Stephanie Winans

Business & Marketing Strategy Consulting

contests

Can Radio Monetize Pinterest?

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Can You Sell It?


I haven’t seen a station sponsored pin or board yet, but I believe you can. Pinterest is all about visual content. Be picky about which clients you partner with and choose based on the custom content you can provide visually. If you’re weaving clients into a well-developed content strategy, listeners won’t care that some content is sponsored.

For example, weddings are a hot category on Pinterest. Partner with a local wedding boutique to share wedding and bridesmaids dresses. Pin their images (with the attached link to their site) over a period of time, mingled in with other wedding content like catering, music, decor, etc. You could include a pinned coupon, or a repin promotion to win one of the dresses pinned.

Create the content idea first with your demo in mind, then present it to the client. Be protective over your Pinterest account so it doesn’t become a dumping ground for client products and events.

Your followers on Pinterest will be paramount to any future success you have with clients. So create a content strategy and get pinning first to establish your station as a “pinner to follow”.

Pinterest: What’s In It for Radio

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With new social networks popping up daily, it’s easy to tune them out. However, there is one newbie you can’t ignore, and that’s Pinterest.

What is Pinterest?
It’s a virtual pinboard that allows you to organize and share (or “pin”) things you find on the web. Common uses for Pinterest include wedding planning, home decorating, fashion, and cooking. It’s social because other pinners can comment, like, or repin your pins.

What’s in it for Radio?
A recent article in Radio Ink by Mike Stiles stated that because Pinterest is a visual medium, there isn’t much opportunity for an audio medium like radio. While I agree that Pinterest shouldn’t be a station’s first priority for online presence, it does offer some creative opportunities for both radio stations and personalities.

According to Tech Crunch, Pinterest just hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, crossing the 10 million mark faster than any other standalone site in history. Only Facebook and Tumblr have more social media time on site than Pinterest. 18-34 year old upper income American women are propelling the success and popularity of Pinterest.

If 18-34 women are within your target demo and you are looking to expand your online presence, Pinterest may be worth your effort. As Mike Stiles pointed out in his article, it is a visual medium. Be prepared that translating your station brand or personality brand to a visual-only medium may take some creativity.

Pinterest for Personalities
Your Randy Lane Company consultants work with you to define your personality brand. Remember those passion topics you listed? Remember asking yourself what makes me unique? Use those on-air character definition exercises to determine what makes you pinteresting (I’ve been dying to say that!). Here are some ideas to jumpstart your brainstorming:

  • Use Pinterest to share your interests with listeners (and friends). Do you love cooking? Motorcycles? Fashion? Hi-tech gadgets? Sloths? (You never know- Kristen Bell may read this.) Create a pinboard for each of your passion topics. For an example, check out JohnJay and Rich on Pinterest. They’re sharing fitness and diet plans, as well as another show player’s wedding ideas.
  • Pin pictures of you with different artists or artists you’ve met in radio.
  • Create a pinboard for pictures with listeners, and open your settings so that listeners can pin their own pics with you on the board.
  • Create some drama by creating a pinboard for weird (I said weird, not horrible) pictures of your co-host.
  • Create a pinboard for your entertainment feature, stupid news, or a general one for heard on the show. Post pictures for the stories you share on-air.

Pinterest for Radio Stations
While it is admittedly easier for personalities to pin, there are endless opportunities for stations, as well. Here are a few to get you started:

  • Create a music pinboard. Add the album cover of songs you add weekly so listeners can keep up with new music.
  • Tie-in Pinterest to your Street Team promotions. Pin pictures of the locations for a scavenger hunt. Let Pinterest be the exclusive source of hints for where the Street Team is headed next.
  • Create an Events pinboard where you pin pictures of the locations. Include the date, time and event description in the caption.
  • Integrate Pinterest into on-air features. For example, post pictures for your “Pump It or Dump It” songs and tell listeners they can also vote by commenting on Pinterest.
  • Use Pinterest to create visual clues for an on-air trivia contest.
  • Pin pictures from your station website of concerts and events.
  • Create a visual lineup of your on-air talent. Post pictures of both live and syndicated shows. Include the time it airs in the photo description.

Are you on Pinterest? Follow me at Pinterest.com/StephanieWinans. I would love to see how you’re pinning.

Social Media and Appointment Listening

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Facebook and Twitter are different animals, and your frequency strategy should be different for each one.

For one, Facebook is not an of the moment, breaking news network like Twitter. (They want to be with the addition of subscriptions and the ticker, but they aren’t there yet.) Facebook users are less likely to take immediate action than Twitter users.

Secondly, while posting new Facebook status updates several times an hour will likely annoy your fans, tweeting several times an hour is not only excepted — some say it’s optimal.

  • Use Facebook to post show-related content that remains relevant in news feeds once the show is over (think podcasts, phone topics, videos or stories you shared on-air). Save the appointment listening, what’s happening right now updates for Twitter. Since you are only posting on Facebook every 1.5 hours or twice per show, choose your posts carefully.

 

  • Post the same A+ updates from Facebook on Twitter, along with more appointment listening and of the moment updates. Recent research by KISSmetrics shows that it is optimal to tweet 1-4 times an hour. Posting more often on Twitter means you don’t have to be as picky with the content you choose.

Here’s an example of how an appointment listening post differs on Facebook and Twitter:

You post “We’re giving away tickets to see Adele in 20 minutes” on both. What happens?

Twitter: The immediacy of Twitter may elicit a response, encouraging followers to listen to the show to win. By the time the tickets are given away, the tweet will be buried by other tweets.

Facebook: The post may be visible in your listeners’ news feeds long after you gave away the tickets. The way Facebook’s algorithm Edgerank works makes it impossible to gauge how long this post will be visible.

The results of a 2011 study from knowDigital based on interviews with 30 KROQ/Los Angeles Facebook fans matched my own observations on Facebook and appointment setting. This study shows that Facebook posts about show or station features increase awareness, but do not encourage fans to tune in at a specific time.

Use Facebook Insights or another analytics program to measure your Facebook engagement to see if this is true for your station or show.

 

-written for The Randy Lane Company Content Ideas