Socialized Radio

FULL TEXT — RADIO INK · SEPT. 21, 2009

Congress may have socialized the financial and auto industries with bailouts, but this piece isn't about how Congress can bail out radio, too — it's about engaging your listeners with your advertisers via social networks. I call them social communities because it accurately describes their purpose. The majority of your listeners are on more than one of a dozen popular social communities, so it's understandable that there is a lot of discussion about why it is important to get involved, how to use these communities, and the role a radio station should play. Now consider that most station managers don't recognize the fact that their advertisers are likely on more than one of the very same social communities. Leveraging your influence within your social community to benefit your advertisers is where the conversation about social media should be.

Role-Playing

Advertisers understand that they need to be involved in social media because they need to connect emotionally with consumers. But what about radio? Radio already connects emotionally with listeners — you don't need to sell them on that. Radio's role in social media should be the same as it is with over-the-air promotions: to engage your listeners with your advertisers. You can increase your advertisers' ROI by using social communities to reach your listeners. If you have listeners on Facebook and your advertisers have fan pages, bring your listeners to those fan pages. Add a call to action to your website that will link your listeners to the fan pages. Take it a step further by partnering with your clients to create a special "landing page" specific to your station or group with an offer that lets the client know what kind of response you are generating.

Rules of Engagement

Employing a properly executed social media plan is an extremely valuable tool for engaging listeners, not only with the station but with your advertisers. Unfortunately, radio uses social media to talk to listeners, but does not allow them into the conversation to interact with advertisers. Social media is about conversations and interaction. It is more like a party line telephone system (remember those?), and less like a transmitter/receiver. The most important aspect of social communities is that you can reach your listeners even when they are not tuned in. Social communities like Twitter encourage listeners to "follow" you with alerts to their cellphones. Tweet a call to action like this: "Today only: Mention WXYZ at Dairy Queen and get buy one, get one free." People don't have to be listening to the station to get the call to action. Remember, your terrestrial station is not your only platform to deliver potential customers to your advertisers.

Star Light, Star Bright

Engagement means being involved, and in social media being involved means participating. It's more than just giving your listeners questions to answer or polls to take. Let listeners shine in your social community, but the stars should be your advertisers. By allowing listeners to get creative and engage with the station, you create unique beacons of light that can shine on advertisers. For example, if you have a supermarket promotion to sell hams, solicit your listeners to post pictures on your social community hamming it up with your sponsors or in the sponsor's store. Engaging both sponsors and listeners in your social community ensures your success and provides more purpose for your station in a social community. Using social media properly is a fun way to show how effective radio is to current and potential advertisers. Get the social media spotlight off disc jockeys and let listeners shine it on your sponsors.

The Bottom Line

If you aren't employing some kind of social media strategy right now, you stand to lose a lot more than just a popularity contest. Focus on engaging listeners with your advertisers using these strategies:

1. Send listeners to the advertisers' fan pages directly from your station's website and social communities.
2. Use your social community to get listeners to respond to your advertisers' call to action when listeners aren't even listening.
3. Encourage listeners to post pictures to the station's social community promoting your advertisers.

Just as stations have a sales and marketing plan, they need a social media plan with a purpose. Link listeners with advertisers via your social communities, and generate revenue for your station.