Consumer 2.0

There's no shortage of advice on how to reach young consumers and a recently released report from Mr Youth and Rep Nation boil it down to this Top 5:

(click on the image and it will open a larger and easier to read picture)

These findings have implications and offer opportunities for both the programming and sales sides of our business.

Our challenge: radio, by its very nature is a mass appeal entity. Our entire system is built upon a platform of gathering as many listeners to our frequencies as possible and enticing them to listen for as long as possible. Therein lies the great paradox for broadcasters. How can we be personal, hyper-niched, and be a flexible brand all wrapped up in a singular mass-appeal broadcast signal? That is where our live interactions (on-air and in your communities), our websites, social networking, and mobile strategies come into play.

Some things for you to ask yourself:

• Do you and your staff have a clear understanding of what your brand means to your listeners; and is it strong enough as the power of the brand (all brands, not just radio) erode?
• Are your outward messages, across all your platforms, real and genuine?
• When was the last time you used your real listeners to endorse your radio station?
• What do your messages communicate to your listeners; and do you say anything that won't be filtered out?
• Are you enabling your listeners to create their own content?
• Have you planted the seeds for your listeners to form an active community centered around your station?

More and more, these are the type of conversations I have with clients and perspective clients. These discussions tend to be ongoing since things are moving very fast and not much is static for very long.

Share this list with your co-workers and then add to it. I would not be surprised if you came up with 3 or 4 times the number of questions worthy of asking.

I found this report thought provoking. If you would like to read the entire presentation simply click here.

Are you in the Loopt?

Social networking's next obvious step-mobile!

It's starting to happen in a very big way. Loopt already has deals with with Sprint and Boost Mobile, a company that offers Pay-As-You-Go wireless phones and voice data services to the youth market.

Here's what Loopt does:

• Connect with friends and get alerted when they are nearby
• Share your location, status and photos with a few or all friends
• Explore places and events recommended by friends
• Control your experience anytime, anywhere

Over the last few days, if you have been sampling the radio trade press, you have been reading about how social networks are "beginning" to find there way onto radio station websites and are now becoming a larger part of a stations marketing plan. No argument there.

One small issue...

Social networking, while still growing rapidly, is taking it outside. Mobile social networking is going to be the next big thing. Stop for a moment and think about how perfectly this fits a radio station's profile as an out of home entertainment source. Things are moving so fast that every positive step forward we as an industry take still leaves us two steps behind.

Solution?

Radio groups must find an expedient way to tap into the youth culture every day because that's how fast it's moving. Someone in your IT department? A college age intern? Listener panels? On-line surveys? Someone scouring the web for trends (I'll have some good tips on how to do that in a future post). If you are running a station that cares about 12-34 (or any subset of that broad demo) it behooves you to make this a priority.

No, we can't deploy everything that comes down the pike (wow! there's a little New England flavor) but I will say this as gently as I can--there are still stations that are not streaming. As a pop culture medium we can't afford to lag far behind.