Convergence Or Collision?

Heard at Radio Ink's "Convergence"

• Twitter "is very good for monitoring the sentiment, the communication, the overall feelings about any brand." - Guy Kawasaki
• 'Find Your Niche, And Own It'
• "It used to be about getting people to your website. It's now about getting your website to the people."
  
• 'Phony Is Out. Real Is In'
• New Brand Platforms
• Found Money; Good Ideas
• Borrell Focuses On Local
• "Listening Is The First Step Of Any Entrance To Social Media No Matter What Your Business Is"

Kudos to the magazine for not only a great Silicon Valley meeting, but - even better - very complete coverage of each speaker's comments online (which seldom happens since many of these folks present more or less the same canned presentations at meeting after meeting).

I guess they all feel like they'll keep telling us these same things until we actually do them.

However, Seattle pal Jackson Dell Weaver put it all in a very sensible context: "More like a massive collision…"

"For any media exec it’s a confusing, long list of platforms and ideas to evaluate and sort through – social media (and all that entails), texting, streaming, mobile…and what is RadioDNS and will Jelli become the equivalent of ‘all-request’ radio shows…? And…how do you make buck with any of it? One attendee – a notable broadcast group head – told me that it was overwhelming. 'How' he asked, 'do you sort through all the advice, ideas, new products and technologies?'"

Weaver confesses, "Not being a group head – I don’t have to answer the question. But I do have some thoughts."

1) Build a platform – almost media agnostic. Focus on one question: How do you help your clients sell more products and services? Work from there…
2) Experiment– if a journey begins with one step, then make the first step.
3) Screw up. Be comfortable with some failure and even budget for it.
4) Be strategic – which is vague, I admit. A newspaper streaming a jazz format because the publisher loves Kenny G isn’t a strategy. Developing neighborhood streaming radio stations around a newspaper does make sense.
5) Sell it. Charge something for your digital products…something. And don’t let clients cherry pick your menu. It’s tough to do…but you will set the expectation for years to come if you don’t properly position your media. And even more, you’ll compromise your client’s campaign effectiveness.
6) Avoid black holes. Many digital marketing tools are endless amounts of work for little incremental revenue. Evaluate early and often.

Thanks, JDW. I am glad you were there.