It’s official. This blog is now 12 years-old.
For the last dozen years, we’ve posted content every weekday. Now, it’s true I get a little help from my friends – outside contributors who write occasional guest posts. And I typically take the Monday of a 3-day weekend off. And we move to “Best of” mode around Christmas time through New Year’s Day. But a little cocktail napkin math will tell you that since 2005, I’ve written in the neighborhood of 3,000 posts. That’s a lot of writing.
The blog was born from a suggestion (OK, goading) from Tim Davis, who served as our Director of Digital back in 2005. We were wrapping up our first Techsurvey, YouTube was coming online, Facebook was still for college students, the iPhone didn’t exist, and Howard Stern was still on terrestrial radio. There was a lot going on, and there was a lot to say.
As I grappled with the blogosphere, I asked Tim how often I should post. He told me successful blogs put up content on a regular basis, but there was no right answer. In my mind, regularity translated to “every day,” and that’s how we’ve done in over these past 12 years.
I’ve learned a lot about you, me, the radio industry, and our digital world during this time. I’ve made a few mistakes, hit a few home runs, and created something that appears to have value to both of us. That’s not just based on the metrics that grow every year, but on the anecdotal “blog bumps” that happen on almost a daily basis. That’s when someone – a client, a friend, a colleague – mentions that today’s post or maybe one from a year ago was interesting, insightful, thought-provoking, or dumb. That tells me the blog has impact, and the right people are reading it.
So, thinking about these last 12 years of JacoBLOG, here are some ways it has changed me and our business. And perhaps there’s something in here for you. The best day to have started a blog like this was many years ago, so it would now be popular and established. The second best day to start a blog is today.
Here’s what I’ve learned and why I do it.
1. It makes me more disciplined
Doing anything every day – working out, playing a music instrument or a sport – shows your commitment. Not just to writing a blog, but to everything. Some days it’s easy; other days, not so much. But when you know you have to do it because you’ve made a commitment to yourself, you find a way. It can get especially challenging on a day you feel like crap or you’re on the West Coast, or you’re just jammed up with other stuff. But you make time, and you do it. That ends up translates to everything you do in life, and that’s a good thing. As Seth Godin says, “”The writing isn’t the hard part, it’s the commitment. Drip!” Yup.
2. It makes you a better writer
I thought I was pretty good at writing before the blog started. I had been consulting for more than two decades, and that entailed a lot of memo and letter writing to clients and to staff. And before that as a programmer, I wrote a lot, too – copy, imaging, memos, etc. But nothing compares to banging out a respectable blog post every weekday. You can’t help but get better at the craft of writing. Malcolm Gladwell wrote that to become truly skilled at something, you need to spend 10,000 hours doing it. So if you go back to my cocktail napkin math and you figure it takes a couple hours per post, I’m only at 6,000 hours. Getting close, but I still have a way to go. Actually, that’s a sobering thought.
3. It makes you more creative
No, this isn’t improv comedy, nor is it like doing a morning show. But daily blogging forces you to find your creative energy and focus. And unlike standup or radio, I get more reliable “ratings.” Every day, I’ve got metrics that tell me how many of you are reading the blog, as well as the prodding of Seth Resler to keep me on-point with my titles, my keywords, and my subscriber emails. Of course, not every post is designed for mass readership. I’ve learned there are some topics that will never reach thousands of you, but they contain important messages aimed at the right people. After all these years, I’m figuring out that creative balance.
4. It provides you with a platform
Over the years, I’ve learned I have a lot to say, and there’s a lot going on. These last dozen years have been disruptive, tumultuous, and exciting if you’re in the radio and media business. There’s no shortage of stuff to talk about. I had always thought that, but it’s never been more true than right now, whether it’s the world of radio, technology, or politics. If you have something to say, there’s no better place to say it than a blog.
5. It gives you a voice
That is, if you take advantage of it. And a blog is very different than the industry trades that tend to be more factual. I read Tom Taylor, AllAccess, RadioInk, RAMP, Jockline Daily, and others religiously. They’re great at reporting the stories about what’s happening in the radio business from lots of different angles. But they aren’t like a blog that has a definite angle to it – or what I call a voice.
It took me a while to find mine. JacoBLOG is hopefully different than what you read from Mark Ramsey, Jerry Del Colliano, and others who have started blogging in recent years. Everyone has a different angle, a different POV, and yes, a different voice. I respect all those guys, especially the ones who have done it for a long time, and who have staked out their own turf. I think the industry is better for it.
6. It’s a conversation starter
Some of those conversations I’m aware of because the blog has turned into a way for people to connect with me when I meet them or when I’m speaking to a client, a colleague, or someone I just met. If they mention today’s post, one from last week, or even months ago, it’s a way to begin a dialogue. I am told JacoBLOG is often forwarded within companies, clusters, and organizations. It’s a nice thing when something you write resonates and kindles conversations in all sorts of places. That tells me it’s doing its job.
7. It’s keeps you current
You simply cannot write a daily blog without being plugged into what’s going on. I’ve become a voracious reader, and JacoBLOG has forced me to be aware of everything around me. You’re always looking for tomorrow’s post, a new angle, something relevant and hopefully interesting. I suppose it’s a lot like prepping for a personality or talk show. You’re always trawling around for something that resonates. If you work hard enough at it, you can do it on most days.
8. It helps you connect the dots
This has been a big one for me. As a consultant, I’ve always been pretty adept at taking at idea – yes, even one that’s not my own – adapting it and riffing on it, and maybe turning it into something better. I do that a lot with this blog – take a piece of research, an article or a story, and maybe even something from well outside the business – and find ways to bring it home, make it interesting, and applicable to what we all do every day. There’s a lot to learn about radio by spending time outside radio.
9. It teaches you about content marketing
Truth be told, I didn’t figure this out until I started hiring people with skill sets well beyond my own. (That’s good advice, too.) It started with Tim who got me going in the first place. Then Lori Lewis came along and taught me how to use social media to more effectively share and communicate the blog with others. And later, Seth Resler – Mr. Content Marketing – who elevated my game by showing me how the blog could be amplified with search and other tools, and also how it could lead to growing our database and our companies. I only had a very rudimentary knowledge about how to connect all these moving parts going in, so it’s been helpful to have people around me with a better understanding of how to better use and move the content.
10. It acknowledges deserving people
Every once in a while, I’ll use the blog to go off about something (and very occasionally, a company or a person). But more often than not, I like to point to examples of people, stations, and organizations doing it right. Or taking chances and risks that are worthy. Some of these things never show up in the ratings, spreadsheets, or the trades, but they matter because they make the industry better. We started “Radio’s Most Innovative” a few years ago for just that purpose. It’s important to acknowledge people doing it right – clients and competitors.
11. It’s great for business
I sure wouldn’t have suspected this in 2005, but I believe it today. JacoBLOG has opened the doors for both our companies. It has introduced us to people in businesses we never knew, but they feel like they know us from reading the blog. And when we get a client inquiry, we’re often talking in shorthand because as a result of the blog, many already have a pretty good idea of how we think, how we view the world, and how we respect and value radio.
12. I enjoy it
Why else would I still be doing this. Yes, there are tough days when I’d rather be doing something else. But more often than not, the blog has brought me pleasure and gratification. The fact many of you read it, think about it, comment on it, and talk about it goes right to the heart of why I started doing it in the first place.
I could go on, but as several have told me over the years, JacoBLOG would be better if it was shorter. That’s probably true, and it’s something I continue to work on. But I love to make lists, and if you’ve gotten this far, you have a better understanding of why I do this blog and why blogging is such a great tool for both personal and business reasons.
Looking back on this journey, I am so thankful I did it and continue to do so. And I’m thankful for those of you who read it, encourage me, talk about it, and share it. It means a lot, and it encourages me to keep going.
Blog on.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Thank you for these posts every weekday for 12 years! Thank you most for the ability to see the headline and a graph before I come to visit. It allows me to prioritize the reading of your blog post in the midst of my chaos. Keep rockin’!
Many thanks, Chris. Appreciate you reading it!
#13. OUTSTANDING! Thank you for the daily thought stimulator. http://www.broadcastideas.com
Appreciate that, Clark. Thank you.
Fred,
Thank you for being the beacon of so much of what we do. Your inspiration, vision, and dedication are a tide that raises a lot
of boats.
Congratulations on twelve years.
Radio needs Fred Jacobs.
Truly kind, Keith. Thanks for reading it.
Congratulations, Fred. JACOBlog is consistently insightful and provocative. Thanks for the daily lift!
Thanks for reading it, Rob!
By FAR and bar none..the most usable content for radio leaders published. I’ve used more “Jacoblog” stuff for my teams over those 12 years than anything/anyone else…. and it’s not even close.
I don’t know how you do it, (including the Oscars content from late, late.. in yesterday’s blog:) But I’m sure as hell glad you do. ROCK ON! 🙂
DP
From one of my favorite guys in radio, high praise. Much appreciated, Dave.
A hearty congrats on the milestone Fred. Your insights are always well thought out and detailed and you are never afraid to address thought-provoking material. The result is a must-read for everyone in Radio. Keep pushing the envelope in new ways!
Josh, thanks so much for reading the blog and these truly kind comments.
WOW! 12-years! That’s amazing and very much appreciated.
I’m only in my 3rd year and really appreciate the work that goes into blogging.
I also understand the many benefits too.
Thank You Fred
Dick, you’re putting out some strong content and adding to important industry conversations. Thanks for the kind words.
Thank You Fred
Congrats on 12 years! Thanks for all you do!
Appreciate it, Steve.
Congratulations Fred – I know it’s a challenge to do this every day. Much appreciated. And, based on everything you’ve said above, you do it for all the right reasons. Keep blogging!
Many thanks, Jim.
Fred – many thanks for the work you do to lift up our industry in providing practical insights that will help stimulate our industry’s growth.
Taking this as an opportunity to ask for your advice as to what our industry can do to maximize growth, I’ve been a tad bewildered by colleagues who are shrinking from our mandate to advertisers. Your thoughts on this can help all of us…
As radio is a B2B sale, the only way to maximize revenue in a B2B sale is to “show them the money”. That means generating documented, advertisers sales results from the campaigns we sell – sale by sale, customer by customer.
As per Gord Borrell, who studies the collective needs of local/national advertisers more than anyone: “There’s one more thing I should mention about broadcast media. Today’s advertisers are clamoring for a sales rep who possesses marketing savvy, someone who can help them not only create a campaign, but also breathe life into it across various media channels.”
That means if advertisers are clamoring for something, they’re not currently getting it. That gets more than a few radio folks rattled – even angry – as it challenges the status quo thinking that limits our industry to inflation-adjusted, flat-lining revenue.
Radio sellers need to develop the overarching, unbiased marketing strategy that produces documented, measurable sales results attributable to each dollar of the media spend (those of us who do that already, hands up, please), and increases the client’s revenue.
That most often comes from increasing the marketing dollars pie that feeds the strategy – and the ability to generate, document and attribute advertiser sales results in a number of ways is the easiest way to induce advertisers to increase those marketing dollars.
As marketing strategy is foundational in helping generate the ideas for advertisers’ sales-accountable creative, the onus is on the rep to first identify and quantify the client’s opportunities, objectives, pain points and resources.
Beyond sales training, it’s the responsibility of radio management and ownership to help the sales staff continually grow and sharpen their skill sets in so doing. Those skills are honed and made more fruitful in group strategy sessions with proactive – not after-the-fact – confidential, client case-study by confidential, client case-study, as each case is in progress, so that the clients can also benefit from the process.
The best thing is that it propels those who are willing to set aside those all-too-common, less-than-bountiful advertiser outcomes, and commit to doing what they’re not doing (but should), to produce radical revenue growth for our advertisers, ergo, our industry.
Fact – not just philosophy: the reciprocal action by the client is almost always a larger allocation of dollars to the media rep who makes that happen.
Should radio take the lead in giving advertisers what they tell us they want (but radio doesn’t give them); and in creating and selling advertisers the customized-to-their-opportunities-and-pain-points marketing (not limited to radio) strategies that do that, our industry’s relatively flat-lining revenue will begin a significant upturn.
It not only generates more revenue per hour of prospecting, preparation, pitching and servicing – it’s a heck of a lot more fun than just limiting ourselves – and our advertisers – in cranking out another 52 week schedule proposition with three commercial spec spots filled with (easily remedied) platitudes and generalities with a side-dish of “me-too” digital marketing.
It is time to shake radio out of its status quo, meet our industry’s challenges head-on, and make far more money than all of us have been making, by giving advertisers exactly what they tell us they want: unbiased, over-arching marketing strategies (not limited to our stations and digital marketing services) that provide documented sales results that advertisers can measure to the penny; all attributable to their media spend with us.
That increases the size of the advertiser revenue pie – and our slice, in so doing. The odd thing is that broadcaster after broadcaster says “we already do that”; but ask our industry’s advertisers, and they vehemently disagree.
Really great Fred.
Bravo!
I’ve been in the business since I was a senior in high school and now I’m a small-time (at least compared to you, Fred) consultant.
But I made a commitment to myself when I was young to never stop learning. Much of what I’ve added to my knowledge base over the years, logically enough, has to do with radio.
Fred, you are one of the people I consistently still learn from. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and insights with all of us who still want to learn and improve.
Here’s to another 12 years!
K.M., thanks for the encouragement and the kind words.
Your blog is required reading for all that want to win.
You are a great inspiration, Fred. And Paul, too!
Thank you for all you’ve done for me.
Lori, many thanks for the kind words and the support.
A little late (I do read every day, but sometimes “time-shifted.”) Congrats on 12 years, Fred.
I read, learn, think, and share from your blog all year. I look forward to more growing of myself and my organizations through it.
Always insightful, well-written, thought-provoking, and entertaining.
Thanks for being there every day, even if I fall behind sometimes.
Ken, many thanks for the kind, supportive words. I appreciate you reading the blog.
Thank you for all the good energy sharing the knowledge acquired throughout the entire journey of a career full of experiences, as diverse as fun, teaching us that radio as a passion allows us to provide wellness and prosperity in all that we can do.
Thanks, Rolando. Much appreciated.