ARE YOU UP TO DATE?

Greg Diamond – ByrnesMedia

I don’t read newspapers anymore. I haven’t in years. That’s not to say that I have no interest in news. I’m actually a news junkie, but nowadays I simply won’t wait for it to appear in printed form at my local convenience store. By that time, the stories are stale to me since I already read most of them hours or, in many cases, days ago. Increasingly, more and more people are migrating to the web for their information gathering, because let’s face it, that’s where it shows up first.

The coverage of Tim Russert’s untimely recent passing shows us just how quickly things move in the Internet Age. Wikipedia had news of his death on their site 40 minutes before NBC and the other traditional news organizations had agreed to broadcast it out of respect for Mr. Russert’s family. I’m not saying it was right to breach that particular broadcast embargo (apparently the person who did the updating was let go in the aftermath), but it does highlight the speed with which information travels these days and as an aside, it also shows how traditional broadcast media are helpless to control the flow of that information.

So, if more and more people are expecting websites to be leaders, why is it there are still station websites that are grossly out of date? These days, you HAVE to keep your site as up to date as you are on the air. Here are a few tips to help you do so.

A Point Person
You can have numerous people in your organization contribute to your website, but you really should have a single individual in charge of co-ordinating everything and ensuring that the information is current and mirrors your on-air endeavours properly. That sounds obvious enough, but finding the right person can be difficult. I’ve always been fond of recommending the front desk person, since they often (but not always) have the time needed to devote to the task. If you have someone in that position that shows the aptitude required, then invest in their training and purchase the proper software to allow them to effectively accomplish the assignment.

An Image Person
Image manipulation is a major part of maintaining your site in a manner that positively reflects your brand. Simply put, nothing cheapens your station quicker than an amateur-looking website. Working with photos, logos, etc. is not at all easy and requires someone with both the artistic and computer skills required for high-level results. This may or may not be your point person, but either way, you will need someone for the job, so again, hunt through your staff and see if there is someone with the capability. If you need to farm it out, then go ahead and do so, but having someone in-house will allow you to make quicker changes to your site. Also, understand and accept that image software is not cheap, but is fully justified when weighed against your brand protection.

Update Methods
Special “staff-only” pages that update your site when you hit “Send” are very useful and facilitate revisions from any employee. The downside can be reduced formatting for less user-friendly update pages, but at least you can transfer the information quickly. An offshoot of this is having your news software immediately update your site when a story is written. This is not difficult to achieve in most of the latest Newsroom software packages.

Adobe “Contribute” is probably the finest software available for WYSIWYG updating. Your Web Administrator can assign varying levels of role settings to staff members to allow them to make their changes, while still protecting the website’s overall style and integrity. This is a very easy-to-use program, relatively inexpensive, and certainly recommended.

While the above two update methods are valid and useful, there is still no replacement for having someone on staff with the ability to write in some of the more common web languages – HTML, PHP, ASP, etc. Even though you may have hired an outside company to design and build your website, if you want it kept current, you just can’t rely on someone outside your station to get it done. You will be one of numerous clients and will have to wait your turn. You want things on the site NOW, not in a few hours or possibly tomorrow.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Other ways to keep people engaged and coming back to your website again and again include personality blogs, control room video streaming, virtual station tours, classified ad sections, “Recently Played” lists, music purchase offers, Rewards Programs, interactivity opportunities between listeners and jocks, etc.

ByrnesMedia has a wealth of experience with radio station websites. To find out how we can help you with yours, feel free to drop us a line at 1-866-332-1331.

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