Radio social media in summer 2014

The way that a radio station communicates with its audiences always adapts over time – it needs too, to keep in line with current trends.  Earshot takes a look into six current trends that listeners can expect to only get bigger in the coming months.

Listicals

These seem to be popping up everywhere (including this article!) – the short form story, often based on a number which is an article meet list of something relevant for the audience. Just look at this article! Inspired by the Buzzfeed, the articles are easy to share with their punchy, often witty and too the point content.

They’re often music related and help drive page impressions to the site, particularly when presented in gallery format.

Some highlights that we’ve seen include:

Some ‘quite’ interesting facts about The Big O …..

A list of Gifs the the Maroon 5 front man … 

And who knew that playing the violin was so dangerous, thank you Classic FM for the Health and Safety briefing!

Using a Go Pro

GoPro videos are a craze on the internet right now. It’s billed as the world’s most versatile camera, “designed to capture places and angles video has never seen before “- we’re noticing GoPro video content popping up all over the place from radio stations … gone are the days of just doing the normal in studio shoot. We particularly like this effort from The Hits from V Festival.

On Air Features Named After Hashtags

This seems to be cropping up here and there – having short and snappy on air feature titles which then become the #hashtag or image in the social output from the station. It works because the more that its used, the likeliness likeminded listeners will see it within their social space, the more likely the audience will engage and who knows it could start trending – just like Kiss’s take on the ‘Secret Sound’ mechanic called #Izzit did this week.

So after getting the #izzit trending WORLDWIDE this morning with all of your guesses – NOBODY guessed it right in time

— Rickie H-Williams (@RickieHW) August 20, 2014

I notice they’ve now started calling it #KissIzzit since then! Nice!

Social Conversation

It’s an age old social media marketing technique but why not be part of the conversation that audiences are talking about a big interview, star or piece of content. It’s a nice personal touch. Just do it the right way – don’t be creepy and make sure you provide a destination where the listener can get more.

Here’s a nice example of how BBC 6 Music, using a nice chatty and conversational tone on Twitter when my friend Grace was tweeting about the Kate Bush show at the time.

Native Content

In the commercial radio world -when the sales teams and the programming guys work together, it actually can create some pretty neat stuff. I think the S&P teams across the industry are going to need to start getting native digital advertising under their belt as the next armoury in their toolkit.

Again, inspired by the social powerhouse of Buzzfeed – this is about creating relevant content for the audience without intrusive advertising. Where brands work in collaboration with radio station editors to develop engaging stories, articles and content.

Here’s a really neat online example that I’ve worked on with Estee Lauder who wanted to talk about empowering women – so we teamed up top soprano Laura Wright with Classic FM’s Margherita Taylor to talk about  the sound of strength and beauty in her Evening show to promote their new nightime skin product for women.

Copying the Buzz

And finally, it seems that ALL radio stations need to copy the buzz – be part of the latest/fad/viral video that is going on at the time.

At the time of writing we’re on the final round of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenges – it seems that everyone has had a go at doing this. These work but you need to make sure you don’t miss the boat – too late and you just look uncool. If its station led – do you drive back to the station

From Heart’s Emma Bunton:

To this pretty neat version from The Pulse in Yorkshire …

… As well as this icey reaction from Free Radio’s Sam and Mark …

… Again, the Hits make an appearance with some nudity ….

… You can imagine that I had a lot of fun doing this …

Even the boss got involved!

Jonathan Jacob is Content Solutions Manager at Global Radio and a freelance producer for the Capital FM and Capital XTRA network with experience across commercial radio S&P, events, marketing and PR. He was named in the inaugural Radio Academy 30 under 30, is a Student Radio Awards judge and sits on the Events Committee for The Radio Academy. Views are personal.