Finger Candy Friday on Thursday, Happy New Year and Pepsi

Happy New Years Eve and Welcome to 2010-almost.
I recently saw this headline, “Pepsi drops Super Bowl for Social Media.”  In case you didn’t hear, last week Pepsi announced that for the First time in 23 years, Pepsi’s millions for advertising will go elsewhere.In what will be called one of the most monumental milestones in TV and broadcast media’s battle with the Internet for content, viewership, and advertising, Pepsi has decided not to join the Super Bowl’s massive advertising spectacle this year, instead opting to place its money along strategically placed spots on Social Media sites and platforms reports Ronny Kerr from Vator News.  Rather than spending money on a Super Bowl ad, Pepsi will launch the Pepsi Refresh Project where users can submit to Pepsi ways to refresh their communities.

As the recession begins to wane and ad budgets slowly start to increase, social media is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries, according to MarketingSherpa. In addition they report that nearly all industries will increase budgets for Social Media marketing in the New Year and sometimes at the expense of other mediums MediaPost reports.

SO what does this mean to Radio? How can you keep your unfair share of the budget in 2010 and define your medium as the best way to merge Social Media and traditional advertising.  As any Non-Traditional Revenue specialist would tell you, get creative!
-For starters Radio itself, especially Country Music Radio needs to build their targeted following on Social Media Platforms and become a leader.  This can be done through strategically optimizing Social Media tools.
-Provide entertaining and engaging content-this will be the easiest part for Radio folks.
-Become the thought leaders and Social Media Rockstars. By using it successfully you can show clients the value of Social Media when it is used with Traditional Media.
-With a Social Media plan and strategy it should also be easy to help clients use Social Media the same way (better to control your clients Social Media Endeavor than an ad agency)
-Why not create a position that serves clients Social Media needs. Again, it is better for you to control their Social Media efforts before Print or TV does it.  If you have it as an add-on option you become their expert.  It’s similar to controlling the voice and production work.
-It is very turn key to help people set up a Twitter, Facebook Fan Page or Blog and then they can advertise it on your station.  That way when Social Media is successful for them it will still be because of Radio.

-Be sure that whoever does your Social Media knows what they are doing.  The best way to figure this out is to look at their Twitter, Facebook Fan Page or Blog and see if they have followers or what kind of posts they are making.  If they claim to work with other people look for success references.  Just because someone says they know what they are doing doe not mean they do. I fix mistakes that someone’s niece, nephew, graphic designer, website person did for them ALL the time.
-If you are just dabbling at this point check out this article.  It has really helpful information for Optimizing Twitter http://bit.ly/4qggtW and Twitter is the best resource to grow your Social Media following. Facebook and Blogging are still limited by the traffic you bring to them.

It has been a great honor to work with the Country Music Radio community and great radio minds and legends like Chuck Geiger, Bobby Knight, Loyd Ford and Austin Keyes.  I am excited for 2010 and all the opportunities it will bring.  Full Throttle Country is a great concept that will surely grow to power medium for Country Music Programming in future.  It is an honor to be a part of the FTC family!
From all of us to all of you: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Jessica Northey