Social Media Secrets For Broadcasters

Michael Hedges February 16, 2011 Follow on Twitter

To follow conventional wisdom, every media outlet would now be engaged with social media. Attracting Twitter followers and Facebook fans more than simply compliments audience marketing it may become just as important. There are a few secrets to engaging those who want to engage.

A fascinating study of more than 350 German radio channels and stations by blogger Sebastian Pertsch (see here - in German) gives detail to questions about which broadcasters are benefiting from social media. Pertsch estimates that 1.5 million Germans follow radio stations on Twitter or Facebook with many interesting differences as he looked at private, public, university and community radio stations.

Intuitively, adding content to social network sites increases the numbers of fans and followers. This should benefit the biggest broadcasters with more resources for staff, content and technology. And, sure enough, the top five radio channels by Twitter followers were all public radio channels: SWR 3 (13,305), Fritz RBB (10,219), N-joy NDR (9,397), Radioeins RBB (8,438), Eins Live WDR (8,126).

During the two days of data collection (February 10 and 11) the average number of Twitter followers for German public channels was 2, 613 followed distantly by private stations (601 followers), community radio (318 followers) and university stations (256 followers). About half of public channels use Twitter, 62% private stations, 70% university stations and 38% community stations. The average number of Twitter users by sector is somewhat deceiving, Pertsch notes, as there are three times more private stations than public channels.

Without question, young people are using Twitter. All the top five radio channels by Twitter user target young people. On the other side, university stations are more likely to utilize their Twitter accounts. The survey did not sample unofficial Twitter and Facebook fan pages.

Looking at Facebook fans for German radio broadcasters is a bit different. All totaled, private stations have nearly three times more Facebook fans (910,098) than public channels (343,900). University and community stations fall fare behind, 9,300 and 14,498 fans respectively. The average number of Facebook fans, however, is higher for public channels (10,114) than private stations (5,385). Once again, stations targeting young people made the top five of Facebook fans: Radio Sunshine live (106,217), Planet Radio (103,982), Eins Live WDR (80,492), BigFM (62,057), SWR 3 (51,751). While there are more private radio stations in Germany than public radio channels, the public channels often have far greater reach.

Private radio broadcasters are far more likely to engage with Facebook (83%) than the public channels (57%). About two-thirds of university stations and less than half of community stations have Facebook pages.

“The audience has already arrived at the social networks, so why not the broadcasters,” asks Pertsch. Both Twitter and Facebook, obviously, offer broadcasters opportunities to engage with people through new platforms. He also observes that the MA audience ratings in Germany seem skewed toward older listeners.

How, then, does being engaged with a radio station through social media relate to engagement generally with the radio station or, frankly, does it matter? More practically, is the time investment in social media truly efficient? Some German broadcasters, particularly big ones targeting young people, appear willing to keep experimenting with social media not simply as a new marketing vehicle but creating wholly new content. For others social media is but an expensive distraction. The secret, it seems, is knowing the difference.

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