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Monday, August 20, 2012
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The Radio Industry and SM - What Works?
How much social media response is considered "success" at your station? Let's rephrase that, because it can be rephrased: What do you consider response to your radio station posts, and how much of it is needed to be considered "success"? These are two entirely different questions, and in the radio industry we don't see them discussed.
There's not much chatter about how to do social media properly, within the confines of what radio offers, because it's an extremely difficult task to master. Relative to wanting knowledge on how difficult new media is to pull off, radio industry chiefs are notorious for holding the pose of three well-known monkeys - don't hear, don't see, don't speak. And that's where I usually come in.
| "...what we see and hear from the radio industry in this ADD world isn't working to the maximum when used online because it's radio-centric." |
Social media was something I first took a serious look at through Audio Graphics in May 2010. It was the beginning of my learning about a side of digital that is far deeper than a first impression shows. Follow-up articles appeared in August and September of that year. In April, August and November of 2011, it was revisited. |
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Today I'm still learning. But today's knowledge, as it opens more questions, is based on my spending a few thousand hours digesting social media tech articles, writing social media code, and implementing social media strategies at AG web sites. This morning I came across a 24-page white paper which, if you are serious about using social media, you need to digest. If you've dug deep enough into SM to employ any form of analytics on metrics, compare what's said within it to what your radio station is doing. One surprise is in this statement: "...video is one format that users need context around in order to take the time to interact with it." Stats show that a video placed on your Facebook page alone may not be worth the effort of posting unless it's accompanied by context. I've just spent the past 3 months recoding Audio Graphics' RRadioMusic.com to allow for an easier social media interaction. It previously had a more complicated SM activity that was forwarded to artists; but after a year of implementation, the data suggested it wasn't working. Here is how it's evolved (and still in a "changing" mode).
The above represent a current artist entry at RRadio Music. Notice how the Tweet and Facebook icons allow for a one-click action. In just the few weeks since it's been activated, data shows a high response rate; now I'm analyzing how to improve this improved response. What I've done affects the radio industry because it's demonstrative of the need to implant, inspect, respond, and re-analyze. From all that I gather, this systematic way of employing digital within the radio industry is being ignored. A main point - actually the only point - that I want to leave today is that what we see and hear from the radio industry in this ADD world isn't working to the maximum when used online because it's radio-centric. Read the white paper, linked above. Then visit this page to go through a host of radio station web sites and the Facebook pages associated with each station. What is being done in SM by the majority of radio stations is still based on a "this is me, and I want to tell you about me" approach. What I'm finding out as I dig deeper into this phenom of SM is that I'm only the facilitator of a comment - giving the individual (who carries the real power in SM) a reason to interact. I'm still working on exactly what is the right way to go about this task. But I do know that I'm much farther ahead than when first diving into the world of social media back in May 2010. Next problem: How do I integrate mobile-delivered content within everything done so far, including SM? Looking at what's produced by the majority of radio industry entrants today, it appears they've come to the conclusion that what's already there is good enough. Social media is only one aspect of what radio needs to investigate if it is to (truthfully) say it's digital. A listing of other online applications that radio executives need to understand, if "going digital" is the objective, is in this article. It's best if those who run the radio industry keep in mind that this whole world of digital is a never-ending journey. |
