How do you select the right channel(s) for your organization? Once you’ve selected a channel, how do you create relevant and meaningful content for your audiences?
I’ll use KFAI as my real-life example here, as I will be involved in making some decisions regarding how our Social Media is managed.
KFAI currently uses Facebook and Twitter for our Social Media. I don’t think adding any more channels would be advisable for the station at this point. Keeping up with promotional stuff for just two channels, and content for our website (which is about to get a major re-vamping) is a major job. We are going to be getting a couple of Social Media interns in the near future, and we will need someone to monitor them and give them content.
We’ve got the Broadcast part down, let’s do Social Media right!
The radio station has 98 different programs, and currently has something like 25 admins on its Facebook account. I think it’s a mistake to have so many people posting, and the more I learn about Social Media, the more I think that only one or two (or maybe a small, closely communicating team of 4-5) should be monitoring its Social Media. That’s not to say that all the different programmers can’t provide content, I just think that the messaging should be vetted carefully and have a unified look – a “branding,” if you will.
There is no shortage of relevant and meaningful content for KFAI to provide its audiences: upcoming events such as interviews with artists and musical groups, news stories, KFAI-sponsored shows, fundraising events, and a plethora of other information is always being generated by said 98 programs, and in 13 different languages. Several of our foreign language programs are the only news some of our immigrant East African communities get about what’s going on in their countries.
Many of the programs themselves have their own Twitter accounts and Facebook pages; I think it should be up to the individual programmers to update their own accounts, but I’d like to see them always have links back to the home page, the mothership, so to speak.
KFAI is a community radio station – it’s media itself, and needs to get on board with Social Media. If media can’t do Social Media, then who can?
-paw (week 4)
5oci4lm3di4101 
November 1, 2013 at 9:59 am
I agree with limiting the number of admins for any business account. When you get that many, you probably wind up with too many posts, repetitious posts, and confusion for the viewer/reader/listener. My only experience with administering a business account was with a two-member business so it wasn’t a problem. I’m the only admin for my band pages, though four of us would not be a problem.
However, I’m the only one who is into these things or has a Facebook account.
And unless something new comes around I also can’t see using any other channels than the ones you currently use.
One mistake a broadcast/internet station that I really like did (The Goat.. I can’t recall the call letters as I only listen to them online) was to somehow link up their Twitter account to their playlist. I had to drop them off my Twitter feed because each and every song they play is a new Tweet…. GJB
November 2, 2013 at 11:18 pm
Silly cloven hoofed deejays – that must have been a lot of tweets!!! Baahhhhhhhhaaaddd. -paw
November 17, 2013 at 8:59 pm
I agree with you, It sound like a case of to many Chiefs, and not enough Indians,(in a nice way)How can people get the real pulse of the station? PAW roll of you sleeves and clean up the social media department -MDS
November 20, 2013 at 5:36 pm
Yeah, change is hard to initiate/execute over there though. “You’re stompin on my free speech rights, man!” will probably be the reaction. Gotta find a good way to do it….