Your Website Needs Something to Do

It's one of the most common questions I hear: "What should I put on my station's website?" 

And it's closely related to another question I hear all too often: "What does my audience want from my website?" 

I'll sum up the biggest single problem with most radio station web destinations: 

There's nothing to do. 

Rather than drowning in the bottomless pit of "let's provide what listeners want" – which tends to be the same thing they can get everywhere else – consider whether or not you've got stuff on your site that gives consumers something to do. 

Do you have things for me to explore? Games for me to play? Stuff for me to read that's original and worth reading? News I can't find anywhere else? Stuff worth having fun with and telling my friends about? 

Or are you instead viewing your web destination as some sort of free ad vehicle for your station and its sponsors – a spot to promote every facet of your station and shove it down your audiences' throats no matter how bitter the aftertaste? 

In an ideal world, your web destination can be a reflection of and enhancement to your brand. Another open invitation to your brand's exciting world. 

Or it can be a dumping ground for so-called "value-adds." A proverbial Persian bazaar of logos and icons, each less click-worthy than the last, each more effectively diminishing your brand than the next. 

The web is for people who want to do something, whether that's engage or create or play along or find deals or get informed or whatever. 

It's not for people who want to be advertised at.