The Infinite Dial

Listening to Facebook, blogs, message boards and Twitter for mentions of your station is easy. There is certainly the tactical aspect--responding to individual complaints, thanking people for listening, etc. But that only scratches the surface.

For example, I took a look at the last 300 mentions of WHTZ in New York (Z100) across all platforms of the social web, using some of the listening tools we use for clients here. Why Z100? Because people talk about Z100. If your social media listening "ears" don't pick up any conversations about your station, you don't exactly have a social media problem--you have a more sinister issue. Let's set that aside, however, and look at these 300 Tweets, posts and comments.

Of those 300 messages, I noticed the following:

25 Mentioned Elvis Duran (connect with him on Twitter!)

23 Mentioned Taylor Swift
28 Mentioned Adam Lambert
48(!) Mentioned Justin Bieber

The most commonly used phrase was "Jingle Ball"
Also discussed with Z100: WKTU, WBLI, WFAN

Can you make any grand strategic pronouncements from this data? Maybe.

Can you come up with some ideas to engage with fans and followers on social media platforms? Definitely. Can you get a sense of what kinds of promotions Z100 should be targeting exclusively to the social web? Most assuredly.

There's even more information buried in there--sentiment, music styles, even what these listeners are doing when they aren't listening to Z100, and why that matters.

Never forget the powerful message of one of the best books ever written about the social web (The Cluetrain Manifesto). The conversations about your brand are happening all over the Internet, and thanks to our increasingly always-on, always-connected mobile media lifestyle, they are always happening quite literally under your nose. What are these conversations telling you? "You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention." So, here's a friendly kick in the keyster from yer pal Tom--listen, engage, learn and iterate.