6-8-2012
I just got asked again recently what the best social media tools are. I?ll give you my top three, and it may surprise you how low-tech they are!
List Your Brand Attributes
What makes your radio station unique and gives it mass appeal? There?s a short list of things that your biggest fans love about you. Post them near your desk where you can see them, or create a file on your computer desktop or mobile device. Share them with everyone who creates social media for your station.
These are your "center lane" items for everything you do digitally. Sometimes you?ll go into the left lane or the right lane and post content that doesn?t directly have to do with your brand. When you do, make sure you come back to the center lane for the next media post. Those "center lane" qualities are the ones about which your biggest fans are hoping to get insider information and special deals. Remember this for your website content, social media, database emails, and any other way you communicate with your fans.
Plan Your Content
Once a week, the key players who really handle content should get together for a short meeting. This might be your PD, your promotion manager, your webmaster, and any talent who really impact what happens on the air and online. Agree on what the major content topics are for the coming week and the following week, and make some plans on how you can best express those topics on-air, online, and even on site at appearances or events.
When you do this every week, you get a chance to make firm plans for the coming week?and start thinking about the week after that, too. Then, when you meet the next time, everyone will have been thinking about what that next week?s content is all about, and you?re that much ahead of the game.
Then, stick to your plans! You?ll know what you need to be working towards on the air, on your website, and in your social media.
Schedule Your Facebook Posts
Facebook just started a new feature that allows you to schedule the posts you put on your brand?s page. There are some very good reasons to do so. You can tip off your Facebook fans in plenty of time to join you to play a contest or hear a special bit. You can more carefully spread your posts throughout the day to catch your fans more consistently. Also, if several people post on the station?s Facebook page, now you can cut that back to one or two, to make sure that only the people who really understand what they?re doing are handling that task.
To schedule a post, start to write in the status update box like you normally would. You should see a little pale clock icon appear in the lower left corner of the box. If you don?t, click "Status" above the box and it?ll appear, if you?re a Page Admin. If you?re not an administrator, that can be remedied by whoever is the page administrator (you can have multiple admins, with some having limited access to the page). If you need help with this, click my email address below and I?ll give you a hand.
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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