Your Grammy Moment

As I sit down to watch the music industry’s biggest night, the Grammy’s, I was thinking about their new promotion, “My Grammy Moment.” This is where viewers can submit videos of themselves singing, dancing, playing instruments, doing just about anything that is musical in order to apply to perform on the Grammy’s with one of the nominees.

Remember the first year it was Justin Timberlake with one of his biggest fan, who actually tore it up. Then the Foo Fighters were “My Grammy Moment.” Now, this year, Katy Perry will perform with the winner of this great promotion.

Some people have criticized it as trying too hard to reach out to younger viewers, but I say, at least they are trying. (Sidebar, Whitney Houston is looking rehabbed…GO WHITNEY!)

Sure, they are trying to turn the show into a rip off of the MTV Music Awards, but they are trying, which is more than I can say for a lot of media outlets.

“My Grammy Moment” is a great example of how to integrate “new” media into the traditional media world. If the Grammy’s can do it, so can you.

No you don’t have Justin Timberlake or Katy Perry, but you do have your prime talent. Think about a promotion called “My Magic Moment” or “My Star Moment.” Have your listeners submit video or even just plain old audio of themselves talking about a celebrity news story or hosting a video show, post them on your website and let your audience vote on them. Maybe the winner gets a guest spot on the morning show…maybe you even hire them part time to be a jock.

It’s not just about a slick promotion that will excite your audience for a few short weeks, it’s a change in the attitude. Being on the radio can no longer be exclusive, it must be inclusive. Being inclusive of the audience is not as hard to achieve as it sounds. Just think, when you had live bodies in every daypart radio was the most inclusive medium, airing phone calls with opinions, requests, and generally anything that was on your audience’s mind at the time.

The internet now allows you to return to that feeling of inclusivity that once set radio apart.

Here are some ways to do that.

1.) Have your listeners post pictures from their weekend parties and share them on your site

2.) Invite your audience to host their own video show on your site – maybe it’s with the top 5 youtube videos, maybe it’s even more local than that where they take their video camera around your market and get people to comment on local affairs.

3.) Family Photo Album: Ask your VIP club members to send in pictures of them and their family and then create a page on your site that is the “VIP Club Family Album.”

In order to transition your station into the new media world, you must become inclusive as opposed to exclusive. That is the new world order.

Stale-Mate

What if you woke up tomorrow morning, turned on your station and heard the weather forecast from the weekend? What would you do? I know what I would do…I would freak.

Who was responsible for this?

Why aren’t they paying more attention?

My audience needs to trust that I am delivering them quality and timely content.

You wouldn’t accept old and stale information on your station, so WHY would you accept it on your website? Too often I go to websites for media companies and see an outdated contest, a holiday photo slideshow in MARCH or maybe even an event that the station was involved with LAST YEAR.

There is no way you would accept this type of thing on your station, so why then would you accept it on your website.

Here are a few easy steps to take to make sure the information on your website is as fresh as the information on your station.

1.) Asign a member of your staff to update a blog daily – the blog should live on the homepage and be front and center – if it’s updated continually you want it to be the first thing someone sees when they come to your site. Stress the importance of regular updates to whomever you assign this duty to and make it a requirement that the blog gets updated on the weekends.

2.) Build an RSS reader into your site that will funnel constantly updated information from other blogs to your site. Find a couple of good blogs that are relevant to your audience, subscribe to the RSS feed and away you go. It’s always fresh and it’s very hands off.

3.) Assign a member of your staff the task of coming up with a new photo gallery everyday – it could be “Pictures of John Travolta and his family” or “Obama in transition.” Everyday it should be something fresh and something topical, similar to what you would put on the air. Feature this in a prominent position on your site as it will be good timely content.

Some of these ideas require a little heavy lifting, others not so much. If you don’t have a large staff, maybe #2 is for you. If you are lucky enough to have a full house (in this day and age that might be two or three people) utilize your talent.

Whatever you do, it is important to stress to your team this simple statement, “Treat our website like our station” and you will win everytime!!