(updated 9/7/12 to include KTEG/Albuquerque FB friends)
Alternative Contraband‘s The Social Ratings are back with a look at which alternative station gained the most friends and fans on Facebook and Twitter. While not an apples to apples type list because of market sizes, it can give Program Directors, Marketing Directors and Content Directors a chance to reevaluate their social strategy.
From an egotistic standpoint, one nice thing about your social media friends and followers is that the numbers always go up!! So many of us deal with gut wrenching up and down Arbitron ratings that social media metrics always put a smile on your face.
If only it were that easy. Now that you’ve spent a lot of on-air breath driving your listeners to Facebook and Twitter (also known as “someone else’s website”!!) and can brag that you have blank thousand friends and followers, is that the correct metric to look at? Radio is currently in a cume-obsessed mode more than ever because of the way the Arbitron people meter measures with a mix of intentional and incidental listening that more and more friends and followers must be good. Not so fast says Jacobs Media’s Digital and Social Media Strategist Lori Lewis. Lewis tells Alternative Contraband that your first order of business centers around a sound strategy “focusing on brand impact and strengthening fan relationships.” Lewis also adds, “focus on who likes you right now and how you can identify brand advocates from these legions of fans. Don’t get caught up in how many fans you have – that’s vanity and that never ends well.”
One metric Lewis believes in that can show you if you’re moving the brand advocate needle is to monitor “people talking about you on Facebook. It speaks volumes if you’re a social brand or a self-indulgent brand.” In other words, if brand advocates are talking about you often and sharing your content, that itself will likely lead to new and quality friends and followers in a brand strengthening way versus being a circus barker encouraging just to join for, as Lewis says, “Katy Perry tickets at 2:15.” Lewis recommends the “people talking about” to total friends metric to be ”at 50% or more. If your fans aren’t talking about you – you’re frankly, forgettable in the social space. It’s super hard to keep the “People Talking About” percentage at 50% – that’s why full time thinking is required in the social space. Too many people think because “they’ve been on Facebook since 2004” that they “got it.” It’s likely they don’t if they can’t keep 50% engagement.”
Unclear on how the “people talking about” metric works? Here’s how Facebook defines it:
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/01/10/people-talking-about-this-defined/
So let’s balance our quantity with quality. That way we know we are engaging with our content and not wasting listeners time with the wrong posts. Thanks to Lori’s great point about quality over quantity, The Social Ratings will begin to include the “people talking about” stat from Facebook so you can do some deeper thinking about the importance of this metric.
And without further adieu, here’s the third installment of Alternative Contraband’s “The Social Ratings-The Facebook 40”
Rank Station/Market FB Friends 9/12 Ppl Tlkng Abt 9/12 FB Friends 4/12 FB Friends Increase
1 KROQ/LA 108,726 1,187 95,609 13,117
2 KTBZ/Houston 103,945 24,146 88,875 15,170
3 KPNT/St. Louis 80,877 1,233 71,493 9,384
4 CIMX/Detroit 76,574 1,134 70,105 6,469
5 ALTNATION/SiriusXM 66,057 707 57,460 8,597
6 WRFF/Philadelphia 63,112 2,002 52,954 10,158
7 KYSR/Los Angeles 57,902 3,598 53,915 3,987
8 WWDC/Wash. DC 50,395 6,540 44,461 5,936
9 WKQX/Chicago 49,103 11,347 N/A 49,103
10 XTRA/San Diego 40,063 3,407 33,370 6,693
11 WEND/Charlotte 33,453 3,692 26,584 6,689
12 KKDO/Sacramento 30,613 6,146 26,361 4,252
13 X103/Indy 30,299 726 27,502 2,797
14 KNRK/Portland 27,661 8,762 23,138 4,523
15 WMRQ/Hartford 26,754 2,002 22,249 4,505
16 KNDD/Seattle 26,615 12,686 22,328 4,287
17 KXRK/Salt Lake City 25,981 1,960 21,144 4,837
18 WSUN/Tampa 25,876 255 21,138 4,738
19 WWMX-HD2/Baltimore 25,792 317 25,448 344
20 WXDX/Pittsburgh 25,608 18,382 19,133 6,475
21 KDGE/Dallas 24,267 3,072 19,216 5,051
22 WBOS/Boston 23.413 703 21,607 1,806
23 KTEG/Albuquerque 21,850 3,078 N/A – –
24 KRBZ/Kansas City 20,294 349 16,433 3,861
25 WJBX/Jacksonville 19,454 2,871 N/A —-
26 WLUM/Milwaukee 18,708 3,167 17,205 1,503
27 WROX/Norfolk 18,658 921 16,181 2,477
28 WKRL/Syracuse 18,025 459 14,337 3,688
29 WBRU/Providence 14,990 139 13,250 1,740
30 WRXP/New York City 14,660 5,801 N/A 14,660
31 WCYY/Portland, ME 14,602 521 12,309 2,293
32 WWCD/Columbus 14,292 632 14,084 208
33 WRXL/Richmond 13,428 1,348 12,293 1,135
34 KITS/San Francisco 13,301 181 11,328 1,973
35 KTCL/Denver 12,870 9,300 10,046 2,824
36 WEQX/Manchester 11,780 413 10,895 885
37 KROX/Austin 11,763 111 10,145 1,618
38 KBZT/San Diego 11,680 491 9,473 2,207
39 KFMA/Tucson 10.960 177 9,350 1,610
40 KCXX/Riverside 8,682 411 N/A —-
41 WZNE/Rochester 8,565 99 7,909 656
We’ll post the top Twitter followers in next weeks Social Ratings.
