(By Loyd Ford) Getting noticed is a skill that is often overlooked and rarely practiced today. Sales people need attention to sell their products. Programming people need attention to gain market share. Radio pros looking for work need to gain attention from managers, consultants and others hiring. So, everyone needs these skills.
How many times in a radio station have you had the conversation about having no budget? When people complain, I often find myself saying, “Who has budget?” We can’t always fight the fight about why radio should be spending regular money on external advertising and promotion. And getting attention is much more widespread than just the marketing challenges of radio. I’m a big believer in replacing the word “can’t” with a question that begins with “How can we….”
The bottom-line is that you can create opportunity for yourself when it comes to gaining attention by first studying how others do this successfully. Read that line again and then move to these six (6) ways to think about getting attention in the 21st Century.
How can local radio pros study the art and skill of getting noticed?
- Start with the person or people you most want to attract attention from for your purpose. Don’t start with what you have in mind. Start with the person or people you want to attract. What do they like, what are they into. Do your research. This can be formal like a research project or casual like looking into their social media and contacts to see what you can learn about the target.
- Be interesting. I know. You feel like this is stating the obvious, but the truth is that many people today feel they are owed attention for showing up. It does NOT work that way. People care about themselves and what they are thinking and you are often not that. So the idea here is to be interesting to them. Not just interesting to you.
- Focus visually. Think color, splash. You don’t get attention by being in the background or using photos, video or visuals of any kind that are void of creativity, color or…splash.
- Limit your words, focus on impact. People hate to read. I’m grateful you’ve read this far. People like easy. Make it easy for them.
- Think out of the box. This goes back to creativity. While you want to be safe, you want to do something that draws attention. Just remember there is good attention and bad attention. You want the good kind.
- Think about other influencers around the people you are targeting. Rarely do people think about researching the people like or around their target or targets. You’ve heard this before: Birds of a feather flock together. (If you haven’t heard this, welcome to the world of like people doing things together).
It doesn’t matter if you are looking for a job or trying to grab attention for your radio brand. Today strategy, creativity and planning are your friends. Spend more time researching people who are successful at gaining attention. You can learn from anyone, but it is so powerful to study people who are getting attention of people like the people you are wanting to attract.
If you’re in radio, you are already in the getting attention business. Consider your profession a life-long learning process and dig in for more attention.
Loyd Ford consults radio stations, coaches personalities, and provides behavioral and strategic programming to radio that propel ratings (and revenue) with RPC. Reach him anytime. 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
