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By Beth Warren, September 22, 2009 12:09 pm

A couple of weeks ago I read a post by brilliant radio consultant Jaye Albright of Albright & O’Malley  – it was about a Twitter promotion a station in Texas was doing and how it’s only a matter of time before you see more Social Media contesting. 

Which makes sense.. it’s ALL media.. radio, television, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter.. it’s about connecting with others.  It’s a win/win.

Except for the fact that the majority of Radio fails miserably at Social Media.

Very few radio stations are using social media well.  Most aren’t using it at all. In this economy and the state that terrestrial radio is in, you THINK they’d be all over it.. after all, more listeners = more ratings = more money.

But they aren’t. They are either just not bothering or they are doing it poorly.

There are over 12 THOUSAND radio stations in the United States and only 121 of them are on Twitter. (http://radioontwitter.com/) 

Radio is missing a huge opportunity to drive web traffic, create listening appointments and increase time spent listening.. but they don’t seem to recognize what they are doing wrong.

The 3 biggest reasons:

1. Radio does not engage.

When I was in radio school, not to mention working in radio, the Program Directors would encourage the jocks to talk on air as if they were speaking to their best friend. One on one with another human being. Entertain them. Engage them.

So why isn’t radio doing that with Social Media?  They are breaking their own rules. Most radio stations have a disproportionate ratio of followers to following on Twitter and seem to rarely interact with those “friends” on Facebook. 

I randomly selected stations that I listen to as well as other stations from the U.S. and Canada..  Ninety five percent  of the stations I researched are following less than ten percent of their followers. Some aren’t following ANY.   HINT: The more you follow, the more will follow you back.

Many stations had less than 100 followers. And they’re only following 10 or so. Most of these seemed to be following celebrities and the like. Great for research. Bad for communication.  Dudes… I have more followers than you. And I don’t have a big ol’ broadcast centre.

If radio would become “friends” with these listeners, the listeners would be far more likely to be loyal.  Plus, sending out one “tweet” a day just doesn’t cut it.  Nor does being unresponsive when listeners send messages to you.  Hard to have a conversation with someone when you’re the one doing all the talking. Just sayin’.

p.s. Having your jocks “blog” by writing 3 lines with a link to a cat singing Happy Birthday. Yeah, not riveting.

2. Radio doesn’t promote itself.

I know! Hard to believe! Think about how many followers and friends Joe Average would have if he were on your local radio station every day telling everyone his Twitter handle and/or Facebook address or YouTube link.  Lots, right?  Thousands..maybe even bajillions…

 If radio actually DID such a thing, they would.  Listening to some of these stations, and checking out their websites.. most did not even have a link to any of their social media sites.  Nor did they talk about them on the air. 

Unfortunately, many in radio think that social media sites are competition for hits to their own websites. 

They’re wrong.

Most listeners will go on a social media site at least once a day.. not so much their favourite radio station’s website. Using social media effectively, radio could drive far more listeners to their own websites.

Using tools like Facebook, Radio could have listeners upload their  own content for contests.. much simpler than Buddy emailing a pic and webguy having to then upload it to the station’s site.

Connect the dots people. It’s what links are for.

3.  Radio vastly underestimates Social Media’s value.

Unfortunately, most in radio don’t think social media is a valuable tool for them. However, now I will speak in their language. Demographics.

Looking at the facts and figures provided by Mashable, Neilsen and Quantcast there are currently 14 million Twitter users in the U.S. alone.  Which makes it sound kind of piddly when you realize that Facebook has over 200 MILLION users.

And, my radio friends, sixty-six percent of those using Facebook are between the ages of 18-49.  58% of users make over 60K a year. 54% Female.. 46% male.  Sound familiar? 

Twitter usage has jumped from just over 5 million users to 27.6 million users in 6 months. Twitter is most popular with working adults between the ages of 35-49. Accounts for 42% of their audience.

Seventy-two percent of Twitterers are in the core demo of 18-49.  54% Female.  46% Male. The vast majority of Tweeters are not only regulars, but they are “addicts”.  From February ’08 to February ’09, Twitter usage increased 1382%. 

Go look at the cold hard facts.. www.quantcast.com … www.nielsen.com .  And read this .

Yet, most stations don’t even have a social media strategy.  Why not?

Radio: Let me know if you need help with that.. evilgenius@live.ca

Comments (1)

By Beth Warren, June 26, 2009 4:47 pm

Strange but interesting times online the last little while.

The Good

Many on Twitter have coloured their avatars green to show support for democracy in Iran and  for those protesting the rigged elections.  #IranElection has been one of the top trending topics on Twitter as a result.  Social media has been vital in disseminating information about the turmoil in Iran once the government blacked out foreign news coverage.   Ironically, more people likely know about this situation than if it had been reported in the traditional media.  Teenagers with green avatars who would likely not be watching CNN and otherwise be ignorant of Iran’s situation. A good thing.

The Bad

I woke up in the middle of the night Sunday night/Monday morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I turned on my Blackberry to take a look at the Twitter stream .. and came across the posts from Perez Hilton asking people to call the police.  Needless to say,  the rubber necker in me had to slow down to gawk at this carwreck and try to decipher what had happened.   It was fascinating to watch the drama unfold..regardless of whether you think Perez is a jerk or not…  thousands, conceivably millions, were aware of the plight of Perez before it even was a blip on the traditional media’s radar.  Not necessarily a bad thing initially, but it ended up as more of a name calling high school catfight than a pressing social issue. (Yes, no one deserves to be hit. We agree.)

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, a couple of days later, Dina Lohan went on a twitter rant in a desperate bid for attention, claiming that she was virtually being held hostage by a hotel chambermaid who assaulted her with a towel. Give me a break.  Definitely bad.  Please get over yourself Dina.

Ed McMahon passed away on Tuesday and then Farrah Fawcett on Thursday.  Many received the news of their deaths online.  The ensuing heartfelt messages, sharing of memories and videoclips, links to various images and stories.. back to good.  Two cultural icons being remembered.

The Ugly

Then the news hit that Michael Jackson had been rushed to the hospital after suffering cardiac arrest and the interwebs went nuts.  And it got ugly almost immediately.  Perez added to the backlash against him by posting this originally.    Then while the world waited to see the outcome of Jackson’s rush to emergency, the rumours that Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford had both died.  As it turned out, both false and merely a publicity stunt by a website not affiliated with either.  But ugly to say the least.  Unremarkably, there are already “mj death joke” sites up and running. Wow. What took so long? Ugly.

But back to The Good

Regardless of what you thought of Michael Jackson personally, there’s no denying his impact on pop culture.  Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett made their mark on our collective psyche as well, but not with the magnitude of MJ.   Despite his penchant for plastic surgery and questionable behaviour, he was a musical genius who provided the soundtrack to several generations. 

Many cried when they heard the news of his passing.  And they reached out to others in mourning through the sharing of links, music, video and condolences.  Through Facebook groups, Twitter, websites and more… people connecting to share their memories and love of an icon.

Social media is about making a connection.  Hopefully more choose “good” connections over the alternatives.   The world has enough bad and ugly.  Just ask anyone in Iran.

Comments (0)

By Beth Warren, June 13, 2009 11:19 pm

For several weeks now the big news was that at midnight last night Facebook would be offering vanity URL’s to their users. 

I know several people who were planning to stay up late to make sure they got their preferred names. I wasn’t planning on being one of them.. I just really wasn’t all that concerned.  There are a lot of “Beth Warrens” on Facebook and if I had to pick a different name… then no big deal. 

I use Facebook for fun, not for “business” or anything of that nature.. it’s a way to stay connected to my friends around the country and around the world.  It’s “personal” for me..  more of a  free time fooling around kind of thing.  Most of what I post is fairly humourous and tongue in cheek.. so if I had to go with something else.. I could live with it.  evilgenius maybe?  funniestgirlintheworld (my hotmail addy)?  Honestly, didn’t really give it much thought.   In fact, midnight came and went and I totally forgot about it and went to bed.

I was actually surprised at how many people were going a wee bit crazy over the whole thing.  Apparently within an hour a million user names had been registered. 

This morning I remembered that the URL’s were available and asked my kids if they were going to put vanity URL’s on their Facebook pages. First, they had no idea what I was talking about. Then, they confirmed that I was both addicted to the internet and that I was a geek.  (Uh, duh.)  And then they completely ignored the whole thing.

I logged on to FB and tried it out.. first try, http://www.facebook.com/bethwarren was available.. and I took it.  There are a LOT of Beth Warrens on FB so I’m really quite surprised I got it. 

I’ve taken a look through my friends’ profiles and some have added a personalized URL, some haven’t.  Most just used their own names. But some got creative. My favourite is my friend Avril’s… http://www.facebook.com/laughaminute (uh, I’m still the funniest girl in the world.. just so you know, Av.). 

But bethwarren will do.. after all, it’s my name.. oh, and evilgenius was taken.

(Take a look at this one.. this is hilarious.)