Understanding Social Contesting and Promotions

Loyd Ford wrote a great article at www.radioink.com today about using social media for contesting. He makes some good points and his advice is very good. I disagree with him that social media is not advertising. Everything we do is advertising and sales. We want to promote ourselves in everything we do. We are selling ourselves to our audience, to our customers, to our co-workers, to our bosses and even to our families and friends in an on going basis. However, what I think he meant was that we should not just be posting commercials about ourselves. People don't want to read commercials, they want to read content. He is right that social media is about engagement. And contests are one way to get engagement. However I think he left out something very important that everyone seems to forget about: The Rules.

Just as a radio station has contest rules, social media sites have rules regarding running contests and/or promotions using their platform. It is very important for station managers, program directors and promotion directors to familiarize themselves with the rules regarding promotions/contests of the Social site they are using especially if they do not have someone running their social media. No one wants a call from Facebook or Twitter Legal, nor do you want to wake up to find out your page or account has been shut down for violating the sites terms of service. Familiarize yourself with the social platform rules. If you are uncertain, and don't have a social media manager, make sure you are doing things right by running your contest by your own lawyers, who also should be familiar with these rules.

Facebook has strict contest and promotion rules found here: Facebook Rules. Twitter is more friendly to contests and promotions: Twitter Rules.

Every station should have a social media manager either on staff or contracted. And I am happy to assist you. I can even show you how you can get an ROI from your social media channels.

What is your experience using social media to run contests?

What is social media

This is a question some people like to answer with "networking online". Partially true. I think goes deeper than that.

Social media is such a broad concept right now. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, etc. all fall under the social media banner. But social media is what radio has been doing for decades: connecting people. You've heard many radio enthusiasts, radiophiles as I call myself, say that radio was the original social media. I'm not sure about that. But I will say radio was one of the original social media conduits.

The basic concept is that social media gives people another way to connect. People originally connected by congregating in the town square, or on the town green. Churches also held a place in the social connect space. When the telephone was invented it gave people a way to connect without leaving home! What a concept!

The interesting thing about phones that some may not remember is the party line. This was where several people shared the same phone number, but would hear a different ring so they knew when it was for them to answer. For example, the Smith's would get 2 ring intervals (ring, ring, pause, ring ring) and the Jone's would get three ring intervals (ring, ring, ring, pause, ring, ring, ring). Some rings were longer or shorter than others to make patterns (riiinnng, ring, riiinng ring). But each customer on the line would hear the ring and could discern if it was for them based on the ring that the phone company assigned to them. Quite interesting! Of course back then, the phone rang maybe once per day per customer. Obviously that system no longer works and is one reason why everyone has their own number now.

It stands to reason that since most people are naturally social, they would sometimes all get on the phone at the same time and have a party! Fast forward several decades and we had three-way calling. I remember hearing about some girls that maximized this concept. One girl would conference in a friend on a call she was having with another friend. That friend could in turn conference in someone on her three way line, and so on. The modern day party line.

Of course there were also the pay services that popped up for late night TV viewers looking for people to talk to. Some of you will remember those 900 numbers to call and "connect". And this is what I associate social media of today with. It is a way for us to connect with people we have not met in person, yet maybe have similar interests. Yes, social media is the modern day party line. Face(book) it, it's true.

Radio broadened the reach of conversations. People listened to the radio because that is what everyone did. And when there were fewer channels to listen to, people shared in the experience while they were not in the same place with each other. People bonded listening to the radio even though they were miles apart. They were entertained, they laughed, they cried, they rejoiced and they mourned. And people of certain generations can tell you when they were listening to the radio when specific events happened. They would discuss what they heard the next day with their co-workers. Radio was and still is a social conduit.

So, what is social media? It is people connecting. If you connect with someone through the Internet, you have just participated in social media. Did you subscribe to a news list, send an email, join a message board, or join a social network? It is all social media. The media is the form or tool you used. The social aspect is simply the fact that you are likely connecting with another person on the other end.

Here we are in 2012 with new tools for social media on the Internet and there are thousands of self proclaimed experts on what social media is and how to make money capitalizing on the concept. (Incidentally I do not think I am any where near being an expert on a phenomenon that is but a few years old) What they aren't telling you, is that you have been doing social media all your life just without the Internet. It's true that the Internet is providing useful tools to reach more people at a faster rate than with traditional media. But is it really working that way? Not for most. Why? Well, that is one topic I will cover in this space in the future.

What I want to leave you with today is the knowledge that social media is not a get rich quick system. It can help you reach targeted goals faster than you would without it; even making some seemingly overnight successes! But if you really want success, you need a plan, a separate social media plan. All business owners should have a business plan, a marketing plan, and now a social media plan.

How can radio tap in to the revenue stream? It's quite simple. Do what radio is known for: connect with people. More on that in this space as well. While you wait for more of my insights, tell me what challenges you are having with your social media. Connect with me via email: charlieprofit /at\ cabradio /dot\ com.

Taking A Page Out Of Social Media

Here is my latest article that was published on AllAccess today August 16, 2011

Do you give away free ads? Not bonus spots based on a purchased schedule, but truly free ads? Probably not very often. Admittedly, there is always the free plug here and there when you mention products tied in with the rest of your content. An example would be your morning show talking about the Old Spice guy, and the Old Spice marketing campaign that went viral sometime last year. But how long was that conversation? Did it extend into a  regular "thing" on your station? Are you still talking about it? Probably not.

Have you ever thought about how much free advertising your station gives away to Facebook and Twitter? It's astonishing if you do think of it. I am a social media geek. I love all the tools we can now use to market, advertise and promote something through social media.  But even I have my limit on being saturated with unintended ads for Facebook and Twitter.  Nationally it must amount to tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions if you took every mention on every radio station, TV network, and newspapers and applied the standing rate for such a mention.

Read The Rest On AllAccess

Social What?

Social media, social networking, it's all about being social. Remember how exciting it was for your favorite dj to give you a "shout out". You would tell all your friends that you were on the radio! You probably delivered that message through a "party line" telephone line, or simply one friend calling another, who called another. Then the next day at school, it might have even been a topic of discussion in your circle of friends. Radio was a social medium for us!

Fast forward to today: kids don't need radio to be social. All this talk of social networking has radio executives wondering what happened, and how to claim their stake. But kids aren't just connecting with their own friends through Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, they are building up their own audiences. They don't need radio to entertain them. They entertain each other. I think that is where the radio executives fall short in understanding why the radio audience is shrinking. We think WE should be the entertainers, instead of just being a part of the entertainment. This goes back to my first point about the Shout Outs. Radio used to make the listeners the star, not the dj. I know, "we still do shout outs". But see, for the younger listeners, that's not enough anymore. With todays Social Networking, anyone can be a "star". Anyone can have an Internet radio station, or video channel. You have to do more than play music for this generation.

What can be done to get the younger demo to come back? Be a part of their Social Network! I think many stations have tried to be a part of it by setting up a MySpace page. The problem is that most stations just use MySpace as a "web page". A MySpace page should not just be another "web page". It should be used as an interactive function. But as has been mentioned in many places, MySpace is losing its appeal. However, if you have not set up a MySpace page for your station [even if your demo is 35-54!] you should set one up now. After all it's free! You know how us radio folk like free stuff! The next thing to do is set up a Fan Page on FaceBook. FaceBook is gaining momentum right now. Setting up a Fan Page is easy to do, but if you need a little help, let me know. I have my own fan page at http://facebookfan.charlieprofit.com. You can become my fan if you'd like! Again, this should be used as an interactive function with your listeners. Post bulletins, upload and share photos and videos. If you have listeners that attended a concert, invite them to upload the photos they took with their cell phones! Give the listeners some of the glory! Reward them for listening by allowing them to participate in your web community. Yes, you still need to have staff patrol the activity, but it will generate a buzz.


And we shall take this one step further. Get a Twitter account for your station. What is Twitter? Twitter is an application that allows "mini blogs". Take a look at mine at http://twitter.charlieprofit.com. [I use redirects, as it is easier for me to remember the url. If you don't understand those terms, don't worry, just click the link]. With these "mini blogs" people are able to update others in their network with what they are doing, thinking or experiencing at that moment. But if you think outside-the-box, you can not only use Twitter to give Shout Outs to your listeners, you can announce contest winners and live remotes! Imagine being able to tell your listeners where your station is at, even when they are not listening!. This is just one application that can bring back that interactivity that radio has lost over the past several years. If your station doesn't set up a main account, your jocks should set up their own individual accounts (if they haven't already)! There is also a way to have several individual accounts post to one main account. Again, just email me at charlieprofit@cabradio.com and I'll explain how.

So now you know how you can get GenY to incorporate your station into their lifestyle because you are doing what they are doing. And you will be sharing in their experiences too, because as you add your listeners to your station's Social Network, you will be able to know what they are thinking, doing, listening to as it happens. You won't need research anymore, because you will have it right there in your Social Network. Now take that money you saved on research and hire an overnight jock!