By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
SHAKER HEIGHTS — Even though it’s still spring, Memorial Day weekend is about to roll around. For a lot of us, that can feel like the start of summer. So I’m giving you the summer to do a litt...
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
SHAKER HEIGHTS — Even though it’s still spring, Memorial Day weekend is about to roll around. For a lot of us, that can feel like the start of summer. So I’m giving you the summer to do a little upgrading! Here’s a punch list of items you can work on each week between now and Labor Day to get your website and social media fixed up, and ready to totally support your on-air product this fall!
Write Down Your Goals
Your performance is being judged on some set of numbers. How can your digital platforms contribute to those numbers? Think about those goals, write them down, and share them with your co-workers. Whether it’s content on your site, your social media, email, texting, whatever … bring it into focus.
Take Something Off Your Website
Almost every radio station in America has something on the front page of their website that is sucking up too much oxygen. Get with your webmaster to check your web stats. What’s on your front page that almost no one visits, and has nothing to do with your station? Get rid of it. Doing so will help your fans find the stuff they’re coming to you for!
Pick Fonts and Colors
I worked once with a PD who also had graphic design experience, and he proved this point to me. You can do a lot to keep people on your site if you make all the fonts consistent, and use a limited, pleasing range of colors. You may feel your site needs to be completely reorganized … but start with this for much quicker improvement.
Freshen Your Cover Photo
How long have you had the same cover photo on your station’s Facebook page? I like to change these out at least once a month, if not more often. If you don’t have the person-power to create Facebook cover photos that promote what you’re doing on the radio, come up with a few different generic ones you can rotate.
Check Your Tabs
After people look at your brand’s cover photo, what they look at next is your tabs. What sort of photos or graphics do they see there? Those are tiny spaces that get a lot of eyeball-time, so make them pertinent to what you are all about.
Cut Back on Posts, Set Standards
If your station is posting half-a-dozen or more times each day, cut back. Be pickier about what you post. Many successful brands post once, twice or three times a day. They make sure that each post, however, is firing on all cylinders. Show your fans content that relates to your brand, post eye-catching photos, and respond to what they say to you!
Focus Twitter on Something
If you have a Facebook page that covers in general what your station does, don’t just duplicate that with a Twitter feed. Think about some particular information your fans might want. This might be contest times … talk show topics … news, weather, sports … when it’s time to vote on what gets played next … and so on. Make your Twitter feed more valuable by dedicating it to a narrow purpose. This might also be just instant, regular responses to listener’s questions and comments. Finally … you don’t just have to have one Twitter feed.
Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest
It’s easy to get caught up in a new, buzz-worthy digital platform. Usually, that doesn’t help you; it’s a focus-buster that detracts you from what’s already working. However, those secondary social media sites like Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and others can be good places to store photos, videos and other content that you promote on Facebook or Twitter. De-emphasize these as social sites, and use them instead as content channels.
Chris Miller, owner of Chris Miller Digital, is a leading radio consultant specializing in research-based strategic planning and smart use of digital media. He can be phoned at 216-236-3955 or e-mailed at chris@chrismillerdigital.com.
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