Twitter Usage In America: 2010
Hope you get plenty of use out of this report!
As you know Social Media has the power to take your communication one step further – to the listener’s turf. With this power...comes great responsibility...just kidding but seriously you now have the power to FIND them where THEY are....and bring them BACK to YOU!
All of your Promotions can and should live on Web 2.0. People accept a certain level of advertising; they understand we have bills to pay. The secret is to understand the power of the new conversation, and to learn how to engage your listeners there. You need to accept the facts - it's the end of the bullhorn era. You must embrace the new litmus test of content - can the listener get this somewhere else?
Emotion is the most important part of effective creativity! As you know communication and conversation changes daily and we’re not “broadcasters” any more, radio is an “entertainment option.”
According to a University of Oregon Entertainment Option Survey here is how people “entertain” themselves and their using habits:
1) iPhone - constantly
2) Facebook - up to 4 times a day (morning, lunchtime, evening, before bed)
3) Twitter - 3-5 times per day
4) Other Social Media - once a day
5) Entertainment Websites - twice a day
6) News Websites/Blogs - once a day
7) Video Games - around 3 times per week
8) TV (often on-demand such as Hulu, YouTube, iTunes) - around 3 times per week
9) Alternative Weekly - once a week
10) Internet Radio/iTunes (Pandora, Rhapsody, Imeem) - daily
11) Hanging out with friends - daily
12) Radio - occasionally (often NPR)
Seem bleak? Not really, at least we know what they are doing. So why not get to them when you know they’re there... and tell them you’re there!” Facebook posts and Tweeting for morning shows should be weekdays at 6a, 7a, 8a and 9a. (Don't afternoon and evening tweets telling them what to expect the next day.)
I looked and tweeted with/at hundreds of Radio Stations, reviewed MANY websites, Social Media Platforms and found the following:
-facebook/twitter/youtube widgets not easy to find or not shown at all
-facebook and twitter posts at odd hours
-facebook pages don’t have any links, photos, personality or additional info from what is on website already
-facebook pages have dated/no photos
-newsfeed/RSS feeds are unavailable
-blog post gaps and/or no blogs
-jocks/stations aren’t tweeting and there are huge tweet gaps
-stations, jocks only following a few people and most of them other jocks and other stations
-no sharing icon opportunities (like a tweetmeme, social share button or DIGG widget)
-its not ALL about you-forget "whats happening to you" and ask listeners "whats happening to them"
-only posting links about your own stuff and sell lines looks self indulgent
-not answering @replies or thanking people for retweets-these are just common courtesy I know you get high volume but pick at couple a day. ANYONE can take a minute and do this
-not using list features
-not following people back {insert gratuitous Guy Kawasaki quote here
"Follow everyone who follows you. When I first started on Twitter, Robert Scoble told me to follow everyone who followed me. “But why, Robert, would I follow everyone like that?” The answer is that it’s courteous to do so and because when you do, some people will respond to you and eveyone who follows them will see this—which is more exposure for you."}
Social media needs to happen every day and CONSTANTLY! You should also link all platforms together like your Blog, Facebook, Website and Twitter.
Blogs are your best friend! Blogs are good for: search, traffic, content. Make sure you: tag, tag and tag-you’re creating a digital footprint. Remember, Social Media at its best, is storytelling and promotion to highly targeted people. This drives listeners to your digital/social side and then drives them right back to on-air.
Each Social Media Platform has a personality: Twitter is like a cocktail party. Facebook is the backyard BBQ. Blogs are like a coffee shop conversation.
Don’t forget to determine what your goals and strategy for Social Media are first!
Social Media tools will change. They always do. There was a time when AOL was top dog. Yahoo seemed invincible. Myspace too. If you get caught up in the tools, you’ll constantly be changing directions, with no real plan to guide your way.
I am not saying my way is the only way but my system for following, strategy and content management is used by many people, brands and institutions including WSIX and they are getting GREAT results!
Social Media is a free way to increase and influence positive public opinion about your station. Country music fans are passionate about their radio stations. Twitter, Facebook—these are just ways to engage listeners and get their insight so you have direct communication with them. These tools can only make you better. As you know without qualitative information, it’s difficult to know what’s working. I’ve always said, “I don’t know exactly what makes a radio station good but I can tell you when I am listening to a bad one,” and so can your listeners. I like to think of Social Media as being a big thermometer that gives you the opportunity to take you and your consumer’s temperature. Worst case scenario, you need a little penicillin?
@JessicaNorthey was here
Chuck just forwarded this from Inside Radio Today
ReplyDeleteSocial media becomes PD priority.
Extending station brands with social media has moved up on programmers’ priority list. Not only does it extend the station’s brand, but is’ increasingly seen as a way to drive on-air listening. For air talent, social media is the beginning of the “after-show.”
http://www.insideradio.com/Article.asp?id=1797035&spid=32060