Stephanie Winans

Business & Marketing Strategy Consulting

television

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

Why Tweet? 7 Reasons Your Strategy Should Include Twitter

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“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

Twitter Tip from The X Factor

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The X Factor got creative with Twitter this week. Not only did they launch Twitter as a voting platform, but they used #hashtags to make the show itself more interactive. The show encouraged viewers to tweet #IAmSimon, #IAmLA, #IAmPaula or #IAmNicole to show their affinity for a certain judge’s comments during the show.

We often encourage you to create and use a #hashtag when talking about your show on Twitter. Follow The X Factor model and also use hashtags to get listener opinion on polarizing on-air topics. If you and your co-host have opposite opinions, encourage listeners to tweet who they agree with using #AgreewithInsertName or #InsertNameIsRight. If the topic is controversial but your opinions are the same, use the topic itself to create the #hashtag.

To make it more clear, tweet what the hashtags are from your station and show Twitter accounts in addition to announcing them on-air. For example, tweet “ We’re talking about men over 25 who still live at home. Tweet #AgreewithAdam or #AgreewithJane to tell us who you agree with.”

 

-written for The Randy Lane Company