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What if your boss or potential employer measured you on your success with digital? Many of us already feel the pressure to gain likes and follows, increase website traffic, and engage fans in conversation online.

A recent article in Ad Age called “What Brands Can Learn From Bands About Social Marketing” highlights social media success in the music industry. Creativity with social media, online content and fan engagement are criteria now considered by record labels before signing new artists.

Like musicians, our job in radio is to engage our audience (both on-air and online). Here are a few social media tips from bands:

“What’s in it for the fan should always be top of mind.” This should be the first question in your online content filter. If there is nothing in it for the listener, don’t share it.

Get to know your P1 listeners. Set aside time each day to respond personally to listeners who reach out to you online. Saying “Thanks for listening” doesn’t count. Create conversations. Build relationships.

At station events and concerts, post photos of the crowd on Facebook. Encourage the audience to tag themselves. This easy idea creates mass exposure on Facebook while also promoting the artist, venue and sponsor, as well.

Encourage listeners to upload pictures of station events or concerts to your website. Set it up in advance so listeners can upload pictures in real time from their mobile phones.

Create a social media promotion for your next concert or event. For example, save the best pair of concert tickets and do a “Tweet your seat for an upgrade” contest at the beginning of the show.

Let listeners submit questions for celeb interviews via Facebook and Twitter.

Create a Twitter hashtag and facilitate a live chat with an artist after the interview.

“Twitter is not a technology. It’s a conversation. And it’s happening with or without you.” –@charleneli

It’s true. Your listeners are tweeting. Whether you’re rocking Twitter, have neglected your Twitter account or have never even signed up, people are tweeting about your brand- the station, the personalities, the music, the events.

As of September 2011, there were 100 million active users on Twitter. It’s is a social media powerhouse that radio shouldn’t overlook. If statistics alone aren’t incentive enough, here are seven reasons your station’s social media strategy should include Twitter:

1. It’s popular. In 2011, Twitter topped an annual list of most-buzzed about social networks conducted by Zeta Interactive. According to Mashable, “these rankings measure both volume (number of mentions in more than 200 million blogs, social media outlets and online posts) and tone (comparing positive and negative buzz).”

2. It’s a free focus group. You can manage your brand reputation by using Twitter to monitor what is being said about your station as well as the shows, personalities and music you feature. Use Twitter search to keep an eye on conversations about your station or competitors. Ask questions about new music, features or shows to get honest feedback about what listeners like and don’t like.

On Facebook, you only have access to the comments listeners make on the station wall. With Twitter, following the listeners who follow you gives you access to their stream of tweets.

3. Contesting is easy. Running a contest or promotion on Twitter is simple, with no budget for third-party apps required. Twitter’s official contest rules are much less rigid than those of Facebook.

4. It’s a resource for show prep. Use Twitter Lists to organize the accounts you follow. You can create separate lists for entertainment news, local news, and other stations or shows that inspire you. Twitter trends also provide entertaining on-air topics.

5. It’s helpful for on-air interviews. Celebrities prefer Twitter, and many personally manage their own Twitter accounts. Air talent can use Twitter to research their guest before an on-air interview. They can reach out before and after the interview, increasing the station’s exposure to the artist’s fans all over the world. Tweeting links to audio, video, or pictures of an interview draws web traffic from more than just the artist’s fans in your market.

6. You can tweet often. Research from KISSmetrics shows that it is optimal to tweet 1-4 times an hour. The frequency etiquette of Twitter gives you leeway to post a variety of content daily- contests and promotions, music news, concert updates, breaking news, entertainment stories, and character tweets from your air staff.

7. There is opportunity for creativity. Television is a great example of how Twitter can transform a one-way broadcast into an interactive experience. The X Factor used #hashtags, encouraging viewers to tweet #IAmSimon, #IAmLA, #IAmPaula or #IAmNicole to show their affinity for a certain judge’s comments during the show. They read the tweets aloud in real time to get viewers more involved in the show.

Whether you’re already a pro or just getting started, exploring new ways to use Twitter will create value for your station’s online brand.

Have ideas or other uses for Twitter to share? Leave a comment or send me a tweet @StephanieWinans.

-written for Radio Ink Magazine

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