mobile media strategy of cbs radio
TRANSCRIPT
Design and Management of Radio Station Websites
Topic Areas
1. Design of radio station websites
2. Operation of radio station websites
3. Case Study – CBSRadioNews.com
Molly Stark Dean
New Media Liaison
Social Media Manager
Social Media Consultant
Managing Editor, Multimedia
Photo credit: Anne Lise Haugen Anshus
Radio Station Website Design
Topic Areas
1. Direct Monetization
2. Information Distribution
3. Portal to More Content
Direct Monetization
Advertising
Display Ads
Text Ads (by Google Adwords)
Video Ads (for video content)
Information Distribution
News Content
Text Headlines
Hourly Newscast Player
24/7 Stream
Blogs
Podcasts
Station Information
Affiliate Map
Bios
Ringtones
Partners
Content
Portal to More Content
A station website must not only serve as a destination, but as a portal to your other properties
It brings people to: Social Media, for interaction
Mobile, for additional monetization opportunities
Partners and affiliates for link sharing, which leads to improved Search Engine Optimization
Operating a Station Website
Five “W”s and the “H”
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
Who? (is maintaining your site)
A site that isn't updated regularly will not get repeat traffic
Do you have a staff?
Probably not as much as you need
How much can you automate your process?
Answer: Hopefully, a lot. (More under What?)
What? (Tools are you using)
Quality CMS (Content Management System) Build your own ($$$$ - Expensive)
Wordpress (Customizable, but requires significant technical resources)
DeDe CMS (Well liked, but not so good for search engine optimization)
Discuz (Used by PHPBoard)
We'll talk more about the CBS Radio News CMS later this week.
When? (is the best time to update)
Website use is generally highest:
During lunch time
Right after work
Therefore, it is best to update during:
Morning Drive, when Radio Stations generally have the most staff in
Mid-day following production meetings
Where? (should I promote my site)
Work with your partners (Good link sharing)
Work with your network
Search Engine Optimization
Google Webmaster Tools
Title Tag
Meta Description
Why? (do I need to do all this)
Remember your goals1. Direct Monetization
2. Information Distribution
3. Portal to More Content
Success Begets Success A successful station website will help your
station and a successful station will help your website.
How? (do I make this all happen)
Learn some basic HTML and CSS design
Start with a CMS and learn its tools
Practice, Practice, Practice
Talk with other designers and websites
Look at what other stations and websites that you like are doing. Use their “page source” to see how they did it.
Revenue
Will not come overnight
To earn revenue, you need to generate traffic first
Web revenue is way behind other media
If applicable, use your terrestrial revenue to fuel investment in digital platforms
Sell all types of ads: text, display, audio, video
“Above the Fold”
Definition: What loads on a page without scrolling down
Origin: Broadsheet newspapers fold in half. The content that you can read without turning the paper over is “above the fold”
This should be where your most important content resides
Many users will never scroll down on the page unless the content on the first page is compelling
Case Study (CBSRadioNews.com)
Key Elements “Above the Fold” on CBSRadioNews.com
Rotating News Headline or Promotional Element (Needs Frequent Rotation)
Most Popular Stories: Promotes Page Depth
Most Important Promotional Element
Advertisements
Sometimes the a cross-site prescription changes what you put there
Case Study (CBSRadioNews.com)
Key Elements on CBSRadioNews.com
CBS Radio News Hourly player
Latest News updated every hour On Demand
Follow Us Module
Where you can find us on social media
Links to our affiliates to promote link-sharing and improve SEO
Added value for most committed fans (Ringtones)
Case Study (CBSRadioNews.com)
Key Elements on CBSRadioNews.com
CBS Radio News 24/7 Stream
A core component of our mobile platforms
Twitter Feed
Update hourly with newscast headlines and as necessary with breaking news
Links to our correspondent blogs
More links for partner websites
Using Analytics
What are analytics? Analytics tell you how many and how people are using
your website.
4 main companies offer analytics. Omniture
Google Analytics
Coremetrics
Webtrends
Core Analytics to Watch
Visits
Entire interactions with your site
Page Views
How many different pages seen
Page Depth
During each visit, how many pages a user sees.
Click Map (Click Path)
This give you detailed visualization of where users are going on your site.
Metrics for CBSRadioNews.com
Don't Be Afraid to Fail
CBS Radio News created a separate website for the 2012 Presidential election
We created EyeontheWhiteHouse.com in partnership with Tumblr.com
It was a place for us to put our additional election content that did not fit on CBSRadioNews.com
We were not able to generate enough promotion for it to draw traffic to it
Tumblr.com Case Study
Google Analytics Metrics for Tumblr.com
Lessons Learned
Don't expect partners to do your promotions.
We wasted too much “above the fold” space on a flashy graphic.
While our content was good, there was not enough multimedia content that people were expecting.
It requires significant resources to launch a new venture, so understand how much can be devoted to it.
Benefits from Failure
This is a new world. Sometimes an experiment will work and sometimes it won't.
Inevitably, you will learn lessons from a failure.
You can test your limits. How much can you handle while still keeping your primary products operating?
Skills on one platform will carry over to other platforms. The Tumblr CMS taught us things that could be applied to our CMS.
Final Thoughts
If you never fail, you aren't taking enough risks to be successful.
Automate your process as much as you can. We'll talk more about that during my last lecture on
CMS. (Content Management Systems)
Earn your customer's loyalty by creating great content.
When you find something that works, replicate it.