Have you noticed that your viewers are angry and frustrated?   Of course, you have.   They are angry at the politicians who don’t seem to have a clue on fixing the economy.    They are really upset at the institutions that take bailout bucks and then give millions of it in bonuses to the people who ran those institutions into the ground.

Here’s the point - if your newscasts still haven’t opened avenues of communication with your viewers - NOW is the time to jump in with the proverbail both feet.    Your viewers want to speak out more than ever - and they are doing it every day on national cable channels who have created entire shows to let them vent.    They are also doing it on many local newscasts - maybe even on your competition.  If you are still talking AT your viewers - instead of talking WITH them - you are soon going to be in their rearview mirrors as they move on.

For too long, newscast viewing has been passive.  Under the current climate, you have a wide open opportunity to make it an interactive experience with your viewers.   It is easy to set up email addresses plus Twitter and Text accounts to give them easy access to express their views on your newscasts.

I was in a market last week that has had difficulty getting viewers to respond to requests to send emails with their opinions.  Well, they asked viewers to give their opinion on the AIG bonuses right after it was the lead story in their late newscast.   They had over 50 emails to read less than 10 minutes later.   And the emails were very interesting - with strong points of view that really enhanced the news coverage.

So - don’t blow off your viewers by not asking for their opinions.   Let them blow off steam in your newscasts instead - and you will tap into a powerful force to make your newscasts more interesting - and your viewers much more engaged in your newscasts.

Jim

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Willi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.