Social Scorecard: Radio’s top social posts this week, plus self-promotion on social media

Once upon a time I was a wide eyed, super keen radio student at AFTRS.

I remember a very wise lecturer named Steve Ahern media training us to prepare our class for the big bad world of radio. (Tim Blackwell was probably cracking a hilarious but slightly inappropriate joke to Chris Page at this point. Hell yeah I just name dropped. #sorrynotsorry but I had some impressive talent in my class!)

We were taught that once we started our first few jobs in regional radio, all eyes would be on us within the community. Our actions and behaviour out in the public eye would suddenly be under scrutiny. It would be our first taste of being a public figure.

Whether you want to acknowledge it, you’re all stars. Therefore you should have been building up your social media profile – yesterday.

Why? It’s an effective marketing tool for self-promotion. Personal branding is about expressing your authentic self while you captivate your loyal audience. Think of it as a form of advertising to fans and potential employers. But there’s a fine line between being an attention seeker that overshares and promoting yourself across socials.

Here are a few pointers on how to ace your own social media as a radio personality.

Get to know your audience

Get to know your target audience. Most likely it will be a colourful mix of listeners, fans and followers. Utilise those analytics and work out a tone that works best for your demographic.

Tell your story

• Each platform helps build a little narrative about you. Utilise and understand each platform and use:
• Instagram for pictures and videos that have an ongoing visual or concrete theme that reflects your personality or personal brand.
• Twitter to trigger conversation through insights, comments and reactions.
• Facebook to interact with fans and followers.
• LinkedIn for self-promotion, marketing yourself and your abilities.
• Share something bite sized everyday – be transparent, but be mindful of who your audience is and if you would want any potential employers to see what you’ve posted.
• Share your work as its valuable content. Think of it as a radio broadcast; engaging the public is a conversation you’re having via social media. Social presence makes self-promotion powerful. Posting your own unique content will encourage your followers to engage as they will be not only listening to you but interacting with you in real-time.

Exercise some self-control

By all means, tell your story. But there is nothing worse than an individual in the public eye spamming followers with self-promotion and over oversharing. Flooding your accounts with content will only work against you. So be smart and earn your voice across social media. It’s all about trust and building a relationship with your audience. Once you win them over as someone who not only entertains them on the radio, but is source of interesting and informative content; you can then pepper your feed with a little self-promotion. It’s all about striking the right balance.

Formulate your own personal social media strategy

Being calculated about how you post content adds a human touch and help you stay relevant. In turn you will find that you will boost your followers and essentially promote yourself as a fully-fledged brand. People will only follow you if you post what they deem is interesting content. It doesn’t necessarily have to be all your own stuff – share external content from other announcers, brands and celebrities too. Try these ratio rules for size:

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• Post 5 things about you or content you have produced yourself.
• Repost 5 things about others which your fans and followers can either repost or retweet.
• Post 5 responses or replies to show engagement

Golden ratio

Alternatively if you decide that your strategy calls for content that entertains, informs and promotes your work try posting:

• 60% relevant content that reflects your opinions and commentary.
• 30% of your own crafted content such photos, blogs, videos and GIFs.
• 10% promo content to do with your work.

20:1

It’s said that a 20:1 ratio works best when it comes to publishing material and self-promotion. So for every 19 posts you create that provide your fans with captivating material and resources, set aside 1 post that promotes your own achievements.

Try and stay positive, otherwise be quiet

We’ve all seem to have forgotten the golden rule our mums taught us as kids. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. This also applies to your social media.

Having a crappy day or you can feel the rage brewing over something someone said? Don’t take to social media to vent. To put it quite bluntly, there’s no upside to posting negative comments or commentary. Nothing wrong with having an opinion but just make sure you recognise the difference between the two. If the conversation online goes sour and you receive some negative feedback or attitude from a listener – kill it with kindness. Acknowledge it and respond in a way that turns a negative into a positive. You’ll radiate positivity and your fans and followers will sit up and take notice.

Engage with your audience

You’ve probably had that moment where you are second guessing whether you should have posted something, refreshing to see how many likes, comments or re-shares it got. Focus more on acknowledging those who reacted and respond to comments straight away, ensuring you engage with your followers. Social media was designed so that we participate in conversations so don’t hesitate to connect with others.

Fake it until you… create it

You’ve heard the catch phrase ‘join the conversation’ before, so there’s nothing wrong with jumping on the bandwagon when it comes to viral content or topics. It gives you an opportunity to immerse yourself in the hype and get involved with people in and around the industry.

You already do a mountain of show prep, so it’s safe to say you are on top of what’s going on in the world. Pick one subject and run with it, re-sharing or retweeting content or articles. You’ll drive traffic to your platform and re-sharing content will drive traffic to your accounts, giving off the impression that you are actively engaged.

Our top picks this week come from The Hit Network, Triple J’s Veronica and Lewis and Nova 106.9’s Ash, Kip & Luttsy.

1. The Hit Network: Facebook Live – ‘Backstage with the one and only Mario’ (SCA)

A very clever cross promo that was interactive, engagement-boosting and utilised one of my fave Facebook features. SCA hosted a relaxed interview with Mario, (who is performing at R&B Friday’s Live) throwing in a little Q&A too – inviting fans and followers to post questions within the comments section. Smooth strategy at play. Turning marketing material into great social content, and then upping the ante on engagement.  Two birds, one stone.

https://www.facebook.com/HitNetwork/videos/1458236197587226/

2. Triple J’s Veronica and Lewis: Facebook – ‘Ron’s baby’s coming out so Gen’s coming in!’ (ABC)

Veronica’s handing over the reins to Gen as she heads off to have a bubba. Very J’s and on brand – creative and turning their announcement into an opportunity to engage with their audience on social media. It’s also far more interesting than a standard statement. Onya guys!

3. Nova 106.9’s Ash, Kip & Luttsy: Facebook – ‘Shocking secret about Nick & Tom’s Secret Sunday Show’ (Nova Entertainment)

Humour triggers emotional responses and brings people together. Love the creativity behind this – sneaky social media play that got turned into content. We’ve all been there and in this instance, if you can’t laugh at yourselves your listeners won’t either.

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Social Scorecard is compiled exclusively for Radio Today by Jess Frangelli.