Let me take a real-world example of what a web radio show can do for your brand, blog, business.
I’m going to refer to The Thinkers 50 Awards.
Semiannually the world’s most erudite collective of book publishers gather becloaked in darkened rooms, hushed but for the faint murmur of a bubbling cauldron to distract their ruminations. Probably. What they definitely do is raise a toast to the brightest cogitators in the world.
Afterwards they adjourn to a swanky two-day Awards conference where after much tugging of forelocks the best of the best are disclosed. I still haven’t got to the bottom of exactly why it says ’50′ because I looked at the shortlist and I could only count 43. That, however, could simply be a sad indictment of my mathematical (lack of ) prowess.
So about this definitive global ranking of management thinkers. What the heck does a web radio show have to do with the glitterati of cerebral acuity?
Well, imagine if there really were 50 thinkers. And these thinkers happen to be among the world’s elite. And obviously they’re all entirely delighted to have been recognised by a power plant of crazy-good book publishers including Harvard Business Review and McGraw-Hill.
I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that all these folks would be more than happy to sit down in a nice red leather (soft leather/hide, not of that faux PVC stuff you get these days) sofa and cogitate and wax on their inspirations, aspirations and achievements to turbocharge their listeners with hope and motivation.
Say you put together a Thinkers 50 web radio show, or podcast if you’re going to be purist about it. Every two weeks, a new guest, and a fascinating new take on a subject in which many have a deep, vested interest.
After show 6 or 7, the listeners really start to empathise with this show. You’re on a roll – and you’ve barely even scratched the surface. The PR machine goes into overdrive because these folks on your show – they’re all heavyweights in the management game.
You create a community based on the learning shared by these guys. You get people talking about their work – your books. The book publishers helm this initiative, of course, because not only do they want to sell more books, but they see this as an incredible opportunity to crowdsource ideas for future titles and prospective authors for their stable.
And here’s the killer line: Every time one of your authors comes on the show, which is riddled with kudos and prestige, they fill in a short form that tells them what to expect, and what the show expects of them. A few Tweets to their networks and communities reminding them to listen in to their latest appearance, on your radio show.
You literally expose your podcast to millions of new listeners. Many become loyal customers of your book publishing brand.
And Thinkers 50 rises in stature to such a degree that come 2013, the eyes of the media world are on you – and your shortlisted nominees.
All this with about 15 minutes of thought. Imagine what you could do with a couple of hours and a group of people all as passionate as you are about your trade or subject.
Who knows: Maybe I’ll be there in 2013!
- This year’s Thinkers 50 Summit took place on November 14 and 15, 2011. For more on this event, check out the Thinkers 50 Summit website.
