mistake

“Like this if you like doughnuts, too.” “Share this if you’re single.” “Like this if you’ve ever played football.”

What do these statements tell you about the brand, station, or person who posted them? Nothing. Except that they are desperate for engagement.

Every post, tweet, pin you make is representative of your brand. While studies show that asking fans to take action (by requesting likes, shares or comments) works, pairing the call to action with a post that contains strong content is key.

If someone shares, comments or likes a post, it shows up on their Timeline. If the post is meaningless and doesn’t contain content that brands your station and entertains the listener, the engagement is pointless. No one is tuning in to your station or liking your Facebook page because they saw a post that says “Like this if you like doughnuts”.

Although you may receive high engagement from that post (many people like doughnuts!), it’s empty and won’t help you achieve broader marketing goals. After all, you aren’t a company that sells doughnuts… are you?

Photo credit: SebastianDooris

Some radio companies have created a new Facebook guideline that requires talent to place a link to the station website in every post.

While I am a big believer in using social media to drive website traffic and create strategies for clients to do just that, I am not a fan of this practice.

The social media relationship is based on trust. When you attach a link that is irrelevant to the post content, you send your listeners on a wild goose chase to look for related content that doesn’t exist. That goose chase might get a listener to click through once, but it probably won’t happen twice. You’ve broken their trust and next time they will know the link leads to nowhere.

If you want to emphasize the importance of website traffic to talent, create goals and hold your talent accountable. Encourage them to create organic content on the website, so they have content to share on social platforms. Require them to include a link when there is relevant content on the website, but not when it doesn’t make sense.

The small spike you might see in website traffic from misleading links isn’t sustainable as listeners will “wise up” quickly. And tainting the relationship your listeners have with the station is counterproductive to overall business goals.

Photo credit: Imnop88a

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