July 6, 2011
by Kit Mann
There are not many radio stations in America that can claim that 10% of their market has ?liked? or ?friended? them on Facebook. That is the number that we wanted to shoot for when we first signed on. Now that we have hit that number, we need to make sure that our morning show (the main catalyst for personal connectivity on a small market station) maintains the number and uses the social media available to stay connected.
What should your morning show be doing with social media so that it translates directly to listenership and participation?
1. BUILD THE BASE! We started by hammering our FB page on the air in imaging, live mentions and contesting. We were not shy about our goals. We contested specifically toward the FB site, providing new contests and giveaways every time we reached a goal. In addition, we required that ALL personalities had a FB page that was for their role on the station only. If they had a personal page, it was not allowed to be connected to the station page. They needed a separate page for their ?radio? persona. We branched it from there.
2. STAY CONNECTED! Too many stations have FB and twitter accounts that are rarely used by the airstaff. We require the morning show to post AT LEAST twice an hour during the show. If we mention a website on the air, we post a link. We post links to our web stream EACH MORNING, we respond to all wall posts and answer ALL listener PMs if possible. We say ?Good Morning? at 6am and sign off when we leave--just like we do on the air. If we talk about it on the air, chances are good that it ends up on FB. This builds loyalty and encourages the listener to refer to us to THEIR friends on a daily basis--which translates to more listeners checking us out that might not have otherwise.
3. CALL TO ACTION! We make sure that we direct the listeners to the FB page to maintain contact with us. We encourage them to answer poll questions, send requests, comment on topics, enter contests etc...all through FB. This translates into THEIR friends seeing their participation and tuning in to see what is going on.
4. Use ALL media. Do not just post links and comments. We utilize TUMBLR as the jumping off point. We point all of our tumblr posts to Twitter and FB. We post pics, video and links every single day through tumblr. It?s a great way to maintain a ?show site? that is separate from the static station site and is very interactive.
5. Take a traditional approach to a non-traditional medium. One of the most popular things that we did this year was a FACEBOOK ONLY remote. We set-up a live webcam ON LOCATION from our listener appreciation party and let the web friends watch the action. The hitch that we added is that the personalities did live ?breaks? on the webcam three times each hour, in addition to the breaks that they did on the air. It directed people to the FB page, connected them with what was going on while we broadcast on the air AND gave the client a ?hip? kind of remote that blew them away. It looked good. It sounded GREAT and it brought people down to the event that might not have based on ?sound? alone. They got to see the party, see the energy and FEEL through more than one sense.
Everyday there are new apps, new sites, new avenues for the radio station to build and maintain it?s digital presence. We are only scratching the surface for morning shows in small markets to be able to reach out through more than just the airwaves and build an ever changing audience. An audience that used to listen to radio only, now has more personal access to the jocks, the station and each other. The benefits for our industry are infinite. We just need to make the effort and maintain the level of creativity that radio has been know for since it?s inception as an entertainment medium.
Kit Mann is the morning host and program director of KBPY in Chadron, NE. A brand new signal that he built from the ground up this year. Reach him: Facebook.com/kitmannrocks. On Twitter at kitmannrocks, http://kitmannrocks.tumblr.com/ or www.kitmannmorningshow.com
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