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Loyd Ford
Loyd Ford on Social Media
Loyd Ford has been in radio all his life, beginning in High School in Southern California. His father taught him to focus on strategy when he was a boy. In his early 20s Ford began programming radio stations. He says, "It was a good match for the use of strategy. Loyd has spent time programming KRMD in Shreveport, WSSL and WMYI in Greenville, WKKT in Charlotte and WBEE in Rochester, NY. Ford's latest strategy is his social networking for radio Facebook page. We spoke to him about his vision for helping radio stations succeed with social media.
Success on Facebook is Not About "Likes"
Every day PD's and GM's brag about the number of fans they have on Facebook and how they want to increase this measurement. However, that only underscores how much work radio has to do when shifting from radio to social media. Our industry is often confused about how to use social media to get real results. The truth is only a small percentage of “fans” on a Facebook page actually engage with the brands they “Like.” Here are 3 reasons why you should never answer a question about the success of your social media with how many listeners “Like” your Facebook page.
6 Keys To Building Listener Relationships
There's a lot of hype involved with social media, and there are a lot of radio pros that have not yet awakened to the idea that systemic shift can “get you” if you don’t move now to protect your best relationships. If you are not using social media to expand contact, encourage loyalty with real value-based content and grow listening occasions for your brands, you are setting up future critical failure of your brand. Here are 6 Key Ingredients To Build Listener Relationships thru Social Media:
5 Ways To Avoid Social Media Time Suck
If you are in the radio business in 2012, you have less time and are doing more work than ever. Still, you feel responsible to get every bit of value you can from the tools at your disposal. So, I thought we could look at maximizing the value of your social media by being efficient and using your time wisely.
Make Social Media Easier…For Your Listeners!
Radio people are usually always thinking “How can we spend less time doing it but be more effective with social media for radio?” Today we're going to talk about how to make it easier for your LISTENERS to engage your brand and get more from your social media. Here are six ways to make things easier for your listeners.
4 Ways To Increase Social Media Effectiveness
Is your social media stuck in the early days or have you broken free to establish active participation with listeners based upon what excites them about your radio station, what they care about and what you stand for in 2012? Here are four ways to increase your 2012 effectiveness in social media.
7 Social Media/ Radio Resolutions
(Loyd Ford) If you make New Year’s Resolutions, here are a few good potential social media New Year’s Resolutions for your radio station as you look ahead to 2012.
4 Ways To Make Your Social Media Pop!
(by Loyd Ford) As social media becomes more prominent and relevant, it's clear those radio stations (and shows) with better plans will get better esults. Everyone knows content is critical, but often content managers are missing important elements that can add to their actual success. Here are four elements that bring your listeners into your orbit in social media.
7 Tools For Managing Social Media
If only you had more time, right? Social media can be time consuming. As you begin to look at your plans for 2012, consider these seven potential tools for getting more out of your social media with less time. Screenr.com gives you opportunity to record “screencast.” You can put your screencast on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and it will even pop on your listeners’ iPhone. And it’s free.
Your Winningy Strategy For 2012
(by Loyd Ford) A lot more people than you might think are still wondering what their social media strategy should be. What should you include in your social media strategy for 2012? You program your radio station to be special, so your social media should be special, too. If you are a radio personality reading this, you should be thinking about your personal brand value and how to enhance that through personal relationship in social media. Here are some things that you “must include.”
A Winning Social Media Roadmap
Many of our bosses look at Facebook and Twitter as additional advertising vehicles. They are not. Too many executives in radio still focus on how many followers, likes or content readers they have as a judgment for how well they are doing. That’s not right either. While having a lot of followers looks good, it is really investing in a dead or disoriented measurement. Here's how you can set specific goals to gain real benefits for your radio station in social media?
5 Ways To Making Social Media Personal
(by Loyd Ford) Radio’s social media efforts are focused largely on advertising to listeners. Stations assign a person to deliver content designed to get people to “like” your brand. That's largely considered a “win.” However, the mission in social media should really be more focused on connecting with emotion to personalize those connections with “actives” or enthusiasts who always provide the 80 in the standard 80/20 rule.
9 Ways To Make Your Facebook Content Explode
(by Loyd Ford) You see all the sharing going on in social media. Perhaps you've seen the video of the fish in the blender on YouTube or a specific set of celebrity pictures on Facebook sared many, many times. Maybe you've seen a few radio personalities who have a fair amount of sharing going on among Facebook “participators.” But how do YOU make your content explode among listeners on Facebook?
9 Ways To Make Simple Listener Email
(by Loyd Ford) Radio stations today focus on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to engage listeners, but often those same stations bypass important email opportunities with their loyal listener database. They simply throw those opportunities away with little effort and less real engagement. That means stations are leaving a powerful opportunity to reach and engage the most important listeners for their station. Here are nine ways to fix all that.
5 Ways To Create Excitement Through Facebook.
(by Loyd Ford) A lot of radio stations have Facebook pages. Not many radio stations use Facebook as a stage for listener engagement. Yet this opportunity exists every day in your world and your listeners’ world. Here are 5 specifics to make certain you are building an engaging stage.
Make Your Website Social. Here's How
(by Loyd Ford) Social media is having a more meaningful impact for those who are truly and consistently working content for listener engagement and benefit. However, many radio stations don’t put a lot of real effort into making sure their website is “today friendly.” How important is your website?
YouTube Is For Your Radio Station
(by Loyd Ford) So, you have fewer employees in a radio station than in any time of recent (or extended memory). You have fewer personalities in the building. You have a smaller group of people working on keeping your images in front of active listeners in your market, right? If only you had some tools that could help you spread your effort so you could do more with less.
Here's What Your Listeners Want From Social Media
(by Loyd Ford) We live in a world today that is dominated on a person level by companies that use technology to “handle” their customers. Average consumers can feel that companies want their money and not the work of dealing with them. Imagine it: customer avoidance through technology. This causes the general population extreme frustration, but it is generally accepted as the “new normal.”
5 Ways To Use Social Media To Your Advantage
What value do you place in learning new things and how do you see your job or role growing in this business over the next three to five years? We are standing at a value crossroads in this business today and no matter who you are you need to develop new abilities and be able to showcase those abilities to those making critical employment and business value decisions. How you see social media and how you effectively put that to work for you can play one critical role in adjusting your sails for continued success. However, you must be able to frame the issue of social media as a true value for your employer.
5 Ways To Get Meaningful Results From Social
(by Loyd Ford) There’s a lot of talk about social media. It’s inside radio stations and in the trades. “We’re on Facebook.” “We use Twitter.” "Foursquare, Google+ so forth and so on. Here’s the big question: Can you really get meaningful results for your radio station brands using social media? The answer is: YES!
5 Ways Your Station Should Be Using Video
(by Loyd Ford) Even if you’ve been under a rock or two for the last couple of years, you know that a very large and mainstream audience in America is frequently using social media. You’ve even likely seen the reports that one of the largest segments of growth on Facebook is 35 – 54. You might even think you are doing great if your radio station has a Facebook page and your station uses Twitter, but you are missing a lot of success and audience interaction if your radio station is not using video to get attention and share content (and have your content shared with others again and again).
5 Secrets To Developing a Winning Facebook Plan
(by Loyd Ford) Radio companies are so lucky. They have a business that focuses on people. People depend on connection to personalities on our best brands to help them get through their day, share music or celebrity news or changing weather and entertain them while they work. If you look at the things people depend on us for in “companionship” at the radio station, doesn’t that look like some of the same things listeners do on their Facebook pages? People don’t generally connect to companies (see the Geico Gecko). Adults (and children) connect and identify with personalities.
How to Use Social Media To Get Listeners Engaged
(by Loyd Ford) If you’ve read any of my thoughts on social media, you know I am a big believer in using personalities from radio to connect with individuals in social media and always working to bring them back to the station. But how do you make sure your social media connects with the right people who will matter to your brand and how to you get them to be more loyal to your station?
Your Social Media Value Is In Content
(by Loyd Ford) If you are in radio today, especially as a personality or programmer, your value in social media is in your content. It’s the same as your value on-air. In fact, in today’s changing environment, your content will be the only thing that keeps you employed and protects your employer from internet radio and other distractions that can interrupt revenue. Don’t kid yourself.
Stop Gaming Your Listeners.
(by Loyd Ford) Most PD's say they are on Facebook and Twitter. Some tell you how many “fans” or “likes” they have. That's not engagement. It’s a listener who did something once. Stations can use social media to compel action from important influential listeners. Unfortunately, looking at most Facebook groups and pages, you can see many in our industry are trying to “game” listeners with technology instead of building value relationships with actionable payoff.
Developing An Actual Plan For Social Media
By now, you are likely on Twitter and Facebook, but do you have specific goals you want to achieve within your social media platforms? Most radio stations are not working an actual plan because they don’t have one. Some radio stations and whole companies don’t think about applying strategy and goals to their work in social media because they don’t truly value it. These are the kinds of competitors you want to have in any market.
Radio Lessons From The Facebook Changes
(by Loyd Ford) Radio companies – from the mom and pop to the corporate – should become more serious about the human aspects of social media. And radio has to get serious about using products like Facebook for the purpose of connecting with people in their chosen social environment and encouraging them back to the radio dial.
Social Media Database Questions To Ask Yourself
(by Loyd Ford) Since I get asked about database and social media a lot, I thought I would lay out some simple questions to make it easy for anyone to use self-assessment to see how they are doing with these amazing tools right now. These two items have a lot more in common if you do a good job of using both to draw important listeners closer to your brand.
