You Can and You Must

 

If you work in Country radio, you absolutely must review Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey9; especially if you are a Brand Manager, On-air Personality, Promotion Director or Digital Creative Director.   The findings will not shock you but they will certainly reaffirm what we veterans have known for a long time; Country is a mainstream format with passionate and engaged listeners, who are just as tech savvy as any other format. 

Fred Jacobs did an excellent job presenting the findings and highlighting the country strengths.   There are so many important aspects to this study but today I will focus on Social Networking.   These observations should help to cheer you up the next time you are grumbling about having to post on Facebook, blog on the website or tweet about something fun:

 

Ø  The percentage of Country fans that connect with Facebook first each day is higher than the national average.  (Important note for morning shows)

Ø  Country fans are higher than the national average as “frequent sharers”

Ø  Country fans interact with the station most often through e-mail, Facebook and contesting while the national norm is e-mail, website and computer streams. 

Ø  Pintrest is second only to Facebook for usage among country fans

Ø  Country is the second highest format in the Net Promoter Score, Christian is first.  (They say yes to promoting your station to others.)

Ø  CHR is the only format that beats country for engagement with the personalities

 
When you combine all of these findings, it validates the time and effort you are putting into social networking, your loyalty program and digital platforms.   Having personalities who are active on-line and in the community is a must. These fans want to interact with and support their favorite station.   Let’s make sure that we are there to make that happen on whatever platform they might engage.  Creating a social and mobile strategy and hiring the personnel to implement that strategy are critical to the future success of your radio station.