How to brand an Internet channel, on my own
May 8, 2009 8:03 AM Subscribe
Your tips on personality branding plus Facebook and Twitter
My question is specific to radio personality branding, but I thought I would cast the net wide and ask for any ideas you might have on personality and career branding in general, by way of Internet technology.
I'm the host of an Internet music station. The format is classical, so it attracted some classical music lovers out of the gate, but has potential for more than that because the format is pretty flexible - we're including film scores, television series themes, and new-age music in the mix. The thinking is that we can attract people who like a certain sort of relaxing music, whether classical or not.
The station also has an air signal that plays traditional classical fare. Our audience for that is falling off and not being replaced (which is true for most classical stations out there), and the thought with the Internet channel was to try to bring younger listeners into the fold with a new offering that would shake up the old format just a little.
So far so good - my channel is one of the more successful ventures the station has had. Now I'd like to start branding myself and the channel. Our promotions department has said there are no funds in the budget to do this. So I'm pretty much on my own as far as trying to keep the momentum going with what we've started, and to keep attracting new listeners.
The station I work for does have tentative plans to create Facebook pages for its online channels. I'm not sure what the hold up is. Rather than wait for that, though, I thought I could use my existing Facebook page to promote my channel. The problem is that my FB page has been personal up to now, although nothing compromising is on there. It just hasn't been exclusively music-focused. If my FB page becomes a promotional arm of my music channel, I'm thinking, it'll have to take on a different identity.
I thought I could start favoriting all kinds of music groups, both locally and nationally, if I can find them on Facebook. I was also going to take my list of listeners who've emailed me, and ask them to locate me and friend me. The station I work for also has its own Facebook page (although not for the individual Internet channels, like I said), so I'd ask them to join that as well.
Is there anything I'm not thinking of?
I have a nice shiny studio-type photo of myself on my page. What else should I be doing?
My hubby, my de facto manager (LOL), tweets stuff about my channel pretty regularly. He also tweets a show I co-host on the regular air-signal each Saturday, a few minutes before it begins.
This is too long by far, so I'll ask you to chime in now. What else can I do to shore up my little corner of the Internet music world here? I would also be open to ideas that might involve some minor outlay of cash.
My question is specific to radio personality branding, but I thought I would cast the net wide and ask for any ideas you might have on personality and career branding in general, by way of Internet technology.
I'm the host of an Internet music station. The format is classical, so it attracted some classical music lovers out of the gate, but has potential for more than that because the format is pretty flexible - we're including film scores, television series themes, and new-age music in the mix. The thinking is that we can attract people who like a certain sort of relaxing music, whether classical or not.
The station also has an air signal that plays traditional classical fare. Our audience for that is falling off and not being replaced (which is true for most classical stations out there), and the thought with the Internet channel was to try to bring younger listeners into the fold with a new offering that would shake up the old format just a little.
So far so good - my channel is one of the more successful ventures the station has had. Now I'd like to start branding myself and the channel. Our promotions department has said there are no funds in the budget to do this. So I'm pretty much on my own as far as trying to keep the momentum going with what we've started, and to keep attracting new listeners.
The station I work for does have tentative plans to create Facebook pages for its online channels. I'm not sure what the hold up is. Rather than wait for that, though, I thought I could use my existing Facebook page to promote my channel. The problem is that my FB page has been personal up to now, although nothing compromising is on there. It just hasn't been exclusively music-focused. If my FB page becomes a promotional arm of my music channel, I'm thinking, it'll have to take on a different identity.
I thought I could start favoriting all kinds of music groups, both locally and nationally, if I can find them on Facebook. I was also going to take my list of listeners who've emailed me, and ask them to locate me and friend me. The station I work for also has its own Facebook page (although not for the individual Internet channels, like I said), so I'd ask them to join that as well.
Is there anything I'm not thinking of?
I have a nice shiny studio-type photo of myself on my page. What else should I be doing?
My hubby, my de facto manager (LOL), tweets stuff about my channel pretty regularly. He also tweets a show I co-host on the regular air-signal each Saturday, a few minutes before it begins.
This is too long by far, so I'll ask you to chime in now. What else can I do to shore up my little corner of the Internet music world here? I would also be open to ideas that might involve some minor outlay of cash.
"My hubby [...] tweets stuff about my channel pretty regularly. He also tweets a show I co-host on the regular air-signal each Saturday, a few minutes before it begins."
You might also want to look into a service called tweetlater. This would allow you to write up a ton of tweets in an afternoon and not have to make sure one of you are sitting at the computer a few minutes before.
And interacting with your audience during the show might help. I'd also follow this guy: @WoodyRadio and exchange some strategies with him.
Otherwise, I can only let you know about pitfalls. I spend a lot of my time mocking people who use social media to market, and love pointing out how many of them do it wrong, damage their band, and alienate followers. I'll memail you more on this, since I don't think it's applicable to the question as a whole.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:45 AM on May 8, 2009
You might also want to look into a service called tweetlater. This would allow you to write up a ton of tweets in an afternoon and not have to make sure one of you are sitting at the computer a few minutes before.
And interacting with your audience during the show might help. I'd also follow this guy: @WoodyRadio and exchange some strategies with him.
Otherwise, I can only let you know about pitfalls. I spend a lot of my time mocking people who use social media to market, and love pointing out how many of them do it wrong, damage their band, and alienate followers. I'll memail you more on this, since I don't think it's applicable to the question as a whole.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:45 AM on May 8, 2009
Response by poster: Great tips so far. Thank you so much, I'll check out the FB official page, and tweetlater.
I appreciate it!
posted by frosty_hut at 8:48 AM on May 8, 2009
I appreciate it!
posted by frosty_hut at 8:48 AM on May 8, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
Facebook Pages.
you can then choose to keep your profile as it is, or make it into a station DJ identity.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:38 AM on May 8, 2009