Saturday Catch-Up with our man from McVay Media

Five Fast Track Digital Shortcuts

Every week in connected, you’ll find research, trends, and insights that will help you to accelerate your progress in the digital space. This week, I’ve asked the consulting team at McVay New Media, (where I work in my other life outside of editor for Radio-Info.com's connected), as well as some of our clients and friends, to share some digital shortcuts that you can use to keep your digital progress on the fast track.

1. Monitor Your Key Accounts
“As a successful Account Executive, you need to make sure you are monitoring your KEY accounts effectively. To make your job easier, and to add further value to your relationship, sign up for Google Alerts at google.com/alerts for each of your clients,” suggests McVay New Media EVP Jon Erdahl. “Just put the name of each of your KEY accounts into the search and adjust your parameters (be specific by adding your town, state, etc. to avoid useless alerts with businesses that may sound similar). Once you have it set up, you will start getting info whenever your client adds content to the web; alerting you to follow up as you identify other sales opportunities.”

2. Prospect for New Business
It used to be that new account executives in the radio business were only handed a phone book as a tool for identifying new customers. One of the things we are asked most often during visits to stations is how to prospect more effectively using digital media. Thankfully, technology has opened new doors for prospecting that can help any account executive to discover information on local companies and generate new business. Here are three sites you can’t miss for digital prospecting:

• Yelp.com – A local business directory with reviews from customers, events, and special offers. It’s a yellow pages on steroids for an Account Executive who is serious about researching their clients and prospects.

• Goby.com – It’s a local event directory. Go to the site and search for all events in your market. You’ll find everything from museum exhibits to neighborhood concerts and family events. If not sales prospects, they’re excellent leads for your promotions/marketing department.

• Twellow.com – Twellow is a Twitter Yellow Pages where you can search by location, keyword, or Twitter name to see the businesses in your market that are using Twitter to drive traffic to their sites or stores.

3. Keep an Eye on the Numbers and Trends
Knowing the numbers behind the digital revolution can help you to tell a more compelling story about the shifts in our business. For the latest on social media and web tips, visit Mashable.com. There are always interesting presentations on SlideShare.net to give you new ideas, and BIAKelsey.com offers a wealth of information on financial forecasting of the local interactive market. According to BIA/Kelsey, in 2011, 16.2% of all local media dollars ($136.1 billion) will be spent on digital marketing. That number will grow to 17.9% of all local ad dollars in 2012, and by the end of 2013, one in every five dollars spent on local advertising will be on digital. Are you poised to compete for those dollars?

If you are working on the content side of the business, and you need to know “what the buzz is” in your market, a quick visit to Google Trends can tell you what the hottest topics are right now on Google. This is a list updated in real time that shows you what people are searching across the country in the Google search engine.

4. Do a Quarterly Audit of Your Site
“When you know more about your typical listener and web user, you can sell it more effectively,” suggests McVay New Media VP/Innovation Dan Halyburton. “Start with the programming team to make sure their on-air product vision matches your web site’s content execution. What does your site deliver that is relevant to your audience? Are your programmers thinking about the content of the site with as much passion and attention to detail as they think about the on-air product?” Every quarter you should initiate an audit of your site and ask the sales and programming teams for input and participation. Consider using Alexa.com and Quantcast.com to get some additional demographic and psychographic information about the users visiting your site. Of course, also consult your own statistics and database metrics.

5. Don’t Get Stumped By Terminology.
Does your brain turn to mush when that tech person goes all Klingon on you when it comes to the web? Our friends at UC Berkley have a place you can access 24-7 with all the latest in internet jargon!

It’s hard to get stumped when you are a real citizen of the net. Get yourself on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. If you are going to help your team, you need to be a real user of the web’s best tools, and you need to encourage product and sales teams to do the same. Familiarity will help you and your team stay on the leading edge