The Question Of The Month
Written Aug. 10, 2009 by Tom Webster in Marketing + Social Networking with 4 Comments
...comes from Country consultant Bob Barnett, who posted this on his Facebook page today:
Why is it that most people's Facebook pages are more interesting and compelling than their station websites? Crazy that folks are creating/developing/sharing better content on social networking than teams of talent can/are at the station level?! This just feels like it's more interactive, informative, entertaining, personalized, AND interesting than virtually ANY radio site I've visited.
Isn't that just the greatest observation? Think about your own interactions with Facebook, and how much you look forward to having new status updates, photos and funny videos shared with you by your friends and connections. The answer to Bob's question is simple in one sense--people connect with people, not with brands (or stations) except in very rare occasions (as Larry has pointed out in the past, I'm also sick of posts that end with "let's all be like Apple!")
Expecting your radio station website to inspire the kind of sharing behavior/content creation that the average Facebook page exhibits is a tall order, unless your people are engaged and connecting with listeners. Relationships start there. Driving traffic to your website, however, does not necessarily have to be the only end game of that relationship. Your real business is to develop those relationships and use them to deliver results for advertisers. If your morning crew spends a lot of time building connections on Facebook and then uses that social clout merely to drive people to your homepage, you'd better have a pretty great homepage if that transaction is going to mean anything. Otherwise, that constant barrage of promotional messages and station 'announcements' is going to get pretty tedious, pretty fast. If, however, your morning crew is using their powers of social persuasion to fill up your local auto dealer's showroom, or your local club's Ladies' Night, then it's pretty easy to justify all that time spent on Facebook.
So I'm going to 'see' Bob's great question and raise it with one of my own: how can your programming, promotions and on-air talent use the power of social networking not just for self-promotion (and by self, I mean that to include the station) but also to serve as a bridge--a connector between consumer and advertiser--and let the quality of our relationships with listeners become the fulcrum for genuine competitive advantage, both for your station and its sponsors? Love to hear some of your ideas here in the comments. And for more this topic, I hope you'll also attend my session at the NAB Radio Show in Philly this year on putting the power of Facebook and Twitter to work for your station. Hope to see you there!
Reader Comments
Your 2¢, in chronological order — add your comment below.
Tom,
There's a very simple answer to this, and it became extremely clear to me at the social networking panel I was on at the Midwest Conclave this year. I made a point of telling people over and over again that you don't use Facebook for your station interactivity. That should be done on your own website. Point Facebook TO your website and broadcast. Fish where the fish are, but haul them into YOUR boat.
But the response from radio professional after radio professional was the same: We can't do all that stuff on our website. The details varied--"We don't have commenting on our site." "We don't have an easy-to-use video player on our site." "We don't have an easy way to upload photos." We don't have this." "We don't have that."--but the overall effect was the same: Radio professionals go to Facebook because they can't interact on their own website.
The whole experience left me incredibly depressed. We can't sit up there on panels and tell radio how to use social media tools if they aren't given those tools to use.
The result is that radio consciously lines the pockets of Facebook, Youtube, and others.
Jim Kerr
VP/Strategy
Triton Digital
I like your point Jim. It's easier and (cheaper) to aggregate your content to facebook than to do it yourself. so this begs the question... is it because the radio folks are lazy or just simply a matter of dollars and nonsense? The station or cluster simply doesn't want to pay someone to moderate and oversee a the content? Let's face it, it's an age of less talent on the air. Radio doesn't even want to invest in their on-air product, why in the world would they spend the capitol on a savvy net overlord of their online product?
Why on earth does any radio station feel the need to show videos on their website? You are meant to champion the power of sound, not fool around with the restricted limitations of vision. No wonder the industry is going broke.
Because it is not enough to throw up a web site and expect people to show up; people need a reason to be there. People like FaceBook because it is interactive; if you talk to your readers, they will talk to you. A radio station web site can be very interactive if designed correctly. Sure someone will need to spend the time and effort to communicate on the page, but think of the research that one can gather from knowing exactly what the listening public thinks, wants, and needs? Is this not what we're truly after?