1-14-2014
Words are not going away, but they are changing format or form or whatever you want to call it. If your social media is eaten up with too many words and not enough pictures or video, you are putting yourself in the slow lane. There are other ways to be in the slow lane. Being boring. Focusing too much on contesting. Being inconsistent.
How do you get in the local fast lane and make it stick for your radio station, morning show, afternoon show, events and the local listeners you most want to attract? Let?s brainstorm. I?ll start.
1. Dramatically use photos to tell a story and get people to click on your content. No picture, less people. That?s the rule. Less people will click on your ?stuff? without a photo or visual. Make it easy for them to get interested. Provide a visual that makes them need to click.
2. Smartly use video to showcase the fun of your radio station and how engaging it is for actual listeners you want to attract. This is still a fun business to most of the core listeners you are trying to attract. Get busy with your smart phone. Get interesting and do it with video. Focus your attention on things listeners would find interesting or upload video about listeners.
3. Use events in social media to create a spider web of activity in social that traffics back to your brands, your personalities, your product, and your clients. Your station is a hub. ?Let the hub out.? Take your activity and get it all over social media in ways that makes your product accessible and your valuable events well seen by locals. As with all things, I recommend you do your best to make content lead back to your site and your on-air?or at least your event.
4. As most people inside a radio station don?t really represent the local population as a whole, do all you can through reaching out to local groups to integrate your product, brand, personalities, and opportunities into theirs and ?be one of them.? The more interconnected you are with local ?passion? groups, the more likely you are to integrate with the listeners you most want to attract. They will love it if you shine a little light on them.
5. Consider focusing on local meet-up groups to intensify your connectivity with those being most active in your market with ?high passions.? These groups meet regularly. If you don?t know how to source them, ask around. People inside your radio station already know.
6. Consider ?how to? videos and recipes to build, cook, and create things that people in your market are most interested in today. I consider this to be a significant revenue area for radio stations, but most are not paying attention. Do so and you will bring money ideas to the table and increase your effectiveness with social media.
7. Focus your social media content on being ?in the now.? Being old, stale, over is so?over. I?m sorry. Things go stale. Reinvent yourself by staying up-to-date and make it apparent you are up-to-date on-air and in social media so that you attract others who are most active in your market.
This kind of brainstorming will surely lead to giving you even better ideas on how to freshen your social media, create a deeper connection with local listeners, and toward creating more dynamic impact for your morning show, radio station, afternoon talent, events, and more in your market?oh, yeah, and ratings.
If you read this column regularly, you know I am a big fan of radio and believe that opportunities for taking advantage of social media to make radio even bigger are everywhere. Use those opportunities -- or create them -- and good luck!
Loyd Ford is the digital revenue, direct marketing, ratings and social media strategist for Rainmaker Pathway and Americalist Direct Marketing. Loyd 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
(1/14/2015 9:08:09 AM)
Thanks Loyd! Always enjoy reading your articles. You can find plenty of social media articles out there (and by plenty, I mean way too many), but I enjoy the radio slant of yours and applying it to our business!
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