Radio Sales Café

Happy Friday, everyone!

This week's poll question, a two-parter, was suggested by Lynn Lambrecht of Jamestown, ND:

 

1. Does your station or group have a Facebook page?

2. Has anyone found a good way to monetize it or do you use it primarily for station promotion?

 

Looking forward to reading your replies!

we do not have a facebook page because facebook offers those who might not enjoy the station the chance to trash it, this can be a big problem if you are Top 40 and have tweens listening.  if you do decide to have a facebook page, it should be regulated/checked thoroughly to avoid flaming.

 

with that said, since most of our clients have facebook pages, it's a good way to focus on their sales and tag them in posts, especially clients that have something they sponsor like the Retro Lunch Hour.  This shows the client you are taking a new initiative and also gives them added value.  Service Service Service...Service will get you long term buys AND renewals instead of spinning your wheels trying to get new business by the 2nd week of the month.

Funny you should mention this - I just built a basic Facebook page for our outdoors radio show.  Prior to this I've been using my personal page but it has become obvious I need to separate my personal and professional lives.  I have built the page first and foremost to promote the show.  However, I do plan to eventually incorporate sponsor mentions into it as an added value for them.

 

John Kruse

Northwestern Outdoors Radio

We're extremely active on Facebook & Twitter and we blog & podcast a lot too. We update our page several times a day and see it as a powerful resource to speak to our listeners. All our presenters can access the page and will post up content about their show that day, competitions, what music is coming up etc. We have a separate page for our Newsroom and all our scripts are uploaded on to the page so that those online can see what's been happening around the county. Our other station, Sunshine 106.8 posts up messages that say "you're missing X song playing now on...." We also post up clips from our talk show for those that missed the show itself. Our friends on Facebook interact with us a lot and it makes them feel closer to the stations and as a result, you would hope that they stay loyal and listen longer. 

 

I understand John's concerns about having negative things posted about the station but we've rarely had anything nasty or improper posted on either of our pages. I receive email notices on all our facebook posts so if something did pop up I can go straight in and delete it, but like I say it happens very rarely. 

 

From a commercial perspective we don't directly generate revenue from Facebook, however we use it to promote on-air events we run that do generate us revenue. 

 

Our Facebook page is very popular with our listeners.We promote upcoming events and have contests on our page. We "like" our advertiser's Facebook pages. I also use Twitter for sports updates. I believe if you don't take part in social media you are going to be left way behind.

I've seen stations use their facebook page as an added value tool for clients ... similar to using on air promotions as an added value ... However, I see a huge opportunity to raise revenue with social media tools.  The users on a station's facebook is just as valuable as those email newsletters that your station sends out to those who opt in - and you charge for that exposure!   

 

Here's an example: 

I had a client who purchased a true integrated program:  On air, on air promotion with giveaways and promos, newsletter, & facebook ... All the messages were the same with goal of selling tickets to their show.  

 

We used facebook like this:  We asked the question "Where can your family see Elmo and his friends perform in Orlando?"  .... We had over 30 comments - that's 30 folks who "registered" to win tickets to the show ... Then we posted the answer and winners name on Facebook. 

 

The client was so happy about this part of the promotion ... Because it was truly integrated with our listeners.  I was really happy because I was able to apply revenue to social media - which has no hard costs.  

 

If you need any help in understanding how to use social media to increase revenue - just holla back!  

 

Have a great Friday everyone! 

 

Kimberly Hellstrom 

http://marketingwatchwithkimberly.com/

 

There are many ways to generate dollars through social media. Do sponsored website or on-air contests with forced entry within Facebook and send participants back to the main site or on-air. Advertiser posts are also a good idea so long as those posts focus on interesting content and not on discount-deadline. I think the best solution is to do multi-platform including Facebook, Twitter, email club, on-air and website. Rather than get a few hundred dollars for Facebook posts, get a few thousand for a more substantive campaign. Facebook is not a hard sell. Local advertisers may not understand social marketing but they know they need to be there.

We just started Facebook but need ideas to attract more followers and how to make money or use it properly. We have the top 2 stations in the market (combined 30 share) and a very active website. We have not been able, however, to get social media going the way we would like.

We have a Facebook page and it gets updated a few times a day along with our Twitter account. It is only used for promotions and to get our listeners opinions on things. Usually have a question of the day from the morning show and the responses get read through out the day.

Our Facebook pages are definitely more active and has more followers than Twitter 

We do have facebook page but so do our on air personalities and we use it to promote segments and events for our station.  How i have monetized its been mainly in promotions as one more tool besides on air, web, text and social media.  It's still the wild west out there but to be effective you have to give your audience useful and or entertaining information if you are always promoting (selling) you will turn all your friends off..

Achieving more facebook "fans" for stations does need on air promos to drive listeners to join & at your station events, tell listeners to join your fb page, tell your listeners the benefits of becoming your station's FB fan and you gotta have your jocks involved, they have to believe in the power of it ...

Ideas on posts: 

1.  Give a behind the scenes at your station when it comes to concerts or events 

2.  Offer concert ticket giveaways 

3.  Post what your jocks see at concerts and post pics

4.  Post any relative information about the artists you play 

5.  Ask questions about artists or your jocks - they are the rock stars of your local market! 

6.  Post local events that are relative your lifegroups 

Follow radio stations in your market and out of market - you can learn a lot from them.  Good luck! 

 

Kimberly 

http://marketingwatchwithkimberly.com/

 

@Jack - run a giveaway exclusively for your facebook fans - give it lots of promo airtime to encourage people to become a fan. If you were really serious about growing your fans you can run ads on facebook itself and you only get charged for click through's and even then the cost is minimal. You can be specific about gender, age, likes etc.

We have a facebook page for the FM station and we use it primarily for station promotion. We have almost 1,000 friends and over 300 daily post checks.  We have a population of nearly 10,000 in town.

Yes we have a Facebook Fan Page.

We have just under 9000 fans.

We use it mainly for an additional medium to do giveaways and as a way to connect and interact with listeners.

Showing a prospective advertiser that your station has 9000 fans on your FB page, representing (presumably) just a small fraction of your total listenership, would seem a powerful testimony to the appeal of your station.  Nice!

We have started monetizing our Facebook page and recently had success with a client promotion. We used our Facebook page for our FM music station (we have a  Facebook page for each station and one for our Shopping Show) and the clients Facebook page to promote a "Faux" Live Radio Party for the client where we gave away Front Row VIP ticket to a concert. All of this clients orders are taken via their website, Facebook and phone. They do not have a retail location. For their "Faux" Live Radio Party the client was in-studio for two hours. Contestants could sign up to win by "Liking" the clients Facebook page and by posting our call letters on her wall along with their favorite cake flavor (a tie-in to the clients business). We promoted the event on air, via texting, but primarily with our Facebook page.  We doubled the clients  "Likes" and had hundreds of entries through Facebook. Happy client, successful event, a live radio party with no brick and mortar location and a montized promotion primarily using our Facebook page.

Nice! That was exactly what I needed to hear! Great way to incorporate it all together. Thanks!