The New Age of Audio & Alexa's Do Over Offer for Radio Broadcasters

We're entering a new age of audio thanks in part to technologies like Alexa. Here's a prime example. Gary Vaynerchuk, GaryVee to his friends, clients, and gazillion followers on social media, is a guy who's built multiple businesses primarily on the strength of creating persuasive and memorable Internet videos. All feature Gary and his electric personality sharing wisdom and insight gathered from first-hand experience with Internet commerce, Internet marketing, and his early and full embrace of social media as a business and brand building tool. I've learned a lot from watching Gary constantly experiment and push boundaries.

Now, with a little inspiration from Amazon's Alexa, Gary has fully embraced the power of audio and come to recognize what makes it so appealing and valuable to consumers. For a lifelong audio guy like me, it's fun to see someone who's relied so heavily on video to build his businesses come to recognize the key attribute audio offers that no other medium can match. An attribute that ensures that audio will never go out of style. Check out Gary's epiphany on audio and his passionate and persuasive recommendation to his clients and friends to "get very serious about investing in audio." Warning: For emphasis, Gary salts all his videos with plenty of adult language :-).

“You need to get very serious about sound. One of the things that we care about and always have, but now we're at an all-time high, is time. Time is imperative. And everybody, even when they don't have a lot of money, spends a lot of money on convenience. You know the way we roll now is we listen and we do something else. It's hard to watch one of my videos and do something else. It's super easy to listen to what I'm talking about and do something else. Audio saves you time. Every single person when brushing their teeth in four years will be listening to some sort of voice telling them what they’re doing that day. What the weather is. Where they’re going. What’s happening. It's just going to be that. ” – GaryVee

I hope Gary's Alexa-inspired vision of the increasing prominence of audio in people's lives is not lost on my friends in the radio broadcasting business. There was a time not so long ago when lots of people brushing their teeth in the morning were "listening to some sort of 'voice' telling them what the weather is and what's happening" as Gary predicts will happen again. That "voice" was coming from a radio in the bathroom. The same "voice" was also the wake-up alarm and first sound most people heard each morning coming from the clock radio in the bedroom and later that "voice" was a breakfast companion coming from a radio in the kitchen. This "voice" is seldom heard these days because radios have completely disappeared from homes everywhere. Replaced by technology and devices with screens that deliver more relevant and entertaining content, on demand, than the "voice" coming from the radio. Sadly, the "voice" coming from a radio is now heard mostly just in cars.

Enter the new age of audio that GaryVee is so fired up about. With its smart speakers from Amazon, Google, and Apple and their assistants named Alexa, Ok Google, and Siri ready to find the perfect "voice" for whatever consumers want and need, whenever they want or need it. Alexa and her pals also offer radio broadcasters an opportunity for a do over. The chance to reenter homes everywhere, but not with the same generic, bland, vacuous and easily replaceable content heard most of the time on most radio stations. It will require a completely different approach. No more trying to appeal to the masses. Mass appeal is dead. It's all about creating specialized content for niches big and small. Content that matches a listener's wants and needs so well they can't live without it. Content that goes deep and has sharp edges. Content that is distinctive and truly fascinates. Content and voices that are irreplaceable. It's a big challenge, but also a big opportunity. Thanks to Alexa and her pals radio broadcasters have the opportunity to reenter consumers' lives in their homes and not just be a "voice" in their cars.

How to Attract the Largest, Most Loyal Audience You Can

Simple. Forget your audience, get to know yourself.

Every hit song, best-selling book, blockbuster movie or popular television show had its genesis in something that really mattered to its creator. Someone or something that moved them emotionally. Something that made them laugh or cry. Something that gave them a sense of wonder and awe. Something they found truly interesting, meaningful, or fun. It wasn't created by studying a "target audience" and trying to predict what would interest that audience. It was created by the artist getting to know themselves by paying close attention to their own thoughts and feelings and recognizing what caused them.

What makes you laugh or cry? What are you curious about? What do you know and care about? What values and beliefs guide the way you live? What gives you a sense of wonder and awe? What makes you happy or sad? What did you learn today? How did what you learned affect you and your life? Who do you admire and respect? Who do you loath and have no time for? What situations or people have changed your thoughts, feelings, or mood today, particularly when that change happened quickly? What did you find truly interesting, meaningful, and fun today? Contained in the answers to these questions are the best subjects and ideas for creating something that will help you attract the largest and most loyal audience you can.

Forget your audience, get to know yourself. Create stuff that moves YOU and you will attract the largest audience you can. An audience that's like you, who likes you and will want to spend time with you every day.