The Infinite Dial

There are a number of ways that radio stations can engage with bloggers (and blog readers) that don't necessarily involve having a blog. There are, in fact, a number of possible levels of interaction, and one or more of them may or may not be appropriate for your situation--the question here is not "should we blog?"; rather, the question is "how transparent do you want to be, and what is your comfort level with that transparency?

Whether you choose to blog or not, however, you must have some kind of blog policy, because conversations are happening about your station right outside your little booth in cyberspace, and everything that is said there is permanent, and findable. There are four ways that your station can (and may already) interact with the blogosphere, in increasing order of commitment::

• 1. You can read other blogs, and monitor what your listeners (and competitors) are saying about you.


• 2. You can comment on other blogs in response to conversations about your station


• 3. Your employees can blog (with or without your sanction)


• 4. Your station can have its own blog

Not everyone can or should do number four, but at a minimum you should do #1 and seriously consider #2. Remember that the folks who are disparaging your station on the Internet are different from phone cranks in two very important (and already mentioned) aspects--everything they say is permanent and findable. An error unchallenged, or a myth allowed to perpetuate, can easily become your #1 search term (search "Miserable Failure" and see what I mean.) Engaging bloggers and challenging them to a constructive dialogue doesn't legitimize them, it legitimizes you. The good ones know this, the bad ones get ignored anyway--Web 2.0 is, at the very least, more of a meritocracy than its previous incarnation.