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Twitter Is The Metric Of Emotional Response
October 7, 2014
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Because it's important to pay attention to how people are feeling about people, places or things, one topic I keep my eye on is how everyday people are talking about our storied industry.
So anytime the word, "radio" pops up -- I take note. And there was a specific hashtag trending recently that caught my interest. It was, "#StealMyGirlOnTheRadio."
When I clicked the trend to see what it was about and who started it, it was the band, One Direction, releasing their new single, "Steal My Girl." and using radio to promote it.
The band was also smart enough to know that while radio amplifies reach - their active social fan base would create plenty of online sentiment. So they tweeted:
It was fun to read that hashtag, filled with hundreds of thousands of One Direction fans tweeting about how, or where, they were listening to the radio:
This moment served as a reminder that the much talked about Gen Y & (and younger Gen Z) still value radio. There's no doubt this group listens differently to radio than previous generations, but the fact is, today's younger audience has the same wants as any generation that's come before it -- it's just technology has changed their access.
They still want radio -- but you'll find digital and social are often their entry points to your station.
So as an industry -- especially at radio gatherings -- we might be wise to stop saying things like "radio needs to be cool again."
Just read the tweets.
While there will always be negatives with the positives, the positive tweets say, radio still fits into their lives. It's all right there socially for anyone to read.
So whether it's sentiment about our industry you want to know about, or monitoring your own brand, Twitter is the king barometer of emotional response. Not sure I'd use it as solid scientific research but it's a decent way to gauge how people feel in the moment.
In the social space, we should always be listening more to how people are feeling than us speaking, anyway.
And while other's intellect can come off as obnoxious or embarrassing -- like this hashtag that was trending:
Read tweets wisely, and with thick skin. Not every burst is thought out.
To have a system of listening structured within plays an important role in a brand's social culture. Twitter is so much more than just tweeting -- it's about paying attention, too.
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