Social media for radio stations: 8 real-life lessons

You've heard it before....social media is important for radio stations.

Precisely. The trouble comes when creating content for your accounts.

It’s an issue most radio station owners face.

Well, until this guide. Get ready to see how other radio stations are using Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Here are 8 of the best tips for social media for radio stations.

Let's get started:

Social media can be a great tool for reminding your loyal followers about your upcoming shows. So can an email to the listeners who signed up for it (running a station newsletter), or a post in the Facebook groups your listeners read (promoting a station on Facebook).

Doing this will increase the number of listeners. Now here is an example of a radio station that promotes their shows in an eye-catching way.

What’s great about it:

• Use of hashtags
• The host’s portrait
• Eye-catching banner
• Use of icons to indicate the radio's other social media pages (Facebook, Twitter & SoundCloud)

The audience on social media is a different lot. They don’t have mountains of time to spend on one tweet. Often, they are rushing through.

Sure, your morning show was 3 hours long, but you can’t just dump it all on social media. You can do it on YouTube. But for Twitter & Facebook, it’s advisable to keep it short.

A good page to learn from is BBC Radio 4 Today’s Twitter page.

Deputy Commons Speaker @eleanor4epping, who is running to replace incumbent John Bercow, says she "would do things differently" if she was Speaker.The "impartiality of the chair has been possibly diminished" #r4today https://t.co/zfJ8vksuVc pic.twitter.com/jaa0fG7xDb

- BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) September 27, 2019

What radio broadcasting and social media lessons can we learn from it?

Short description: It summarizes the main topic & idea.

Link: There is a link back to the website. Ideally, you want the listener to spend more time on your radio website hence the external link.

49-second video: The video is very short. Under 1 minute. X limits videos from free accounts to 2 minutes 20 seconds; X Premium subscribers can post longer ones (X Help Center). Keeping it short is a strategy you can use on Twitter & Facebook.

On social media, I bet you have come across people sharing pictures of themselves engrossed in some mundane activity, for instance, having lunch.

Similarly, you can divert from the expertly edited social media graphics, memes, and GIFs. Give the listener a behind-the-scenes look into your studio.

What we can learn about it

A lot…

There are two dudes, one in a red tee (John Robins) and the other in a gray tee (Elis James) who happens to be reading a book “The Scrabble Dictionary.”

Jokes aside…

It’s a decent photo giving us a taste of what goes on inside a radio studio. Precisely, what the two comics are up to before they start their show.

While it may seem normal to you or boring, such pictures are great for establishing rapport. They induce a sense of normalcy.

Need a tried and tested way of communicating with your audience on social media? I’m not talking about words, images, or videos?

GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format)

Some radio stations are indeed using fun GIFs, and trust me, they are here to stay. It's the easiest way to communicate complex emotions.

You can check out how The Morning Breakdown uses GIFs on their Twitter page.

It's show time! Tune in from 6-9 this morning for your morning breakdown! It's The Morning Breakdown on CKDJ 107.9! pic.twitter.com/6AFfrLa7SR

- The Morning Breakdown (@Breakdown1079) September 12, 2019

What you can learn about it

Choose a clever GIF.

If your station has a blog that’s regularly updated (what to post on a station blog), you can promote the entries on Twitter and Facebook. It's really easy; just post a link to the blog post on a new Facebook post or Tweet.

Once you copy the link, Facebook or Twitter will fetch the cover picture & meta description. You can even boost a post that’s popular with your followers through paid advertising. Here is an example of a page doing this:

What you can learn from it

Image: The image is eye-catching. That’s AJ Pritchard, just-so-you-know.

Emojis: They have used emojis. First, we have Face Screaming in Fear – conveying that the money paid to the highest earner is shocking! Then, the money with wings emoji, which is self-explanatory.

Language: The language is also informal and in touch with the audience. "Fiver" is an informal word that denotes a five-pound note or five-dollar bill.

Radio stations run contests and promos all the time. Social media is a great platform to promote your contests and giveaways. For instance, this example:

What we can learn about it

The picture is awesome and has a hopeful and inspiring message. They have used relevant hashtags. The call to action is clear, “Head over to our website...” If someone is looking for an incentive to do so, they will see: “Sign up for a chance to win.”

Are you a music radio station? I bet you rank songs based on what’s popular or most played at the moment.

Several stations post their list of top tracks on social media. In case you ain’t using this technique yet, here is a great example by Falcon Radio Station from Manila.

What you can learn from it

Description: The description is just fantastic, and take the first 5 words, “Here’s this week’s Top 10 songs.”

Social media graphic: It’s stunning! You have the radio’s logo, cleverly, on the top left. Big numbers 1 – 10. The top song is highlighted. Cast your eye to the bottom left. You can deduce other social media profiles the station has Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

It's so eye-catching that you would gladly share it. Well, this post has 20 comments and 18 shares in 2019.

Yeah. In the US, 51% of adults and 79% of 18 to 29 year olds use Instagram (Pew).

Though most stations are on Facebook & Twitter, some have found effective ways of utilizing Instagram for radio marketing.

Videos and pictures are a mainstay on Instagram. It would be easy for TV stations to run wild on Instagram because everything they do is visual.

Since you’ll not be posting selfies of your hosts on the daily, you can try this approach used by Fox News Radio:

What's great about it

Image: It’s a great picture. And Instagram calls for the best pictures.

Pulsating audio equalizer (waveform bar): It tells you that this particular post has some audio in it. So you better click.

Description: There is a segment lifted from the audio interview. The description also has tags.

Social media for radio stations is a great approach to radio promotion.

Gone are the days of wondering what to post because this article has given you 8 approaches and real-life examples of how radios are using social media.

And if you’re looking for the best place to host your radio station, look no further than CloudRadio.