4-12-2012
The hottest, fastest-growing social media site is Pinterest. It?s now the third-most popular social network, behind Facebook and Twitter. It?s also a potentially great way for some radio brands to bond more deeply with their fans. However, jump in with your eyes open:
1. Unlike Facebook, Pinterest is really not for every brand.
2. It?s clean and graphically oriented. Hence, unfamiliar territory for many radio pros!
3. It?s even less like traditional marketing than Facebook, meaning you can?t make it a place you just post your promo liners.
Who And What
If your radio station targets adult women, Pinterest may be perfect for you. That?s who?s joining and spending time there. Country, Adult Contemporary (hot and mainstream), Urban AC, and Classic Hits formats all might have some real success with Pinterest. You have to turn off your traditional marketing brain, however, and start by looking at the site. It?s a free-flowing blend of photos, artwork, and videos. This is very soft marketing. There are some brands getting very healthy traffic from Pinterest, but they?re telling a story about their target?s lifestyle, or emotionally connecting with them. This is not the place to just promote your morning show or cash contest.
Furthermore, you have to look good on Pinterest. You can?t just turn this over to the DJ staff and know it?ll be done right. I?ll give you some good ideas here on what you can post, but I?d recommend finding maybe just one person on your team who understands Pinterest, and can come up with the best content.
Idea #1: Lifestyle
What can you tell your adult female target audience about themselves? Often, they?re busy working moms who are time-starved but would like to have more fun. A way you could involve a client might be to post ?dream? content. What would they like to have? Where would they like to go? What would a special, fun time with family or friends look like? You can come up with theme after theme to entertain your target on Pinterest that might tie in all sorts of client opportunities.
Idea #2: Inside Experience
Social media fans like to get extra access to their favorite brands. On Pinterest, that might mean candid photos of what it?s like to work at your station. No, no posed shots of the smiling morning team. Show people what it really looks like, all over the office. Keep this updated, and you can put links on your website and Facebook page to get more fans on Pinterest.
Idea #3: Cute Or Hot
Move those cute pet and hot firefighter galleries off your website and onto Pinterest. If you?re an established brand, it should result in more brand loyalty and more clicks to your website. Plus, if you do a cute pet board at Pinterest, include a pic of a vet clinic client treating a pet. See how you can tie in a client without just adding another advertising message? Surely you have clients who would fit, graphically, in a display of pictures that reinforce what your listeners love about their lives.
Idea #4: Fan Community
Get your fans to post their own photos of what they?re doing when they listen to you. Wherever they are, whatever they?re doing, whoever is around them, other fans will find it relatable. There?s no reason only your brand gets to share the love; you could find clients to take pictures of what they?re doing with your station on. Remember, this is velvet glove stuff. It?s soft marketing, but powerful.
Idea #5: Contest
Run a contest for your Pinterest followers where you ask them to post one of your images on one of their boards. Here?s a soft, powerful way for them to endorse you: by posting an attractive photo that incorporates your logo somehow. Make sure you read Pinterest?s terms of service before doing this.
How The Pieces Fit
If you are a female-skewing station and you decide Pinterest is for you, here?s how the digital pieces fit together. Your website is where people go for deep, focused content about what you did on the radio. Your Facebook page is the behind-the-scenes pass for your biggest fans, clueing them into what?s happening, and when, on all your platforms. Then, Pinterest is where you show your audience more of what they?re passionate about.
Chris Miller has been a major-market PD in Atlanta, Portland and Cleveland. He now operates Chris Miller Digital, which he launched. Visit his website at www.chrismillerdigital.com.
Contact Chris via e-mail, chris@chrismillerdigital.com or 216-236-3955.
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