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Tips for Air Talent Pages
Being a radio personality is much different than it was just 10 years ago. In the past, the hardest part of your day was the hour or two of show prep. But today you need to do much more before, during, and AFTER to have a successful show. These tips apply no matter what market size you're in.
1. Use Digital Tools for Show Prep
Use an RSS Reader that pulls content from a combination of both local and national websites. You can also research and find a good social media aggregator as well so that you would see every post your artists made rather than a picked few. (Newsflow for Windows, Feedly.com)
2. Blogging
When I was doing a daily on-air show, blogging was in its infancy. We were forced to blog. Nobody saw the reasoning or importance, so it was hated by all. That’s changed for me significantly because I’ve seen how blogging can increase ratings for your show. It shows that you're a “personality” that is actively engaged in your audience and community and not a voice-tracked robot.
So, make your blog about things that interest YOU. Give your opinion on local and national topics (without crossing lines). Become the go-to person for something like local restaurants, pet adoption, movies, or local music.
Blogs receiving lots of online engagement will bring the station more online revenue so be sure to ask if incentives are offered for over-performing blog pages and page sponsorships.
We've written several articles on getting started in blogging and the importance of radio personality blogging.
3. Post to Social Media Channels Daily
Social media posting has become a part of the on-air personality job description and deservedly so. Social media is marketing, and you should want to market your show. I was told by a colleague early in my career to say my name in every break because nobody else at the radio station would promote me as well.
Post on the station’s social media channels as well as your own for your followers. Look into a service like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule posts in advance or on different channels at different times. Be sure to mix up the content that you are posting. Copy/pasting today's celebrity birthday list is NOT good content.
Never post something directly to social without a link back to your website/show page.
4. Reply to Social Media Posts
One of the biggest things that set social media moguls apart from the rest is engagement. Don't just think of social media as a place to broadcast your station or show messages. The key is engaging your followers. That means saying "thanks for the follow or retweet", agreeing or disagreeing with topics, etc.
5. Video Content
If you want to be an elite radio personality that really takes their show to the next level, become a regular video blogger. Basically, you are taking content from your show, blog or some other topic and talking about it in front of a camera. You'll do this on Youtube or Facebook LIVE or/and other video sharing platform (Twitch, Instagram, etc).
We've given you five ways to take your radio show to the next level online. Use these in conjunction with each other. Research your topic with RSS feeds, write a blog about it and include a video, send notices to social media with links back to the blog. Then, ask for feedback and respond to them. The more times you can do this in your show the better.
Test out content to see what works best for your audience and do more of that!
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By Jim SherwoodBeing a radio personality is much different than it was just 10 years ago. In the past, the hardest part of your day was the hour or two of show prep. But today you need to do much more before, during, and AFTER to have a successful show. These tips apply no matter what market size you're in.
1. Use Digital Tools for Show Prep
Use an RSS Reader that pulls content from a combination of both local and national websites. You can also research and find a good social media aggregator as well so that you would see every post your artists made rather than a picked few. (Newsflow for Windows, Feedly.com)
2. Blogging
When I was doing a daily on-air show, blogging was in its infancy. We were forced to blog. Nobody saw the reasoning or importance, so it was hated by all. That’s changed for me significantly because I’ve seen how blogging can increase ratings for your show. It shows that you're a “personality” that is actively engaged in your audience and community and not a voice-tracked robot.
So, make your blog about things that interest YOU. Give your opinion on local and national topics (without crossing lines). Become the go-to person for something like local restaurants, pet adoption, movies, or local music.
Blogs receiving lots of online engagement will bring the station more online revenue so be sure to ask if incentives are offered for over-performing blog pages and page sponsorships.
We've written several articles on getting started in blogging and the importance of radio personality blogging.
3. Post to Social Media Channels Daily
Social media posting has become a part of the on-air personality job description and deservedly so. Social media is marketing, and you should want to market your show. I was told by a colleague early in my career to say my name in every break because nobody else at the radio station would promote me as well.
Post on the station’s social media channels as well as your own for your followers. Look into a service like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule posts in advance or on different channels at different times. Be sure to mix up the content that you are posting. Copy/pasting today's celebrity birthday list is NOT good content.
Never post something directly to social without a link back to your website/show page.
4. Reply to Social Media Posts
One of the biggest things that set social media moguls apart from the rest is engagement. Don't just think of social media as a place to broadcast your station or show messages. The key is engaging your followers. That means saying "thanks for the follow or retweet", agreeing or disagreeing with topics, etc.
5. Video Content
If you want to be an elite radio personality that really takes their show to the next level, become a regular video blogger. Basically, you are taking content from your show, blog or some other topic and talking about it in front of a camera. You'll do this on Youtube or Facebook LIVE or/and other video sharing platform (Twitch, Instagram, etc).
We've given you five ways to take your radio show to the next level online. Use these in conjunction with each other. Research your topic with RSS feeds, write a blog about it and include a video, send notices to social media with links back to the blog. Then, ask for feedback and respond to them. The more times you can do this in your show the better.
Test out content to see what works best for your audience and do more of that!