Status Update

The thing is, you don't really NEED any of them.

That is not what you've been told. You've been told that, as a radio host or a podcaster or a manager of a radio station, you need to be on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and TikTok, and now that Twitter has become a megaphone for some of the worst of society, you need to establish yourselves on Mastodon and Hive and Post and whatever other would-be Twitter replacements are out there. It's essential, you've been instructed, and so you've dutifully signed up for each one, and now you have all these accounts and....

And what? What's the plan? What are you supposed to do with these things, and what's appropriate for each platform? Do you cross-post stuff? What are you posting, period?

See what I'm saying? You've been told to be on every platform, and so you've done that, but it's never really certain what you should expect to happen from that. That's because it seems like a lot of radio and podcasting people don't have a plan for what they'll do on social media and what they expect the results to be.

Years ago, the instructions were pretty clear: Get your user names on every social media platform that shows up. (You got your Ello account, right? Peach? Tom was your friend on MySpace, wasn't he?) What were you supposed to do? Engage with the audience. How? Oh, we'll figure that out later. Don't ask questions, just be there. Or, more precisely, have an intern be there. When "later" came around, a lot of radio stations just entrusted their brands to corporate, and so we got the phenomenon of identical national posts -- usually, something repurposed from People or TMZ -- simultaneously showing up in the feeds of hundreds of stations at the same time. Or, for talk radio, just repurpose stuff your syndicated shows tweet out about national issues and maybe throw in an occasional promo for your local show. That's how most radio social media accounts operate these days. What does that do for the stations and shows involved? Judging by the lack of comments beneath them, it sure isn't engagement. (Note: Clicking "like" isn't engagement.)

The missing element, and this is not just endemic to the radio or podcasting industries, is a plan and clear, reasonable expectations -- the why, as in "why are we doing this?" Are you, as a host or show or station, expecting your social media activity to translate into more cume? Are you trying to direct people to your website with clicks? Do you have monetization aspirations for those posts? Are you using them as cheap marketing? Do you want to increase engagement? Or are you doing it because you're just supposed to be there? First, figure out the answer, and then turn to what content you're posting to achieve those goals.

This is not how most companies and people approach social media, of course. Take the corporate strategy of posting the same TMZ-lite gossip, red carpet photos of celebrities (with brilliant commentary like "Lizzo broke the internet with this and we are (insert a dozen emojis here)"), and the like. Is that real engagement? Does that market your station or show as something unique? No, it's the same noise being posted by countless others in the media and otherwise.

Which, again, raises the question of why they bother if there's no clear desired result. So, first order of business, decide what you want your social media to do for you. Then decide which platform is best for that. Then, decide who's in charge, because one person should be leading that effort. Then, and only then, proceed.

Here are some of your options:

Facebook: You're on this, because everyone is. You openly hate it, but you still check it every few hours and love to post your photos with celebrities there (especially with recently-deceased celebrities who visited your station 25 years ago). Older audience. Generates more click-throughs than other platforms. You are a slave to the algorithm, which will bury your posts. If people actually see your posts and they're good posts, can offer good engagement opportunities. Monitor the comments. No, really, monitor the comments. Don't say you weren't warned.

Twitter: Ever been at a party where someone who got thrown out earlier in the evening comes back to trash the place? That's the present vibe. Smaller audience, not a lot of clicks generated, lots of bots and crypto-bro trolls. You're talking to a lot of media types, which is good for your personal networking but not necessarily to build an audience. It's not going to get better. Still good for keeping up with the news and getting topics for your show, though that's getting infected, too.

Instagram: Facebook but for pictures and animated GIFs. Reels are TikTok for older folks. Much more civil in the comments. Your posts will get buried between ads for restaurants in cities far, far away from wherever you are.

TikTok: Young audience. Very young. Red hot and gaining with older folks, too, which means it'll be utterly uncool soon. If you can entertainingly promote yourself in a few seconds, preferably while lip-syncing to whatever song's hot on there today, go for it.

Snapchat: Wait, it's still around? (Snapchat may be the Picture of Dorian Gray for TikTok.)

Mastodon: You know that Twitter party that got trashed? I heard there's an empty room where some of us are gathering to keep the party going. No, there's no food or drink yet, though I heard someone is ordering out. Plenty of room. What? No, I don't know whose place it is. I don't think there's a host. A few people have been hanging out there for years, but the party hasn't started yet. Why am I going there? I heard a lot of other people are going there. I can't find the door. Where's the door?

Post: There's a cocktail party in there, and you might or might not get an invite, but you don't know anyone there and they're really into discussing the latest issue of the New York Review of Books. Don't criticize rich people; they won't like it.

Hive: Instagram meets old Twitter and wonders where everyone is.

You can be on all of these. You probably should do that, if only to claim your name before someone else does and posts embarrassing things there. But for each one, decide if you're there to generate more audience, to engage with your listeners, to get material, to promote your show, or to make money. Or just to have fun and stay in touch with friends and family. We all put a lot of hours into social media; it might be advisable to make those hours in some way beneficial. Like, say, checking your email and text messages every two minutes.

=============================

Another beneficial time waster is All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep page. Get there by clicking here, and you can also follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics and find every story individually linked to the appropriate item.

Make sure you're subscribed to Today's Talk, the daily email newsletter with the top news stories in News, Talk, and Sports radio and podcasting. You can check off the appropriate boxes in your All Access account profile's Format Preferences and Email Preferences sections if you're not already getting it.

While it's still around, you can follow my personal Twitter account at @pmsimon, and my Instagram account (same handle, @pmsimon) as well. And, in case Twitter's implosion is permanent, I'm on Mastodon, too at @pmsimon@c.im.

=============================

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go check to see if I have any new followers. Which platform? Does it matter?

Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
Twitter (for now, at least) @pmsimon
Mastadon (for some reason I haven't yet determined) @pmsimon@c.im