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10 Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Radio Stations
Photo by Ovinuchi Ejiohuo on Unsplash
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Nowadays, every business needs social media marketing, and radio stations are not the exceptions.
Radio stations use social media to reach their perfect audience, build a community of engaged listeners, and connect with brands, musicians, and other collaborators. In fact, social media platforms are the perfect complement to the content you’re already creating for the radio.
Social media platforms are the perfect complement to the content you’re already creating for the radio
But social media marketing is an entirely different beast from using a personal account. There’s a lot of strategic thinking involved, so it’s not surprising it can be daunting for beginners.
In this post, you’ll learn more about the basics of radio station social media marketing — from deciding the right platforms and content for your station to some best practices to grow your audience from day one.
1. Choose the right social platforms for your radio station
Instead of spreading yourself thin by trying to be everywhere, prioritize and choose the platforms that will help you reach your intended audience.
Consider who your audience is and where you can find them. For example, at the moment, TikTok’s main userbase is in the 18-24 bracket.
Prioritize and choose the platforms that will help you reach your intended audience.
So, if your audience is mostly adults 30-50 and your station broadcasts news segments, interviews with professionals, or reported segments, consider keeping TikTok on the back burner and spending more time on LinkedIn instead.
As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to have at least some social media presence on the most popular platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok. Other platforms like Snapchat, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, and YouTube may be options depending on your niche and audience.
Presence and updated info on your Google Business Profile are also important. You can create a free Business Profile in minutes and share content the same way you share on your other social platforms. Learn more on how to set up and benefit from Google Business Profile for your radio station.
2. Figure out the right posting frequency for your socials
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Creating content for multiple platforms is hard work, and each platform has different requirements for optimal performance.
For instance, Hootsuite recommends these posting frequencies for the most popular social sites:
Instagram: post 3 to 7 times per week. This includes 2 feed posts and 2 stories per week.
Facebook: post once or twice a day.
Twitter: post between 1 and 5 Tweets a day.
However, the most important is to keep posting consistently and systematically.
Also, time might have an influence on different platforms. Check out the best time for small businesses to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn [Infographic].
3. Determine the right type of content
The good news is social media is the perfect space to expand on your radio content.
You can share a variety of fun, engaging content to turn followers into listeners and keep your community engaged.
Video clips. Social platforms are focusing heavily on video, so leverage any clips you have from the presenters and guests, streams, and events
Curated content - While owned content is important, you can rely on curated content to spice up your feed.
Repurposed content - Turn interview snippets into captions, soundbites, or infographics. Take screen captures of funny moments and turn them into memes. The more content you have, the more you can reuse it.
Giveaways and contests. Everyone loves free stuff, and your community is not the exception.
Recurring events - easy your workload and automate posts such as "weekly talk show promotional post for radio presenters" with scheduling tools
User-generated content. Sharing content created by your community is a popular social media marketing strategy. Most people will be happy to get a shout-out on your socials and be recognized for their work.
4. Create a social media calendar
But how do you decide what to post? With so many options, it's easy to overdo one type of content and tire out your followers. The best way to organize your social media marketing is by creating a calendar with each post and all the assets you need.
The best way to organize your social media marketing is by creating a calendar
Social media marketing people have come up with different guidelines to determine the right amount of content on your feed. Here are a couple of ideas:
The 411 rule
Out of every six posts on your feed, four have to be educational or entertaining content that doesn’t ask people to do anything. Then, post one soft promotion, like an event announcement, news, or curated content. And finally, one hard promotion with a clear call to action.
80-20 rule
Another option is the 80-20 rule — 80% of your posts should be educational, informative, or entertaining, and only 20% should be promotional.
5. Make the most out of each collaboration
Having guests on your station is a fantastic way to expand your reach and gain more listeners.
Make sure you request your guests to promote their appearance on your station by creating their own social media posts and tagging your station.
6. Be consistent
Consistency can be difficult on top of the daily work on the radio. But consistency on social media is crucial.
It helps your brand stay on your followers’ minds by being on their feeds regularly, and it sets a positive expectation that they’ll see your content at a certain time.
Also, social platforms reward active accounts. This means that at first, you may see very little growth, but small efforts add up over time.
7. Keep your finger on the pulse of social media trends
Photo by Rob Hampson on Unsplash
Be the first to know about what’s trending on social media for your audience by paying attention to trending topics, popular hashtags, and the latest news. Joining the conversation and keeping your content updated will keep your posts fresh, current, and discoverable.
Joining the conversation and keeping your content updated will keep your posts fresh
However, trends can be tricky to tackle on socials. Not all trends apply to your demographic. For example, if you have a classic rock station and your average listener is 40 years old, some of the trendier Gen Z memes might fall flat.
8. Interact with your audience
Take the time to like and reply to comments, or even share content from your audience.
Ideally, you’ll want to onboard a dedicated community manager to reply to comments, moderate the comment section, and monitor your social media presence. Social media community management is a tough job — it requires the right combination of humor, patience, empathy, and tact.
If you want to do it yourself, schedule a time of the day to reply to comments, reward positive engagements and avoid confrontation.
9. Use a social media scheduling app
Photo by Hookle
Handling a whole social media calendar with multiple accounts is an enormous task, and if you’re a one-person band, it can get overwhelming quickly. So getting the right tools is vital.
By using social media marketing tools like Hookle you don’t just save time – it saves you the hassle of using multiple tools, and you make sure your social media platforms are optimized to gain more followers and turn them into listeners.
Tip. See a list of the 10 best mobile apps for social media management.
10. Takeaways
Social media is a tool that can help you grow your audience and build a community of engaged listeners. While it can be daunting, it’s an effort that pays off if you stay consistent, post strategically and on the right platforms and engage with your audience.
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