell all their friends, family and business contacts to listen.

“Hey, you’ve got to listen to this interview I did for the XYZ show!”

This is exactly what you want them to do and you want to facilitate it as much as possible. In this relatively simple way you gain exposure to each person’s network of contacts so provide them with audio or video from the interview, send them links they can share and embed in thier own blogs and web sites and post the interview to public audio and video sharing sites.

While you might hesitate to ask someone for their entire mailing list so you could send out a press release, interviewing someone, and asking that they share it with their friends and contacts is very natural. An interview provides valuable content and yet still achieves the goal of raising your profile and that of your interview subject.

Who do you interview? Start with the people you would most like to speak with. Who are your influences? Who are your heroes? Whose opinions do you respect most? There is no need to shoot low, either. My fellow Friends in Tech members, Chuck Tomasi and Kreg Steppe of Technorama always make a point of reaching out to bigger names for their interviews. Their guests have included Mythbusters Adam Savage and Grant Imahara, author Stephen Covey, explorer and discoverer of the Titanic, Dr. Robert Ballard and many others.

You should also seek to be interviewed by others. You gain content that can be shared on our own blog or podcast and your ideas get exposed to a new group of people. It also allows you to get your ideas out if you are having difficulty writing them down. This was the genesis of my New Media Answers series for New Media Interchange. Members would often be peppering me with questions during our meetings and I quickly realized that my answers would be beneficial to many more people if I captured them for the web site and podcast.

So I asked NMI member, Tracy Pattin, who does her own show, Sizzle in the Middle, to act as the interviewer and duplicate in the studio what happened so frequently at our meetings. She comes in with questions on a particular topic and I answer them to the best of my ability. This results in an engaging discussion and allows me to talk about new media issues and work through ideas that I can later present as more fully-formed articles here and on the New Media Interchange blog. This allows me to answer questions that a large majority of the members might have even when I am unable to talk with each of them individually.

Start interviewing today to spread your name and your message to an entirely new group of people.

Get your message to your audience…cheaply…give away MP3 Players

November 23, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

It has been said by many New Media folks that if you want to get your message into your audience’s ears, buy a cheap MP3 player, load it with your content and give it away. This used to be an expensive proposition, but today’s Sunday ad flyers show this isn’t true any longer. These 1 GB MP3 players could easily hold hours of content and at less than $20 each retail it might actually make sense. You could probably find similar MP3 players even cheaper at retail.

If you have a message to get out to your employees, your charity donors or your any other audience, there is little excuse in not giving away both the “blades” and the “razor”.

Target

Toy R Us

New Media Prescription 003 – Capture your content

October 1, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

So, if you have read the previous 2 installments of this series — Get a Blog and Start/Build Your Email List — then you are ready for the next step. Now that you have a place to release your new media and have started a mailing list to promote your new media, it is time to create some new media!

Too many people I talk to look upon this as a challenging task. “Where am I going to find the time to create all this content?” The truth is, you don’t have to make more time to create your content. In most cases, you are already creating content every day. The sad part is, you are probably throwing away this content because you don’t recognize it when you see it.

Every person, every store, every charity, every restaurant, every business creates content every day…or should be. You have a unique message you want and need to communicate to your customers. You goal is to integrate new media into your work and business so that you take advantage of every opportunity to create new content.

Here are some examples from a variety of businesses:

Retail Store

Did you just receive a new product, new product line, an enhancement to an existing product or a promotional video from a vendor? Look for a way to make a short video, a piece of audio or a blog post about this product. Look for opportunities to interview manufacturers about their products. Have your staff create videos about products they really like. Your customers are there to buy your products. Give them as much information as you can to make their purchasing decisions easier. Even more, using your existing staff in your new media productions brings a personal feeling to them. Your customers will see the same people online and in the store and feel a closer relationship with your business.

Restaurant

Many restaurants work on a very seasonal menu. Peaches are in season one week, raspberries the next, strawberries another. Fall calls for comfort food and summer for lighter fare. This gives you a ready-made schedule and reason for new media. Show your customers how you are developing a new seasonal menu. Show them the special ways you are using the seasonal product. Celebrate the change of seasons with menu items, entertainment ideas, party information and more. You can also produce mini-series of cooking classes and recipes, showing some “behind-the-scenes” action that everyone loves.

Charities

One of the biggest goals of any charity is out-reach — telling potential donors what you do and why it needs to be done. If you are a medical charity, I would guess you have regular panel discussions and speakers that come to present to your staff and donors. Make a point of recording these events. While you may have 10-20 people at the in-house discussion, you have a potential audience of thousands on the Internet. If you have influential visitors to your offices, record an interview with them that can be used on your web site or sent out as a podcast.

If you have a yearly event, capture as much media as possible during your next event. Done right, you will have enough content to power a weekly or monthly podcast. This show then becomes a regular promotion for the next yearly event. Instead of making your PR push a few months before your regular event, you now have a series of regular promotions throughout the year leading up to the event. Your goal here is to be make the yearly event a culmination of a year-long event that you have been fueling using your new media productions. Ideally, by the time you open up ticket sales for your event, the demand will be so high that you will sell out almost immediately. Then you repeat the process, gathering more media at this event to fuel your show for another year.

Build your personal brand

Many of us are in the business of providing information and advice. Too often, we wait until customers come to us for information instead of proactively reaching out to them. In the case of one financial planner, the current mortgage and stock market crises has led to frightened customers rushing to their office to inquire about their portfolios. Imagine how you might allay fears by providing a regular informational update to your clients. When customers are clamoring for information, new media is a great way to provide it.

Providing this information also goes a long way towards building your own brand as an expert in your field. Your audience might begin with your clients, but it can quickly grow to include others who might eventually become your clients. It could even raise your profile enough to bring traditional media outlets like newspapers and television to come seeking your insight.

Content surrounds you and your business. You only need to reach out and capture it when it occurs. Starting a new media program isn’t about creating information out of whole cloth. It is about sharing what you already have and know. Start capturing your content and building your New Media future today.

Link: Prescription 001 – Get A Blog
Link: Prescription 002 – Start/Build Your Email List

Stay in touch with everything happening at WelchWrite.com

September 18, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

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New Media Challenge 001 – Introduce yourself

September 12, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

I started a series of New Media Challenges to entice people to start creating their own media. This is my response to New Media Challenge 001 – Introduce Yourself.

(The video cuts off a few seconds before I was finished)

Douglas and Rosanne participating in New Media Panel this evening

June 16, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

Rosanne and I will be joining some other LA New Media folks for this panel on The Future of Online Content, tonight, 730pm, at Blankspaces (5405 Wilshire Blvd, LA).

Douglas

Recorded video of the event

Live .TV show provided by Ustream

Here is the information on the panel…

Panel on the Future of Online Content
June 16th, 2008 — Tiger Team, mytvshow, online video, socialmedia, television

[I’m going to ask my panelists about this eMarketer chart from last year showing advertising spending for online video and projections until 2011. I would like to know if they are heartened or saddened by these projections, and if they think they will remain accurate. Considering that advertisers still spend around $65 Billion a year for television ads, $4 Billion in 2011 is a comparatively small piece of the pie. See Paul La Monica’s pithy blog post on these facts.]

I’m moderating a panel on the future of online video content, from the perspective of those who are actually creating online content in a professional manner. I created this panel for the premier of atelevision show I co-created for Tru TV. Rather than go on about my experiences with network television, I thought it more appropriate to look to the future, especially because my primary profession is that of emerging media specialist, not a creator-producer in the entertainment industry. After the panel I will update this post with my thoughts on the bits of wisdom from my panelists.

Panelists include:

Amanda Congdon, the host and executive producer of Sometimesdaily. http://sometimesdaily.com/ and blogger at http://amandacongdon.com
Gilad Lotan – Technologist / Digital Media, Endemol USA -http://endemolusa.tv
Ken LaZebnik from http://www.Strike.tv
Hayden Black of Goodnight Burbank: http://goodnightburbank.com and http://www.abigailsxratedteendiary.com
Michael Pilla of http://www.indieflix.com
Tim Street of http://www.frenchmaidtv.com/
Doug and Rosanne Welch, http://welchwrite.com especially with regard to podcasting

CIPNW gets a mention in the Austin Podcasters Group podcast

June 8, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

Fred Castenda, from the Austin Podcasters Group, let me know today that they have highlighted my TubeMogul screeencast demo in their latest podcast.

Thanks to Fred and the entire Austin group for the link love. (SMILE)

Demo: Tubemogul.com video distribution web site

June 7, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (48.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

As a video blogger, podcaster, or someone who just produces video on occasion, one important aspect is to get your video out to the largest number of viewers possible. This means uploading your video to a number sites, which can be quite time consuming.

TubeMogul.com allows you to upload and describe your video once and then have it uploaded to a wide variety of video sharing sites.

This demo shows the upload and launch process on TubeMogul.com

iPod Ready Video

New Media Interchange LA Meeting Tomorrow Night – May 28 @ 7pm

May 27, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

We are only a day away from our first meeting of the new group, New Media Interchange.

My goal with this group is to bring together traditional and new media artists and technicians to foster the creation of new work.

I see so much wasted effort here in Los Angeles and much great creative work that is simply thrown away if it can’t find a place in the traditional media landscape. I have many friends who work on both sides of the traditional/new media world and would love to see them working together to create something instead of spending their lives pitching ideas with little to show for it.

We now have a new, open, market for our creative work and we should seek to exploit it for our benefit. Whether you are trying to create a promo piece for yourself, a show with online distribution of even an idea for a traditional broadcast television show, new media can provide you tools to get your message out to your audience directly.

Join us both online and in-person at New Media Interchange and let’s all make something special!

Please join me for the first meeting of New Media Interchange on Wed, May 28, 2008 at 7pm

The location is Panera Bread in Studio City

Ventura Boulevard
12131 Ventura Boulevard
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 762-2226 | phone
(818) 762-5566 | fax

They have several good spaces indoors, a large patio and free Wifi.

Please RSVP for the meeting using Upcoming.org

Distribute/track your videos from one location – TubeMogul.com

May 8, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

I came across this FREE service, TubeMogul (http://www.tubemogul.com/), thanks to a Twitter message from TanjaB (http://twitter.com/tanjab), who was attending the Digital Hollywood Conference.

Getting your video productions out to a wide variety of web sites increases your exposure and can help to drive traffic to your web site and advertising revenue.

TubeMogul will take your video and allow you to submit it to 15 different video sites with a few clicks, including the appropriate title, description and keywords.

You need to visit each site at least once to set up your account and profile, but then you enter that login information to TubeMogul and it can submit new videos directly from its interface. As an added bonus, the site also allows you to track all your videos, on all the services in once central location.

New Media Interchange is growing! Join Us!

April 25, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

Just a note to say that New Media Interchange is growing every day and we would love to have you.

My main goal is to bring folks from traditional media and new media together so we can all benefit. I think that we each have information and skills that others can use.

You can become involved with New Media Interchange by joining our mailing list at:

http://groups.google.com/group/newmediainterchange

and visiting our wiki at:

http://newmediainterchange.pbwiki.com/

The wiki has a Skills Bank page where you can list your skills so others can find the information that they need.

Perfect Example: The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper

April 3, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

I have been talking for a while about how podcasting can help to promote sales of books and it seems some authors are starting to get on the podcast bus.

I love The Splendid Table with Lynne Rossetto Kasper, but I found I was rarely around a radio when it aired. As podcasting started, I found myself wishing that more shows would podcast after air, simply so I could enjoy them. Well, The Splendid Table crew started to podcast a few months ago and I am an avid listener. I have to imagine that their listenership jumped dramatically once folks could listen on their own terms.

Now, Kasper and producer, Sally Swift have created a book entitled The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper. (Available April 8, 2008) More importantly for this blog, they have also started a podcast to accompany the book. The first episode is casual and comfortable and discusses topics expanded on in the book.What a great way to expand their exposure, starting first with their loyal listeners of the radio show, and then branching out to a whole new audience via podcast.

What a great way to take one audience and bring it over to an entirely new product. Every author should be doing this regardless of whether they are writing a cookbook, novel, short stories, essays, whatever. Of course, writers often tell me “oh, my readers aren’t interested in what I have to say outside my books.”…and they’re wrong. People love insight and insiders knowledge. They would love to hear how you came up with the idea for the book, the basis of the characters, and your trials and tribulations while writing it. Writers shouldn’t sell themselves short. There are people interested in them and their work, even they only reached out and engaged them.

If you are creating anything, you should seriously consider creating a companion podcast. If you could have your own personal television of radio station, dedicated to your products — why wouldn’t you? This is exactly what you have in podcasting.

Why Podcast? Example 01: Book Signings

March 8, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

Last Wednesday night, I went to a friend’s book reading at the Barnes and Noble nearby in Encino. Unlike a typical attendee, though, I made a point of talking to our friend and asking if he had thought about recording, and then podcasting, his reading. In fact, he had not, but quickly thought it would be a great idea. So, with camcorder and MP3 recorder in tow, I captured the entire 30+ minute event. We will be doing some light editing on the content and then releasing it on his web site, and probably mine.

Now, this begs the question…why aren’t more bookstores recording their readings and then letting this content build awareness of their store and the services they provide? They are scheduling these readings anyway, so how much more work is required to capture the content?

Not much really. A small audio recorder and an average camcorder are all you need. Sure, they might have to find someone to output the audio and video into MP3 and MP4 formats for the web, but I am guessing that they all know someone who can do that, even if they haven’t yet learned themselves.

What do they have to gain from capturing this content? Let me count the ways!

You gain your own, personal radio and television channel where you control the programming and can get your message out to customers throughout the globe
Reading is distributed to thousands of people, instead of just the 20-30 (maybe) who were actually able to make it to the store
Placing the video on YouTube and your web site raises your store’s visibility at little cost to you
Authors can place the video on their web site, further spreading the video and your brand
Gain authors goodwill by providing them content for their web site and showing them how the Internet can be used to promote their books themselves. (I find that unless the author is famous already, most publishers marketing departments don’t know them from Adam or Eve. Authors MUST promote their own work)
Include web, audio and video links to the author’s book linking directly back to your online sales site. (You DO have one, don’t you?) This drives sales from people well outside your local geographic area and helps to monetize your readings well beyond those who might attend in person
Create a video archive of readings which attracts visitors to your web site and continues working 365/7/24. Even better, if one of these authors suddenly becomes famous, you already have golden content on your site
You develop a reputation for benefitting authors, as well as yourself, in the local and national book publishing circles. Authors might start selecting your store over another, since they know they will get something more than the average bookstore reading.
With a bit more work, (only a little but more these days), you could turn book readings into online, real time book discussions, allowing audience members around the world to ask questions via text, audio or video

A lot of these benefits also effect other organizations and companies, so you are sure to see something similar in future examples. Every individual, every company and every non-profit can find some way in which podcasting can enhance their work, build their profits and get their message out to the world.

Douglas speaks at OC Podcasters – Wed, December 12 @ 630 PM

December 7, 2007 by Douglas E. Welch

Come on down to Aliso Viejo and hear me speak on “Podcasting: What’s Next!…and What Needs to be Next!“.

Orange County Podcasters December Meetup
When: Wednesday, December 12 at 6:30PM
Where: Corpus Christi of Aliso Viejo
27231 Aliso Viejo Pkwy
Aliso Viejo CA 92656

You can find complete information on the OC Podcasters web site.

I will be recording both audio and video for later podcast in case you can’t make it, but why not stop by if you are in the area?

Writers! Produce Thyself!

Do you know a WGA member who is on strike? Do they want to learn about podcasting, producing and distributing their own work on the Internet. Have them send me an email. I am looking to gather up a group of interested folks for a free presentation on the Why, What and How of Podcasting.

Audio: An Interview with Evo Terra, Co-Founder of Podiobooks.com

November 7, 2007 by Douglas E. Welch

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (27.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

During PodCampAZ on November 3, 2007, I had an opportunity to sit down with Evo Terra and discuss Podiobooks.com, an online, self-publishing, audio book service.

Listen to this interview
[audio:http://welchwrite.com/cip/audio/2007/cip-evoterra-20071103.mp3]

Books by Evo Terra

Technorati Tags: arizona, audio, book, books, podcamp, podcampaz, podcast, podcasting

New Media: Why wouldn’t you…?

October 3, 2007 by Douglas E. Welch

As I was walking around last week’s Podcast and New Media Expo, one phrase kept coming to me again and again, no matter who I talked with…Why wouldn’t you?

If you could get your message to thousands of people, instead of 10 or 20, why wouldn’t you?
If you could have your own television or radio show, why wouldn’t you?
If you could reach out to other, under-served consumers, why wouldn’t you?
If you could reach your customers and donors where they live online, why wouldn’t you?
If you could do all this for little to no cost, WHY WOULDN’T YOU?

New media provides a nearly free pipeline directly to those who WANT to hear your message. Why are advertisers still using the “shotgun” approach to advertising, spraying everyone to hit the 1% that actually care about their message. Why not find a show that has rabid, fanatic fans that love your market and just might love your products? In one case, a musical instrument manufacturer has few outlets to advertise their handbells. There just isn’t a great concentration of potential customers in any one area. Then along comes The Handbell Podcast where every listener cares about handbells and associated music. Again, why wouldn’t you advertise on that show. These hosts have collected nearly perfect customers into one place and have gained their respect and trust.

Sure, this is an extreme example, but what about yarn manufacturers advertising on knitting shows and a company that makes products for long-range truckers advertising on Trucker Tom’s show. There are audiences waiting to be addressed. Sure, you advertisers need to change their way of advertising — treating listeners with more respect for a start — but they would know their message is reaching the right ears and eyes AND their advertising dollars have having much more effect, dollar for dollar.

I have to believe that this is the future of advertising. Advertisers can only shout so loud, for so long, before we all stop listening. Engaging customers who want to hear their message, through the conduit of a trusted and respected host, is now possible and just might be the “next big thing.”

Technorati Tags: promotion, advertising, business, consumer, customer, PR

Careers in New Media

Helping to Build New Careers in New Media

Category Archives: Promotion