Anchor: A Beginner's Guide toDisrupting the Airwaves

Anchor: A Beginner’s Guide toDisrupting the AirwavesApproximately 8 minute readA new free mobile app is truly disrupting the face of podcasting. Anchorlaunched on February 9, 2016 for iOS users with the intent to change thedigital airwaves forever. The New York-based startup is led by co-foundersNir Zicherman and Michael Mignano. The launch of the startup was predicatedupon their combined love towards radio. Previously both of them worked atAviary. A company that was acquired by Adobe.

Anchor is the first of a kind in public radio where practically anyone canjoin or start a conversation. An audio-driven social media network. It iscomprised in the form of a free app that can be downloaded via the iOS AppStore for iPhone. Conversations are in the form of short recordings that werenever possible before. You can discuss just about anything. Either start awave of your own or join an existing one. Whatever the interest or topicmight be of interest to you. When not recording a wave you can listen toother ones or even participate within the conversation by contributing a newwave.

It is actually quite simple and extremely addicting. Take it from me. I havebeen using Anchor quite consistently and even at this point in time may evenbe considered as an addict. Yes, I actually said that! Wait until you getyour hands on it. If you are the auditory type of individual and particularlyenjoy good conversations than Anchor will definitely be a great app to use onregular basis.

One of the most important factors about Anchor is the substance and value ofa wave. They are not intended to be standard, basic replies or audiocompositions. Instead Anchor users expect very well thought-out waves withstrategic and creative thinking in mind.

How Does Anchor Work?There are a couple of main core capabilities within the app. When recording anew wave, you get a 2:00 minute time slot to express and share your thoughtswith other anchors. Replies to pre-existing waves are restricted to 1:00minute in length. So, you have half the time to provide a solid response. Anaudio feed allows you to monitor waves generated by your network and abilityshare, send, or contribute with a wave response. Much like any other socialmedia stream.

Getting Started with Anchor on iOS/iPhoneFirst things first, head on over to the App Store. Search for ‘anchor’ or‘anchor fm’ and should be able to find the app. Great! You’ve downloaded theapp and eager to get started. Onto the next step.

Before you can dive right in consider a couple of options. Those consist ofthe ability to Login to Anchor or Listen without an account. Anchor allows

guest access for the time being to those who are not yet ready to sign up foran account.

In order to personalize the overall user experience, I strongly suggest thatyou sign up for an account. It is definitely worthwhile in having one. Anchorallows for a single-click Twitter Oauth sign up as well to make thingseasier. This is a fairly painless route to get a new account. Following theinstructions on the Sign up for an account page to get yours.

Moving right along. You have signed up for an account and ready to launchyour Anchor experience. Post sign up you should be redirected to your profilepage as seen below.

Recording Your First WaveThe big moment! Excitement is building up and you’re anxious to record yourfirst wave (your audio recording). Something like that anyway. See the giantred button at the bottom of the app? Yes, that one. Press it once to initiatethe wave recording session.

After you have pressed the red button once you will see the screen above. Youare ready to record your first wave! Press and hold the giant red buttonwhile recording your wave. Remember that you have 2:00 minutes. Make itcount. GO!

So, you have officially recorded your first wave and ready to share it withthe rest of the world. You should be seeing a screen similar to the one inthe image below. If not then you took a wrong turn somewhere.

Time to edit, tweak, and share your first wave with the stratosphere.Remember though that before doing so the context of your first wave willprovide some real value to other anchors on the platform. While it is yourfirst focus on stating something meaningful that will resonate will othersthat have similar interests. After all, waves are about individual contextualvalue rather than quantity.

The following screen helps you prep the wave for publishing. You should havethe option to share your wave on Twitter. Therefore, don’t forget to also usethe infamous #firstwave hashtag. That should help get you noticed with otheranchors and jumpstart new conversions.

When ready, hit the Publish button and off you go into the wavestream.

Exploring the Home News FeedAs I mentioned above, Anchor offers its own version of a news feed alikeother social platforms you may be accustomed to. If you are not currentlyfollowing anybody and nobody is following you than chances are this will beempty. However as you embark upon your community building journey your newsfeed will become alive. Below is a sample of what a populate news feed mightlook like.

Oh, and what do we have here? It’s @GrantCardone. The business mastermindwhose reported net worth is around $100 million. Nothing like early adoption,right? There are several cool things you can do on the news feed page.

Swipe down by sliding your finger downwards on the screen to load newwaves.Click on the blue play button to hear that particular wave.Hit the love button to show interest in a wave. Equivalent to a ‘Like’.Touch the red rounded button to reply back to this particular wave.If you would like to follow a particular person that you are not already

following then hit the + button adjacent to their name. If alreadyfollowing than you will see a checkmark.Hit the up right arrow to share this wave on Anchor with other followersof yours or elsewhere (other social networks).Touch the ‘Hear Reply’ option to hear responses to this wave from otherusers.In the upper left-hand corner you can add people to your network.In the upper right-hand corner you can select the audio settings for theapp (Telephone vs. Speaker).

Perfect! You’ve got the news feed capabilities down and capable of findingyour way around. Always keep tabs on this section to be constantly in theknow of what new waves are being shared or talked about within your network.

Using the Search Option on Anchor AppAnchor would not be complete without a search function. This one is quiterobust as well giving users the ability to sift through a ton of information.Alike other social platforms within Anchor you also have the ability to

explore top hashtags. One in particular that is strongly advised for newusers is the ‘Anchor 101’ or ‘#FirstWave – Say Hello’. There are more topicsto explore here as well. Click on the ‘See More Topics’ button in bottomright-hand corner to explore deeper.

You can access the Search option by selecting the magnifying glass next tothe News Feed at the bottom of the app.

Activity SectionAlike other apps, Anchor too provides a section for current activity. Some ofthe notifications you can expect to see consist of the following:

New followers – anyone who follows you.Replies – anyone who was responded to your wave will show up under theactivity section.Tags – anyone who happens to tag you in a wave. There is thatfunctionality as well.

Likes – anyone who has expressed interest to one of your waves byhitting that love icon.

ConclusionAnchor is an extremely powerful platform that allows each and every one ofits users to fully express themselves. Some of its additional features whichwere not mentioned above include the following:

Embeddable waves – each wave that you generate is encapsulated within anembeddable format available on to view via a url on the web.Sharing – each user has the ability to share waves onto Twitter directlyfrom within the tap. This can add to your social following and/orattribute to meeting a few new followers.

As of the time of this guide Anchor has announced new features to its app.Those are expected to be rolled out sometime in the upcoming week.

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