5-3-2013
How much belief is there in social media in your building? Do you believe it is real or do you believe it is a big waste of time? Let?s find out.
1. Do your radio brands have a defined strategy for social media that gives them content goals to hit each day? Is the morning show responsible for blogging and sharing lifestyle pictures and videos along with other rich content that is designed to bring local listeners back to your website and on-air? Does your on-air team have specific roles in social media that help drive traffic from social media back to your ownership assets? If not, you probably are unsure of how real social media is today. Being on Facebook and having a Twitter account does not mean you have an effective social media outreach.
2. Does your radio cluster have a specific person in sales that blogs about advertising and marketing, gives local clients and potential clients resources (content) to make their challenges in bringing in new customers easier? Social media is not simply for the on-air talent. If you value social media, you should have a sales and marketing strategy that gives you outreach to clients and potential clients (who are real people, too). While local radio should be actively cultivating revenue opportunities in all forms of digital, social media allows local radio to be social with their influence so that radio can help local businesses with their own goals and draw them closer to local radio products (on-air and digital), too.
3. As a part of your overall social media strategy, are members of your team actively commenting on posts by local listeners and trying to validate them? Are you doing the same with local clients? It isn?t enough just to broadcast messages about listening to your radio station. In the new world order of 21st century entertainment and marketing, listeners and clients (or potential clients) are gaining access to more power and choice. Connecting with them on social media platforms and validating them will keep them close to you and your products and will help encourage elements that mean revenue and potential growth to your company.
4. Are you involved in your community? While this sounds strangely like the old question (i.e. Are you involved in your community?), this specifically means the local community in ?local? social media environments. Are you connective with local charities, government, businesses, and individuals of influence, and are you engaging the important elements driving the local social media influence in your market? Are you engaged enough to know who these people, businesses, and influencers are in your market?
Maybe you are tired of hearing it, but the world that we have lived in for a long time is changing. There are dynamic changes that will mean either that you get lost or you get engaged in the new world order so that your influence grows.
Often times it isn?t the direct selling that takes care of the future. Selling is important in both revenue production and in the marketing of benefits for your programming brands on-air, but now there is connectivity that is easier than ever before. On-the-ground listeners and advertisers are able to ?broadcast.? They want to be validated. Do that for them and your business and influence can grow bigger than it was before social media came to town. And that?s relevance and money for radio. Once you determine you want to be aggressive with social media to grow that relevance, you will have a very powerful and meaningful belief in social media.
Loyd Ford is the direct marketing, ratings and social media strategist for Americalist and programmed very successful radio brands in markets of all sizes for years, including KRMD AM & FM in Shreveport, WSSL and WMYI in Greenville, WKKT in Charlotte and WBEE in Rochester, NY. Get his radio ? social media blog FREE right on your cell phone or email here: www.rainmakerpathway.wordpress.com. Learn more about Loyd here: http://about.me/loydford. Reach out to Loyd via e-mail HERE Visit his Facebook radio social media page HERE
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
