(By Loyd Ford) So, this is a good time to check in to what listeners are doing on the internet in 2020. You’re curious yourself, right?
Every single minute of 2020 147,444 photos are posted to Facebook. Every minute users stream 404,444 hours of video on Netflix, there are 347,222 new posts of stories on Instagram. Do you know how many people are making video calls every minute so far in 2020? Try 1,388,889. Amazon is shipping 6,659 packages per minute in 2020 and YouTube users upload 500 hours of video every single minute.
Finally, consumers (listeners) are spending $1,000,000 per minute online in 2020 so far. What does this mean to your radio brand or brands?
- It means you should be on top of your online images and regular engagement with important listeners and others
- Know your audience and the people you most want to attract and engage them on values that they share as important in your local market
- It means instead of trying to create a viral sensation, it is recommended that you truly try to use this space to connect and make local listeners to feel as important as they truly are to your brand
- While many recommend you not sell in social, you could make a point that everyone sells – your goal is to control your content with strategy and bring much more value than selling in your content
- Try to encourage your key personalities to have specific content responsibilities focused on subjects that are important to them where it matches well with your target audience and brand
- Never forget the basics: people respond to video and photos at a much higher level than text (in fact, you could make a point that no one really wants to read)
- Avoid politics and sticky subjects that can create angry former listeners (people will share what they are fired up about and hate much more than they will share positives)
- Support the important strategic points or focus of your brand or brands, but always make sure this is only a percentage of your content
I have long encouraged radio to let your social reflect the importance of your listeners to your morning show, midday, afternoons, nights, weekends, brand. People are clearly more active online than at any time and this has literally been exploding since the turn of the century at a wild pace every year. Of course, Covid-19 developed the pace as even faster. Avoid placing a well thought out strategy in this area of what your on-air, sales and other support players do everyday and you may lose more than you think.
Fully develop a strategy with your team and get their buy in on values important to them that they will be passionate to share on social and you could create exciting levels of growth and connectivity for your brand or brands in your market.
Loyd Ford consults radio stations, coaches personalities, and provides behavioral and strategic programming to radio with RPC. Reach him anytime. 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
