Every so often I do an “All Things Media” podcast episode that generally centers around topics such as media, social media, and current events. That much isn’t new. What is new is how I presented the video version of this podcast.
The audio platforms are where much of my listenership resides. Therefore, I have always been careful to make sure the audio is as pristine as possible and guard against visual references during the shows.
However, many of my guests or their publicists wanted video links so that their clients could be showcased in a professional forum for their followers on social media.
The natural thing to do was to start a YouTube channel for the Billy Dees Podcast. I never really pushed the show on YouTube, it was a support platform for the podcast. YouTube has recently implemented a podcast tab which is long overdue. YouTube is also a major search engine, and I wanted our content to be discoverable on the platform. For all these reasons, maintaining a YouTube channel for the podcast is a good idea and I will continue to do so.
In the meantime, Twitter has always been my social media home. I have often said that Twitter was built for podcasting. If you are a creator of pretty much any category – author, advocate, or artist etc. – the audience that Twitter has built-in is enormous. For any news or trending topics, Twitter is about as good as it gets.
When the reported attempted coup was happening in Russia a short while back, I intensely followed the story on Twitter and TikTok. I anxiously tuned into the national news that evening anticipating detailed professional coverage of the event. All three major networks, NBC, ABC, and CBS, lead with the submarine story at the Titanic location which by that time was already a week old. The tragic fate of the occupants was known, and the story had moved to the “how could this happen” phase. The following day, news promos on the networks said, “Tune in tonight for continuing coverage of the coup in Russia.” The only problem was by that time, it was already over.
NBC News always leads its program with the phrase “breaking news.” That’s broken news.
In the meantime, Tucker Carlson and other media figures began moving long-form media content to Twitter with much success. Elon Musk also rebranded Twitter into “X,” what some may call a move toward an “everything app.” This would include a new app with tweets, now referred to as “posts,” long form posts, audio and video content, and financial transactions.
Simultaneously, Meta launched “Threads,” a Twitter copy, by leveraging its users mostly from Instagram. Was I the only person who wondered how the same people, with the same contacts, sharing the same content, was going to be a grand slam? It wasn’t.
Also at the same time, cable news and news in general continued to flounder.
During this turmoil, I decided to give the video version of the podcast a try on X. I did my commentary about the branding move from Twitter to X and the recent UFO news – and placed the video version on the platform. It makes perfect sense to place video content native to the platform where the users are.
I have heard different things about the usage and traffic on X since the rebranding. There have also been other changes to the old Twitter platform that many users have not liked. So far, the platform seems stable to me. It is simply too early to say but so far I am not alarmed.
I do consider my full-length posting on X a success. The views and engagement were very strong. X has also made the paid boosting process for marketers much more streamlined than it was before on the old Twitter.
Granted, this was the first time I tried posting long-form content on Twitter X, so I don’t have a good gauge yet. For more discovery, I added another full-length podcast interview episode to Twitter X on August 6, 2023. This is a practice I plan to continue for the near future as the new incarnation of the platform starts to take form.
As it stands, I am cautiously optimistic about X. I have never been a Meta person, although strategic Facebook boosts do work for the right circumstances. Instagram has not caught fire for me. LinkedIn has its place, to be sure, especially with the B2B crowd. But, if you are counting on trending and active engagement, the LinkedIn “What’s My ROI Zombies” are not going to do it for you.
This is an interesting time for how news gets disseminated. I’ll just leave that right there for now…
…and if X turns out to be what it is intended to be, I want to be a part of it.
Hey, follow me on Twitter! I mean X! @BillyDees
You can find the full-length commentary podcast on X here.
Spotify and YouTube are below.
It’s pretty near impossible these days to do any kind of marketing without being aware of social media platforms. One of the new social media apps that keeps coming up more and more in conversation is TikTok.
Once upon a time in what seems a world long ago, a young handsome man with agency credentials, (I’ll give you a “maybe” on the “handsome,”) drove around to radio stations delivering well produced and magnificent radio commercials on ½ track reels which would then be transferred to cart machine at the station. There was a formula that clients could use at the time in order to gauge the effectiveness of the advertising based upon the response. Most of the time it was deemed effective at least to some degree.
People search for information now regarding the goods and services that they might be interested in. This is why your online content marketing strategy is so important. In a nutshell, whether it’s your website, social media or web videos you want to be sure that when people find the information that they are searching for that information, in turn, leads them to you.
Third, if you choose to advertise on the radio make sure that the identity that you are forming for your business grabs the listener. I would likely start with short ads that stress your name and the core essence of your business identity. Avoid details in your radio spots such as specials, phone numbers, and locations. These details will not be retained by the listener. Just shake their hand firmly and make an impression. If you do that they will find you on their smartphone.
Perfect Media Productions, LLC 