Facebook Radio Report Card 2-23-12

We've had the 'Focus Group' in place for over 6 weeks now and looking over all the reports and notes you can clearly see an increases in the reactions to the posts.   While we have added a few big stations and their big fan bases are adding to the numbers we can also see some stations that we have been tracking from mid-January showing a lot more reaction to some of their more creative posts.

For the 30 Hour period from 2/22/12 and 2/23/12 at noon we had 188 posts.  That is down from the big numbers last week.  Valentines Day, Whitney's passing, and the Grammy awards generated a number of posts.

Let's look at the report card on the topics covered:

• Station Liners - 46 posts - 24%
• News Links - Funny Pics - 68 posts - 36%
• Music News - 34 posts - 18%
• Contests - 11 posts - 6%
• Polls - Questions - 29 posts - 15%

The Posts generating the most Likes: 

• President looking towards 1st Lady's Legs - 912 Likes and 260 Comments 71 shares
• Free Beer Sign - see below - 799 Likes  and 98 shares
• Funny Traffic sign - you'll never get to work - 684 Likes 
• Name Kardashian Baby's fashion line - 392 Likes
• Boy Toy's (KISS personality) daughter sings - 253 Likes 

Posts with the most Comments: 

• Pic of a lots of beads on face in New Orleans - 132 comments
• Pic of Headphones on very large breasts - 129
• Pic of dog with unique pattern in fur - 119 Comments
• Weird Finger bending pic - 108 Comments
• Free Beer sign - see below - 98 comments

We had 2 pics that had a lot of shares 

• Dogs - don't make eye contact - 158 shares
• Dog with unique fur pattern - 138 shares

Dog pics really seem to generate considerable comments and likes as well as shares.  

Looking over all the data you can see stations really growing in Likes and overall fans.  The audience is joining up to a lot of the bigger market stations here with some big jumps in numbers.  Z100 in New York is over 215,000 likes and  KISS in LA is now above 180,000.   In Atlanta Project 961 is over 92,000 with a contest to hit 100,000.   But there are also markets where stations seem to be stuck at around 30,000 fans even with some very creative posts.   We are leaning it takes, creative posts, good on-air coverage, keeping active, and using Facebook wisely.   

Facebook Radio Report Card 2/16/12

An interesting week for Radio in Social Media.  Lots of huge events including Whitney's death, the Grammys, and Valentines Day looked to be really big topics, but looking over the posts in our 'focus group' of stations over the 30 hours that covered Wednesday 2/15 and up to Mid-Day Thursday 2/16 many of those topics had faded or were not really covered as much as you might think.

For this week we added 2 big stations WGCI in Chicago and Power in LA.  Both are Urban or very Rhythmic stations and have huge followings - WGCI is over 138,000 likes and Power is around 120,000.  I didn't have them in at first because I thought their huge advantage in Likes would just give us their topics and posts at the top in reaction.   But, really these stations are not as active as many of the other stations in smaller cities.  In the 30 hour span WGCI only had 5 posts on their wall - Power had 6.  While they did have some big reactions on a few it many other stations in smaller cities with smaller followings were way ahead of them.  Looking from the outside the GCI and Power audiences are very plugged in to Social Media - are the stations?

The 21 stations in the Focus Group generated 320 posts in the 30 hour span - that's nearly 15 posts per station!! - the activity is growing week to week.   Here is a summary of the categories:

• Station Liners - 106 or 33%   - Contest or programming billboards or plugs. 
• Polls or Questions - 62 or 19%  - Audience questions on topics
• Links to News - Gossip - Facts - Pics - Videos - 108 or 34%
• Music News - 33 or 10%
• Contests - 10 or 3%

Looking at the top topics for Likes, Comments and Shares:

Likes

• Pic of Puppy (below) -  289 likes 
• Contest for tix to Ron White Comedy show - 273 likes
• Glee - and the Whitney Show on Monday - 265 likes
• Congrats to Red Wings - start thinking Stanley Cup? in Det. - 257 likes
• Bondage Busted on V Day - 248 likes - Couple arrested in Bondage Outfit on V Day.

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Top Comments

• Weekly Family Check in morning show bit not in top 50 market - 150 comments
• Shit people say while driving in Chicago - 130 comments
• Brought Burlap Shoes do you like?  -- 127 comments
• No Cross dressing in school allowed - 126 comments
• Pictures of Painted Eyebrows - 123 comments

The top shared post of the week was a cartoon of a  T-Rex trying to clap hands. 

Some of the topics that popped up that were outside of the big events of the week that generated some interest: 

• Big footin - Pics of people stomping like big foot in unique places like Waffle House etc.  Funny series on Project 961 in Atlanta.
• The "What I Do" posters for various jobs did show up on some posts, but this looked like the post of the week on many personal pages.   We have one below.
• Pics of the SI swimsuit models on many rock posts.
• Valentines day had lost of questions in posts, but not a lot of response as noted above.   

Stepping back and looking at all the posts in the 'focus group' it's surprising the high number of station liners in the mix.  Most of these get no reaction yet they make up around a 1/3rd of the pie here.  Polls, funny posts and contests really make the the most valuable Social Media categories for reaction.  If you want to get your site buzzing these are the best places to play.   

Facebook Radio Report Card 2/7/12

Took a break last week to expand the panel from 15 to 20 stations.  We have to watch how many stations we try to track on our page.  Going after 2 many has the posts stacking up so fast there is no way to evaluate them all.  Remember it's not designed to be a full survey of Facebook Postings but a 'focus group' of what is going on with a group of stations that are pretty active, have a decent like/fan base and also represent a variety of formats.

This week we see considerable after Super Bowl activity.   You may note that I broke out Sports as a separate  field but really there wasn't much on the game.  Much of the activity was more focused on the commercials, the Madonna show and other topics that may have touched on the Superbowl but were not really covering the game itself.  Many of those posts ended up in New/Info, Music, and Polls.

With the 5 new stations in the mix we only cover 30 hours - and we have 191 posts that made the news feed in that period.  Here is the breakdown by Topic:

News/Info --  44 Posts - 23%  Links to Stories - pics and news
Music Info -- 21 Posts - 11%   Music/Concert information and links
Sports--------15 Posts -  8%   Sports discussion and news
Liners --------58 Posts - 30%  Promos for shows, station events, etc.
Personality ---15 Posts  -  8%  Personality quips
Polls/?s-------33 Posts - 17%   Audience questions
Contests -----  5 Posts -    3%  Facebook contests or on-air contest liners

Top 5 Posts with the most Comments
1.  Who would you like to see play this summer - 242 Comments
2.   Listener Family Night check in with a prize - 217 Comments
3.  Madonna halftime reviews - 146 Comments
4. Quit Job if you win Lottery?  121 Comments
5. Foo Fighters at next years Superbowl - 92 Comments
5. Review of Kelly C. singing National Anthem - 92 Comments

Top 5 Liked Posts
1. Foo Fighters at Superbowl in 2013 - 597 likes
2. A Minnesota Afternoon picture -  447 Likes and 239 shares
3. Kelly C's National Anthem - 445 Likes
4. Alligator at the front door pic - 262 Likes and 108 shares
5. Clint Eastwood Superbowl ad in Detroit - 236 Likes

And here is the pic that drew 239 shares - looks like fun - hope they got back to land.

We are seeing stations starting to get close to 100,000 likes in some markets.  KDWB is on a roll and close and Project 961 in Atlanta is running a contest to get to 100,000 and over 80,000 now.

I was rather surprised at the high number of LINER posts this week at 30%.  Most of them were just plugs for regular features or shows coming up and didn't draw much interest.  Country and AC stations were actually pretty quiet here.  While many country stations posted news on Randy Travis being arrested it didn't seem to  gather much reaction or dialogue.

Every week as I review the content it seems to be more engaging on some sites, while others don't seem to be generating a lot of reaction or posting topics that cut through the Facebook News Feed filters.

The Superbowl gave us lots of content this past weekend.  Next weekend it's the Grammy's - should be interesting.

Facebook - Radio Report Card 1/29/12

Here are some observations and data from monitoring the Facebook posts of 14 selected stations.

This week the News Feed for the stations came up with:

• 157 posts dating back 60 hours that's up from the 85 posts we had last week. 
• Types of Posts
• Station Liners - Plugs for contests, music features, etc - 16 or 10%
• Questions - "Are you watching American Idol" etc -48 or 30%
• News/Info - Links to Videos, funny Pictures or News facts - 74 or 47%
• Personality Posts - 'On my 2nd cup of Coffee need more'  - 14 or 9%
• Music News - Posts on upcoming releases, artist news -- 4 or 3%
• Top 5 Posts with most Likes
• 652 - A pic of Limp Biscuit - Pillsbury Dough can breaks - also 139 comments and 141 shares
• 285 - Paterno dies - news in Pittsburgh 
• 262 - Penguins win #500 in Pittsburgh
• 258 - Go Pats in Boston
• 229 - German gets 110,000 tax refund in error.
• Top 5 Posts with most Comments
• 196 - Stars you've seen or movies filmed in our city
• 163 - Pick superbowl in Pittsburgh
• 139 - Pic of Limp Biscuit
• 125 - Taco Bell for Breakfast
• 94- What did you do this weekend

Sports really picks up a lot more content this past week with the Superbowl teams all set.  There wasn't much on the Oscar nominations and no posts on political issues.  Remember we have Rock, AC, Country and CHR stations in this mix.  Rock stations had the most active and highest number of posts this week.   By the way the pic of the Limp Biscuit just in case you wanted to know:   

Radio Facebook Report Card - 1/18/12

So what does Radio's overall Facebook Presence look like?

How are we using the social network?

What are we posting and what is working?  

All of these are questions I'm sure everyone is asking as they decide how much effort and time Facebook is worth.  To get a picture I built a Facebook Page that only I can access and it is tracking 14 stations in Rock, CHR, Country, and AC formats to get a picture of what is posted each week and what the audience reaction in  Likes and Comments is.  

Let's take a look at Wednesday 1/18/12 with an analysis taken around 10a Eastern.   The tracking on my Newsfeed here goes back to Sunday posts - so around 60 hours.   Here are some tracking facts:

• There were 85 posts in the News Feed - that's an average of 6 posts per station in the roughly 2 day period - so maybe 3-4 posts a day on the average.  

• Here is a rundown of the type of posts in the News Feed:
• Station Liners - Plugs for contests, music features, etc - 27 or 32%
• Questions - "Are you watching American Idol" etc - 12 or 14%
• News/Info - Links to Videos, funny Pictures or News facts - 30 or 35%
• Personality Posts - 'On my 2nd cup of Coffee need more'  - 8 or 9%
• Music News - Posts on upcoming releases, artist news -- 8 or 9%

• Top 5 reaction posts: 
• Station Contest - Trip to Hawaii in LA - 152 Likes
• News - Justin Bieber goes Brunette 155 Likes and 80 comments
• News - Kholhe K's ex gets cheers at Lakers Game in LA - 436 Like
• News - Pop bands logos in Heavy/Death Metal Fonts - 184 Like, 61 Comment, 38 Shares
• Question - State wants to ban PJs in Public - 70 Likes and 185 Comments

I tried to pick stations that did a fair amount of postings and had big Like numbers.   The big markets like LA, NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Boston, and Philly are there but there are some smaller markets like Madison and Grand Rapids.   I plan on adding to the panel now that we have a trial run out there and track more of the content.  Of course I can't track all the metrics that are available to the Admin users at the stations, but we can at least see the Likes, Comments and Shares to get a basic picture.  If you have any suggestions on stations to add or other types of posts to track let me know via email- dlange210@att.net or with comments below.  Thanks.

Overall when you just look at a News Feed of Radio Brands it's a strange mix of posts.  The biggest reactions here are mostly for News and Questions.  The Station Liners really didn't do much in likes or comments unless they were contests that forced the audience to Facebook to win.  The most reactions came from the active evening personalities and their posts with Questions and News/web bits.  Is there a real strategy here to focus on the types of posts that get reaction or are we just throwing posts out there?

The other fact here was the lack of interaction from the Personalities in their posts.  Once they put it up there they rarely came back in to keep the conversation going or react to the audience.  

Social Networks - Too Much Activity?

The reality of interacting with your audience on Social Networks like Twitter and Facebook is that you can go un-noticed pretty quickly.  

Right now Facebook claims over 800 million active users with around 50% of them logging on in any given day.  The average Facebook user has 130 friends and in an average day more than 250 million photos are uploaded everyday.  

In the Twitter world there are over a billion tweets posted every week.  Twitter users welcomed in 2012 with over 16,000 tweets per second on New Years Eve last weekend!!

While some grumbled at the changes from the Facebook F8 conference last fall to the News Feed - face it something had to be done.  We are all drowning in the posts from our friends and also from the many celebrities, movies, TV shows, Radio stations, products, stores, and political pages and Twitter accounts we follow.   

When I look at my news feed with around 500 friends and maybe 30 brands/personality pages I'm linked to I end up with around 20 posts an hour during the day. My full news feed page maybe covers 2-3 hours.  In Twitter it can move even faster.  Of course every week I add new friends and followers so in a year these numbers will climb a lot. 

Also keep in mind that Facebook IS filtering what hits my news feed.  They are looking at my past interaction (reading, linking, sharing, or commenting) with each of my friends and brand likes and deciding who is important.  They are also looking at what is posted by each of my friends/brands and deciding if it might be interesting to me on a long list of priorities.  Just as Google looks at my search history and sorts out what might be the best sites for me Facebook is also doing that for what appears on my News Feed.   

So now you are getting set to do some posts on your station's Facebook page or hit the Twitter button.  Is your message going to breakthrough?  Or are you just wasting your time?  

To get better at interacting with the audience on Social Media you need some feedback.   Yes some metrics or statistics or ratings that tell you what the audience is doing with your interaction.  And you need to develop a strategy behind the data to make sure what you post or tweet has a chance.  The other challenge is that the listener's News Feed is filling up every minute with more stuff and even with good content you can fall off the feed before they even see it.  

Some have taken to posting all the time to stay on the news feed, but remember that you don't want to become the 'evil' spam-master of Facebook.  Yes, the News Feed filter also looks for 'spam' and filters it out.  We also have the ultimate goal of getting the audience to interact with the ultimate source here - the broadcast signal.  Perhaps down the road we'll be important enough in the Social Media Web to make all our dollars from the digital side, but for now (and probably forever) we need to get them to tune in or stream in.  

The key is getting good feedback.  Know how many people saw your post, how many hit any links, looked at the pic, rolled the video, commented, shared and also who they are.   You can get most of this info if you have a Facebook analytic program, although many programs can be hard to read or navigate. Even bigger than just having the data you need to keep track of what worked and what didn't.  Once you have this data - now you have a chance to build a strategy to become more effective.   But, we have to hurry - next New Year there will probably be 50,000 tweets a second and we'll have 500 Facebook friends to keep up with and 5 times the posts we have today.   

2012 Trends

As we head into 2012 there are a number of 'trends' developing that are worth noting. I don't want to call these predictions - just some areas that affect our audience that are emerging and worth watching:

• Social Networks - They continue to grow and occupy the lion's share of most people's on-line time, which seems to grow even more as more smart phones and mobile apps allow you to be on-line all the time.  The big trend in 2011 was the evolution of the networks to complete mass acceptance.  There are nearly a billion FB accounts and the marketing/branding world is out in full force. FB going public in 2012 will dominate the news.  Those who don't master social networks for building their brands, and realize how to integrate the potential of radio's huge reach into a social network strategy, will be ones that hold back our industry.  Right now it's a 2 team world - the rest of the networks are small niche players at best - to play you have to look at these 2:
• Facebook - Will continue to grow and evolve but it's not the new kid on the block and every change will be widely challenged.  Marketers and brands are also taking up lots of content space here and could hurt FB if they are not careful.  The minute FB seems more like corporate hype and one big un-creative banner ad it could be replaced.  
• Twitter - It's the service with momentum right now with 400 million users in sight soon.  Marketing in a 140 character world is a challenge.  This will be the opportunity in 2012 much as Facebook became a force for radio brands in 2010 and 2011. 
• The Election - We have SO MUCH media space to fill that this election will be a pretty tiring event for the audience.  Look at the developments as they relate to radio content here: 
• Super PAC and PAC money - The high court ruling that PACs can spend as much as they want has set the stage for a nuke explosion of dollars to be spent.  
• More Talk FMs - While we haven't seen them pull shares yet - they will pull in lots of dollars and we can also expect to hear a lot about this election in the commercials.   Just look at Iowa where the airwaves are flooded and it's only a Republican Caucus.  
• All over the Net - On the social networks, on your phone, all over your searches and dominating any web site you visit with targeted political content.  Your radio station breaks, computer and your TV will look like this for 6 to 7 months:

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• Content - We have tons of political web sites, news services, networks, TV stations, cable news services, network news, bloggers, on-line news sites, newspapers, magazines and PAC sites disguised as news sites all searching for the big story to draw all eyes their way.  And they have to do it over and over again with the onset of each news cycle.  Is it any wonder that any  story can suddenly become a 'crisis'?  Is some of the grid lock in congress coming from too many sides to any issue and a media so fixed on everything that everyone is afraid to move?  
• Overload - This all sets up radio for a complete overload of our airwaves.  

• PPM - As we gather more data and see more of the PPM listening trends expect to see more programming ideas and rules change.  Bow Tie clocks, quick fire entertainment/personality, tighter show prep, an evolution in imaging tactics, and lots of concern over sample size.  Gaming PPM will come up with new ideas and tricks as we keep pouring over the MScore data every week.  
• Research - The industry needs a full overhaul.  We have so much data from the web, PPM, On-line surveys, Facebook Metrics, and web searches that the old music test or perceptual seems like super slow motion in a hypersonic world.
• Being Local - Even as we see more trends to syndicated and voice tracked dayparts remember that just because we don't have someone local behind the mic doesn't mean that a brand or station cannot be a HUGE force and have a BIG local presence.  Take an honest look at what the 'local personalities' did to really be local (on and off the air) - there are more people who are just voices on the transmitter here than real people in the community.  
• Being Authentic - The real key to marketing our clients products/services and building our brands is CONTENT.  Having creative content that is authentic and draws the attention of the audience is the only way to build any momentum in today's marketing universe.  We have so many delivery options from broadcast, the web, social networks, going viral, You Tube, billboards, print, product placement, sports tie ins and who knows what else that the audience is drowning in hype.   The only way to rise above the hype is to have some authentic entertaining content.   If we'd start to focus on building this into the campaigns we sell (both on the air and in the digital world) we will become a huge force in marketing again.  
• New Web Gadget/Gimmicks - Last year we saw the rise of Pandora and the lure of Groupon.   In the end we can see how both are fairing in the stock world.  Pandora went public and is pretty much at 1/2 it's opening prices. Trying to mount a local sales force for Pandora in every market and living in a royalty world that will limit their income as they grow is not a model that will sell on Wall Street.  Groupon is too easily copied and really ends up being just another hyped up marketing model and it's stock is about 1/3rd less than the opening.  Really radio answered these threats pretty well - the advance of the CBS and Clear Channel into the streaming world is a good answer.  Groupon is being hit a lot by local stations that have built their own answers for clients.  There will be new gadgets next year - maybe one of them will be RADIO!!! We do have lots of advantages that are being ignored. 
• Music - A big transition year.  Rap/Hip Hop is getting pretty extreme in the language and topics.  The pop world has been living for a long time on the young world of Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Ga Ga and their LPs from 2 years ago.  What will evolve?  Indie Rock with unique instruments, lyrics, and presence?  A new breed of rocker that isn't a copy of Nickleback? An authentic country voice that isn't really a pop singer in boots? A singer songwriter that impacts the Hot AC and AC world - or is that Adele?  Watch for new music on your desk this year -- the audience is ready for the Next Thing not a rehash of the last thing. 

The real note here is that we have a restless audience.  They are ready to 'occupy anything' because they are ready for something different and perhaps new.  But, in the end they are looking to be entertained and being a part of a community.  Even with hundreds of TV channels, millions of web sites, endless on-demand video,  thousands of streaming stations, lots of local broadcasters in every market, huge social networks - we are still mostly looking for entertainment and information.  The other challenge is a world where there are new product distribution options all the time - staying on top of them and investing quickly and wisely will keep our brands in front of the audience.  If we can keep those areas as our top priorities making money, building EBITA, hitting budgets and keeping Radio a strong player in the mix will happen automatically.  Happy 2012!!!!   

The Personalization Bubble

As we work in our Broadcasting world and the ever increasing Social Media and Web world that we interact and build our audience's with there are some important lessons here in this presentation by Eli Pariser at a recent TED conference.

His thought here is that in our web and digital world we are living in such a personalized bubble that is filtered constantly analyzing everything we read, share, click on, and interact with that we can end up living in our own world.  Very interesting thought - and the more you think about it - very true.

We come from Broadcasting where the only filter is - changing the channel to another station.  It does give the audience a community.   Eli's view here is that in the Personalized web world we could be turning into individualists.  

The other thought to take away is 'how to work and interact in the individualistic world the audience is building - with the help of the Social Media sites and Search Engines.