Working in Radio? Here’s Why You Need a Blogcast

Posted on August 30, 2018 by penguinintheroom

Now anyone with a passion for radio will know that if you sat behind your microphone and read straight off a script all day, your listeners would be bored as heck.

That’s because writing a blog and actually doing a radio show (or podcast) are two wildly different things.

When we speak, we make fun little inflections with our voice and odd sounds as we pause and try and remember the word we’re looking for.

When we write, we’re doing it at our own time and at our own pace, (and we can totally just Google that word).

So why on earth then are we telling you to combine oil and water into a Blogcast?

Continue reading →

What The New Data Protection Laws Mean For Small Businesses, Individuals and Freelancers

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Sophie Austin

This May, new Data Protection laws will be coming into place, specifically, the Data Protection Act will be replaced by the General Data Protection Regulation.

What’s the difference? The GDPR will have new rules around the storage and handling of personal information and there will be stricter punishments in place for those who fail to comply.

Why the new law? The short answer is because hackers are more easily able to access data from small to medium businesses than they are to hack huge, well-protected corporate networks.

Changes in Consent

At the moment it’s sufficient to ask someone to tick or even to untick a box in order to consent to the storage of their data.

Under the new laws, consent means active agreement. This means you cannot pre-tick a ‘subscribe me’ button.

Not only this, but companies need to be able to show a clear audit trail of consent, including screen grabs or saved consent forms.

Individuals also have the right to withdraw consent at any time, and it has to be effective and efficient. When someone withdraws consent all of their personal data must be immediately and permanently erased. It is not enough to remove them from the mailing list.

If you are subject to a data breach, you also have to inform the relevant authorities immediately and you must notify all individuals affected within 72 hours of the initial breach.

What does this mean for people that use e-mail marketing (and am I one of those people?)

If you have a newsletter that people subscribe to, or if you send e-mails to a database of people on whatever basis, this concerns you.

And it doesn’t just concern all the new data you might collect. It concerns all the data you currently have.

Any kind of personal data you keep has to follow these rules and you and you alone are responsible for being able to prove that someone has consented to have their data kept on file by you.

This means you can no longer capture e-mails through a competition and then add them into your mailing list, or you cannot auto-subscribe (for example) people that have bought a ticket to your show to your newsletter.

Does the GDPR apply to my personal blog?

The GDPR applies to all enterprises. So if you run a business from home, or if your blog/website is engaged in “economic activity” i.e. you use it to make money – this applies to you.

It does not apply to people processing personal data in the course of a purely personal or household activity. I.e. if you have your plumber’s email address on file, that’s fine. If you’re sending your plumber an email telling him that you have a new kind of product available for sale, that’s not fine.

So what do I do now?

For every e-mail address in your system, you need to go back and seek explicit permission from the person to continue to send them whatever communication you are sending them.

If you cannot provide evidence of consent, you cannot send them emails and you must delete their data permanently.

This means you will need to launch a re-permission campaign and bring your entire database up to GDPR standards.

What are the consequences of non-compliance?

Fines. These are tiered based on the level of non-compliance and the severity of the violation, and they are capped at 4% of an annual turnover of €20million.

Ouch.

Check out our next post on how to run a GDPR compliant re-consent campaign.

Disclaimer: None of the above constitutes legal advice. If you are in doubt, we recommend you seek professional legal guidance.

Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is a group of creatives with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping other creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.

Contact us any time for penguin chats via email:info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to our website: www.penguinintheroom.com

Top Tips for Radio Freelancers on Social Media

Posted on May 27, 2016 by penguinintheroom

We chatted to radio freelancers at RIGtrain: a brilliant training event run by The Radio Independents Group this week and we thought we would share some of our top tips with you!

Get the story

Twitter is a great place for you find that great story or guest for your radio work! Use the twitter search function to search keywords in your area of interest eg. nature , keep an eye on whats trending in that left hand column (pic below) and keep an eye on influencers in your circles of interest ie. people on twitter who are active and share interesting news and stories that are relevant to you!

Live Stream

Live stream your radio shows or podcasts through Periscope or Facebook Live and trick people who wouldn’t normally tune in for audio content into listening! Live streaming helps you engage with visual content consumers and give a behind the scenes look at recording.

Hashtags

Use hashtags to link together your posts on social media and create a project timeline. Got a new podcast? Create a hashtag and promote it both in audio content and visually on posters and social media icons. This is a great way to bring everything together and if your show is very popular your hashtag could even start trending which means more people will be encouraged to join in.

Promote yourselves

As a freelancer you need to view yourself as a business and don’t forget to market that business. Let us know what you are up to via social media channels, promote your projects and successes and network with other freelancers in radio as this could lead to paid work!

Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing are some penguins with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.