Next Step Podcasting, Visual Radio

Visual Radio (or Shareable Radio) is the term being used to define how you add video to your audio programs. This does not mean becoming a TV company, this is strictly visual radio. There are several social media avenues that fall under Visual Radio, Instagram, FaceBook Live, and YouTubeLive are a few. People use their mobile devices for everything, including watching programs, video clips, and podcasts. This is another way for radio to be where their listeners are. “Anyone who hopes to move up the ranks in radio can’t focus solely on audio anymore” (Mike Henry, Instagram Is the Rising Star of Social Media).

Visual Radio covers content that is not already standard on your schedule. It does not cover your syndicated programs. It does, however, cover your locally produced programs, remotes, pledge drives, and other content that may not necessarily be broadcasted. It is a means of generating content, interacting with listeners on a local level, and further promoting sponsors.

There are two forms of media for the internet, short and long forms. Long forms are for websites, if the viewer is already on your website, they are more likely to be interested in a longer form video or audio piece. Instagram, FaceBook, and YouTubeLive are meant for short form media. Short form includes short clips and single program podcasts. While both are Visual Radio, I will focus on short form, social media driven, video. Short form can drive viewers back to your website.

To reiterate the point of Visual Radio is to create and promote new content, reach the masses, and a add new avenue for sponsorships. The number one tool radio stations use is Facebook owned Instagram. Stations use this platform to promote events, link music to Spotify, and take advantage of the video features. Videos on Instagram are the most watched on the internet with 400 million daily story users.

Live streaming your programs to social media stream is very easy to implement. For example, your local morning program may be recorded and stored as a podcast for later download; now, you can stream video of the show to FaceBook, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitch. Here is a less expensive software, https://manycam.com/ for broadcasting to social media. A GoPro can be used with a laptop to capture the video. Visual Radio does not stop with in-studio shows but can be expanded to cover remotes, using a mobile device.

Captioning and transcripts of the audio programs is also Visual Radio. A study says that 85% of FaceBook videos are viewed with the audio on mute (https://digiday.com/media/silent-world-facebook-video/). By adding captioning those who cannot hear, can know what you are discussing. In addition to making your videos more accessible, your video will be searchable and discoverable by search engines. There are programs that do auto captioning, such as enCaption by Enco Systems. There are also speech-to-text transcription services from Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon. Andriod has AutoCap, iOS has Caption This and Clips. Here is a good article about the different services, https://www.techrepublic.com/article/5-speech-recognition-apps-that-auto-caption-videos/.

Using ads that are relevant to the show topic can also increase monetization of your program. You can link to Amazon affiliate products or your sponsors directly. You can use YouTube with Google ad options. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. Everything is laid out and easy to use.