Sales & NTR 
One of the challenges radio faces with it’s slow transition to digital is that we tend to look pretty dated when stacked up against new media. Many of our websites were designed decades ago and never changed or designed recently but look like they were done decades ago. We still run more adds than the audience is accustomed to now on-air and across all of our platforms. There’s very little activity and engagement happening now between our audiences and our limited amount of on-air talent. We’re still resistant to add the element of video by making all of our studios and remote setups more video friendly. Plus, most stations social feeds are an after-thought at this point. In short, we’re not doing a good job marketing ourselves which makes it very hard to convince a potential advertiser that we’re going to do a good job marketing them in exchange for money. So, focusing on social, let’s look at two companies outside of radio that are crushing it on social media we could take a few pointers from.
Southwest Airlines has always been known as the fun airline. It’s been a big part of their branding from the beginning and that filters throughout the business, from flight attendance having fun with the required announcements that tend to be incredibly boring on other airlines to their snarky social media feed that takes light-hearted, funny jabs at other companies. Something radio should do a lot more of instead of playing it too safe with our feeds. One recent example was their timely shot at the Dallas Mavericks for the Luka Doncic trade. The DFW based airline used it as a way to soften the blow after they made a policy change, charging for bags, that upset some of their customers. In an Instagram post to their 1.1 million followers that’s had 30k likes so far they said ‘It’s not like we traded Luka”
Sweetwater is a company that’s been impressing me on social media for years now. Mainly because they tend to show up on my feed on any platform I’m on despite the fact that I buy roughly the same amount of products from them that I do from any other similar site that sells AV equipment. Sweetwater is ALWAYS doing a giveaway, they roll straight from one into another and they’re all mass appeal contests that apply to everyone from radio stations to individual content creators and musicians. A lesson radio could learn about staying active during the off-season between books. But, the main lesson Sweetwater could teach radio about social media is how they get everyone involved. They clearly encourage all of their employees to get creative and have fun with how they promote products at their offices, at conventions, in their hotels when traveling, essentially wherever they are. Which is why they have millions of social followers, far more than many of their competitors.
It’s easy to sit back and say, well of course these massive companies are doing more on social media than we are because they have bigger budgets and significantly more staff. But, that’s not entirely true. Yes, Southwest Airlines has 74,000 plus full-time equivalent employees but they’re famously a low-cost airline that runs on a tight budget. You might recall how they canceled over 50% of their flights on December 26 of 2022 leaving travelers stranded for days due in large part to their outdated infrastructure. Sweetwater Sound, which is headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has approximately 3,000 employees but that’s no bigger than many large radio groups. Despite recent lay-offs, iHeart Media still has an estimated 10,000 plus employees.
What do you think, what other companies are great at social media and what can radio learn from them. Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.
