Radio & Social Media: Listening to the Listeners [infographic]

Oh social media! What have you done?

Well, it’s changed a lot in the way we communicate, and it’s disrupted a lot in the way businesses operate.

We love taking a look at the ins and outs of how these changes are manifesting in each sector, and after producing dozens of reports on trends like dual-screening and sponsorship, we next wanted to focus our analytical lens on radio broadcasting.

The first documented radio transmission was sent in 1895; from delivering wartime news in the ‘40s to pirate radio distribution in the ‘60s, it has certainly earned its legacy.

We wanted to discover exactly how audiences interact with some of the top radio stations on social media, and whether the radio industry is maximising the opportunities that are being presented.

In order to accomplish this we carefully selected a sample of forty radio stations across the UK and the US, and uncovered some valuable information.

uk

In the UK …

  • Radio listeners are a very loyal audience, with 88% of those who interacted with radio broadcasters online staying faithful to one station.
  • In general, when radio stations increased their weekly Twitter activity, the volume of audience activity increased as well.
  • Radio listeners on Twitter were three times more likely to interact with a tweet that mentioned a celebrity.
  • The research also proved true that Twitter users love an image; there was a 285% increase in the engagement rate when a tweet contained a picture.
  • Followers are more likely to engage with a presenter online than an official radio station Twitter account.

usa2

In the US …

  • Celebrity culture is a main driver of conversation, with over a quarter of all listener mentions relating to celebrity news, interviews or songs.
  • Radio stations act upon this trend, with 41% of radio stations directing @interactions at celebrities and 32% towards brands.
  • Sport stations are the most social on Twitter, using @mentions to talk to their audience much more frequently than other genres.
  • The use of competitions as part of a social strategy was generally a successful tactic
  • Of all presenters’ personal tweets, only 5.5% were about their radio station.

Check out the infographic below to some more of the stats and valuable insights we haven’t mentioned, but to get the full picture you can download the full report for free here.