Stephanie Winans

Business & Marketing Strategy Consulting

promotion

#Instavideo: How Radio Can Take Advantage of Video for Instagram

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Right when you get the hang of Instagram, the Facebook-owned social network comes out with an update to compete with social video powerhouse, Vine (owned by Twitter). You can still add photos to Instagram, but now you can also share 15-second videos.

Much like Vine, Instagram allows you to stitch together video clips into a 15-second montage. You can apply one of 13 Angela Perelli and Stephanie Winansfilters and use the Cinema feature to stabilize your video, too. Don’t forget to choose your thumbnail so users who don’t press play still get a sense of what the video is about.

So what kind of videos should you share? Here are some ideas to jumpstart your brainstorming:

 

  • What’s happening in the studio between commercial breaks?
  • Record one Q&A from your next in-studio guest. Consider captioning the video with your question and leaving the 15-second video for your guest’s answer.
  • Video your next musical guests singing the hook to their latest song live.
  • Share intriguing clips of morning show stunts, driving viewers to the website for longer video.
  • Get creative with promotion announcements. Shoot video of yourself announcing the latest contest or promotion, or of the studio while the promo plays. Giving away a flyaway? Head to the airport to record a plane taking off.
  • Develop a street promotion with a specific hashtag. For example, give away t-shirts or concert tickets on the street and shoot video at different locations. Get client sponsorship to monetize the promotion.
  • Ask your Sales department which clients play the station in their businesses. Shoot the staff dancing to the music.  Better yet, create a promotion and ask local businesses to upload their own videos.
  • See someone jamming in her car to your station? Shoot a quick video (and get her permission to post).
  • Record a ride in the station vehicle.
  • Record hints to trivia contests and post with the time the contest airs. Be sure and comment with the answer after the contest is over, as listeners will comment and guess just for fun.
  • Develop a character for Instagram, or make an on-air character come to life. Shoot regular video and create a hashtag for this feature.
  • Share video of an artist meet-&-greet.
  • Create a feature just for Instagram video. For example, “Ask Steve.” Have listeners email questions and post a video every Monday of Steve answering a listener question. Using the hashtag #AskSteve would allow users to watch any “Ask Steve” videos they’ve missed.
  • Create testimonials. Ask P1 fans at events if you can post video of them sharing why they love the station or show.

 

Whatever you do, just do it. Radio’s only disadvantage is that it’s an audio medium in a visual world. With Instagram video (and other video platforms, too), you have the opportunity to bridge that gap.

Note: If you don’t see the upload video option in your app, check for an Instagram update and make sure your phone’s operating system is up-to-date.

 

Also published on The Randy Lane Company blog.

Think Like TV: Tips to Making a One-Way Medium Interactive

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The request lines don’t ring very often anymore. So, how can we make radio interactive without callers? Luckily, social media and texting became popular about the time calling in to a radio show became unpopular.

We have the opportunity to make our one-way medium a two-way interaction between us and the listeners. We also know that radio is a secondary medium. Listeners are doing something else while they listen. Why don’t we take advantage of this knowledge? Television does.


Here are some TV examples and how they apply to Radio:

1. Creating a Generic Hashtag for the Show

Every show on TV advertises its own Twitter hashtag where viewers can talk about the show. Create a hashtag for shows on your station so listeners can tweet their thoughts and opinions.

2. Showing Affinity for a Personality’s Polarizing Opinion

Last season, The X-Factor encouraged viewers to tweet #IAmSimon, #IAmLA, #IAmPaula or #IAmNicole to show their affinity for a certain judge’s comments during the show. The X-Factor generated an average of 94,000 social comments per episode, as recorded by Bluefin. How? By getting creative with hashtags, and promoting them constantly throughout the show.
Follow The X Factor model and also use hashtags for polarizing on-air topics. If you and your co-host have opposite opinions, encourage listeners to tweet who they agree with by creating unique hashtags. Plan this when you’re prepping for tomorrow’s show, so you can promote it before you begin the topic, as well as during the topic and afterward.

3. Creating Specific Hashtags for Real-Time Interaction

According to Carri Bugbee, the #TrumpRoast hashtag was used more than 27,000 times on Twitter during the March 2011 telecast of the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump.

Comedy Central gave #TrumpRoast its own hashtag because they knew this episode would generate a reaction. If you have a hot feature that incites a huge reaction from listeners, create a separate hashtag for that feature. Promote it each time the feature runs on-air, and use the hashtag in your own tweets from the station or show accounts.

Include listener comments on-air in real time to make the show itself more interactive.

4. Developing Promotions Around Their Experience

The Shark Week Photo Frenzy – a call for fans to submit photos of how they celebrate Shark Week, got 600,000 page views and over 1,000 submissions. The Facebook Page accrued 30,000 fans in one day, and 116,000 in one week. The ratings result? The highest number of viewers in Shark Week history.

Dateline did something similar with their “How do you Dateline” promotion. They encouraged listeners to share their experience with the show by sending in video to Dateline producers about their routine around the program or tweeting #howdoyoudateline. They saw a huge response: over a 10 month span, the show’s audience on Facebook has grown to 173,000 users from 47,000. Their followers on Twitter doubled.

Keep your highest-rated show top of mind by creating a long-term promotion around your listeners’ experience. How do they listen? Are they listening at work, at the gym, in carpool? Ask them to share with a video or via Twitter. Award a prize to your favorite each week, and give individual shout-outs on-air. For example, “This song is for Vickie, who says she works out during the show”.

5. Driving Traffic to Your Website

According to to lostremote.com, The Food Network generated 640,000 page views in May from Pinterest alone with a strategy that focuses on both show content and talent.

Create strong website content that’s worthy of sharing. Share it via social media with carefully crafted teases to incite a click through. Measure your results frequently to determine which types of posts cause a spike in web traffic.

6. Listening to Feedback

Rick Haskins, The CW’s Executive Vice President of Marketing and Digital Programs, admits to lostremote.com that they not only listen, but respond to feedback. When viewers were watching CW shows illegally on pirate sites to avoid the three day delay on the CW app, the CW addressed the issue with the introduction of next day streaming on their own site.

Listen to the feedback. Respond with a solution when possible. If you don’t, your listeners might go somewhere else to find the content they’re looking for.

7. Providing Training for Staff

According to Rick Haskins, the CW provides social media training for their shows’ stars and productions staff.

If your Programming or Promotions staff isn’t capitalizing on the opportunities they have with social media, train them. Hold brainstorming meetings to encourage sharing among stations and shows, or hire someone (me!) who can teach them how to create a strategy that produces results.

 

Have you tried these TV tricks on your show? How did it work out?
Also published in Radio Ink Magazine

Facebook’s Recent Contest Rule Changes: What Now?

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Last week we told you that Facebook’s new Promotion Guidelines change the way radio stations run Facebook promotions. Many of you panicked! Instead of calling your station attorney, you emailed us for answers (and we’re taking that as a compliment).

“What now?”
Don’t let these new rules squash your creativity. Remember, radio station promotions were successful before Facebook. Here are a few general options to legally integrate Facebook into your station or show promotions.

1.      Use your station Website to build the promotion. Set up the contest registration and rules on your Website, and use Facebook to promote the contest. Post status updates about the promotion, and include the direct link for listeners to register on your Website.

Pros: It doesn’t cost you any money to use the station Website, and you can build your loyal listener program.

Cons: By asking people to leave your Facebook page to enter, it isn’t a “real” social media promotion.

2.      Use a third-party app to run your promotion on Facebook. This allows listeners to register without leaving your page, and is now the only legal way to execute a promotion within Facebook.

Pros: You can run a viral social media campaign on Facebook to grow your fan base. Most apps offer the “fan gating” option, requiring listeners to “Like” your page before they can enter the contest.

Cons: These apps aren’t free. The cost varies based on which app you choose and the services you need.

Here is a list of contesting apps that offer the services to meet radio station needs, have proven success with big brands, and have received solid reviews:

Wildfire
North Social
Momentus Media
Votigo
Vitrue
Context Optional
Bulbstorm
Friend2Friend
3.      Use your station text club. Post status updates telling your listeners to text to win, including the short code and message required to enter.

Pros: It’s free to use the text club you already have, and you can build text club membership.

Cons: By asking listeners to take another action, it isn’t a “real” social media promotion.

If you have used one of the above apps to build a successful Facebook contest, comment and let me know. I would love to hear about it.

 

-written for The Randy Lane Company

Big Changes for Radio Facebook Promotions

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Many radio stations have been successfully using Facebook for contesting.  Requiring listeners to comment, like the station or show page, or upload a picture to enter are common variations of recent radio promotions.

On May 11, 2011, Facebook’s new Promotion Guidelines were released, making these loosely regulated contests a thing of the past. Facebook’s new guidelines are all about removing them from the liability of your station or morning show promotions.

Moving forward, you will need to install a third-party application to run contests on Facebook, or use Facebook to link to a contest hosted on your station website.  You will no longer be able to use any of Facebook’s inherent features (liking, commenting, photo uploads) as a requirement for contest entry… unless you don’t mind an uncomfortable chat with the station attorney, permanent deletion of your Facebook account, or a lawsuit (eek!).

written for The Randy Lane Company