Transparency

In my line of work the word "Transparency" is probably the most over used word there is.  That's not a bad thing.  Transparency is great for social media.  It's one of the cornerstones of digital word of mouth marketing.  Which is why when I heard Adam Carolla's first podcast of 2010 I was so excited.

I've written numerous times about my love of Adam's podcast.  I've listened to every single one since he went live last year.  I've heard him go from a simple conversation in his house with poor quality audio to a proper studio in the garage that houses all of his automobiles.  Yes I love his commentary, his guests, his style.  He's human.  He's one of us.  He's not for everyone, but for half a million people a day he's pure joy.

He's also incredibly transparent.  He admits that he can barely read.  He admits that his knowledge of the computer is pretty much relegated to viewing porn.  He admits that he doesn't understand Twitter and that even though there is an Adam Carolla Twitter account it's not coming from him.  But meanwhile he's become the most downloaded comedy podcast on iTunes.

But with success comes problems.  Financial ones.  According to Adam it costs him about $10,000 a month to put up his free podcast.  Bandwidth is costing him a fortune and he has people helping him that he pays out of his own pocket.

But he's on to something.  And he knows it.

So for the first podcast of the new year, Adam and his engineer/sidekick/producer/best friend Donny sat down for 20 minutes and told their audience what the plan was for 2010.  There will be commercials he said.  Not many, in fact, as few as possible.  They'll all be read by him and they will all be products that are right for his audience.  There won't be 5 or 7 minutes of commercials every 15 minutes like when he had his radio show, there will be 2 or 3 at most that will be maybe a minute or two over all.  He explained that this is because he needs to cover his costs.  And yes, he'd like to make some money.  But he admitted that this still won't be enough.  So he's going to look into other avenues.  He's going to take the show on the road and do more live broadcasts where he can charge a ticket price at the door to come see the show live.  (And he's asking his audience to tell him where to go.  He knows he has a large fanbase in Seattle so he'll probably go there.  But why go to Tennessee if no one is there.  He realizes that the Internet gives him the ability to know where his audience actually lives.)

He's going to have an occasional podcast that costs money.  Maybe for a charity like the one he did last year for his friend Bryan who had a brain tumor.

And he's starting a network.  Under the Adam Carolla podcast network there will be shows about sports, shows about cars, shows featuring other comedians. 

I'm not telling you all of this to convince you to listen to Adam.  I'm telling you this because this guy literally spelled all this out for his audience.  He wanted you to know that there will be some changes but that he cares about his audience and he wants everyone to be happy with his decisions.  He admits that some things may not work and if they don't, he'll change directions.

All he asks is that you tell a friend.  That's all he's ever asked for.

You are probably reading this and saying, "of course."  This is all common sense, right?  Isn't this what everyone does?

NO.

Not at all.  I could go on a whole diatribe right here about the music business.  I could tell you that EVERY SINGLE artist should take this approach.  But I will not digress into that right now.  [It just coincides with a dozen conversations I've had over the past month with and about artists that are trying to find and manage an audience.]

I don't know if Adam is even really thinking about what he's doing.  I personally don't believe he sat down and said, "I'm going to tell the world what I'm doing because transparency is the golden rule in social media.  If I'm honest with my audience they will love me more and tell their friends."  I think he thought, "I'm very lucky.  I have a great audience.  Great fans.  If I were a fan of me, I'd want to know what's going on.  I'd want to make sure Adam didn't change directions with success."  I believe he just did what he would want to see done himself.

The music business was turned upside down by a college kid who decided CDs were too expensive and contained maybe one good song so he invented Napster to trade songs with other disillusioned music fans.

The technology business was changed by two guys who said everything should be free and easy and we'll make money based on behavioral targeting not proprietary operating systems.

And the radio business will be changed by people like Adam who hate the restrictions of short interviews and long commercial breaks.

All are outsiders.  People who don't know or care about the rules.

Make that a mantra for 2010.  Don't be restricted by what already exists.  We're living in a world where nothing is static.  If you don't change what you don't like, someone else will.  Be a part of the change.  Be transparent and tell people what you are doing and why.  Do it for the right reasons and not for financial upside.  The money will come.

Adam's First Podcast of 2010 -  http://www.adamcarolla.com/ACPBlog/2010/01/03/adam-and-donny-2/