Harnessing the power of social media for radio!

A highly successful strategy developed by Sky Plus

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As the market for social media is now better understood by clients and media buyers, the nature of the new relationships between broadcast and social media are starting to look a little clearer. Social media are best viewed not as competitors for advertising Euros, but rather as highly efficient marketing and sales platforms that can help radio stations engage and enlarge their audiences, communicate brand messages in support of on-air campaigns and activate competitions and other promotional activities. In short, they allow radio a way of extending their reach beyond audio if stations keep them alive with regular, interesting content.

In this egtabite, we want to look at a few concrete examples of social media use, and show some different ideas that can be put into practice.

Case study Sky Plus Estonia – remarkably high interaction

One broadcaster that has been incredibly successful in developing its social media strategy is the Estonian station Sky Plus. What stood out for us was the exceptionally large number of interactions Sky Plus has with its audience in a market that has relatively low penetration of Facebook users in comparison to markets such as France, Sweden, the UK or Belgium.

With a weekly audience of some 280,000 listeners (TNS Emor, Sept-Nov 2012), the station has over a third of listeners connected on Facebook. The station knows much more about the people interacting with them on social media than it does about their on-air listeners. They can therefore segment this audience to talk to different groups at particular times, for instance around Valentine’s Day.

Just three of the many ways radio stations can think about using Facebook

1/ As a marketing and communication platform

» Building audience loyalty through extra content
» Maintaining engagement by launching campaigns
» Promoting on-air and other activities
» Connecting with a wider audience through listeners’ networks of friends

2/ For audience feedback and research

» Conducting music polls
» Understanding what the audience is interested in

3/ Sales, promotions and revenue extension

» Co-branding and supporting advertisers' on-air campaigns through:
a/ Clearly defined promotions
b/ Subtle integration or ‘product placement’ of brands
» Extension of other sales activities

Social media is a planned, strategic element of the station’s management and marketing team that requires ongoing guidance and control. As it takes the responsibilities of the hosts beyond the microphone, on-air personalities have to find the right balance between the spontaneous, natural communication that works so well on Facebook, Twitter and other networks and ensuring that messages are in line with the station’s core brand position. The tragic case involving 2DayFM in Australia shows how powerful both the actions of DJs and the reaction of audiences can be in today’s highly connected world. Read more about this case here.

Crucially, social media should not be seen as a pure commercial opportunity, which is important for protecting the station’s brand and the trust of its listeners. Ultimately, incrementally adding to the audience will translate into higher revenues as the audience grows.

Radio using social media around the world

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egta looked at a few of the world’s most successful radio brands to see how they were innovating through the use of social media, and we thought we’d share a few executions with you.

Click on the image to see just a few examples from NRJ, Z100, 538, Capital FM and 538.