Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A&O "Hearts" Country Aircheck On Valentine's Day

We loved CA reporter Jeff Green's article today, "A&O Seminar: Rules Of Engagement."

Everybody in Country radio is doing social media these days, but how much does it really matter whether a station and its personalities are actively involved with Facebook and Twitter? Evidently, a great deal. Findings will be unveiled by DMRInteractive COO Andrew Curran as part of a new Arbitron/DMR report, one of the many sessions of Albright & O’Malley’s Pre-CRS Client Seminar Feb. 21 in Nashville.

“If we look at the high-performing stations, they will have a larger percentage of their cume in Facebook than the average station,” A&O’s Jaye Albright says. “Andrew will point out how they’ve done several campaigns to increase the level of engagement on social networking, and it’s had a payoff in cume growth because it’s so viral. The truth is that we’ve just scratched the surface of what we can do to grow our cume and our usage and engagement using social media.”

A digital report card for the 72 leading Country stations in the top 50 markets is among the new presentations to be delivered during the event, which is free to anyone in markets non-competitive to A&O clients. The aim is a scientific approach to addressing criticisms leveled by CRS 2011 keynoter Shelly Palmer that most radio websites “suck.”

A&O partner Becky Brenner explains, “I examined each station’s overall web appearance and functionality, listener rewards program, email database, texting activity, presence on Facebook and Twitter, and what they do with new music on their web pages.” While promising some “surprising” insights, Brenner says, “I was thrilled to see that all 72 stations are active on Facebook. Their total reach is almost 1 million listeners. That’s a good number considering that most of these stations have only been active on Facebook within the last two years.”

Also new this year will be a team from BDS to present case studies and insights on differentiating your station musically, while industry executive and Vanderbilt adjunct professor Tim DuBois will share his ideas on branding and separating station product beyond music. WQHK/Ft. Wayne, IN executives will furnish specifics on listener-driven, revenue-generating new media promotions that can be deployed immediately. Also, talent coaches Randy Lane and Cliff Dumas will discuss training tools and techniques on developing “authentic storylines behind your character” and how to evolve them using social media.

The seminar kick offs with A&O’s seventh annual Roadmap Study of radio listeners’ perceptions on music, the state of Country radio and related topics including the impact of Pandora, Spotify,
Rhapsody and Slacker. Emphasizing a theme of “branding and engagement,” partner Michael O’Malley promises “a content-rich afternoon with takeaways for talent, programmers, promotions and sales.” Sponsor Broken Bow/Stoney Creek will present a performance by Dustin Lynch.

To receive an invitation including location details, click on this link:

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