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LeBron James Tweet Hits The Mark: Social Media Guides A Good Jock
July 22, 2014
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When LeBron James had announced that he was opting out of his deal with the Miami Heat, the Twitter feed was crazy with South Florida residents revealing their emotions, and radio employees and talents got in on it too, mostly going the way of heartache and disappointment, or pleading with LeBron to stay.
But then there was a tweet from WPOW Power 96/Miami's APD and midday talent WILL CALDER that embraced the moment, but revealed everything that HE was, in as few words as possible, as limited by the text restrictions of Twitter.
Salmon swim upstream to spawn, going against the current because they have their fisheyes on the fish prize to lay the groundwork for future generations. If you realized what Mr. Calder is doing in this tweet, it's not too different.
Relate And Your Ratings Will Inflate
While everyone is tweeting their disappointments and pleas for LeBron, one local on air personality, instead, reveals his soul. I'm guessing basketball isn't his passion, but tying in Gordon Ramsay's deal ending with LeBron's is not only brilliant, but let's me know who this Will Calder is a little bit.
If he does this on air, often, his audience will fully relate to him. Even if I love LeBron and am heartbroken, the Will Calder tweet will remind me that I have a life to live, and LeBron leaving TRUTHFULLY SUCKS, but there's more to life. And it also reveals that Will is a bigger fan of Gordon than LeBron, and it's okay if I love basketball and maybe don't like Gordon yelling at his protégés all the time. I still get the humor and the intelligence of the comment, and I now have a reason to like this guy who doesn't share my love for hoops.
On the flipside, if I am a Gordon Ramsay fan, I LOVE this guy Will Calder and he has just strongly drawn me in to his life and lifestyle.
When jocks have a tough time relating, and miss the mark on air, and in social media, I find that it is because, instead of being the voice that represents a person the listener knows, they don't consider the listener and instead just communicate from their selfish perspective. To give an example, this would be as if Will Calder, instead tweeted, "Basketball sucks, get a life y'all, LeBron is just a rich punk who doesn't care about you."
But he didn't. He made the moment count.
If At First You Don't Succeed, Post, Tweet Again
Here's a quick way to test your ability to impact your listeners, by first testing it on the social media platforms of Facebook and Twitter. When you post a status on Facebook, are people hitting the LIKE button, like a bee likes honey, a moth likes light and a dog likes bones?
If they aren't, keep testing your posts until you find what draws them to you. Here are some easy tips. Baby news always works. Getting engaged, married and getting a new job will get LIKED in droves. And this isn't because people are being nice, it is because they relate. It takes time to hit LIKE, and if we are not moved, we don't do it.
So if they respond to this, what else will make them respond? CJ Lusk, morning man in Memphis at WHBQ Q107.5 sent a recent demo which highlighted a break where he is talking about his wife and him disagreeing over the right way to load silverware in a dishwasher, up or down. In a follow up break, a caller tells him why the silverware should face a certain direction, and CJ doesn't disagree with her. Instead he says, "You know Samantha, just like my wife, you're adorable when you're wrong!"
I spit out my coffee at the brilliance of the arrangement of words he used in order to convey his point, then I stole the bit for my Facebook page, where I simply said, "Silverware, Up or Down in the dishwasher and why?"
I Handwash All Of Mine Will Not Relate
When you get more comments than you do LIKES, you know you have hit a goldmine on the content scale and this one was OFF THE CHARTS. LOTS of Likes, but comments for days of different reasons why up or down, from cutting your hands to getting them the cleanest, etc...
It is easy to detect jocks who are so focused on themselves that they miss the part of themselves that relate to their audience. "DOWN IN THE DUMPS TODAY," is one of the most selfish type of tweets or Facebook comments a person can post, as it is a downer to everyone who sees it, so instead, find the angle of your depression that relates to your audience.
Instead, how would this look as a post? "How many Prozac pills will it take for my smile to return today?"
I'm saying the same thing, but I'm doing the work to relate to the world, because even the most positive, optimistic folk wake up on the wrong side of the bed from time to time and they won't be mad at you for saying you're depressed if you can also say that you're fighting your way out, as well.
Work That Twitter Muscle Til It's Sore
On Twitter, the way to work the RELATE MUSCLE is a little different. It's harder, and there are two results that will tell you that you've hit the nail on the head. One of them is retweets from people other than your co-workers, mother and dog.
And the other, is when you are so creative, that you get the attention of a celebrity when all you were really doing was relating, even if you were secretly hoping they would respond.
In the case of Will Calder, his tweet that related to his audience, while revealing exactly who he was, ended up also being the first break on his midday show that day, and the effectiveness of his words are proven by the response he was able to get in the form of a retweet from Gordon Ramsay himself.
Relating is directly connected to winning in any market big or small, so to see if my theory was correct, I pulled up a random week of ratings in Miami and what I found is the reason I am writing this article.
Will Calder is the number one rated midday host in Miami.
#RELATE #DOTHEWORK #REAPTHEBENEFIT
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