Steve Garland Media

By guest blogger dminer

comScore - which tracks internet activity and trends - just released its 2008 Year in Review and radio station websites are among the top growth categories in terms of unique visitors - up 30% in fact over the previous year. Although they didn’t mention the details in the study I believe this growth is due to two very specific things. The first is an improvement in content. While it clearly varies from station to station, radio as a whole is making a concerted effort to upgrade their content offerings. For example, Entercom is currently overhauling all of its site to focus on “unduplicatable content” via a widget from SplashCast and custom BrightCove video player.

The second reason is a little more obvious. A wise ol’ marketing guru said it best when he explained that Word of Mouth is the second best form of advertising - the BEST is word of mouth when you have a 50,000 watt signal hooked up to a mic. Radio simply has the ability to get the word out about its websites - and it’s clearly working.