Smart move seeing as the article on CBS news says two other people, who clearly have less to do with the national mania that Lin himself does, have also filed for the trademark.

This is a great example of two very important concepts:

1) Strike While the Iron is Hot: Lin could easily have sat back and assumed his popularity will continue. He could have waited until after the season to take care of business. But the fact is you never know how long something like this will last. If something you do on your show catches on, be sure to move quickly to maximize it.

2) Protect Yourself: Two other people tried to capitalize on Lin’s phrase. A reminder to be wary. If you have something of value, protect it. I don’t know much about copyright law and what should and shouldn’t be trademarked, but I know that anyone can register a web address leaving you to bargain for it or having to use a less desirable option.

Please notice, no Lin-related puns were included in the entirety of this post.

You’re welcome.

I scrolled though his last 30 tweets or so and, in a very unscientific study, grouped what I found into four types of tweets.

Interestingly, the majority of the tweets violate one of the basic rules of using social media. So who knows, maybe @barackobama will see this post and hire himself a Twitter Talent Mechanic.

Here’s what I found:

• Campaign Promotion: About half the posts were straightforward tweets about how and why you should help the president campaign for re-election.
• Agenda Promotion: The second biggest category were tweets promoting how the president’s policies and decisions have been good for the country.
• Inspiration: The third biggest category were tweets with inspirational words from POTUS taken from his recent speeches and appearances.
• Information: A couple of posts were simply informative. Updates about various things without any real agenda or promotional aspect.

I find it interesting that the two largest groups, which I titled campaign promotion and agenda promotion, violate the first rule of social media; people come to Facebook and Twitter to be part of a discussion not to have promotions blasted at them. I think it’s intersting that the majority of the President’s tweets do nothing to engage other people in discussion.

So President Obama, if you are listening, keep that in mind that when you use social media it’s best to talk to your audience not at them.

As you may know, in addition to this blog I also write a weekly newsletter about top 40 radio for Billboard (If you are interested in receiving it you can sign up here). In last week’s edition I included an item about the results of a new survey of Twitter users that I found in this Marketing Profs article.

Seeing as it’s been a few days since the Billboard piece ran, I think it’s probably ok to repurpose some thoughts on the findings here. Plus, it’s President’s Day and President Obama does have a Twitter account. So without further adieu or thin premises, here are some of the results of a study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, and Georgia Tech:

• Be Unique: One of the findings is that information gets stale quickly on Twitter. Since you can’t be faster than the rest of the world add something unique to the conversation. That will make your tweets stand out.
• Speak English: Don’t overuse hashtags,  @mentions or abbreviations. They make your tweets hard to read.
• Be Compelling: Just like your on air content your tweets need to be compelling. Don’t whine and don’t posting pictures of the sandwich you are about to eat. If you opened the mic and started whining about how hard your life is or about a great meal you are looking forward to people would tune out.
• Keep it Tight: The length of a tweet is just like the length of a break or a woman’s skirt. Long enough to cover the subject but short enough to keep it interesting. Even though you have 140 characters for a tweet, you don’t have to use all of them.

Happy tweeting and Happy President’s Day.

Your Listeners want meet

Every once in a while I love going to a Brazilian Steak House like Fogo de Chao here in Chicago.

For anyone not familiar with the Brazilian Steak House concept, beside your plate is a small card that is green on one side and red on the other. Waiters with skewers full of different kinds of meat circulate through the restaurant and if your card is on green they stop at the table and offer you whatever type of meat they are carrying.

It’s essentially steak-lovers heaven. Non-stop meat of all kinds being brought right to you. My cardiologist hates me even thinking about it.

It looks tempting but skip it

But one interesting part of places like Fogo is that they always have an amazing salad bar that is included as part of your meal. This always leads to the debate about whether to have some actual vegetables first or just go straight to the meat.

I can’t speak to your dietary selections but when it comes to interviews with guests I hear a lot of hosts going to the salad bar when all your listeners want is for you to turn the card over to green and let the meat flow.

When you do an interview there is a tendency, because most people including hosts are linear thinkers, to start with the background. How did the band get together? What led you to want to write a book on economics? What restaurants did you work at prior to becoming a steak peddler?

Ask the guest about what is going on now. What is happening on the tour bus now that the band has tons of fans? How can the book can help with retirement planning? What are the newest additions to the meat menu?

I know the tomatoes with mozzarella and iceberg lettuce with blue cheese dressing look tempting but trust me, your audience wants meat.

I Said Super Fans Not Super Friends

You know an article is good when the “bonus tips” at the end are worthy of a blog entry.

If you want to read a good piece on using social media to market and expand your brand check out “5 Ways Brands Create Superfans” from iMedia Connection.

As I read it one thing that struck me is how similar the techniques for creating Superfans in social media are to cultivating P1 listeners for your show. You know what they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The article ends with a simple list of eight “extra” suggestions for creating Superfans of your brand, five of which I’ve posted below and added my thoughts to. Some are relevant to your on-air efforts, some to your online efforts, most are germane to both.

1. Tap into people’s emotions: This is what radio is all about. You need to be honest and vulnerable both on the air and on social media. If you talk at people they aren’t going to be engaged. If you talk to them and tap into their emotions they will be fans forever.
2. Long and boring don’t go viral: They also kill PPM numbers. Tight and focused works on the air and on social media.
3. Reach out to influencers: Too few talent do this. Build a network of experts and notable people in your market you can call on to discuss major issues. Share content with them so you get additional insights for your show (and your social  media feeds) while scoring reciprocal exposure through their channels.
4. Make it easy to share: Make sure the best parts of your show being posted online for people to enjoy and share on-demand.
5. Use gaming techniques: Radio has always been excellent at fun and games. Now it’s time to include your social media platforms in the action. You can post content hints to Facebook and Twitter and reward people who play along online with special prizes.

According to an article in Springwise, a new company in New Jersey is hosting backyard camping events at their customers’ homes. Tents, sleeping bags and lighting are set up and there is an option for outdoor movie screenings.

You don’t have to supply all the gear but, as spring approaches, making plans to host a camp-out with your listeners at their home with a bunch of their friends could be a unique giveaway and a lot of fun.

You could also go bigger and hold the event at a park in your area that needs help. Have campers participate in a clean up effort or something similar so you do some good for the community before the good times start.

In either case, get a local band to play acoustic at the camp fire and don’t forget the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers. Add in a coffee sponsor for the morning after and you’ve got a unique, low-maintenance promotion that brings your listeners together and potentially does something good for the community.

Being trendy isn't about keeping up with this guy

Being “trendy” used to be a somewhat derogatory term. It meant you got involved with whatever was hot at that moment and then abandoned it whenever something newer, flashier or more interesting came along.

Not a very consistent approach to life and an even worse idea when it comes to hosting a show and building an audience.

Today, being “trendy” has taken on a new meaning.

Thanks to the analytics available from the web you can see what topics are trending — being talked about — at nearly every level of specificity.

With Google Trends, Yahoo’s Trending Now and Twitter-related sites like newswhip.com you can see what topics are getting the most attention from the widest possible variety of people.

But it doesn’t stop there.

So many sites have a ”most searched” or “most read” feature that you can use to isolate the top stories in almost any area your audience is interested in.

For example, as I write this the top trending tags at Bleeding Cool, a site for comic book and sci-fi movie geeks like me, are:  Gary Friedrich, Doctor Who, Amazing Spider Man, The Avengers and Before Watchmen.

While you probably wouldn’t use the top tags from Bleeding Cool to prep your show I’m guessing that whatever your audience is into there are a number of sites with a similar feature that can provide guidance making it easy for you to always be on point discussing the topics and stories that your audience is most interested in.

There’s no longer any excuse for not covering the stories that have captured your audience’s attention.

All you have to do is be trendy.

CBS Says the Future Looks Bleak

According to CBS’ Money Watch radio annoucers are becoming an endangered species.

A recent article titled “Will These 10 Jobs Disappear in 2011″ lists broadcast announcer at number 6 alongside judge, travel agent, fashion designer, insurance underwriter, newspaper reporter, plant manager, chemist, economist and CEO.

Some of these seem more far-fetched than others. I can’t imagine the world doesn’t need chemists, judges or fashion designers.

And let’s be honest, consolidation in the announcer ranks isn’t news to anyone in the radio industry. Still, the paragraph that accompanies the radio host entry stings a little bit:

One example is how Tide shows up with a mobile clothes washing facility to help people out after a tornado or other natural disaster.

Another is this commercial that came out of M&M/Mars helping build a heated enclosure for a hockey rink so an entire northern Canadian community has a place to come together around doing something they love.

There’s no reason you can’t do something like this.

You might not have the resources of Proctor & Gamble (who owns Tide) or M&M/Mars but you can get out and do things to help your community.

• If you need to raise funds there are sites like Kickstarter or Crowdrise.
• You can gather attention and volunteers using Facebook and Twitter.
• You can capture the effort on video using a flip cam or your phone and post it to YouTube and the station Web site for people to see.
• And of course, there’s always your show which can help you before, during and after a project.

Yes it’s more work than usual, but this is the type of thing that will make you stand out from the other person at that other station across the street who is also witty, entertaining and has a good contest feature.

Do something good for your community and people will remember you. More importantly they will tune to you first when they turn on the radio.

1) According to an Edison Media research study 23.1 million people listened to the game on the radio. The game aired on over 680 radio stations in the US and listeners tuned in from all different locations including their home, in the car and at work.

2) Nielsen reports the total number of television viewers has increased over the last ten years from 86 million in 2002 to more than 111 million this year.

3) Over the last ten years the number of women who watch the game has increased by 3% bringing the audience close to being an even split at 54% male 46% female.

4) The Super Bowl audience is becoming more affluent. The number of viewers who make over $100,000 annually has grown from 16% of the audience in 2002 to 30% this year. Likewise the number of viewers making between $25,000 and $49,999 annually has dropped from 28% to 22% of the audience.

5) The National Chicken Council estimates Americans ate 1.25 billion wings while watching the game making it the second most popular snack behind dips and spreads.

You can see more statistics about the television viewing audience here and read the results of Edison’s study of radio listening for the big game here.