How to Set a Vanity URL on Facebook

I originally posted this on my RIB Cage Blog at http://blog.cabradio.com. But thought it to be relevant here.

I've noticed for a while now that many people do not know they can set a vanity url for their Facebook Profile Page. Facebook calls it a username. Let's first explain what a Facebook Profile is. A Facebook Profile Page is a personal account on Facebook where you can connect personally with your friends and family. You can see each others status updates, see what your connections are posting on other people's pages, share photos and videos, etc. This is really how friends can share what's going on in their lives.

This is not to be confused with a Fan Page, or what they are now calling a "Like" Page. Fan Pages were created for business entities, places, public figures, etc that could potentially have thousands and thousands of fans or customers. A Fan Page is a way for brands and public figures to communicate with their customers or fans without connecting personally.

A vanity url is where the string of numbers for the Profile or Page is replaced with something you choose. For example, my Fan Page is http://www.facebook.com/charlieprofit (be sure to click the "Like" button) and my Profile is http://www.facebook.com/charlieprofitreport. (You can also "Like" Radio Twit on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/radiotwit). Using vanity urls is useful for branding purposes, or just to make it easy to give out to friends and family. It's much easier to tell someone to find you on Facebook with a vanity url, than to give out a long string of numbers.

How do you set up your vanity url? This is very easy. First make sure you have logged into your Facebook account. Then go to http://www.facebook.com/username. From there the instructions will prompt you to choose your username. It is permanent, so choose wisely. Make sure you do not misspell or make a typo. The process to correct a mistake like that is almost impossible. It would probably be easier to set up a new account, but then your history is not connected with the new account. If you manage any Facebook Pages with more than 25 fans, then you can also set the url for your Fan Page here.

I hope you found this information useful. If you'd like more information on what a username is you can click here: http://www.facebook.com/help/new/?page=897. Comments are welcome.

The Next Game Changer?

What do you think will be the next game changer for radio? Is it Social Media? Or is there some other technology on the horizon? As you know, a lot of people are talking about the necessity of using Social Media, but few actually explain ways how. It is one thing to tell radio stations to connect with listeners via Twitter or Facebook, which is what the "consultants" and "experts" are telling you right now. But few can do it successfully without a budget. After all, it takes manpower to create the accounts, then follow or friend people and respond to messages. Small and medium markets may have more of a challenge to maximize their Social Media presence. Problems I imagine some of the smaller stations encountering are having an intern or weekend person take on the Social Media responsibility, only to leave the station with no back up plan. 

The other aspect is revenue. Engaging with your listeners is not really generating revenue. Telling your listeners that you are at a remote can get them to come, but will it get them to buy? It depends on a few things, obviously. And this is not about the anatomy of sales. But there are things you can do to engage your audience with your sponsors to encourage a sale. But in order to make sure you can make some revenue, you need to be sure you are set up properly to manage your Social Media accounts. 

How can you use Social Media without hiring a full team to manage your brand? You start by using some of the free tools that exist. When you learn how to use them to generate some revenue, you can then move up and use better tools that have premiums to use them, and maybe hire someone to manage it for you. But how do you get started? What tools are essential? I will cover three today. As you read this you may already be advanced past these basic tools. There are many more that I will be writing about, but felt I should build the foundation to a strong Social Media management strategy. I hope you'll agree and choose to share this with your colleagues.

1. Email - I know you already have this, as so much communication is still transmitted via email. And yes, email is still relevant and always will be. When you create your Social Media Accounts, you should use a "manager's email". I prefer using GMail because of some of the features that are easy to use, such as being able to forward, tag and archive messages automatically. So, in this "manager's email" account you would "forward" the social media messages to an employee or intern to handle, but you can also archive a copy in your email. This way you can also monitor the incoming messages, or at least have a record should the need arise. Using email allows you or your community manager to make sure the station doesn't miss any interaction with your followers. When you sign up for any Social Media account, make sure all email settings are checked. Yes, this means your email flow will increase which is why you need a unique account specifically for Social Media use, or at least a way to filter the messages to a specific folder or tag (as GMail uses).
2. A Social Media Friendly Web Browser - This is a time saver in many ways. If your station wants to keep up on pop culture and share that with your listeners through some Social Media sites, having a Web Browser that has Social Media elements integrated makes it easy. If your morning show is keeping up on Lindsay Lohan, it is so easy to pop onto Perez Hilton's site, and select the latest Lindsay Lohan gossip and share on your station's Twitter or Facebook page! If you are a sports station, you can click on any sports website and easily share the latest scores with the click of a mouse. These are just a couple basic examples. If you have a unique station, feel free to contact me and I'll show you what you can do. 
   There are 3 browsers that I recommend: Chrome, Firefox and Flock.
• Chrome is Google's web browser. It is very fast and now offers quite a selection of add-ons, or extensions that make Social Media management easy, such as the share button. 
• Firefox is created by Mozilla and has been around for many years and there are hundreds of thousands of add-ons. This is probably the most widely used browser for those into Social Media. 
• Flock is also created by Mozilla but was created for the Social Media butterfly. It integrates many tools right into the browser to make sharing easy. They recently made some changes and have a Chrome engine running it. 
3. A Blog - Ideally, each jock or announcer on your station should have a blog that is updated regularly. It does not have to be done daily, but weekly is good. What do you use the blog for? Simply put, it is written communication to your listeners of what is happening at your station. If you are a small station and don't have much going on, then talk about what's going on in the community. It can be your Public Service portal. Your announcer or jock blogs should be an extension of their personality on the air. They should be giving their listeners the information they want, such as concert updates, artist news or even artist history. Some thought should be put into the blog, and it should not just be ramblings, or mundane updates. All the blogs can then be automatically fed to your Social Media channels such as Facebook or Twitter, through a service like TwitterFeed or Ping.fm. This will bring traffic back to your site, which is what you really want. There are numerous blog sites that are free, and you can easily add a tab on your stations website to open up the blog page. Or you can use software like Word Press or Blogger to build your website. 

There are many other tools that I plan on writing about. I will also delve a little deeper into some of the Social Media sites that are out there and where you should have a presence. Hopefully you already have a Twitter and Facebook Page. Please understand the difference between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page. You'll want to set up a Page for your station, not a Profile. One reason is the limitation on the number of people that can follow a Profile (which is currently at 5000). Also, Pages were set up specifically for Pages. See this post I wrote for more info: http://blog.cabradio.com/2009/04/social-media-101.html. 

If you can't wait for my next post here, don't hesitate to contact me. Find my contact info here: http://contact.charlieprofit.com. I'm happy to give you a free consultation with ideas you can implement immediately. 

Don't forget to click to share and tell your colleagues to follow this blog. It only takes a minute, and you'll feel good about it! Comments are also welcome!

Originally Posted at http://blog.cabradio.com/2010/07/next-game-changer.html

The Great Intern Debate - Are Unpaid Internships Illegal?

I recently came across a discussion on the Connecticut Board of Radio-Info calling internships into question. Why should radio stations not pay interns? This is, of course, relevant to other industries. But I'm going to stick with radio here for the most part.

A little of my history... I got into radio at the age of 24, which is actually kind of late to get started in the industry. I was a student at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. I was a part of the college radio station, WOWL, and absolutely fell in love with radio. Part of my curriculum as a Communications major was that I had to do an internship. There were 2 major radio stations in the area... WPLR (99 Rock), which was a rock station, and WKCI (KC 101) which was a CHR. I always preferred rock, so the natural inclination would have been to go to WPLR. However, I knew a number of people who interned at both stations, and the folks that went to WKCI seemed to always get hired out of their internship, while WPLR gave them a handshake and sent them on their way (for the most part). So I gritted my teeth and went to 'KCI. And 3 months after I started interning, I got hired part-time to run the board for the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40". After that, they started giving me weekend airshifts, and I eventually got hired as the Full-Time Assistant Promotions Director. And it happened because I worked hard in the internship. When I wasn't at school, I spent my time at the radio station. Doing anything I could to learn what was going on. Since then, I have worked as the Marketing & Promotions Director at stations such as WTIC-AM, WTIC-FM (96.5 TIC), WRKO-AM, WRKI-FM (I-95), and WDBY-FM (Y105). I have also had the good fortune to be an air personality at WKCI-FM, WQGN (Q105),WDAQ-FM (98Q), WTIC-FM, WRKI-FM, and WDAQ-FM.

In order to write this post, I wanted to see what others thought. I conducted a very intense, focused, and expensive survey. OK, I posed the question on my Facebook account and let my friends comment.

To begin with, interns receive college credit for their internship. Essentially, it's a class. You don't sit through a history class in college and collect a paycheck at the end of the hour. Interns are going to their radio station to learn about the business and whether or not they even want to get into radio as a career. Anne said, "I loved my internship at WPLR.. was there for 4 years,
learned all kinds of good things... like I didn't want to work in commercial radio! Very valuable information when your still in college trying to figure things out!"

And Gina points out that, "My college internship at Z100 in NYC was a fabulous experience, both professionally and personally. I lived with a cousin and his family for the summer. This type of experience forces you to be resourceful, responsible and teaches the value of hard work. Too many young people today expect everything to be handed to them...entitled to be compensated for merely existing! There's no need for a person who's not even left college with a degree yet to be paid...they have no experience to hang thier hat on and they are there to LEARN, not to be paid. Payment comes when you've earned a hired position there. Internships are a great way to get there."

The problem becomes that people view interns as unpaid labor. I suppose, in a sense, that it is. I know that when I was running internship programs, I completely depended on them. But, again... college credit. They have to be there AS IF IT WERE A CLASS. And when the time came that I needed to hire a new staff person, guess who I hired! Think about it... wouldn't you rather hire someone that you already know than someone from the outside? When I was at Cumulus in Danbury, I probably hired 50% of my promotions interns into part-time promotion coordinator positions. My Program Director would also hire them as part-time board operators and personalities. Not bad for your first real radio job! Greg mentioned, "Unpaid internships are like getting a clunker for your first car - you need to be humbled before moving on to better things." It's true! I've seen too many people walk into my radio stations thinking that they could do (and deserved to do) whatever they wanted!

The first rule of radio is that you're not nearly as good as you think you are. The second rule is that commercial radio is NOT anything like college radio. Do you think you're going to come in, start off in Afternoon Drive, and get to play whatever you want? Think again... You're most likely going to start off in the promotions department, helping us to set up remote broadcasts, hanging banners, giving out prizes, and LEARNING TO TALK TO THE PUBLIC! You see... it's more than just hanging banners. You need to get out and learn who the listeners are. The station is more about them than it is about you. Why are they fans? What do THEY want to hear? What do THEY want the radio station to be? After that process, you may get the chance to run the board for a syndicated show or get a weekend overnight shift (some stations still put people on at 3am), and for that... you will be paid. Probably minimum wage, but paid, nonetheless.

Wherever I worked, internships were primarily in the promotions department. Simply, it's the place that needs the most help. Unfortunately, in this day and age with automation, there is not really anything for an intern to do in the studio. I would encourage them to go into the studio (with the DJs permission) and just sit there and absorb. Todd made an intersting comment,"I believe a good internship allows for the intern to embrace the roles that peak their interests and shape their long term credibility. They should also be allowed to avoid what disinterests them. For instance an aspiring radio news reporter intern should NOT be assigned to assist the sales department. Chances are this model of freedom could only exist if the intern is NOT on the payroll. Once you are compensated by someone else, you are under an obligation to meet their requirements and expectations" I actually don't agree with this. A good internship is going to give the intern a well-rounded vision of what goes on. Maybe they thought they were interested in news, but after getting exposed to the sales department, maybe they would decide that perhaps that is the direction that they want to go. The cool thing about interning in promotions, is that it is one of the only dpeartment that interacts with every other department in the station.

Most radio companies require that that the internship exchange for school credit. Therefore it's NOT illegal because the student is actually receiving something. As Samantha points out, "If interns are getting college credit or trade school credit, they don't need to be paid and that should be legal. But if you are hiring an "intern" and not requiring that they are getting credit, the company should pay at least minimum wage or else it is free labor. Too many companies are trying to save money by eliminating paying positions in favor of having interns do the work." I actually see both sides of this argument. When I was running the internship program at Cumulus in Danbury, I was allowed to hire interns who were NOT doing it for credit. And the simple fact is that they were, for the most part, better interns. These were the people that wanted to do it because they loved radio and wanted to get their foot in. Interns doing it for credit were sometimes there only because it was a "blow-off" class.

Kirk feels that interns should be paid based on what they do, "It depends on the quality of the program too. Most of what I did was marketing, not broadcasting. No one asked to hear a sample hour of me on cassette or explained a format clock to me. That all happened at WXCI in college. My coop was at WTXX (a television station) in Prospect and that was much more hands-on. The GM and I had to meet every week to see what I was doing. That never happened at RKI. So, I should have been compensated at the "I" but not at TXX." This raises a good point... my question for Kirk would be did he ask anyone to listen to an aircheck or ask to have clocks explained? He may have... I didn't know him at the time. But to get the most out of an internship, the person has to ask. You will only get out of it what you put in. If you show the Program Director that you are interested in these things, I'm sure he/she will go out of the way to help. Corey, who is a chef and not in radio (but certainly knows about it second hand because he is my brother) mentioned "For my industry, I think a short unpaid stage is OK...but not a full internship....with this said...once hired, it is the Chef's responsibility to train you for your station...the other stuff you want to learn....that's up to you to make yourself available and pay attention too."

Kirk takes a different point of view than me... "It really depends on the internship. College students should be paid a stipend. Back in the 80's, I Interned for I-95 (WRKI). I mostly drove all over Fairfield County delivering I-95 Gazettes to advertisers without being compensated for gas and mileage. I accepted this because I knew that it was an opportunity. Bruce Goldsen and I did a Remote at the New Milford Burger King once and I did the Oyster Fest. What I got out of it was some concert tickets and T-shirts, Bart Gannon would let me fool around in the Prod Room while he was on the air. What I learned is that there was no way that I'd be on the air without experience; which is why I enrolled at WestConn for WXCI." I don't believe they should be paid a stipend. I DO believe that hey should be reimbursed for expenses such as gas. Or better... they should be allowed to drive the station vehicles. Get the logo out on the streets! But some insurance companies don't allow it because technically, an intern is not an employee. When I was with I-95, interns WERE allowed to drive the station vehicles.

And then there is the question of the fact that owners are laying off people by the thousands. If they are not paying the experienced, why would they pay the people trying to learn? As Andrea says, "If radio stations have to pay for interns there won't be any. Radio stations are too cheap to even keep seasoned part-timers on staff, do you really think they would shell out any cash for someone with NO experience?"

I think what it comes down to is whether or not you really want to break into the business. If the person is trying to learn the industry, there is no better way to do it then through an internship... whether it's paid or unpaid. Like I said before, if you are doing it for credit, it's a college class. I also believe that if you are doing it as a "volunteer" (not for credit), it's your choice. I volunteer for the American Cancer Society handling publicity for a local Relay For Life. Should I start insisting that the Cancer Society pay me? Of course not! I do it for personal reasons, and truthfully, for professional reasons, as well. I have been very open in that the Cancer Society is an organization that I would someday like to work for. My hope is that they would take my work as a volunteer into consideration when deciding whether to hire me. If a radio station hires an intern for credit, it's not illegal. And if they hire a volunteer, I don't think it should be considered illegal. That person is doing it for a chance to gain experience in an industry that they might have no hope of breaking into otherwise. And besides, they are getting all kinds of perks like concert tickets and t-shirts!

"Best of (YOUR Community)"

Monday, March 29, 2010 - repost from Rod Schwartz's blog, RodSpots.

First, take a look at this website. (Right-click on the link and choose "Open in a New Tab" or "Open in a New Window")

"The Best of the Palouse" is an online enterprise just now getting started and attempting to gain traction in our local marketplace. It's an individual enterprise. I know nothing about the fellow who's launching it, other than what I might infer from poking around the site, which as a template seems robust and well thought out. Whether the effort sizzles or fizzles will depend entirely on his ability to market the site effectively, and as a 37-year veteran in the advertising and marketing arena I can tell you this is easier said than done.

I understand that this individual has entered into some sort of partnership with the local newspaper, which is a good choice, but not the best choice. He first should have explored working with our local radio stations, based solely on the pervasiveness and intrusiveness of radio, as opposed to the inherently passive nature of print. In my opinion, working in partnership with the radio stations would give this new site a better chance of making a big splash and sustaining it.

A year ago, I blogged about why radio stations should pick up the ball and spearhead a "Best of _____" promotion in their communities. The article was later picked up by Radio World. As I explained in that article, the idea has been around a long time and, in my experience, has most often been the province of a print medium. Up in Spokane, the hugely successful regional alternative newspaper, The Pacific Northwest INLANDER, just completed their annual readers' poll. You can bet they'll be picking up new advertising dollars and enjoying a great deal of free publicity themselves as a consequence.

I share this with you now in the hope that, if such an opportunity exists in your market and you are inclined to jump on it, you're able to seize the moment before a competitor does.

If you do, please come back and share your story.

Is the Radio Performance Tax Reverse Payola?

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of payola is "Undercover or indirect payment (as to a disc jockey) for a commercial favor (as for promoting a particular recording)."

There are two bills in congress, H.R. 848 and S.379, that, if passed into law, would levy fees against radio stations for playing music. Wait... WHAT??? Isn't that one of the things radio is supposed to do? Play music so that people will hear it and then go out and BUY it?

To listen to the record companies and the artists themselves, you would think that radio is stealing their product. Since the dawn of entertainment-based broadcasting, radio has been used as a means to help promote music and artists. You hear the song, like it, and purchase it. Payola was even used as a mans to get radio stations to play songs more often because, say it with me... MORE AIRPLAY MEANS MORE SALES!!!

Now that the record companies are having trouble staying financially in the black, they are looking for new streams of revenue. Hey... let's charge the people that are helping us a fee. Keep in mind, that radio stations ALEADY pay a licensing fee for the music.

Radio is already in enough trouble. The major groups are all starting to file for bankruptcy protection, literally thousands of employees are being laid off, and syndication is becoming more the rule than the exception. Let's face it... from a financial standpoint, it's cheaper to have Ryan Seacrest host 100 of your morning shows than to actually pay for 100 morning shows. I'm not saying radio is innocent in all of this. Consolidation has more or less killed the industry. But... that is a different issue. If these bills pass into legislation, even more people will lose their jobs, and the small radio operators will probably disappear altogether. You will see a good majority of stations switch to talk/news/sports formats. In a lot of cases, it will be cheaper to just shut the transmitters down and call it a day. College radio? forget it... it will completely cease to exist.

And of course, the artist themselves are up in arms over this. "How dare radio play my music without compensating me?" Ummm... let's go back to paragraph #1. Airplay translates into sales. It's promotion. You provide the content, radio turn that into sales. And NOT just sales of music. We're talking ticket sales for concerts and merchandise... both multi-billion dollar industries. Bono has been one of the most outspoken performers in support of the tax. And he's one of the richest people in the galaxy! Click Here to read what the NAB had to say in response to Bono. I certainly understand that Bono does a LOT of charity work. I appreciate that. But if it wasn't for media airplay from early MTV and radio, U2 wouldn't be around today and Bono would probably be a bartender in Dublin instead of owning half of the city! Why do you think artists like the Grateful Dead, Phish, and Dave Matthews ENCOURAGE people to record and trade their music? They know that they might lose some music sales, but they are gaining in merchandise and ticket sales. And The Dead have been around in one form or another for almost 50 years! Sounds like they know what they are doing!

The only music you would probably hear on the radio is that of the biggest artists in the world... the U2s, Rolling Stones, Britney Spears... If you were a new artist trying to get heard, it wouldn't happen. Whatever happened to the thrill of a new artist hearing their song on the radio for the first time?

Yes... the musicians have a right to be paid for their material. I'm not disputing that. But it is the responsibility of the record companies to pay that. NOT the people trying to help them sell more records. If more artists were to examine their contracts BEFORE they signed them, or learned to negotiate better deals, then this wouldn't be an issue.

And how would radio pay for these fees if passed? Well, other than laying off even more people, advertising. I think that most "casual" listeners of radio would agree that there are too many commercials as it is. I think that a good average would be 12 to 13 commercials per hour split into 3 commercial "stopsets." If these laws pass, I have no doubt whatsoever that 20 minutes of commercials per hour would become common.

The record companies know they screwed up big-time when they didn't jump on the digital bandwagon. And now they are trying to make up for lost time. Piracy is rampant and it's because the music industry DIDN'T see digital music as a viable platform. For the record (no pun intended), my iPod currently has well over 28,000 songs on it, and it fits in my pocket. How many CDs would I need? The music industry needs to learn to embrace new platforms, not just decide to stick with the old ways of doing business. If they did this back in 1997, there would have been more safeguards against music piracy in place BEFORE it became a major issue.

So... back to the original question. Is this tax a form of revere payola? I think the answer is "yes." even though payola is illegal, record companies embraced it for years as a way to get their artists more "PROMOTION" by getting records more spins on the air. Now they are asking, no... demanding that radio pay them for the right to promote their music.

I would encourage people to take a look at this website... www.noperformancetax.org to get more information.