Is Social Media Really Important to Your Radio Station?

Today in Broadcast Radio, the lifeblood for most stations is connecting to ratings respondents. Stories abound about stations with flourishing audiences who were passionate about those stations, came to station events, called and wrote to the station, but perhaps didn’t participate proportionately as ratings respondents. Successful stations in the ratings have good programming and marketing AND connect with the small percentage of the population likely to participate in the ratings.

The good news for radio is that in NuVoodoo Ratings Prospect Studies we’ve shown that likely ratings respondents use more radio compared to non-ratings respondents. Meter or diary, the results are similar. Those who will participate in a study about TV and radio over-represent usage of those media.

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So, it’s really not unexpected that these above average TV and radio users are also more engaged with Social Media. Whether it’s likely meter wearers or likely diary keepers, strong majorities place very high importance on Social Media in their daily lives.

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Meaning that connecting with consumers in Social Media means you’re tilting the table in your favor in terms of capturing the attention and allegiance of current or future (or, yes, past) ratings respondents.

And, while it’s most pronounced among Facebook users, there’s a solid relationship between daily usage of nearly all Social Media portals and time spent listening to radio.

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At minimum, your station(s) should be actively engaging listeners on every Social Media platform they use, sharing station-created content and other content that supports your brand. And, given the throttling that’s going on with channels limiting the organic reach of potential advertisers, you should be giving careful consideration to using these channels on a paid basis to increase your reach, deepen connections and build ratings success.