Listener Connections Are Worth The Effort

In this week's Moneyball blog, Nu Voodoo's Leigh Jacobs writes as the industry shifts toward highly targeted digital solutions, stations are turning to other revenue streams like events. 

It’s a natural and highly synergistic marriage for stations that are well entrenched and well connected in their communities. In terms of both the total amount of listening spent on your station across ALL people in your market – and the highly important listening reported by the small sliver of ratings respondents – it’s important to use every tool to stay connected and involved with your listeners.

In a study conducted last year across over 3,200 14-54s nationwide, NuVooddoo found sharp differences between theirwider sample of research-friendly respondents and the smaller subset of those who profile as most likely to participate in ratings methodologies, such as those conducted by Nielsen. 

Just under half the total sample said they’d “smiled or laughed at something” on the radio in the past week. While we’re encouraged that nearly 30% said they listened on a station smart-phone pap in the past week, about a quarter or less were involved with a station in the past week. Those are low numbers for stations that are ultimately trying to serve local businesses with new customers.

NuVoodoo Believes station need to push to connect with listeners in all the channels available: 

• If they email, they need to get a timely reply.
• If they connect on social media, we need to comment and thank them.
• If they call on the phone, stations need to answer and care about why they called.
• If they show up at a station appearance, they need to be rewarded and leave with a positive impression.

The folks at NuVooDoo urge stations to Audit your station’s performance. Email as an outsider and see if you get a reply. Have a non-radio friend comment on your station’s socials. Try calling your station from another number. It’s worth the effort.