In the past year or so, my favorite radio station has really been stepping up their social presence on Facebook. They went from infrequent posts about concerts, music news and the like to something completely different.
The transformation started slow. I started noticing – and liking – their Facebook posts featuring pictures of one of their DJ’s cats. Because I’m a cat lover, I didn’t notice or mind how off-topic they were.
Now the radio station, 94.7 fm, is posting on their Facebook page often – about 5 to 10 times per day – about all sorts of things. I often find the posts amusing, but it bothers me that so many of them aren’t related to music at all.
My point is: When I “like” a company on Facebook, I expect to mostly see posts from the company that are relevant to them and their industry… and me, their fan.
And what strikes me as very odd is that 94.7′s slogan is “It’s different here,” referencing the fact that their radio station focuses on music, not talk. But now it’s like they’ve just pushed the talk and non-music stuff to Facebook.
I bet I know how it happened, though. They started experimenting with other types of posts and found that they got great levels of engagement – more likes, comments and shares. While those are important metrics to watch and try to improve, I would have to argue that engagement on relevant posts are more important than random ones.
So here’s my advice for this radio station, and just about any other company with a Facebook page:
- Give your Facebook fans what they probably want. Your most important fans will be the ones who mostly care about things related to your company — you don’t want to just be left with people who like your jokes and funny cat videos. If you’re a restaurant, focus on coupons and announcing new menu items. If you’re a technology company, focus on information about your products and news and advice that will help your customers and prospective customers. You have to keep the signal to noise ratio in check, or else you’re going to lose people.
- Don’t post more often than most of your fans’ friends. You don’t want to overwhelm anyone’s News Feed, or else people will unlike you or hide your posts so they don’t see them in their News Feed anymore. Posting more than 5 times per day (instead of once a day or so) doesn’t feel more social or human, because none of my real friends post this often.
- Pay attention to feedback. Keep an eye on how many people are unliking your Facebook page, and listen to and solicit feedback from both your radio station listeners and Facebook fans.
Do you have other tips for companies on Facebook, or things you see that make you want to unlike a company Facebook page? Share in the comments below.
Want advice for avoiding being unfollowed on Twitter? Check out my article with 15 tips, some of which also apply to Facebook.
Totally agree with you Kristina. Most often numbers become so important that you tend to (knowingly and unknowingly) drift away from your main focus – your relevancy. I have also seen companies buying “Facebook fans” that shows the craziness associated with numbers.
I read your first post today and have started enjoying them a lot. :)
Thanks :-)
Just been reading through your blog and apprecaite the advice on Facebook! To be honest couldn’t agree more with regard to the amount of posts and the relevance of them!
The classic rock radio station I listen to usually has a half dozen posts during their morning show alone! Then they start up again for afternoon drive, around 3 PM.
I’ve noticed that most of the posts are about silly and stupid things, a bunch of fluff to supposedly entertain you. It’s rarely if ever about the music or artists. I got so sick of it that I removed them from my Facebook News Feed. I put them on just Notifications, but then decided I’d take them off that in the morning hours, at least, too. I will probably go off them completely soon.
It’s the same thing with the music rotation. They play the same superstars over and over, and the same damn songs too. Could we go a little deeper for more variety? I believe that the same listeners who Like and Comment on the stupid posts also don’t really know much about the music or artists if they never criticize the station for the music they play – and don’t play – and these overloaded and non-relevant Facebook posts.
I want my radio station to focus in on the music and the artists, and to post about them. Leave all the fluff news for the average idiot on the street to talk about.
Another thing I was just wondering about prior to coming across your page: how many of the posts by the radio station hosts are actually posted BY the hosts? How many of these cutesy posts are found by the hosts? Are they really that moronic and interested and have time to find all these items? I highly suspect that the stations subscribe to various services that present them with these one-size-fits-all posts, perhaps on a market exclusive basis, that the stations’ hosts – or maybe an assistant or intern – can select from and post for them, under their name.
I’ve made some Comments to some of the posts at times, and even had a few responses from (supposedly) the hosts. But I haven’t made one Facebook friend or real friend from my Comments. I don’t think it’s going to help me get a gig at the station. So what good are these posts to me? They’re just time-wasters! And I no longer want to waste my time with them.
Whatever happened to the days when radio was cool, and hip, and not just so mainstream? I often think that classic rock radio is not preserving the music, but actually help to keep it non-relevant today, by playing the same cuts over and over again, and not talking about the music, but instead making comments, on Facebook and on the air, about local news, events and anything stupid in the news. They think that a brief comment about the song on the backsell is sufficient. Then they move on.