We spend most of our time thinking about audio. When’s the last time you thought about visual? Facebook and Twitter have made shifts to emphasize visual content this year, while Snapchat and Instagram are already “all visual, all the time.” You undoubtedly spend a significant amount of time creating engaging content for the Web—your blog, your social media accounts. It’s time to up your visual content game or get left behind. [Read more…] about 8 Visual Marketing Tips For Radio (And Why You Should Care)
A Guide To Sucking Less At Twitter
Twitter was founded in 2006, has 310 million monthly active users today and is the social media darling of TV. So why is radio still confused about how to use it? [Read more…] about A Guide To Sucking Less At Twitter
Instagram’s New Algorithm: Upping Your Instagame
Remember when (cue Alan Jackson for you country fans)… Facebook was the only social network whose algorithm changes could get your panties or whitie tighties in a bunch?
Instagram recently announced that their feed will change from a chronological feed to an algorithm-based feed.
So what does this mean for your station or show? It means that you need to keep doing what you’re doing and just create good content.
Users are upset because they don’t like change and enjoy the existing Instagram user experience. Marketers are freaking out because they envision (and wisely so) that this change will make it more difficult for their posts to hit follower feeds unless they buy ads.
But you aren’t a marketer. You aren’t pushing a product and trying your best to find a creative way to sell on social. You’re selling the one thing that organically performs well: engaging content.
The trick is that you need to know what “engaging content” is. The silver lining of this change is that Instagram will make that obvious for you if you’ll listen. You won’t have to worry as much about the best time to post and whether you need to repeat posts throughout the day to reach more of your audience. You can focus on testing and measuring what types of content work instead.
So how do you do that? You regularly measure which types of posts drive the best results. If your station doesn’t subscribe to social media measurement or listening tools, you can setup an Excel spreadsheet and track your progress on your own. Here are tips to making the algorithm work for you:
- Define “success” first. Are you trying to drive likes, comments, or traffic to the website? Increase your followers? Know what you need to measure.
- Research hashtags regularly. Post a combination of hashtags with each post. Limit yourself to 7 or fear looking like a spammer (someone has to tell you that!). Include a mix of station hashtags, market specific local hashtags, relevant to that post hashtags, and trending hashtags to increase your reach. Note whether certain hashtags seem to drive more engagement.
- Pay attention to post types. Does your biggest response come from personality-focused posts? Entertainment news? In-studio video? Personal posts unrelated to your radio show? Track your posts long enough and you’ll know what your listeners want to see from you. Here’s a creative example on how to use Instagram video to promote entertainment headlines from Shoboy in the Morning.
- Spend time on your captions. The best images or videos fail to get response without a strong caption. Think of the caption as your on-air tease; craft it carefully. Track whether certain types of captions drive more engagement (i.e. short ones vs. long ones, questions vs. fill in the blanks).
- Ask for the engagement you want (but don’t sound desperate). “Double tap if you agree” after posting an opinionated caption is a classy way to ask for engagement. “Tag everyone you’ve ever met” is not.
- Try new things. If no one likes it, Instagram will make sure it gets buried in the feed. You can take some risks and see how your ideas pan out.
- Leverage what you know about Facebook. The Instagram algorithm-based feed will react similar to Facebook’s News Feed. Although Instagram is a visual social media, Facebook (and the rest of the web) is becoming that, too. It’s a fair assumption to begin with that the types of content that do well within the News Feed will do well on Instagram, too.
- Re-strategize. That’s right. When you collect this data, you need to set aside time to interpret it and shift your strategy. If no one ever likes your posts about your pet squirrel, it’s time to tell Rocky you’re sorry but he isn’t an Instaceleb.
For an excellent write-up on how all of your favorite social media networks’ algorithms work, check out this Hubspot post.
Photo credit: Flickr/miguelb
8 Reasons #StartupLife Might Be For You
Wondering what it might be like to leave corporate America and work for a startup (or start your own!)? Here are 8 pros of working for a startup (otherwise known as why #startuplife is awesome).
1. You’ll learn more (and fast). Working for a startup allows you to rapidly expand your professional skills. You’re routinely encouraged to take on responsibilities that stretch your existing experience, giving you a chance to learn new skills. At larger companies, you’re often restricted to duties that speak to your existing skill set. While it’s nice to stick to what you’re good at, it’s hard to get good at new things in this environment, which stunts your long-term professional growth.
2. You’ll feel good. Working for a startup is personally rewarding. There is something magical about building a company from the ground up: when it succeeds, you feel ownership in that success. You can’t get that feeling of ownership and pride from working on “someone else’s baby.”
3. You’ll own it. Speaking of feelings of ownership, you might get equity as part of your compensation package. Many startups give managers equity to better align incentives and reward hard work.
4. You’ll be challenged. If you’re in a career rut, working at a startup can refresh you. Fueled by motivation to achieve early milestones, there will be no time for boredom or complacency.
5. You’ll get creative. Working for a startup ignites your creativity. It takes creativity to carve out space for a new brand in an existing market, or to educate consumers on a new product if you’re disrupting a market. When your budget is lower than the competition’s, you’ll resort to innovative ideas to win.
6. You’ll be passionate. People work at startups because they love the idea or are moved by the problem the product solves. Who doesn’t want to work for something they believe in?
7. You’ll bond with your team. There’s a feeling of “in this together” that comes with building something new. Because startups typically run lean, managers are careful to hire for personality and fit and not experience or aptitude alone. Co-workers you actually like? Yes, please.
8. You’ll love the knowledge sharing. Tackling early problems requires brainstorming. Because there are rarely duplicitous roles and startups often foster a judgment-free environment, your co-workers will teach you what they know.
At Bundoo, professional growth is a big focus. We believe that skill building is one of the best things a startup can offer. We created Bundoo U, a meeting where a different Bundite teaches the team a skill each week. We vote on topics for each person, and the team member gives an interactive presentation on the winning topic when their turn comes around. These meetings not only teach us new skills that may help later in our careers, but they also help the team understand the value other Bundites and departments carry.
Not convinced? Tell me why in the comments.
Hey, Radio DJ! You Have a Responsibility to Fact-Check Facebook Posts
Buzzfeed News reported this week on Facebook’s war against fake news. Fake news sites like National Report create false stories with clickbait headlines, and depend on Facebook to drive traffic to them. Facebook is doing their best to curtail the traffic they’re driving to these sites unintentionally. [Read more…] about Hey, Radio DJ! You Have a Responsibility to Fact-Check Facebook Posts