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Only Talk When You Can Offer Value - Five Things To Think About For 2015
January 6, 2015
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Understanding what it takes to build and sustain an active social fan base is critical as the space grows and becomes an even bigger part of people's lives.
Self-involved, mediocre social communication is as brand erosive as a bad break. Over time, the audience becomes fatigued and unmoved -- creating passive fans.
And there is no value in a passive social fan base.
But also, attempting to activate fans by telling them to tweet incessantly just so you can see your station name in Twitter's Top Ten trending topics is an ego-driven tactic that does nothing for the long term health of your station.
Social is deeper than that. It's personal. It's an opportunity to create meaningful moments -- making people feel like they matter.
Below are five fundamentals of fan development every brand should add to the body of their "social code of conduct" for 2015.
- Take A Page From Taylor Swift
By now, you've probably seen how Taylor Swift created "Holy Crap" moments for her fans over the holidays. The beauty of what she did is that she took the time to research some of her fans, took notes about the things they love, used a Santa emoji when she commented on their social accounts -- letting them know she was watching -- leaving them in suspense about exactly what it represented. The outcome is an amazing video that truly represents what you can accomplish in the social space.
While it's been a long tradition for radio to superficially touch fans in bulk (caller 10 type contests), the core tenets of brand building have changed. It's now about personalizing each fan's journey with your brand.
Acknowledgement (not always in gift form) and unexpected moments are today's currency.
- Visual (Including Video) Vocabulary
Social communication is more visual than ever. With the rise of "Selfie Sticks," along with over 1 billion videos viewed daily on Facebook alone, your audience is all about showing, less telling.
Visuals, like the one above, must exceed expectations in order to resonate. Memes may get tons of "likes," but they are forgettable and do nothing to prove your worth.
- Response Time Must Match The "Speed of Social"
Consumer expectations for service and ease of use are increasing. Tolerance is decreasing. A solid customer service plan is required.
Not responding to fans -- or getting back to people a few days later is unacceptable.
If you are debating that, delete your social accounts now.
- Goin' Mobile
Now that we're spending more time staring at our phones than the TV, it's time to start being more serious about apps.
Whether it's creating something like the customized Deer Hunter game app WCSX/Detroit designed:
Or also using apps like Snapchat to interact with the audience, a mobile plan is critical:
The audience is telling us where they are going. We need to be aggressive and make sure we're the leader in our communities.
- Be Flawsome
If you've heard me speak -- you've heard this word before.
We're not always going to hit it out of the park with "being social" or even with our in-the-moment reactions. But the more we back away from the notion that we must be perfect socially, the more we actually expand our creative genius.
We become open to all ideas and less critical of ourselves and also of each other.
Radio has some of the greatest brands in media, but that doesn't mean we're entitled in the social space. We have to work at this.
The era of entitlement is over.
It's a new era of "earn."
And if it means serving one fan at time, or small fragmented fans at a time on smaller platforms in order to earn their attention, that's what it takes.
On behalf of Jacobs Media, I hope to see you at the Worldwide Radio Summit 2015, April 22nd-24th in Hollywood, CA. It's always good reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.
Reach out to me anytime on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.
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