5-9-2014
It?s time. Time to kick your social media into gear and really get what local radio deserves. Radio is the original social media network. We certainly have a great opportunity to use all of our assets to grow deep roots in social media and benefit both listeners and advertisers.
The questions involved are all about your activity; where you ?land it? in social media, how you blend it with your natural place in the market and in the listener?s mind, and how to harness it to make the most from it.
1. Local radio brands, morning shows and all radio personalities should be supported in social media and focused on being the bridge for local advertisers and the issues important to the local community.
2. Local brands should be active on social. Advertisers at all levels know that social media is impacting purchases (even if they can?t always track exact impact). All local brands need relationship-building. Our personalities and ties to local community, along with the fun and visual side of our business, makes our personalities almost like ?friends? on the local level to establish influence that counts like word of mouth. Ask a local business person how they feel about word of mouth ? it?s the best.
3. Facebook is obviously the big hitter when it comes to social media, but it isn?t the only hitter. However, it is important that you select your social media platforms and activity carefully as a part of your strategy to fit your radio station, market, and the people you most want to attract.
4. Listen to what the people you most want to attract are saying in social media. Compare what your competitors are actually doing (not just saying) in social media and where they are engaging listeners. Comparing what is happening to where you fit in and see opportunity is important.
5. Social media strategy should impact all parts of your local radio cluster. If it isn?t doing that, you are probably leaving ratings, money, or both on the table today.
6. Work hard to avoid the temptation of creating selfish content. This will be very difficult, but you can do it if your team is consistently rewarded for getting into the ?stream? of what is most important to the local listeners you most want to attract.
7. Judge yourself by engagement ? not ?likes.? You want to be watchful of your headlines, visuals, and content to judge how you are doing by consistently seeking what creates the most actual engagement. It?s okay for people to like you. It?s much more important for them to seek to consistently engage your content.
8. Always work to spin content back to you in some exclusive way to bring listeners back to your on-air and online brands. After all, we don?t work for Facebook, Twitter, and the other social media networks. I know some people will have difficulty with this, but I don?t. There are unique ways to relate all content back to your brands for appointments and further develop content so that listeners are trained to come back to you as the source when on the move.
Social media and digital can be new sources of revenue for your team and you can absolutely tie them to your website and your on-air (among other things important to ownership). Work to do this from the top of your organization to the bottom and you will be growing actual value that turns into more ratings and more revenue for your company! That?s what it is about today.
Loyd Ford is the direct marketing, ratings and social media strategist for Americalist Direct Marketing and has programmed very successful radio brands in markets of all sizes, including KRMD AM & FM in Shreveport, and WSSL and WMYI in Greenville, WKKT in Charlotte and WBEE in Rochester, NY. Learn more about Loyd here: http://about.me/loydford. Get his radio-social media content sent directly to your smart phone or email for free here: www.rainmakerpathway.wordpress.com. Reach out to Loyd via e-mail HERE. Visit his Facebook radio social media page HERE.
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