Pat Welsh tackles the evolving world of social networking and new media, and radio stations’ involvement online. How often should jocks update Facebook and Twitter? Should there be a standard protocol for frequency of updates and what content is/isn’t appropriate online? Whose job is it to update these pages anyway? Welsh answers these questions and more in this week’s Programming To Win column.
By Pat Welsh
Pat Welsh
Radio has often been called the electronic age’s original social network. Its focus on local markets and close connection with its audience has made it an important part of life for generations. However, radio has had a rough transition into the digital age, an era that has put the users in control.
The problems have been especially acute in the U.S. Radio was slow to add even the most obvious offerings, such as streaming of their live signal, and many stations still haven’t embraced fundamental technologies such as text messaging. New media initiatives for many radio stations continue to be little more than a website that’s more brochure than content center.
Many stations now are doing a better job of using new media tools. They’ve awakened to the fact that websites and social media assets need to be oriented towards the user’s needs. Here are some suggestions on how to ensure that that process continues.
The Social Must be Social
Facebook and Twitter are all about the conversation; too often, station websites are all about the station. This is wrong. Everything should be structured so that the user immediately sees the benefit. It should be about what he/she wants, not what the station wants to tell them. Is it any wonder that stations have a hard time attracting listener comments on their station websites, while Facebook pages are filled with comments and reactions?
We have to realize that online communities are fundamentally different from the broadcast airwaves. Social media needs to be social. People are holding conversations with one another, not sitting back waiting for someone to broadcast to them. It’s a conversation over coffee, not a lecture. We can facilitate those conversations, but we can’t control them.
These conversations are also possible on the station website – not just on Facebook. One PD told me that what generates comments and reactions on his station’s site are things that listeners perceive to have a stake in. He’s not talking about an on-air 9-2-5 cash contest, but a contest where listeners put themselves on the line, with photos, or videos, such as in a “Hottest Girlfriend,” “Ugliest Truck,” “Cutest Baby,” etc. What are you doing to engender passion among the listeners?
It’s Everyone’s Job
Management should make it clear to everyone on the staff that new media duties are not optional; they’re mandatory. It’s important to establish new media expectations and obligations for the staff. Many stations are establishing specific requirements (quota) for jocks with respect to new media content: specific numbers of station blog entries (including video clips, not just text), station Facebook updates and tweets. You must stress that new media is everyone’s responsibility, just like commercial production and station appearances.
The struggle is to create a balance between station-oriented content and personal accounts. Of course the station wants to maximize traffic to its sites, but new media also gives air talent a chance to make a personal connection with listeners, which will also benefit the station in the long run.
Personalizing
Responses and comments need to be personal. Why can’t air talent send tweets from backstage at a concert? Why doesn’t the programmer respond to a complaint made on the station Facebook page or on Twitter? Protocols need to be established for what can and can’t be discussed in the name of the station, but feedback has to come quickly and honestly.
Immediacy is essential in new media. Twitter, for example, is a real-time tool that millions of people use to communicate their thoughts on a brand or service. Users are used to seeing quick and personal responses. Major brands realize this and use it aggressively to start conversations about what users are interested in and passionate about.
From the talent’s point of view, this is where they can be the most personal, creative and responsive to their listeners, fans and Facebook friends. With new media tools there are no PDs telling talent to write in 30 seconds or less. Quite the opposite, this is an opportunity for the talent to be personal and expansive.
In terms of individual blogs or Facebook accounts, the on-air persona of a personality involves your connection to the station, the music and the community, but personal new media sites can and should delve more into who you are as a person and what your interests are apart from the station. A DJ or station’s blog or Twitter posts should be a mix of humor, personal reflection and station business. As a general rule of thumb, one PD told me that the blog posts should be 3:1 personal to business.
Bring It Back to the Station
The station’s website and Facebook pages must be the primary portals for station-listener activity. All of our communications should direct people to our station sites, from which we’ll link to other individual sites. If a jock reads an interesting story online don’t send listeners to TMZ.com, instead post a link to the story on the DJ’s blog on the station’s website.
Link to personal Facebook and Twitter accounts through the station ones, but promote the station sites as the primary communities. If listeners want to follow you and get to know you better, they can click through to the individual talent’s site from the station site. The exception is for morning shows, which normally have their own extensive sites due to the large amount of content and topics.
It’s About the Brand, Not the Platform
Another way to say this is that content that includes videos and photos does much better than simple text. It’s an obvious point, but one that’s tough for some radio people to accept due to the fact that we’re carrying the flag for audio. It’s essential that we make this a multi-media effort in all of our content.
And, as stations get better at accepting the social media challenge and integrating new tools, they’re also getting better about holding conversations within the building – with their digital people. In the not-so-distant past, many managers looked at the “digital guy” (and it’s still almost always a guy) just as they used to look at engineers. The engineer has always been a guy (always a guy) who goes to isolated places and does things that no one else can understand.
There’s now a rising awareness of the fact that the digital person must be an integral part of all the station’s content and marketing efforts, not just someone locked away in a room down the hall with lots of expensive equipment stuffed inside.
New media is not separate from the radio station’s on-air sound. A radio station is an entertainment brand which must use all available platforms to entertain and connect with its listeners in the way that’s most convenient to them.
Pat Welsh, Senior Vice President/Digital Content, Pollack Media Group, can be reached at 310 459-8556, fax: 310-454-5046, or at pat@pollackmedia.com.
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